Krista Toutant: Forging your own path necessary, valuable

Krista Toutant knows what determination looks like.

She understands exactly what you can accomplish when you're brave enough to define your biggest goals, take big chances and achieve them all.

She knows because she's been there.

One of her big goals will be realized in the coming year, when she takes over as ACS Rubber Division chair for 2024, becoming just the third woman in the history of the more than century-old organization to do so.

And as a business line manager for R.D. Abbott Co. Inc., she's sharpened her leadership skills and know-how, bringing more than 20 years of industry experience to the role.

More than anything, though, she brings grit.

The kind of grit that pushes you forward when others say you should stop. The kind of grit that she discovered she had while working her way to the front row of an AC/DC concert as a teenager.

"There were so many people," Toutant said during a Women of the Rubber Division (WORD) webinar March 29. "We were going (through the crowd) and all of the sudden my friend said, 'I can't do it. I'm done.' I was like, 'What? You've got to be kidding me. We have got to go. We said we were going to do this. That's our goal.'"

So Toutant kept going. She kept pushing, kept moving forward.

"As I got a little bit closer, it was getting a little bit more crowded and it was getting louder," Toutant said. "And there were some people who were helping me. They were like, 'Look at this young girl! She's going, clear the way.'

"And other people were giving me dirty looks like, 'what are you doing? Where do you think you're going?' But it didn't bother me, I just kept going," Toutant said.

That experience, she told those attending the webinar, is a lot like our professional lives. Women, especially, don't always have the easiest path to their biggest goals. They have to push through. And sometimes, yes, there are people helping and cheering along the way. Other times, there are greater obstacles to overcome.

But the key, Toutant said, is staying focused.

And if that focus changes along the way, that's OK, too. At the concert, Toutant said, she didn't make it all the way to the stage. She found a place she was comfortable just a few rows back and decided to stay right where she was.

"That sometimes, to me, is like your career; you are making choices," Toutant said. "You think you are on a path, and you think you know what you want, but sometimes, you get there and decide it's not what you want."

It's all just part of finding your way.

Sometimes, Toutant said, finding your way—or even just defining your goals—requires nothing more than listening to your heart.

Growing up in the 1980s, that was sometimes hard to do. Because back then, Toutant said, there were not a whole lot of spaces where women could find their fit professionally.

"The career paths for women were—there were just a few," Toutant said. "You were told you could be a secretary or a teacher and if you were really smart maybe a nurse. But there wasn't a whole lot of options I didn't feel like."

And there were not a whole lot of options for her specifically. Finding her professional place took some time.

Growing up, she received lots of advice about the professional paths she should take. In high school, teachers and counselors offered their ideas. At one point, a skills assessment test even told her she could build a career at a bakery.

"It wasn't that I should own my own bakery," Toutant said. "It was that I should go work for a bakery."

Even through college the advice about her potential career paths continued to come. And she listened, taking all the advice she could for as long as she could.

"Finally you get to the point where you get tired of people telling you what they think you should do and you take charge of yourself and say this is what I am going to do," Toutant said.

As a leader in the rubber industry, Toutant is determined to see that change. Her work with the Rubber Division—and as a founding member of the Bourbon Trail Rubber Group—is among the many ways she's working to ensure that young women have the chance to find their perfect career path.

Programs and initiatives that allow girls and young women to explore science, math and engineering opportunities—both inside and outside the rubber industry—are some of the ways that happens. Ensuring that women see other women leading in their companies and industries is important, too.

And as Rubber Division chair next year, Toutant is hopeful she can be one of those lead-by-example kind of mentors.

Because now, her focus is on helping others—women in particular—find their potential and their place in the industry she loves.

"I feel like I'm on the back nine of my career," Toutant said. "I don't feel like I'm running up the ladder, I'm not chasing that ultimate position anymore. I think I am pretty happy with what I have done. … To me, it is more about helping others, recruiting volunteers and helping others reach their full potential, mentoring and developing new leaders."