"The only thing worse than being blind is seeing, but seeing."
– Helen Keller
Sue Pressman, 69th President of ACA
When I was not in the limelight and communicating behind closed doors, I developed trust and built relationships with my customers in consultations. How did I become an entrepreneur, learned to manage and became the 69th president of the largest consulting association in the world?
As a career counselor in business, paving the way and driving change in large and small organizations was not without a challenge for me. It required self-confidence, the willingness to work with people from different backgrounds, persistence, an understanding of my purpose in life and a guiding mission and vision.
My purpose in life, like many of you, is to help others. As a career counselor, it is only natural for me to help my clients achieve their purpose and articulate their visions. I hear their stories, dreams and aspirations. Ideally, my customers can set and achieve their goals. When transferred to the business world, these advisory skills offer the opportunity to support employees, control organizational development and create ways of leadership.
Over the course of my career, my calling and passion expanded to help organizations achieve their goals. This often resulted in employees accepting changes, taking advantage of new opportunities and starting new professions. I was the only career advisor to have a niche market that offered the federal government services in American sign language. These interests, skills, and values have helped me boost my business.
The areas of consulting, business and leadership are intertwined with challenges and opportunities. The basis for assuming the ACA management team at this point in my career and life can best be described as a welcome responsibility that has the courage to lead with a new vision and look into the future.
In recent months, ACA has rightly focused on adapting to new practices during the pandemic. I doubt that was part of a vision. ACA is an organization of resilient people who have the ability to quickly jump from crisis to problem solving and opportunity mode. We dived deeply, worked together, created and expanded skills – ACA has changed, adapted and is healthy and strong.
Let's start with the vision of ACA for the coming year: Everyone has access to high quality professional advice to be successful. Building on this, it is my personal vision for ACA to be the professional home for every consultant from every program and from every nation.
The following are my “Big Five” goals:
1) Increased international representation of interests in emerging consulting groups. Because ACA is a multicultural and multiethnic organization, Heather Trepal and I set up a task force to make recommendations on the association's position in the international advisory arena.
2) Focus on adviser compensation. By bringing consultants and company representatives together in a series of "informative" meetings, awareness of the training of consultants, skills, certifications, licenses and remuneration levels is heightened.
3) Create and implement a mentoring / matching program for leadership development that connects experienced advisors with doctoral students and young professionals.
4) Develop a "Stories From the Field" project in which we offer members the opportunity to learn from retired advisors by sharing their findings through a range of podcasts and multimedia offerings .
5) Establishing a network of interests for business consultants and those who want to develop business and consulting skills.
I am proud to be an adviser and I am honored to be your president. I look forward to getting in touch with you and representing our profession. Thanks for the opportunity.
Ready to help and lead? Please contact me at [email protected] because “there is so little we can do alone; together we can do so much. “ – Helen Keller
