Kellyn Smith Kenny on Making Change Visible Through Transparency and Repetition

What I’ve Learned

When Kellyn Kenny arrived at Capital One, she saw herself as highly coachable—someone who could take tough feedback and turn it into action. So after receiving constructive 360° feedback during her first year, she didn’t hesitate to address it.

“I literally took every single opportunity… I was probably spending 5 hours a week doing something different so that in my next 360, I would have much higher scores.”

She entered the next feedback cycle expecting a complete turnaround. Instead?

“It was the exact same feedback I had gotten the year before. They hadn’t noticed that I’d changed anything.”

Her “aha” moment hit hard:

“I quickly realized that I never explicitly told people, ‘Hey, I received feedback on the following and here is what I’m doing differently.’”

Kellyn learned that clearing the path doesn’t just require changing behavior—it also requires telling people you’ve changed so they know where to look.

How I’ve Sharpened

Kellyn leaned into one of the most overlooked leadership skills: transparent, repeated communication. She began practicing the “Rule of 3, 5, 7, 9”—a simple but powerful framework for internal influence:

• Three core messages people can actually remember
• Five repetitions before it enters long-term memory
• Seven touches before the average person recalls it
• Nine before they internalize it enough to repeat it to someone else
  
  

“We know this as marketers, but we forget this internally. Your priority isn’t their priority.”

To clear the path, she began signposting her behavior change to colleagues and senior leaders—explicitly stating what she was working on, what success looked like, and what she wanted them to observe over time.

For Kellyn, this wasn’t about self-promotion, it was about clearing a more transparent, aligned path for herself and her team.

Why It Matters

Leaders often assume others can “see the change”—but Kellyn learned that no one has time to study your evolution unless you guide their attention.

“When you’re clearing the path, everybody has their own obstacles they’re working on. If you’re not explicit… people forget.”

This shift transformed Kellyn’s ability to influence across functions and helped her avoid unnecessary friction, misalignment, and repeated misunderstandings.

Transparent and courageous communication can be game changing when you’re clearing a path.

About Kellyn Kenny

Kellyn Smith Kenny serves as Chief Marketing & Growth Officer at AT&T. Her career includes leadership roles at Microsoft, Uber, Hilton, Capital One and American Express, where she built modern marketing teams, scaled new capabilities, and led organizations through periods of major growth and transformation.