Evolving

Business consultant Melissa Carson sits in front of a rock pathway leading to a white door to a cobblestone building

When I wrote this blog entry, I was headed home from my first family vacation in over two years. We spent the week hiking in several Utah national parks and the experience was so different than what has been the reality I’ve been living most recently. Experiencing this change of scenery and routine gave me the opportunity to think about my focus going forward. I’ve been working on where I wanted my business to go and how I wanted to spend my energy for several months now but this downtime allowed me the time and perspective to write it down in a way that made the most sense to me.

I’m 2 1/2 years into the latest chapter of my career journey so I thought it would be a good time to reintroduce myself to those of you who are just starting to see my posts and share where I'm headed next. 

In February 2019, I started to realize that I didn’t want to live with career regrets…the things I was considering but was afraid to try. I had an ah-ha moment on a business trip that made me reconsider how I was spending my work time. I realized that I wanted to prioritize my time so it was spent coaching and advising leaders about how they could create teams and organizations where people could do their best work. I wanted to support their leadership journeys so that they felt that they were being the best leader they could be for their team members.

Over the past 2 1/2 years, I’ve continued to evolve how I want to bring my goals to life, and I’ve landed on 3 areas of focus:

  • Enabling leaders who want to create workplaces that don’t suck and that have people strategies aligned for scaling

  • Enabling leaders who know that leading people is challenging and requires intentional strategies -- leaders who are ready to tame their imperfection gremlins and harness “the messiness” to create great teams.  

  • Enabling HR business partners and leaders in their support of organizational leaders.

My strategies for serving these 3 areas include:

  • An organizational strategy toolkit for scaling organizations with leadership advisory support

  • An “imperfect leaders” program that includes individual and/or group coaching components

  • An HR Business partner enablement program that focuses on balancing the different roles needed

The differentiators I bring to my work come from 3 factors:

  • I’ve had the privilege of working closely with amazing leaders and organizations in my many HR roles

  • My super-power is the ability to pull different threads together that others may not see

  • My strengths lie in both creating strategies and defining how to bring them to life.

I also realized along the way that I love to share my ideas with my social media community so that I can learn more from their perspectives. Several of you encouraged me to curate some of my content to make it accessible as guides for individuals focused on living their best lives - personally and professionally so I took that leap of faith earlier this year and published two short books on Amazon.  As I go forward, my focus will be anchored in the 3 areas I mentioned earlier and will come to life through my writing, opportunities to speak on podcasts and at events, leading programs that support leaders and organizations, and coaching leaders.

I believe that we all have the opportunity to experience many chapters in our career journeys, and I’m excited about what’s ahead for me in this current chapter. If any of the work I’ve shared is a hot topic for you now, I’d love to talk with you.

How would you define who you are right now, who you serve, and how you best serve them? Even if you are part of a bigger organization, these are still questions that you should challenge yourself to answer because you might be surprised at what you find.

How are you evolving as a professional?

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Who Am I?

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10 Lessons I’ve Learned During My Imperfect Leadership Journey