Sarah, 38 is a communications specialist who wants to move into CSR. Sarah believes in the power of organisations to change society and thought CSR might be a way forward for her but is unsure of her own motivations and whether she would be able to make headway in this area. Could she not influence her organisation without wearing the CSR hat?
She has been working in the communicatons industry all her life and has a wealth of experience. She knows she is not firing on all her cannons yet she senses that a move into a more senior position is not necessarily the way. She would also like to be able to incorporate and recreate some of her journalistic experiences when volunteering in Brazil in a campaigning project in her 20’s.
Here is what happened.
Sarah worked with Turn Up the Courage to see the connections between the areas in her life that had most spark. She gained a clear understanding of what had consistently motivated her in her career and what her core skills were. She spotted her own unique offering as to be 'a dynamic guardian for positive global values', at her core, and very soon a new career path emerged, based intrinsically on what she brings to the world. She made a quantum leap in her own confidence level.
Soon she had initiated a dialogue with her board on reputation risk and the need for the retailing organisation to "walk their talk". She was asked to work with people development to design and run a campaign for employees to display more professionalism in their customer interactions, amongst other values-based goals. The impact of this program led to some good publicity for the organisation both internally (morale boost) and externally (reaching new targets in complaints levels) and Sarah saw those dream career horizons becoming a reality.
