Way back when there was a famous article published in the Harvard Business Review, “Why Should Anyone be Led by You?” I often think of this title when I’m talking to prospective clients. “Why should anyone give us their business?” This thought led us into our end of year stock take to see if we could pinpoint what makes us stand out from other career consulting firms. We didn’t have to look far because our clients themselves have given us repetitive feedback that tells us the value we offer them and luckily for us it ticks all the right boxes.
STRUCTURED APPROACH
Whether a client wants to make a major change between sectors or is looking for the next upward move, the initial process requires some intense soul searching and detailed hard work examination of their experience and skill set. We take them through a series of “well thought out exercises” to reveal not only where their dreams truly lie but what they have in their toolkit to get them there. And then we add the magic ingredient, assimilating all the information, organizing it and showing them a way forward.
SELF CONFIDENCE
If there’s one element that will take you to where you want to be it’s self confidence. Even the most seasoned executives that you’d hardly think lacked self confidence to start with name this as the number one quality that they rediscover from working with us. It emerges not only from examining how much they have actually done in their working lives but also in the interaction during the consults. “This process has helped me to reconnect to my confidence and marketability.”
TOOLS TO NAVIGATE THIS CRAZY JOB MARKET
If the job market was difficult in 2019, it’s completely crazy now. It’s a terrain that is manageable but only if you have two things, a job search strategy and the persistence to keep going. We offer clients the tools for the first and once they have the plan in place, we are there as accountability partners to keep tracking.
OUR SUCCESS STORIES
And what clients most want to hear, ‘is this process successful?’ We have a client who whilst still in the company where we met him, made himself more visible and put himself on the promotion track after working with us and has now moved into a more senior leadership position. Another client “within months was offered a great opportunity to move to Europe to take up an international position with a great international company” and yet another who just this month is taking up a position that “ticks all the important boxes.” So yes, the process works but sometimes it takes a while and persistence is key, which is why it helps so much to have someone walking the road with you, helping with the course corrections and keeping focus.
SOCIAL PROOF
We have the deep industry experience and networks in corporate consulting, recruiting and executive search that bring both sides to the task. We can help clients sort through their dreams and aspirations at the same time as keeping it real in terms of our knowledge of what is happening in the market and whether they need to take the long view to get where they really would like to land.
ALL IN ALL
We gave ourselves an 8 out of 10 for our stock take because there’s always room for improvement. But we’ve given a client the last word! “Career Conversations comes highly recommended, I wouldn’t have reached the next level of my career without them.”
If you want to reach your new next level, contact us at: +27 82 444 0375 or pam@careerconversations.co.za
