Early on in my career, as a Licensed Mental Health Counselor (psychotherapy and career counseling), I discovered the magic of outdoor sessions. Inevitably, a single walking session would unlock a year of “a-ha” moments in a mere 50 minutes. Between the movement, the fresh air, and the escape from the intensity of constant eye contact, the outdoor stroll seemed to overcome so many of the artificial obstacles in the typical counseling setting.

As recruiters and career coaches, we’ve found that the most common reason individuals decide to leave an organization is lack of career growth potential. That’s particularly troubling in light of the fact that a significant percentage of these individuals were employees that the organization had hoped to retain– a loss magnified by the high cost of employee turnover. What contributes to this missed opportunity?

In our last post, we posed three questions to help you clarify your career goals, launching the process of career evolution or transition. That pre-work is essential to helping you identify critical elements, such as your strengths (when you’re in flow), your values (what’s most important to you), and the professional context in which you’re most likely to thrive. How do you take the insights gained from self reflection, an audit of your Strengths & Interests and/or the objective assessment of a 360 Review, and translate that into actionable steps?

In 2023, our seemingly ever-changing economy has kicked off yet another year of career shifts, some self-catalyzed and some out of necessity. We are hearing from individuals at all levels of professional life questioning career direction--for some, looking to build future success and impact in a vastly changed economy, and, for others, fundamentally questioning the purpose of their daily professional lives and the mission of the companies they serve (or run). Every year offers the opportunity to pause and reflect, and this year, it seems, career planning is more essential than ever.

Career transition at any stage of one’s career can be challenging, fraught with concerns about making the right move (and implications of making the wrong move!). The process can feel overwhelming, and there can be a frustrating lack of ROI on search efforts. Moreso, it’s often a solitary exercise, and can be hard to do on your own, day-in and day-out. The good news is that you don’t have to! Working with a career coach is a great way to move from stuck to unstuck—and from solitary actions to collaborative efforts.

This week at CFW Careers, we lost a trailblazer, a mentor, and a devoted husband. David King started our firm in 1973 as a career school for women—a training ground that gave them the tools needed to get into business-to-business sales, make more money than women typically earned, and step into leadership roles that had been reserved for men in generations before.

We met Kimberly Morgan a few years ago, as she was transitioning to a new sales leadership role. Her infectious energy, realistic optimism, and tireless drive instantly impressed all of us at CFW. She became a fast friend of the firm–a sounding board if we had industry questions, an example of an inspiring leader when we’d talk about great sales managers, and ultimately, an exceptional hiring manager when we’d send her sales candidates. Kim launched her career in advertising and grew to leadership in the AdTech space.

“Success” starts from the outside. You hear it. Someone who knows tells you. It embarrasses you to not disclaim it. Then the compliment is repeated, reinforced. You walk away in order to change the subject. It feels good. It feels so good that the first time you hear that you’re “successful” it’s hard not to repeat it to someone soon. Word by word, including the disclaimer.

This is success observed; success under glass.

Then follows recognition. It starts from the outside. Deference is paid to you. The people who are important acknowledge that you are important, too. Your income grows. Your title grows. Your office grows. Your responsibility grows. Your pressure grows, your work load grows.

Whether you’re supremely happy in your current job, beginning to consider what comes next, or actively on the hunt, an intentional approach to career planning can help set you up for success and make the process easier. We reached out to career advisor and Co-Owner of CFW Careers, Cynnie King, for some tips and tools that she and the individuals she’s coached have found most effective through the years. Check out her five tips for successful career planning below!

Melissa Hatter has been building and leading Customer Success and Account Management Teams for the past 20+ years. Based in NYC, she currently leads the Enterprise Customer Success Team at Stripe. Before Stripe, she held leadership roles in account management, customer success, and operations at large companies such as NBC and small and medium-tech start-ups. Prior role include Head of Customer Success at Leaf, VP of Customer Success at Emissary, and Head of Customer Success and COO at Frankly Media (now Engine Media).

In June 2020 we connected with Equity consultants and experts, Dr. Kristen Liesch and Anna Dewar Gully, of Tidal Equality following the launch of their Equity Sequence™️. An action-driven alternative to anti-bias training, the Equity Sequence™️ is a series of 5 simple questions designed to drive equality in everyday workplace decisions and actions. Cultivating Equitable and Inclusive Workplaces: A Conversation with Dr. Kristen Liesch and Anna Dewar Gully of Tidal Equity — You can read that conversation here.

After an interview, it’s easy to walk out of the room (or hang up the phone), take a deep breath and say “phew, glad that’s over.” The last thing you feel like doing is crafting a thoughtful, insightful note to send to the interviewer(s). Most professionals already know that it’s best to send a thank you note after an interview (within 24hrs!). Surprisingly, most professionals also tend to miss this golden opportunity to solidify the positive impression they just left on the hiring manager because they feel rushed, they don’t know what to say, or they consider it a trivial part of the vetting process.

Our conversation with Rebecca touches on: data that bring together the different departments and the ‘why’ behind the numbers, the challenge of story-telling in the feature-led world of SaaS, and how to assess marketing leadership talent in the interview process. Read on for our conversation!

As a recruiter at CFW Careers, this Women’s History Month, I find myself reflecting on today’s challenges around building and sustaining diverse, equitable and inclusive workplaces, and how different the considerations are from those of decades past. Regarding gender equality, today a major challenge remains setting the conditions for women’s career progression and growing the representation of women in leadership and on boards.

Almost three years ago, I was introduced to Chantel George by Myrna Datilus. As Myrna said to me, “She’s someone you should know…” That was an understatement. Following Chantel’s launch of Sistas in Sales, attending her first big event, and then witnessing how she grew the organization, was awe-inspiring. We’re fans and eager to promote and contribute to her cause, a cause aligned with our mission of building diverse and inclusive workplaces and helping individual careers flourish. We spoke with Chantel via Zoom, to learn more about the upcoming Sistas in Sales Virtual Summit 2020, September 18th-19th, and to learn how managers can best support their employees through this difficult time and beyond.

Our team at CFW has spent 47- years working with sales leaders across industries. In a world where everything is uncertain, one thing has remained constant: sales organizations change rapidly, and that change is accelerated by sales technology. In our most recent conversation with Jonathan Hume, a Business Development Advisor who has spent the last 15+ years in sales leadership, we discuss what it takes to set up the structure, launch, grow, and support a successful sales organization.