Karli J. Klismith

I think it goes back to just being yourself, you know? I own what I had made a mistake on in my career, which I feel is just not being myself. Transparency and being open is a big thing for me. And then, I'm gonna say this because it's very true, it was my father. I grew up in a small business family, and having the ability to learn how to be a leader and just a good person, and having a sounding board like that, I would say a lot of my success is because of everything that he had taught me and continues to teach me about leadership and being a good person.

The best career advice I ever received came from our Chief Strategy Officer at the time, his name was David, and he told me, and this really stuck with me, he said, just be you, right? Like, just be you. And the rest will follow. You know, definitely don't pretend that you're something you're not, and really just be true to yourself. And that was something I've taken with me, you know, as I've moved forward, and quite frankly, climbed up levels within my career, just the mentality of be you, be yourself, and that's, you know, what people will really recognize you for.

If there are women that are looking for leadership roles within HR or entrepreneurial consulting, my advice would be find a mentor. Find someone who's gonna give you potentially a foot in the door. So work on networking. Networking is going to be one of your biggest strengths, right? When you're looking to get into the industry, find someone who's in it and can give you some good advice of maybe an entry-level role in the industry, or introduce you to somebody that would be helpful to you in getting to where you want. My whole career has been built off of those relationships, both, you know, men and women, who have helped me get to where I'd like to be. So I think it's the networking is huge. And then just getting a seat at the table. You know, maybe taking that more entry-level role that's a little bit below what you're looking for, getting your foot in the door and accelerating from there.

I think the challenge is, just with the landscape of the workforces right now, it's really hard for some of our clients to find that really top-tier talent. That's still lacking, so that has really made our executive search division busy, so that we can kind of hone in on those key areas that folks are looking for in some of those executive level roles. And I would say on the flip side, there's a lot of layoffs happening, so the fact that we do outplacement as well as recruiting is pretty unique. Because we have folks who are on the other side of the coin, and they've lost their jobs, and we're really that sounding board to help them with their job search and be that voice of reason. This is the first year, I think, that we've seen recruiting and outplacement as busy as it is. Usually, recruiting's busy and outplacement is down, but the market has predicted both sides of that coin to be busy, just based on where things are at. And a lot of key leadership retirements and transitions. You know, we're getting calls because there is a key leader who's retiring.

The values that really matter to me the most is being open, right? So, you know, when you're navigating something complex, really make sure to bring that to the forefront and talk about it. So I would just say the openness leads to being able to make better decisions and really be a trusted advisor. I do think people are human, right? So, I think just realizing the human side is huge. Trust is another big one that I value. And empathy, you know, that's a huge one, too, because a lot of leaders need to operate with both strategy and empathy, so I'm really keen on knowing how my team is doing, what they need from me, and building a culture through consistent actions, not just a list of values. You know, we really breed those. Along with that, transparency and communication, I think is huge.