Curious, connected and always growing

Kate Burke, CEO of Allspring, says she’s proof that leadership isn’t about perfection; it’s about growth.

To lead, you have to get comfortable with being uncomfortable, says Kate Burke, CEO of Allspring Global Investments. For her, the desire to lead came naturally – but learning to deal with the discomfort it often entailed had to be learned.

Today, Kate leads the investment manager with more than $611 billion in assets under advisement and a team of more than 1,300 employees.* But, early in her journey, anxiety over a cold call risked becoming a career roadblock. After practicing the script for a week, she worked up the courage. When the person picked up the phone, she hung up immediately.

It wasn’t an ideal outcome, but she did it. The next came easier.

“Soon, cold calling became my favorite part of the job,” she said.

It’s a lesson she has carried through her career, first as an individual contributor then as a leader.

“When you walk into a new role as a leader, it’s common to find yourself working with people who are better subject matter experts in the domain. Your job is to bring a different perspective. It’s normal to feel uncomfortable,” she says. “Recognize that emotion, honor it and then figure out how you’re going to move through it.

“One of the times when I had moved into a new role, ahead of my first meeting with people who were experts in their field, I knew I needed to establish credibility with them to solve some problems and find a path forward. I was nervous, so I went to the bathroom and did a Wonder Woman pose,” she says. “I had to calm my breathing and physically steady myself in that moment.”

These days, “I still get energy in these challenging moments, but it’s more of a positive energy around those opportunities versus the nervous energy that I had earlier in my career,” she says.

Part of her daily process now is to curate calm. She starts each day preparing herself for what’s ahead and practicing self-reflection.

“Consistent self-reflection is part of building a great career,” she says. “It’s a discipline, and one that shouldn’t be forgotten even when the busyness of life gets in the way.”

And then leaving time at the end of the day to think about each meeting and task.

“I don’t turn on music when I’m in the car commuting or traveling home. It’s just me, reflecting on my day. It gives me time to think, so that when I get home, I can be present and engaged with my family.”

Embrace the curiosity process

Knowledge is power, and curiosity is its lifeblood. Across her career, Kate has always set out to nurture a culture of curiosity among her teams.

“My best mentors and managers demonstrated a tremendous amount of intellectual curiosity. They encouraged me to always be open to learning and exploration of things I didn’t know well. That really carried me forward,” she says.

When Kate is inquisitive with her team, she says it makes them more inquisitive about their own departments.

“I am genuinely an enthusiastic, intellectual, curious person. So, I get really excited about what they do,” she says. And when she pushes them to be curious, “We become a culture that’s constantly learning, with a growth mindset. We’re always seeking to evolve what we’re doing.”

Part of that means accepting failures as part of the process.

“I’m empowering my team to question, learn from each other and collaborate. If something ends up a failure, then let it fail quickly and move on. Then keep going. You have to trust your team and your peers to make decisions after you’ve done the right amount of collaboration,” she says.

She realizes this is what’s necessary to be successful in an ever-changing world – and especially important as she leads Allspring to focus on transforming the firm while delivering continual improvement for clients.

“The industry is constantly evolving, and we have to be evolving with it. We should not be afraid of questioning the status quo and being transparent as we evolve the business.”

Kate shared that being really authentic, really transparent and really inquisitive are all traits she is encouraging Allspring employees to lean into.

“I think that enables us to collaborate more and get better outcomes faster,” she says.

Allspring’s clients are also included in this ethos.

Kate says when everyone’s aware of the reality of the business – what’s going on in the organization and what they’re working to improve – there’s better teamwork and better results. She talked about the value of transparency and how it contributes to a positive client experience.

“The last thing a client wants is to be surprised,” she shared. “If you’re transparent with them, they won’t be.”

Bringing more women into finance

Kate Burke says three things will continue balancing the gender disparity in finance.

Exposure: Kate’s early interest in finance stems from her dad discussing his investment plans to support paying for college. “I think the more we expose women early on in education, the more women will be interested,” she says. “At a minimum, learning finance is a life skill.”

Outcome-oriented: “The finance industry has become more understanding that you can still drive really strong outcomes when there’s some flexibility in the work,” Kate says. This can be helpful for women balancing their finance careers and family life.

Representation: “If you look at our executive leadership team, we have a high representation of women in the firm,” Kate says. “Gender representation and diversity in your leadership team shows others this path is possible.”

Inspired, and reaching higher

Kate says the people who surround her are what keep her motivated. But work isn’t her only source of powerful and inspiring people. She’s on the board for two organizations that are close to her heart – College of the Holy Cross, her alma mater, and Cheekwood Estate & Gardens, a historical landmark that operates as a botanical garden and art museum.

“It’s a completely different set of problems that I get to learn about and then ideally provide some insight to, as well as gain insight that I can bring back into what I’m doing at Allspring,” she says.

She draws on these experiences, recognizing the passion people have for different types of work.

“When I experience people coming together and identifying something they want to improve, laying out a plan and executing that plan, there’s nothing better. It’s about that culture of improving. It’s my competitive spirit. It energizes me,” Kate says.

And, as CEO, she tries to bring that culture to the forefront at Allspring.

“I’m incredibly proud of the progress we’ve made at Allspring in the last two years. We are transforming the firm while continuing to deliver for our existing clients. That constant evolution of improvement is why I came here,” she says. “I knew there was the opportunity to build a great modern tech-enabled asset manager.”

And there’s no sign of her stopping there, Kate says.

“It’s about raising the bar of the work you do and the work you expect from others. That’s what creates a high-performing culture.”