Of Learning and Leadership: Kati Hanna

Kati Hanna, partner at The Mettise Group, loves a good cabernet, a restorative three-day weekend and her family. She’s an avid traveler, a voracious reader and an executive coach whose 25+ year consulting career has been devoted to helping others succeed.

“Honestly, there has never been a day that I don’t love coming to work. I have always relished learning and working with people. Consulting provides the opportunity to do both on a daily basis,” Hanna says.

With one of the largest peer advisory networks in the state, The Mettise Group offers monthly peer-to-peer MBA-style structured meetings to business owners and executives. The groups began more than 15 years ago and new groups continue to be added each year because of the high demand for this type of executive support.

“The Mettise Group is like no other consulting firm I’ve worked with,” Hanna says. “The breadth of expertise that each partner brings to the team and to our clients is amazing. While our core service is consulting and helping growing organizations get very clear on their goals, we also lean into professional development through our coaching services and provide CFO-for-hire and accounting services.”

When the pandemic struck, the consultants at Mettise sprang into action. “As a team, we knew business owners in our community would be faced with making decisions and solving problems that were unprecedented,” Hanna explains. “Our team spent 8 weeks offering mini SWAT sessions to more than 125 business owners in the community. We named them SWAT sessions because we were like a SWAT team coming in during a major crisis to help. Through that experience, we were reminded of the impact we all can have on our community, and how many resilient and amazing business owners there are.”

Hanna’s formative years as a new consultant were spent with a relatively small firm, a decision she now realizes was pivotal. “When I was younger, I had the option to work for a very large consulting firm, and chose [instead] to work for Innovative Partners, an Oklahoma-based consulting firm with three partners at the time. That was one of the best decisions I could have made at that time in my career.” Hanna’s decision gave her a front-row seat to strategic discussions and complex problem-solving. “I had the opportunity to work and travel in so many cities such as New York, Chicago, Nashville, Boston and Atlanta.”

Her sweet spot, and the one wherein she’s the most impactful, is with growth-stage companies and growing leaders. “My ideal leader understands they have blind spots and have such a strong desire to be a better leader.I enjoy helping leaders and teams through the growing pains and building long-term, sustainable companies and leaders.”

Five Quick Questions for Kati Hanna

As a child, what did you always want to be when you grew up?  

I always thought I would be a lawyer or a teacher. When I was younger, I studied for tests using a chalkboard and writing things down.To this day, I still think best by using the white board in my office.

What’s the best piece of advice you have been given in your career?

Probably the best piece of advice I was given was to always assume positive intent.  That has served me well in both my personal and professional life.

Success means different things to different people. What does it mean to you?

I have always felt successful when I help others succeed. As a consultant, you must have a strong internal drive to help others and not have your own ego in the mix.  

In moments of self-doubt or adversity, how do you build yourself back up?  

I started a journal years ago where I record at least one win I’ve had for the week.  That has helped keep me grounded and reminded me of my own unique abilities—because we all have unique abilities, after all.

Book recommendations? What’s on your night table right now?

Craig Groeschel’s Winning the War in your Mind. It has reminded me of the cognitive biases we all have. A very common one that most lifelong learners struggle with is the “imposter bias,” because as they grow their knowledge they are continually learning from others that it is easy to compare their expertise to.