Page 42 - BusinessWest October 31, 2022

she said. “We all come from very different life experiences that shape who we are and how we see and understand the world. Strong leaders try to best understand the goals and aspirations of the people they are leading.
“Listening and hearing what people are saying is really important. We all come from very different
life experiences that shape who we are and how we see and understand the world. Strong leaders try to best understand the goals and aspirations of the people
they are leading.”
“I think strong leaders also know how to
bring the best people to them and then bring
out the best in them,” she went on. “They learn the strengths of the people on their team, and they cultivate and support the growth of those strengths while also figuring out how to help them strengthen their weaknesses.”
Tierney certainly fits these descriptions, and
her strong leadership skills and ability to change the landscape, in all kinds of ways, makes her a
Woman of Impact.
New Dimensions
of Leadership
Architecture is one of
those fields that is most
impacted by the ups and
downs in the economy,
especially those downs.
And those in this
profession feel the impact
usually before most
others.
Indeed, as the economy
starts to decline, or even
before that as storm
clouds start to gather,
building projects large
and small are often put
on hold or scrapped
altogether. Tierney has
seen the phone stop
ringing, or ringing as
often, several times in her
career, especially during
Aelan Tierney says the past few years brought challenges the industry hadn’t seen the Great Recession of
before, but Kuhn Riddle was able to ride out the storm.
2009, when most building
ground to a halt.
happens if we have to close the firm?’”
Still, the pandemic that
The firm didn’t close, obviously, and it was
started in March 2020, was something altogether
different, unlike anything she or anyone else in
Tierney’s work with her partners and others at
the company to diversify its portfolio — as well as
this profession had seen before.
those leadership skills she described earlier — that
“It was scary,” she recalled, noting that many of
enabled it to ride out this and other storms.
the public institutions Kuhn Riddle has worked for,
“During the pandemic, I learned that leaders
and it’s a long list, simply shut down and shelved
most all construction and renovation work. “We
have to think quickly on their feet; they have to
gather as much information as possible about
actually started talking about ... ‘well, what
Photo by Leah Martin Photography
42 OCTOBER 31, 2022
A PROGRAM OF BUSINESSWEST Women of Women of IMPACT IMPACT A PROGRAM OF BUSINESSWEST WOMEN
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