Recently, I had the opportunity to take the next step in my CX career. As part of that transition, I reached out to some of colleagues and friends that I have had the opportunity to meet over the years in CXPA to bounce ideas off of them. Each conversation was thoughtful, and I truly appreciated the willingness of each person to share their insights.
I’ve been in a CX leadership role for 17+ years and the people I’ve met in this field over that time continue to impress me with their compassion, their support and their expertise. When CXPA started, I remember thinking that the most significant benefit would be the people and, year over year, that continues to be true.
Part of what I love about being a part of this community is being able to help one another. One of the most common questions that I get from CXPA members is around growing their CX career. What can they do to take their CX career to the next level? My answer is almost always in two parts --
- Expand your experience into multiple CX disciplines: For example, if you started in voice of the customer, learn more about design thinking or find a mini project to facilitate a journey mapping project. I’ve seen members get more experience by volunteering for CX projects in their local networking group and diving into a new CX skill in that project.
- Leadership matters: If your goal is to lead a CX organization one day, then like any other role in a company, your leadership skills are important. Continue to grow those, perhaps by shaping up a project proposal and getting buy in to lead that project. In my experience, one of the toughest and most rewarding parts of CX is the fact that this role has a great deal of responsibility but not authority. So much of the work gets done by persuasion, collaboration and leading effective change.
To have the full benefit of the power of our community I recommend building out your CX network within CXPA. Personally, I’m a slow networker, so I like to take the time to connect and get to know people. Try reaching out to at least one person in CXPA in the next quarter and have a conversation about something important to you. Pick a challenge that you are currently facing or find someone with expertise in a new CX area for you and reach out. You can do this via your local networking group, or via our online community or connect to someone directly. I hope you too will feel like you’ve found a home amongst a community of like-minded, empathetic and passionate colleagues, ready to go on the CX journey with you.