Welcome to our HR Leaders in Focus blog series, where we feature conversations with HR executives shaping the future of work. These leaders share strategies, lessons learned, and insights on the evolving role HR plays in driving organizational success across industries.

At CFW Careers, we bring together the expertise of global executive search and the personalized guidance of professional coaching. Our dual practice allows us to support organizations in building strong leadership teams while helping individual leaders navigate transitions and accelerate their growth.

Today we are talking with Claudio Diaz, an experienced CHRO who has scaled teams at companies of all sizes. In addition to his track record of success at Walt Disney World, Claudio has helped CEOs in 4 different industries achieve their growth targets while building effective and accountable HR infrastructures.

Which leadership assessments or development strategies have you found most impactful in identifying and nurturing leaders within your organization? 

Begin with a proven recruiting tool, like Predictive Index, to assess a leader’s natural strengths and ensure a right fit for the role. For executives, consider an assessment center (not just online psychometric and cognitive tests) to observe a candidate’s real-time competence in strategy, emotional intelligence, problem solving and dealing with ambiguity and difficult people/situations. The Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) and many executive recruiting firms have facilities to support this real-time analysis. I understand that your firm, CFW, has a robust Leadership Assessment as well. 

Welcome to our Women Leaders Spotlight blog series, part of our Changing the Conversation initiative. This series reflects our founding commitment to advancing women in leadership by moving beyond identifying barriers to focusing on solutions—supporting women in their careers while also influencing organizational practices and policymaking.

Can you start by introducing yourself and describing your work at Durable Minds Everboarding?

My name is Jillian Ferry, and I’m the CEO and Co-Founder of Durable Minds Everboarding. After more than 16 years in HR and people operations, I saw firsthand how many talented young professionals enter the workplace feeling underprepared—not because they lack ambition, but because traditional career readiness only takes them part of the way. Career readiness has become a buzzword, but too often it stops at the surface level. Students learn how to polish a résumé, answer interview questions, or network effectively, but not how to navigate the day-to-day challenges that come once they’ve been hired.

Consider how you're moving through your professional life. Your success likely depends not only on your expertise or effort, but on the quality of your relationships—and your ability to engage, influence, collaborate, and lead others.

Whether it’s your boss, your team, your peers, or the broader constellation of stakeholders in your ecosystem, every relationship plays a role in how effectively you lead and build a positive worklife for yourself and those around you. Yet too often, we navigate these networks unconsciously—responding to what’s right in front of us and our in-the-moment experience, rather than stepping back to see the whole picture.

In our executive coaching practice, we use various assessment tools to help our coaching clients gain essential perspective and to support executive growth–from emotional intelligence and behavioral style to motivational drivers and engagement factors. Relationship Mapping adds another layer of strategic insight. 

Welcome to our Women Leaders Spotlight blog series, part of our Changing the Conversation initiative. This series reflects our founding commitment to advancing women in leadership by moving beyond identifying barriers to focusing on solutions—supporting women in their careers while also influencing organizational practices and policymaking.

Can you start by introducing yourself and describing your role at CEA Staffing?

My name is Adrienne Burgos and I am the founder and CEO of CEA Staffing, an experiential and event staffing agency based in Chicago with a nationwide reach. I started this business completely on my own when I was just 24 years old, and over the years I’ve grown it into a trusted partner for some of the biggest brands and events in the country.

Welcome to our HR Leaders in Focus blog series, where we feature conversations with HR executives shaping the future of work. These leaders share strategies, lessons learned, and insights on the evolving role HR plays in driving organizational success across industries.

At CFW Careers, we bring together the expertise of global executive search and the personalized guidance of professional coaching. Our dual practice allows us to support organizations in building strong leadership teams while helping individual leaders navigate transitions and accelerate their growth.

We’re now talking with Colette Gardner, a former opera singer turned people leader who is now part of Movement's executive team, where she embeds the people perspective at the heart of the agency’s overall strategy.

Welcome to our Women Leaders Spotlight blog series, part of our Changing the Conversation initiative. This series reflects our founding commitment to advancing women in leadership by moving beyond identifying barriers to focusing on solutions—supporting women in their careers while also influencing organizational practices and policymaking.

Can you start by introducing yourself and describing your work at Social Hospitality?

My work revolves around the world of digital marketing and communications. I specialize in helping businesses and individuals establish strong online presences, connect with their target audiences, and build meaningful relationships online. Whether it’s through social media, email marketing, content creation, or website optimization, I’m passionate about crafting compelling narratives and strategies that resonate with people.

In our work with clients, we provide onboarding coaching with every new hire made through our search practice. It’s a differentiator in our business, and we have seen firsthand how impactful early days coaching can be to long-term success in a position. One essential part of our coaching is the delivery of behavioral and communication assessments and debriefs.

Spotlight on Women Leaders Series

Celebrating women leaders across industries and advancing the conversation on leadership—reflecting CFW Careers’ expertise in retained executive search, global executive search, and professional coaching.

To start, can you introduce yourself and share a bit about your work at HerAIgency, especially in the context of supporting women leaders?

I’m Jenna, founder of HerAIgency. We help female founders and women-led teams bring AI into their businesses in a way that is both approachable and powerful. My work is rooted in making AI practical: building AI Brand Managers that serve as the single source of truth for a company, designing conversational AI that actually sounds human, and setting up systems that save time instead of adding complexity.

Welcome to our HR Leaders in Focus blog series, where we feature conversations with HR executives shaping the future of work. These leaders share strategies, lessons learned, and insights on the evolving role HR plays in driving organizational success across industries.

Today, we’re talking with Nathalie Rodriguez, who is a 3x first-in-seat Founding Talent and HR Leader at Cambio.ai. Nathalie currently supports Cambio’s post series A growth, overseeing all things talent, hiring, and people ops. 

Welcome to our Women Leaders Spotlight blog series, part of our Changing the Conversation initiative. This series reflects our founding commitment to advancing women in leadership by moving beyond identifying barriers to focusing on solutions—supporting women in their careers while also influencing organizational practices and policymaking.

Can you start by introducing yourself and describing your work at The Mom Pact?

I’m Molly McCartan, Founder and CEO of The Mom Pact. I built The Mom Pact because I lived what so many women face: trying to advance a career in systems that were never designed for working mothers. I navigated two maternity leaves and people were constantly asking why my career was so important to me. I kept wondering: why is it always framed as one or the other? I watched talented, ambitious women step back or leave altogether, not because they lacked ability or drive, but because they lacked support.

When people hear “retained recruiter,” they often picture executive searches with long timelines and high fees–typically a type of search used only for the most senior level positions. But the reality is that retained search is practical for and relevant to companies at many stages of growth. Retained search isn’t just for CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, and retained search isn’t just for C-level roles. Rather, retained search offers a focused approach to hiring when the stakes are high and the right person matters. Here are 10 of the most common misconceptions about retained recruiters.

As organizations navigate an ever-evolving work environment, several critical trends are emerging that will shape the workplace of the future. From mental health to leadership development, companies are focusing on holistic approaches that address both the needs of employees and the sustainability of their operations. In our executive coaching practice, we’ve found each of the following to be trends impacting the leaders we work with and the companies they are working to shape every day. From everything we’re hearing, we’ve also formulated some predictions about where these conversations are heading as we barrel towards 2025.

Once in a while, we look back and find that advice we doled out years ago can feel even more relevant today; hence, the throwback blog post. Recently, upon witnessing some intense red flags in a management approach, I was reminded of this gem, which takes a reverse psychology approach to catalyzing insight for managers: What might you be doing wrong? And how can you take meaningful lessons from the absolute worst example of what a manager can be? Read on for five key ways to be an absolutely terrible, horrible, no good, very bad manager.

Are you gearing up to join a new team? 

At CFW Careers, we believe that fostering strong connections with your future colleagues is essential for success in any role. Whether you're preparing for an upcoming interview or planning to integrate into a new team, asking the right questions can help you gain valuable insights into team dynamics, company culture, and role expectations.

My grandfather was a jack-of-all-trades — a farmer, woodworker, horse breeder/trainer, and an all-around hobbyist. His career didn't fit neatly into any one category because he was always learning something new. I remember doing my high school geometry homework at his kitchen table when he peeked over my shoulder and asked, "How are you calculating those angles?" After I showed him, he said, "Follow me." Seeing an opportunity, he brought me into his woodworking shop to look at a partially built horse-drawn snow sleigh.

Through the years, James O’Donnell, co-founder of Integrev, a technology consulting firm, has been our candidate, our client and an advisor to our firm. We’ve not only represented and served him, we’ve learned from him, most of all because he not only knew a lot (about business, about management, about leadership), but, perhaps most importantly, he knew what he didn’t know and shared that growth mindset with us. Here, his lessons learned about the importance of (the right kind of) feedback.