Before Beth Kilian joined LexisNexis® Risk Solutions as part of the LexisNexis® Risk Solutions Group portfolio nearly 25 years ago and rose to become the company’s SVP of Sales, she applied her talents to the food industry.
Working for a distributor called Rykoff Sexton (now known as US Foods), her career was a far cry from the field in which she sought a degree — counseling high school students — but after falling in love with her sales position, she never looked back.
Her team at Rykoff Sexton was male-dominated, an environment that would change when she made the transition to LexisNexis® Risk Solutions.
The switch came at the height of Kilian’s career as a regional sales manager when her interest in LexisNexis® Risk Solutions’ workplace culture was piqued. The company offered an atmosphere where women could succeed in leadership and sales, a change she would welcome.
At the time, one of Kilian’s friends worked for LexisNexis® Risk Solutions and found great success within the company. When a position opened in the Chicagoland area, her friend encouraged her to interview, and the rest is history.
Core Values and Being a Working Parent
In the corporate world, women may feel like they are pressured to choose between having an impactful work life and enjoying time spent with family. Women frequently feel that their needs are neglected in a workplace without management who understands their unique needs as individuals and possibly, as mothers, grandmothers, or wives.
“One of the main things that brought me to LexisNexis Risk Solutions was the mentorship that I could take advantage of from very strong women. And that’s certainly held true; it’s a very family-oriented organization that has women that … have spent their careers here, and have also raised their families here,” says Kilian.
She adds that she “raised three girls while having this career here, and this company allowed me to be the mother that I wanted to be by having the flexibility in my schedule to … drop off my children and pick them up from school while thriving in my career.”
Kilian says the company’s leaders encourage employees to volunteer at their kids’ schools and be a key part of their families without passing up on leadership opportunities or company advancement. She states that “you can be your authentic self in terms of parenthood.”
Flexibility and Adaptability to Change
Part of this company’s flexibility for families comes from their team’s ability to adapt to change.
“Something that is consistently successful in our sales organization is that we are very capable of adapting to change. The one thing that is consistent at LexisNexis® Risk Solutions is change, so you need to be adaptable.”
“You need to have a collaborative spirit, but you also … need to lead by example, be empathetic to others, be inclusive of others, and have a strong command of how your book of business is performing,” says Kilian.
“That consistent approach … I call ‘planning your work and working your plan.’ I’m in a team environment, and that is very essential to that — what I would call — perennial success.”
“Everyone can have a great year, but to have consistently great years … we have many individuals that have mastered what I look for in terms of being able to be successful here,” she adds.
Embracing Diversity and Inclusion
Since her first years at the company during the 1990s, leadership has changed at LexisNexis Risk Solutions. A more diverse approach to hiring and a stronger desire to create an organization of individuals who embrace themselves have driven new success throughout the company.
When Kilian is welcoming new leaders to the team, she uses a specific approach to find employees who will bring their best and offer a motivated approach to their work.
“In that team collaborative approach, I look for someone who is accountable and self-motivated, because I think that [those features are necessary so that] they can teach and coach those individuals they would be leading. You need to have that self-motivation to be able to pick yourself up, dust yourself off and go back [to work].”
During Kilian’s tenure with LexisNexis® Risk Solutions, she notes that their onboarding approach has changed. When she began with the company, she says they opted for a more passive structure when looking for candidates and hiring new employees.
Today, the organization is more purposeful about attracting talent to the team, paying attention to their backgrounds and their strengths with great detail as they interview potential additions.
Kilian believes diversity and inclusion should be cornerstones of an effective recruiting process and believes the LexisNexis® Risk Solutions’ sales division is in a unique position to improve the company’s inclusion and diversity strategy.
“It’s really important that we take advantage of how often we are hiring people and be very purposeful in that. I’m working to find additional universities that we can tap into that might have a more diverse population that we can onboard straight from college as interns or as new recruits. We need to broaden our horizons,” says Kilian.
Tackling the Pandemic
In the face of the pandemic, Kilian says she’s proud of how LexisNexis® Risk Solutions responded. She says the organization analyzed the long impacts of COVID-19 and put their customers first as they were still learning to adapt.
“From a sales perspective, we were not looking at our 2020 sales goals; we were looking at how can we help our clients stay in business. Our company also stepped up and said, ‘how can we help our employees get through this pandemic?'” Kilian explains.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been prouder of our company than I was in 2020 and 2021, in terms of how we showed up for our clients and how we showed up for our employees.”
While the COVID-19 pandemic had widespread negative impacts on offices, sales, and productivity worldwide, Kilian says she found silver linings over the past two years. The pandemic brought her and other employees at LexisNexis® Risk Solutions closer to their clients and each other, establishing a personal connection beyond the confines of business.
She says she thinks “that the last few years have taught us that you have to look at the long-term objectives of our clients and our client base. And if you do that, there will be a sense of reciprocation and partnership.”
Kilian adds that the company was willing to maximize opportunities during and after the pandemic; from acquiring two companies to merging with another, LexisNexis® Risk Solutions is actively working to grow as an organization and offer additional opportunities to its employees.
Looking Forward
Although she’s still in the first year of her role as SVP, Kilian has many plans for the future of LexisNexis® Risk Solutions’ sales department.
She says her primary goals during her first two years of the role are to do everything in her power to set her teams up for success and create a supportive work atmosphere, removing obstacles that impede both employee and client experiences.
Kilian wants to share the same experiences she was given during her career with the company with her current sales team, encouraging them to be their most authentic selves while they grow as members of the organization.
“You know, I think that the number one thing … is to remember that everyone is different and unique in their own way, I believe that I’m a better mother because I’m a fulfilled sales professional. And if I didn’t have that component of my life, I wouldn’t show up in the ways that I do for my children,” she says.
She advises that “if that’s your ‘why’ today, own it, and then reevaluate next year; what’s your ‘why’ this year? Is it the same? Great. Is it different? How do you want to develop a plan to approach that new “why” so that you can get there?”