As a business professor, business leadership consultant, and cosmetic line founder, Dr. Kimberly Polite “packages professionalism” in all its different aspects.
“It takes multi-layers to be successful in the business world, and I focus on individuals and teams and how to make them the best that they can be,” she said.
Polite writes curriculum and teaches graduate-level business classes remotely with accredited universities across the country, preparing students for the workplace. In her consulting business she teaches on engagement and how people “become their whole selves in the workplace.”
She also has an online beauty line. R.I.B. Boutique, to help women and men “create a look that is appropriate for the business environment.” Her longtime dream was to be in the beauty and fashion industry and combine it with business. Approved to sell her cosmetics with a major retailer, the deal should be complete by the end of the year.
A “scholar practitioner,” Polite enjoys being in education and also putting what she’s learned into practice in professional settings and with R.I.B. Boutique. “I have fun with it and get to be creative with it when it comes to beauty and style.”
The former cheerleader and homecoming queen graduated from the University of Arkansas with a bachelor’s degree in English in 1994 and earned her master’s degree in athletic administration in 1997. Polite was director of events for Rogers Expo Center when she was recognized as a member of the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal’s 2004 Forty Under 40 class. She started her consulting business in 2006.
Polite credits her biggest career achievement as completing her doctorate in business administration from Walden University. Her research for her doctoral dissertation on employee engagement strategies became her life’s work.
“My research showed that when people are disconnected from their workforce and their workplace, that lessens productivity,” she said. “I found people spend two hours a day not on work, and that costs companies money. But engaged people work much harder, and that means they’re attached to the workplace.
“People are hungry for that in the workplace. They want to be connected. They spend so much time at work, and so you may as well enjoy the journey and enjoy the people that you work with.”
Engagement is when “people are connected physically, emotionally and cognitively to their workplace,” Polite said. “The more you enjoy your job, the more you’re getting to use your talents, the more physically, cognitively and emotionally you’re present, that results in more productivity in the workplace.”
In her leadership training, Polite said she helps people “become their whole selves in the workplace and understand their gifting.
“Engagement also means you’re aware of what your gifts are. You know what you’re good at, you know what your strengths are and know what your challenges are, so you can leverage them for success.”
She believes “a person’s gift makes room for them.” In other words, “our gifts and our talents provide an opportunity to put us in the right place. So, preparation meets opportunity to transition into productivity and success.”
Polite is gifted at leadership. A former member of the U.S. Army National Guard, Polite was put in high leadership positions early in her career.
“I was able to take that aspect and develop a gift of leadership. So, I’m willing to jump over my fears and other people’s fears and grab their hands and go. I’ve always been able to do that. Even when I was in the military, I’ve always been the type of person that I run toward the battle.”
Through her 30-year career, Polite learned not to “wallow too long,” but learn from mistakes and disappointments and move on.
For the future, she will continue to expand her work, perhaps into business fashion, while always maintaining her focus on business. Polite has crafted her job so that she gets to do everything she loves: teach as a professor, impact the lives of people of various backgrounds, ages, and paradigms, consult and train, and be a part of the beauty industry.
“I’m engaged in that because it’s my passion in life and business,” she said. “It gives me purpose every day.”