Who We Are…

Written by Kirk Anderson, Founder, Secrets from the C-Suite

Secrets from the C-Suite (SFC-Suite) is a career development series of products and services aimed at helping people identify, achieve, and thrive in work they can passionately connect with and become great at doing. The program includes two parts: 1) Career Discovery (helping you determine where you fit best within the world of work); 2) Career Advancement (giving you proven insights for advancing your career).

Secrets from the C-Suite is a trademarked brand owned by ActionPointe, LLC; which is our parent company and serves as the organizational structure through which all the products and services marketed under the Secrets from the C-Suite brand are developed and maintained. ActionPointe LLC is also the organization through which we provide various business consulting services to organizations. You can check out our ActionPointe website here.

Our mission seeks to address three challenges faced by just about everyone engaged in the workforce...

First, the vast majority of people have no idea how to find where they fit best within the world of work. It’s not taught in our schools, and most parents themselves are often struggling with the same question. Not knowing what type of work to focus on is like going to Vegas with every job you take; you’re simply hoping that this will be “the one” that you’re looking for. That’s no way to build a career where you optimize the value you can realize for yourself through the work you do for your living. Helping you KNOW your Best-Fit is part of our mission.

Second, most people have little to no idea what senior leadership is looking for when deciding on people to advance into positions with greater responsibility and pay. Certainly, there are things specific to individual organizations and leaders, however, in my 40+ year business career I’ve experienced that there is a foundation of characteristics and capabilities that the majority of senior leaders, regardless of industry, would agree are vital to advancement. Providing access to these insights is part of our mission.

Third, many people are simply priced out of receiving quality career discovery and development guidance. Consider that the US market average for top-level individual career counseling engagement from beginning to end can exceed $3,500.00 (US), with some engagements exceeding $10,000.00 (US) for senior-level executives and highly experienced and business-savvy career counselors. The vast majority of people in the US workforce simply can’t afford those costs. As a result, many people are literally on their own when it comes to learning how to find where they fit best and advance their career. Bringing quality and affordable support to people seeking career help is part of our mission.

Secrets from the C-Suite offers solutions to each of the above three challenges. As SFC-Suite’s founder, I’m a highly experienced senior-level business executive with decades of executive leadership, business consulting, and career guidance expertise across multiple industries. In service of our vision to make quality career guidance affordable, we put our career discovery program into an eBook format, complete with a detailed exercise workbook, guidance videos, and industry leader videos; all for a fraction of the $3,500.00 cost of a 1:1 coaching program as mentioned above. Our change in approach has changed the game. Now, a SFC-Suite client can supplement the career discovery eBook with assessments and live group coaching, and be ‘out-the-door’ with an entire quality program for less than $500.00 (US). If you added 1:1 personal coaching to that base, and keep in mind that I provide our 1:1 coaching services personally, the total program cost to our client would be at or below $1,500.00 (US) (depending on the assessments purchased). Certainly not chump change, but significantly below the $3,500.00 market average minimum cost mentioned above. We’re proud of that delta against the general market and are excited to continually enhance the scope, quality, and value of our offerings to serve the largest audience of people possible who are in need of quality career guidance.

The SFC-Suite Career Development Series (career discovery and advancement) contains a diverse spectrum of ever-growing and adapting resources across a truly multi-media delivery platform. All designed to leverage my business and leadership expertise, as well as bring you insights from other senior leaders from different organizations across multiple industries. Secrets from the C-Suite’s entire focus is in support of giving you a peak under the curtain, empowering you to better understand how senior leaders think on important career development topics; as well as how to better understand yourself and where you fit best.

All of this is in service of helping you develop your ability to optimize your value in the highly competitive world of work.

How We Are Unique…

One thing that makes our career programs unique is the informed and experienced perspective that I’ve been able to accumulate over 40+ years of a diverse business career, plus what I continue to learn, gather, and bring forward from other senior leaders across the marketplace and feature in our work. Since ending my corporate career and going out on my own in 2005, I have been engaged in providing operational consulting to organizations as well as developmental work with individuals and organizations in strategy, leadership, communication skills, helping organizations find where people fit best, and finally, career discovery and advancement work with individuals. My continued role as a consultant to organizations across multiple industries (under ActionPointe LLC) gives me continued access to how organizational leaders think and what they look for in hiring and advancing individuals in today’s workplace. Who better to help you understand the modern organization, and what senior leaders are likely looking for, than someone who has decades of experience as a senior leader in multiple industries, as well as working as a consultant with a diverse array of organizations and individuals? This is where the uniquely informed real-world experience brought by not only myself, but the other senior leaders we continue to learn from and often feature in our products and services, can make all the difference in what the SFC-Suite Career Development program can provide to you.

Why We Exist…

Why Did I Get Into Career Development and Create Secrets from the C-Suite?  Employee disengagement is a huge problem for the American economy, leading to suffering and loss by employees, employers, our general economy, and our communities at large. According to the Gallup organization, disengagement has hovered around 70% for years. This means that roughly 70% of employees in the American workforce don't like their jobs. This is costly, not only for the economy (Gallup has estimated in excess of $550 billion/year), but for the organization and the individual as well. The fallout from people being deeply dissatisfied with their work ripples through the modern organization and the lives of employees, families, and communities. It impacts productivity, organizational culture, employee compensation, well-being, and health on every level.

I have had a ring-side seat to all of this from multiple perspectives, both in my time as an organizational leader, as a business consultant, and in helping people with their career development. Originally, I was motivated to create a career development program as a response to the tragedy of worker disengagement. I found it painful to watch people suffer and struggle in jobs they hated, without a sense of purpose, and without any passion for the work they were doing. When I left my corporate job in 2005, I decided to invest myself in addressing the causes and consequences of disengagement. It wasn’t long before I gravitated toward creating a bundle of resources and coursework focused on helping individuals discover their best fit, and then to acquire the information and skills needed to advance their careers. I still help organizations in healing disengagement and enhancing performance under my ActionPointe LLC brand, and most importantly, that work continues to synergistically support the quality of the individual work here at Secrets from the C-Suite by keeping me in contact with senior leaders and employees across different industries.

The insights and tools made available in the SFC-Suite Career Development programs today are an antidote to so many people simply surrendering themselves to their unhappiness; believing that lack of passion for the work and disengagement from their work is just the way it is. Well, as it turns out, that’s not the way it is… So, today, with Secrets from the C-Suite, it looks like the secret’s out. The good news is that it is actually possible to truly love your work and optimize the value you create for others and yourself. Secrets from the C-Suite career development programs can show you how.