CareerWorks Supporting Stories

The Scenario

Life looks great for Jill. At work she is a skilled and respected CEO, leading a committed team of accomplished professionals who consistently execute against business plans. Her Board is well functioning and collaborative. At home, Jill’s husband is an ambitious entrepreneur with a thriving advertising business, and her twin daughters have just entered university. To those around her, Jill’s life seems perfect.

But not to Jill. She is often tired, and constantly struggles to achieve a satisfactory balance between career and personal life. With no adequate support system, she feels alone at the top.

CareerWorks Solution

Jill hired CareerWorks to help return balance to her life. Her coach helped her to set aside time each week to stop, breathe, evaluate and plan. Together, they explored personal/career balance issues to help Jill gain greater clarity about her life. She tested alternatives and developed viable action plans. Jill learned to take greater control over all aspects of her life, and developed a springboard to greater leadership success.

CareerWorks can do the same for you. Our executive coaching programs emphasize learning, self-awareness and experimentation to support personal and professional growth – all tailored to address your specific needs. Choosing to work with us could be the first step toward maximizing your leadership potential.

The Scenario

Rick’s subordinates call him the ideal boss. Always available and easily approachable, he is respected for his excellent guidance and respected for his business savvy. Recently, a corporate announcement made it clear that the purchasing department, for which Rick has been a reliable and diligent manager for over fifteen years, will be moved to the company's head office in the U.S. This means that he and his subordinates will be out of work within months.

CareerWorks Solution

To assist Rick and his group, the company’s human resources manager engaged CareerWorks to create and deliver an outplacement program. We supported Rick and his team to identify their strengths, values and interests, and to establish new goals. Our approach ensured that they had a meaningful opportunity to re-design their careers in alignment with their total lives. Individual coaching brought them the skills, support, strategy, and courage to move toward their new goals. Within months, all six found new positions.

But that’s the end of the story. Initially, CareerWorks coached the HR department to effectively manage the dismissal process—assissting in pre-dismissal planning and providing on-site termination support. We were also on site to help employees cope with the initial shock and disappointment of their dismissal, and to begin preparing them for the future.

The Scenario

As CEO, Don leads the executive team and is proud of its commitment to organizational profitability. In fact, the Board is more than happy with current results and has sanctioned exciting new initiatives which Don and his team have designed for the new fiscal year. Yet a recent climate survey indicates that middle management feels isolated – set apart from the organization’s overall vision and its senior leaders. Reportedly, front-line staff also has a sense of disconnection. Don is shocked yet anxious to address this so that greater cohesion exists organizationally.

CareerWorks Solution

CareerWorks utilized the ORSC (Organization & Relationship Systems Coaching) model in its work with Don and his team. At a two-day, off-site retreat, this way of working with the team provided a shift in the way the group defined itself. Using sophisticated “team tools” along with this “systems” coaching model, a plan was effectively created to address organizational cohesion, starting with Don and the executive team. CareerWorks partnered with Don and his team to ensure that, over the next few months, this plan was executed and results were measurable.

The Scenario

Judy knows all too well that given half a chance, she could convince any company of her value as General Manager. After all, her talent in leading mergers, acquisitions, and other business-building initiatives is something that has earmarked her impressive twenty-year career. Yet she has received no attention from the dozens of résumés she has submitted, not even a phone call or rejection letter. Judy is disheartened and anxious.

CareerWorks Solution

Judy called CareerWorks to begin an exciting process of identifying her value proposition and career brand. A Master Certified Résumé Writer proficiently drew her out, expressing her accomplishments and skills in a strategic marketing package that Judy was proud to use in her search. Because her executive portfolio was designed specifically to showcase her value to her target market in unique ways including, but not exclusive to résumé deployment, Judy soon received the attention that she knew she deserved. She was happy to have found a way to make an impressive first impression!

The Scenario

At fifty-five, George enjoys his role as VP, Operations. During the past ten years, he has achieved corporate objectives with ease and received commendation for introducing many profit-generating initiatives.

Yet, an element of disquiet has settled upon him lately. He longs to spend more time on other personal pursuits outside of work, like his hobby farm and Board involvement. Bonnie, his wife, is keen to travel now that the children are grown and settled. Is it time to retire? Aside from finances, George knows there are many other contributing factors that make for a successful transition that, at the moment, seem elusive and indefinable.

CareerWorks Solution

George met with a CareerWorks’ Certified Retirement Coach who helped him to assess fifteen retirement success factors including adaptability, life meaning, leisure interests, replacement of work functions, current relationships, and financial security. George’s coach assisted him, through an online assessment and several comprehensive discussions, to launch a plan designed to close the gaps around specific areas that represented a challenge for George, while pro-actively setting a retirement date. With added insight and clarity about his future, George forged ahead with enthusiasm, seeing his retirement as a time to “ride a new wave,” as opposed to a period of dismal endings.

The Scenario

David is a talented CFO who consistently makes improvements in revenues, profits, and ROI. He has implemented a number of automated programs, tools, and technologies to optimize business performance. In short, he is an executive contributor to whom the senior team looks for practical, yet winning solutions. David, however, is often stressed by the demands of his peers, and during such times he becomes pessimistic and impulsive. He experiences minimal satisfaction from these relationships, finding it difficult to collaborate and equally difficult to face conflict.

CareerWorks Solution

David engaged in honest communication with a CareerWorks’ coach to sort out his apparent lack of patience and inability to keep his cool under pressure. Through the use of the Bar-On EQ-i assessment which measures 15 components of emotional and social functioning, David came to appreciate that his “soft” leadership skills required a degree fine-tuning. With assistance, he implemented a plan for honing leadership competencies which were in no way related to his impressive functional skills as CFO. It became evident to David that leadership is certainly not always about gray matter!