Never Afraid To Ask The Gnarly Questions

“I have always wanted to understand why something works the way it does, what the reason is for taking action, and why things are done in a particular way.”  

Moving ever upwards in her career trajectory, Kristie has recently been appointed as our General Manager of Managed Services. Over the past two years she has held a key role within the Managed Services team helping to mature our CSMs and originally joined LAB³ as a Client Partner. 

Kristie started her IT career straight out of school when, with the encouragement of a friend (who became her husband), she applied for a job on the Service Desk of the top tier IT services company he already worked for. 

“With no formal training I learnt on the job and by being curious,” says Kristie, who has always been unafraid to ask gnarly questions despite describing herself as being shy. 

“I could never work on something blindly without understanding the why. This would drive me nuts and make me feel like there was no sense of purpose.” 

Although introverted, Kristie is extremely competitive and has been influenced by her go-getter husband and his equally go-getter family. When working alongside her husband, a healthy competition developed between the pair in terms of achieving promotions. They remain neck and neck to date. 

Joining LAB³ in 2021 was a strategic career move for Kristie, who was looking for a senior management role with accountability, responsibility, and a degree of autonomy. A former colleague suggested LAB³. 

“I was attracted by the Client Partner roles which were being established and the idea of working for a young company with people based mostly in Australia and New Zealand,” says Kristie.  

Kristie valued the opportunity to participate in Microsoft’s Thriving Women program in 2023, but she was already proactive about her career ambitions. 

“There is a lot of commentary about women being afraid to ask for things in the same direct way as men, and I decided to buck that trend and be direct myself. I figure what’s the worst that can happen, someone says no but they now know you want something or that you have ideas.” 

As a leader, Kristie is highly consultative and encourages her team to provide input and rigorous feedback. It is important for Kristie that everyone feels like they belong in the team and that they are heard. Kristie is intentional about creating a consultative environment within LAB³’s remote work model and across her geographically dispersed team. 

“My approach to any new work or initiative is to set up a Teams call with the relevant people from the outset,” explains Kristie. “Whether managers or engineers, these are the people who will be delivering the work on the ground and who are close to our clients. They are the best people to identify any challenges that may impact on the outcomes we are trying to achieve and can help set realistic but ambitious timelines, to achieve results with agility and speed.” 

Kristie always provides a comprehensive agenda for these meetings, ensuring everyone knows the purpose of the meeting, has time to be prepared, and is ready to dive straight into productive discussions. 

“I encourage constructive feedback and don’t mind being challenged, because my goal is to achieve the desired outcome in the best way,” says Kristie.

“I see my role as leading people to wield their skills to deliver results as a collaborative team, and to ensure that everyone enjoys the same work-life balance which I also enjoy in working for LAB³.” 

Before joining LAB³, Kristie worked long hours and commuted each day to the office. 

“Being able to work from home means that I have been able to repurpose the time I used to spend commuting to my health and wellbeing,” says Kristie, who has never been so active. She has taken up running and aims to complete her third half marathon in the next few months. 

Although Kristie has a structured training program, from intervals to longer runs, she has also built socialising into her running routine. 

“Everyone is busy, but everyone also needs to exercise, so I set up a social run club for my friends to meet up and run together of a weekend.”

Kristie is also quick to point out that run club mostly draws attendance for the post run coffee and banter. Kristie herself prioritises a love of coffee, wine and food.

“My husband and I enjoy dining out and he also cooks up some incredible dinners at home. He is quite the natural in the kitchen,” says Kristie. “We also collect wine and enjoy watching sport together whether it be the AFL, Formula 1, golf, or the cycling. We’re both very competitive, so there is always quite a bit of friendly rivalry.”