It is becoming increasingly common for people to be out of the workforce for a year or more. Sometimes by choice and sometimes involuntary, there are several reasons why someone may step away from the workforce for a period, including caring for elders or children, returning to school, deciding to travel, or overcoming a personal…
What comes to mind when you hear “executive career marketing documents?” Likely, the first things you think of are an executive resume and a value proposition letter. If you think about it for another second or two, you may come up with a LinkedIn profile and executive bio. One of the least thought-of and underrated…
Whether you’ve recently participated in an executive interview or have one coming up, it’s important to keep a balanced perspective. Rather than a straight-up interrogation, it is a chance for both parties to evaluate the fit with the other. Executive interviews are a two-way street. Both the company and the candidate need to make an…
To pique the interest of potential employers, you must provide a C-Suite resume, value proposition letter, and other career marketing documents that are believable. One way to check if your executive resume is believable is to conduct the “scratch test.” If you were to scratch your name off the top of the resume and write…
As soon as you start researching how to write an executive resume, it quickly becomes apparent that they don’t follow standard grammatical rules. A major reason for this is that the subject (the candidate—i.e., you) is always implicit in the context of a C-suite resume. If you were to write a resume in full first-person…
Executive interviews can be intimidating, to say the least. Demonstrating integrity and building trust between the interviewer and interviewee are key components, as well as balancing a conversational ebb and flow throughout the discussion. Ultimately, an executive interview is stressful because it is an emotional experience for all stakeholders, with the goal of finding the…
If you could pick the top 2 business functions and C-Suite roles that the global COVID-19 pandemic shone a spotlight on, what would they be? Likely, the first would be information technology and the CTO. Countless employees were moved to remote work in the blink of an eye, many without previous digital infrastructure. Digital transformation…
You may recall learning at some point in your educational endeavors about the 7 types of intelligence: linguistic, logical-mathematical, bodily-kinesthetic, spatial, musical, interpersonal, and intrapersonal. There are 3 new types of intelligence that are gaining traction among boards of directors: emotional intelligence, mindfulness intelligence, and adversity intelligence. They go hand in hand with other core…
Here’s a hard truth: the resume you’ve used to get you to your current CEO, COO, CDO, CFO, CMO, CIO, CTO, or other CxO executive position won’t cut it when it comes to landing your first (or next) board seat. The two documents have highly differentiated audiences and must be specifically targeted to each purpose.…
One of the benefits of targeting a seat on a board of directors is that it forces you to take a long hard look at your skills and strengths. You can use your board documents to prove that your top skills parallel the needs of a board. Doing so will help boards take you more…