Who's Your CCA?

Well kids, there's a new rank in the executive suite: CCA. That's Chief Career Advisor. And I don't mean at work--I am talkin' on the home front. Reuters today published the results of a survey asking respondents who thier chief career advisor is as many people seek job changes in the new year.

And while the top answer--their spouse--is not a surprise, I was surprised that mentors came in second place: "The survey also shows mentors carry greater clout than five years ago: 41 percent respondents said they would consult their mentors first, compared to 28 percent in 2002."

Mentors had their heyday in the late 90s when compnay after company announced formal mentoring programs encouraging workers to find role models and giving them topics and budgets to fuel the mentioring relationship fire. What resulted though wasn't necessarily the success of these formal programs but the focus on the importance of having someone, anyone, you can call a career confidant.

Where should the focus be now? Encouraging relationships period. Whether in or out of the company, companies have lost their focus on what career development means. It's not giving the prescribed toolkit with every single step to success, but providing suggested paths that workers traverse at their own speed in a direction of their choosing.