Insights Through the Rear View Mirror

Craig Coffey: Provides the decisions necessary to create a Career Journey versus a Career Path

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Craig Coffey: How to Trust Your Own Decision-Making Framework

 

Making the “right” decision with regards to career is often not a black-or-white process. How can we be more confident in owning the choices we make? Today’s guest teaches us that the decisions we make do not always have to make sense to everyone—they just need to make sense to you.

 

We address:

 

What type of mindset should I cultivate to become more decisive?

 

How can I know if the company I’m working in is truly the right fit for me?

 

What can failure teach me about making better career decisions?

 

John and Paul welcome executive coach Craig Coffey, who shares how being comfortable in your own skin is fundamental to making big decisions that will benefit you in the grand scheme of your career.

 

3 MAJOR POINTS DISCUSSED

  • Your decision-making framework is worthless if you don’t have the right mindset. Since the beginning of his career, Craig embodied a mindset of optimism, hopefulness, and anticipation. Ultimately, you have to call the shots that you make, big and small alike. And that relies on you having a mindset that allows you to have complete faith in every single one of your decisions.
  • Ask yourself these four questions to know whether you’re working in the right environment. Craig proposes four questions that you should ask yourself to become more self-aware of where you currently are in your professional life and evaluate the direction you want to take it. These questions are: Do you love what you do? Do you love who you do it for? Do you love who you do it with? Do you love where you do it?
  • Making good decisions ultimately comes down to knowing yourself. You have to be comfortable in your own skin. When you know yourself, you can trust yourself to do those things that other people might have discouraged you to do. You can own your career journey and be confident that every decision you make—even those that lead to failures—is contributing to your personal and professional growth in the long run. Knowing yourself also keeps you from comparing yourself to other people, which Craig says is a debilitating trap that stalls your progress. As Craig’s father once told him, “It doesn’t have to make sense to everybody. It just has to make sense to you.”

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    OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE

    • Craig’s decision-making framework [02:49]
  • Moving from a rigid corporate environment into an unstructured, entrepreneurial one [12:04]
  • Why Craig decided to transition from working for Pepsi to working for Nokia [21:06]
  • Managing in an unsettled work environment [27:01]
  • Working at Wells Fargo while the company was in the midst of a myriad of challenges [38:24]
  • Craig’s approach to executive coaching [41:21]
  • One piece of advice for making better decisions [45:34]
  • What Craig would have done differently in his career [50:19]

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    ABOUT OUR GUEST

    Craig Coffey is the Founder and President of Way Maker Leadership LLC, an Executive Coaching Practice focused on C-suite leaders building strong teams that deliver inspired results. Craig has achieved the credentials and certifications to be a member of the International Coaching Federation (ICF), the most recognized, governing and credentialing body of the coaching profession.

     

    Craig has had an extensive career as a Senior Marketer and General Manager across an array of Fortune 100 companies. He is an accomplished, results-oriented leader with a proven track record of building businesses and well-recognized global brands for Kraft, YUM, PepsiCo, Nokia and Wells Fargo to name a few. Craig is a Diversity & Inclusion champion and has a demonstrated ability to build productive organizational cultures and develop future leaders. Craig is also an active volunteer with American Corporate Partners as a dedicated mentor to US veterans transitioning from military service into the private sector.

     

    Craig has a business degree from Boston College and received a degree in management from Harvard Business School.

     

    ABOUT OUR HOSTS

    JON KRAMER:

    Jon Kramer, Managing Director JMK Solutions www.jmk-solutions.com is a marketing services veteran with 35+ years of experience working with leading agencies, and major consumer packaged goods brands.

     

    Most recently, Jon was the Enterprise Sales Marketing lead at WestRock, a $16B packaging and display company, responsible for interfacing with their largest clients. Earlier, he was CMO of the RockTenn Merchandising Division where he created a shopper-marketing team, and go-to-market strategies for the Henkel company. He was also responsible for providing the selling organization with insights into the evolving US retail environment.

     

    Previously, Kramer served for 10 years as CEO of J. Brown, the Shopper Marketing agency of Grey Worldwide. He was responsible for creating the organizational positioning and strategy, and led all new-business efforts. During his tenure, J. Brown became the leading U.S. shopper marketing Agency, virtually defining the discipline.

     

    PAUL KRAMER:

    Paul Kramer’s distinguished marketing career is characterized by a long track record of building high performance communication organizations. His expertise is a unique blend of creativity, technical marketing analysis, and a keen business sense for strategic positioning. Paul’s earlier career included being the CEO of Catapult Marketing, President and COO of Hyper Marketing Inc and President and COO of D.L. Ryan Companies and has sat on Epsilon’s Strategic Management Team.

     

    Paul is skilled in all areas of marketing. He is especially strong in strategic planning, national brand management, marketing communications, and business development. In addition, he has a solid management foundation with accomplishments in P&L management, intellectual property, forming and maintaining strategic alliances and building business.

     

    Today, Paul is the General Partner of Riverside Consulting, a strategic consulting company working with senior leadership to help guide their business’ success.

     

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