Lately, I’ve been heads down, building building building. 🌿

A few things in the works:

Lots cooking. Excited to share more as things come together!

You've heard the phrase a thousand times — but what does "getting a seat at the table" actually mean? (And like, is it a comfortable chair? Is it ergonomic or more of a bean bag situation? 🪑👀)

In short, it represents our desire to be included in real business decisions. Historically, our profession has been somewhat… not invited. 😅

But here's what nobody tells you: the table has a cover charge.

And it's not paid in years of experience or a shiny new certification. It's paid in behaviors, habits, and how you show up (consistently) before anyone hands you an invitation.

So what does it actually take? Let's break it down. 🕺

The fastest way to get ignored in a leadership meeting is to lead with metrics that only you care about.

Time-to-fill. Employee engagement rate. eNPS scores. These things matter, but they don’t business leaders up at night. Executives think about things like revenue, margin, and risk.

If you want a seat at the table, you have to clearly connect your work to their world. That means translating everything you do into business impact.

Instead of: "We reduced time-to-fill by 12 days." Try: "We got the engineering team fully staffed 3 weeks earlier than projected, which means the product launches on schedule."

Same outcome. Completely different conversation.

Order-takers wait for a problem to land on their desk. Strategic partners see it coming and show up with a plan.

This is one of the biggest differentiators between HR/TA professionals who get invited to the table and those who don't. It's not about doing more work — it's about doing the right work at the right time.

That looks like:

The goal is to be the person in the room who already thought about it, not the one scrambling to catch up.

A lot of us are great at gathering information, presenting options, and then deferring to leadership.

Leaders who have a seat at the table come in with a perspective. They say "Here's what I think we should do, and here's why." They push back when something doesn't make sense, and advocate for the people they represent even when it's uncomfortable.

That doesn't mean being combative, it means being willing to say: "I hear what you're proposing, but consider this."

If the only people who know what you’re working on are in your department, you’re creating a ceiling for yourself.

I don’t mean you should share intimate details about investigations or how irritating that one hiring manager is (please don’t 😅), but you have to communicate your work and effort to others.

The HR and TA professionals who have real influence have invested in relationships across the organization. They're known, trusted, and consulted, not because of their title, but because they've shown up consistently and added value over time.

This isn't networking for the sake of networking. It's building the kind of credibility that means when your name comes up in a room you're not in, someone says "yes, loop them in."

This one makes a lot of HR/TA folks uncomfortable — and I get it. We're typically helpers, and like to keep things running behind the scenes.

Self-promotion feels gross, but there's a difference between bragging and narrating your impact.

If you closed a role that had been open for six months, say so — and explain what you did differently. If you redesigned the onboarding process and 90-day retention improved, share that data. If you coached a manager through a difficult conversation that could have turned into a termination, find an appropriate way to surface it.

Own your wins! 🏆

Speaking of building your seat at the table, if you want to do that with real structure, support, and a cohort of peers on the same journey, the HR/TA Career Accelerator is for you.

Each cohort includes six live Wednesday sessions at 6pm EST, three private 1:1 coaching sessions with me, and a group capped at 10 people — so you actually get real attention, not just a Zoom seat.

Newsletter readers get a significant discount off the $2,100 price — and payment plans are available if you need them. Several attendees are also getting this reimbursed by their company, so it's worth asking.

6 spots left. Is one of them yours? 🌿

Keep showing up, keep cheering each other on, and be kind to yourself. I’m here if you need me.

~ Preston 🌿

Want to work together? Click here to book a free intro call.