April Little's Recent LinkedIn Posts

My client stayed a director for 5 years because she thought she was being POSITIONED; turns out she was being PACIFIED the entire time. Her manager told her she was next and that her time was coming. 5 years passed in place. That is when we had to separate what she was told from what she was given. When positioning is real, you can track it in how your work changes. → pulled into conversations earlier before decisions are fully shaped → asked for input while problems are still unclear and unresolved → presenting to leaders 2 to 3 levels above your current role → building relationships outside your reporting line with senior stakeholders → trusted with outcomes that carry visibility and business risk When pacification is happening, you can track that too. → praise stays high while your scope remains exactly the same → projects are handed to you after direction is already decided → timelines are mentioned without any defined movement or exposure → feedback sounds encouraging but lacks ownership or specificity → access to senior rooms and decision points does not expand The difference shows up in access, not in how supported you feel. Companies break goals into quarterly milestones because progress must be visible. Your promotion should follow the same structure with clear signals every 90 days. If your access has not changed this quarter, neither has your positioning. Stop tracking reassurance and start tracking where you are allowed to show up. #executivematerial

April already delivered 3 breakthroughs I could not have planned. This month is moving with a level of alignment I do not take lightly. Two of my clients stepped into new roles this past week. I was invited to the Time Women in Leadership Forum in Los Angeles. I attended the Second Round Foundation (Jalen Brunson) event in New York City. I joined BookTok and finished four fictional books, which is new for me as someone who reads non-fiction. Ashlie Journet put me onto the Kennedy Ryan Skyline series, and I have not stopped reading. Linda 🌻Le introduced me to ACOTAR, and I can't put it down. :) Brand partnerships continue to flow in. At the same time, layoffs are still happening, and many people are still searching. That reality stays with me while I move through everything unfolding. So my prayer for you this month is clear. → You secure the role that reflects the level you have been operating at → You enter rooms where your voice is expected and respected My personal focus this month is discipline in the quiet parts of my life. I plan to read four more books and spend more time offline. I want my leadership to stay grounded as things continue to expand. April will be a God did it month for me and it can be for you too. What are you praying for this month? “The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.” Exodus 14:14

In my 20's, I was a human doormat, staying silent when I should have spoken. Then, I overcorrected and spoke up about everything until I learned which battles deserved my voice. Perhaps that is why LinkedIn serves two purposes for me: to generate leads and as an outlet to help others. When I did pipe up, I was told I was "piping up" too much. I think that happens to many of us. We trade one extreme for another as we seek to establish balance and boundaries. Emotional reactions are human, but so is learning discernment. I do think it's human to suffer an emotional reaction to disrespect. I also think we have a responsibility to use our discernment to know when to respond and when not to. The real skill is in finding a middle ground. Because it's not a good idea to give someone the impression they can say anything they want to you. What I've learned: Not every perceived slight needs a response Setting boundaries ≠ being a doormat Choose your moments wisely "The need to comment on everything is the definition of busy work. There is great peace in reserving your perspectives for the right time and people rather than always talking just because you have something to say." - Anonymous True power isn't in speaking up about everything - it's in knowing which battles are worth your voice. credit: herleader on IG —- Hi, I’m April Little. I help current women leaders (Sr. Mgr, Director +) prepare for executive roles in 8 weeks or less. I am accepting 2 new clients this month. https://lnkd.in/gc-hbQBd ✨ Recent Client Wins ✨ Director --> Vice President Promotion (on page)

My sister became a mom at 40 years old last month. A few years ago, my sister and I had a conversation about whether it would ever happen for her. There were years where she waited to meet the right person, and she even began questioning whether she wanted children at all. That is what time does when something you deeply want has not happened yet. Now her baby girl is one month old and the center of her world. She and her fiancé are building a life that once felt like something that would never happen. I am sharing this with her permission because I know how many people carry this quietly. You start to believe it is too late for the life you imagined. You question if love will come. You question if marriage will happen. You question if children are still possible. You question if the promotion will ever come. You question if the next chapter is still available to you. I have lived this in different ways in my own life too. And what I am reminded of watching her is this. The timeline you fear is often not the one you end up living. Sometimes the delay becomes the very story that changes your perspective on EVERYTHING! Her onesie says it better than I ever could. “I’m proof of what God can do.” Thank you to my friend Ashlie Journet for creating something that captures this so clearly. She created this brand after she and her husband delivered identical twin boys at 28 weeks and 6 days following infertility with PCOS, spending two months in the NICU before bringing them home as living proof of what God can do. She sent this onesie to my seester (yes, I spelled it right) last month, and I am so thankful for her. Please check out her new brand and store! https://lnkd.in/gkdYE7pJ If you are in a season where things feel delayed, hold on to this. “What is impossible with man is possible with God.” Luke 18:27

I once worked with someone who wanted to be Director of Talent Acquisition so badly she'd practically step on your face to get there. Her method: Quiet Hellraising. Also known as GOSSIPING. She didn’t manipulate data. She was good at her job on PAPER. But she failed as a site lead. The team felt it. I FELT IT. When there’s only one open role or what people perceive to be [insert only one thing here], it’s easy to believe someone else’s success threatens your own. It's isolating and it's damaging. Right now, someone reading this is chasing a dream: a promotion, a role, a life [insert here] that feels just out of reach. And you’ve convinced yourself there can only be one. But that’s not true. You don’t need to tear others down to move forward. You don’t need to trade being a DECENT human being for power. Remember: You may not be caught for everything you do. But you will pay for everything you’ve done. You can ACHIEVE whatever you want, but I encourage you to do it with integrity. That's the only GOAL worth striving for. ✨✨Please do not share my posts in any groups without asking for permission first via DM. Taking and tagging me doesn’t count. Thx! ✨✨

I changed my major 5x and barely graduated. Last week, I SPOKE AT HARVARD 🎉 Brianna Doe and I hosted a fireside chat at the WECode Conference where we spoke about the power of coaching and relationship building in your career. While I typically support senior leaders and executives, it was a gift to spend time with college women building their first chapters in tech. We spoke about building a career or business with intention. Brianna shared how she mapped her business before launch and how she strategically made each decision. We also spoke about mentorship from both sides and how coaching impacts your confidence early. The room was filled with future engineers, founders, and operators asking thoughtful, direct questions. Several stayed after for chats to talk through internships, first roles, and long term vision. Thank you to Thalia and Kristy for the opportunity and for leading such an important space. “Start building the room you want to lead, long before you enter it.” Thank you! #wecode #harvard

In this conversation, I sit down with Catherine Fisher, Career Expert & VP of Communications at LinkedIn to discuss the 2026 Skills on the Rise report and what it reveals about the future of work. The report shows that 38 percent of skills have already changed, and that shift will continue accelerating through the end of the decade. As companies integrate AI and rethink how work gets done, leadership and communication skills are rising in value across every level of the organization. In this clip we discuss how professionals can make leadership skills visible on their profiles and in interviews. The full conversation covers (YouTube: iamaprillittle): • Why leadership and people management skills are accelerating as technology evolves • Why executive and stakeholder communication separates high performers from the rest • Why cross functional leadership is becoming essential as organizations restructure work • How to intentionally build leadership skills even if you are not in a leadership title • How mentorship and time bounded guidance relationships strengthen career growth • Why documenting your impact through a “brag book” helps you communicate your value Watch the full conversation on YouTube to hear the insights behind the report and how to apply them to your career.

Growth and grief can exist in the same month. Layoffs are still happening across industries and that reality is heavy. I still can’t get over why companies aren’t sanctioned for layoffs as they benefit from Paying less taxes. 🤷🏽‍♀️ At the same time, I have watched clients accept Director roles at Fortune 500 companies. Another client stepped into a Sr. Director offer after months of prep. People who were out of work for months secured roles they did not have to settle for. Last year around this time, I turned off the news to protect my mental health. I made the same decision again this year and committed to a full month without it. The quiet has returned to my leadership, my business, and my home. I stepped back from LinkedIn and grew 20,000 people across TikTok and Instagram. Speaking engagements expanded me and has changed my business model. Sharing more about the latest one tomorrow. 🎉 I’m also reading new fiction books this month. Faith without discipline is noise. Discipline without faith feels hollow. March will hold both. I hope you secure the promotion you prepared for. I hope you land the role that reflects your real value. Happy New Month and Happy New Moon. “The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.” Exodus 14:1 —- Drop a 🙌🏾 and share what you are building this month.

Last year, my client left her SVP role after 5 years to build a function from the ground up at a new company. She was promised hypergrowth, but after failed fundraising, she was laid off 8 months later. She spent 3 months applying to 50 roles and was repeatedly ghosted. Ghosting happens at every level, including executive roles, especially when searches rely on headhunters and hidden markets. As a busy mom of 2 juggling sporting events, school schedules, and travel, she was exhausted from spending her most non-renewable resource, her time, on a search that demanded more and more every week. When we began working together, I learned she was spending 45 minutes per application, rewriting the same bullets and guessing which keywords mattered. I have spent 15 years in recruitment reviewing thousands of resumes, and the pattern is clear. Roles now expect close to a 100% match, which means tailoring is not optional, even with an $800 resume. This is where Teal comes in.  As a longtime #tealpartner, I had her start with Matching Mode, which compares resumes to job descriptions, highlights missing keywords, and prioritizes skills recruiters screen for first. Within seconds, she could see alignment gaps, and we reduced her application time from 45 minutes to 10. You can do the same here: https://tealhq.co/4pt2iqD We used that recovered time to prepare her interview narrative and focus on a sustainable, network-driven strategy. After a total 6-month search, she landed another SVP role at a 10,000-person company. The average exec search takes between 6-12 months. You cannot control every variable in hiring, including broken processes, but you can control how you prepare and where you invest your time. Ghosting does not reflect your worth, but your approach changes your odds. Tag and share this with someone who needs this reminder today. ✨✨Please do not share my posts in any groups without asking for permission first via DM. Taking and tagging me doesn’t count. Thx! ✨✨

Earlier this month, I was invited to attend the TIME Women of the Year Leadership Forum in Los Angeles. In the room: Sheryl Lee Ralph, Mariska Hargitay, Mel Robbins, Jordan Chiles, and more. One point that stayed with me came from Dara Treseder: “Sponsors open doors. Mentors help you walk through them. It is a different role, and it is a blessing to know the difference.” And from Mel Robbins: “You can achieve anything at any age, but you still have to respect time.” I also had the opportunity to meet Lucy Feldman , Editorial Director at TIME and, Jessica Sibley, CEO at TIME. Thank you. 💗

15 years ago during the last recession, no one would hire me for entry level HR roles. I had just graduated college and could not get traction anywhere. After months of applying, I took a volunteer recruiter role to start. That role led to my first opportunity at a staffing agency. I spent my early career helping people secure roles that changed their income and stability. I watched candidates move into higher paying roles that shifted their families long term. That experience became my standard for how hiring should work across every role I held. I spent 80 percent of my corporate career in recruiting before moving into HR leadership. Even as an executive, I never forgot how difficult it was to access opportunity. That is why I pay attention to how hiring is evolving right now. Companies like Juicebox are focused on making hiring more structured and consistent. #juiceboxpartner Their AI helps teams evaluate candidates based on signal so decisions are more fair and repeatable. I was recently featured in Juicebox’s Guess Who game alongside talent leaders working toward that same goal. They also announced a $80M Series B and $850M valuation, which shows how much this space is growing. That kind of progress matters because better systems create more access for people who need it. If you are in a season where doors are not opening, keep going. The right systems and the right timing can change everything faster than you expect.

Shay Allen spent 10 years cleaning floors at Yale New Haven Hospital and is now a doctor in the same building. At 18, she took a janitorial job to support herself and kept showing up. She worked those floors for a decade while still trying to find direction. Then her mother became seriously ill and no one could explain why. Shay kept speaking up because she knew something was being missed. She pushed in rooms where she had no title and no authority. A leader finally listened and her mother received the care she needed. That moment changed how Shay saw herself and what she could become. She enrolled at Howard University for medical school and stayed committed to the path. On March 20, 2026, she matched into an anesthesiology residency back at Yale. She is now walking the same halls as a physician where she once cleaned. This is why you treat people the same whether they are the cashier or the CEO. Too many people judge based on someone’s current role and miss their real potential. There are people around you right now who have 10x the capacity you assume. Inside them are doctors, lawyers, and executives who have not stepped into it yet. The way you treat people today should not depend on what they do right now. Congratulations to Dr. Shay Taylor Allen for becoming exactly who she saw for herself. Image credit: IG:Raphousetv & Kumud Deepali Rudraraju, SHRM CP for inspiring this post 💗

Multiple six figures, speaking at Harvard, TIME100 Creator recognition, and high-level partnerships all came from posting on LinkedIn over the past 3 years. I was also recently selected to be in a pilot program for LinkedIn thought leadership ads. Every one of those opportunities started because I shared my perspective publicly. My brand started because my boss told me it was not “professional” for leaders to share their thoughts or experiences on LinkedIn outside of company updates. While I was "benched," I studied content, tracked performance, and built a system before showing up. I spent hundreds of dollars on courses, tools, and coaching to figure it out. It worked, but it delayed my brand by 2 years. Many of you reading this feel like you just need an opportunity when it's visibility that you truly need. You do not need to build it the hard way anymore. If I were starting today, I’d use a tool like 𝗡𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗼𝗻 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗮𝗺𝗽 to make the process easier. #Nortonpartner Your next promotion, your next client, scaling your business, and your next level of visibility—the opportunities you’re working toward become easier to pursue when you show up consistently. Start building it for free here: https://lnkd.in/eYPS2UXR Norton Revamp brings together tools that support the process I had to build manually over 2 years. → Weekly topic direction tied to your goals so you’re not guessing → Writing refinement that keeps your voice clear and recognizable → Built-in cadence tools with reminders, scheduling, and consistency tracking → Performance insights to help you understand what actually drives engagement When building your personal brand, your content should show how you think and operate. Break down decisions, explain tradeoffs, and show how you solve problems. Identify topics like how you approach decisions, what you are learning, and patterns you see. Tip: Align your topics so your visibility supports the opportunities you want to pursue next. Most people wait until they feel ready, and that delay costs opportunities. Scaling, clients, promotions, speaking, and visibility all compound once you start showing up. (Results will vary based on individual effort, content, and audience.) Start showing people how you think before someone else defines your value for you.

I am celebrating, Nikki, who secured not 1, but 2 Director-level offers in this market.🎉 (Her testimonial is in the comments) And a few months ago, she wasn’t closing. She was getting through interviews, but not converting them. Her answers were structured using the STAR method, which is not wrong, but it is a structure most people have been using since college. It is built for task execution, not leadership evaluation. At the Director level, that gap shows. Because the expectation is no longer “what did you do,” it is “how do you think, decide, and lead.” She shifted to an executive communication structure. She started leading with strategic intent, clarifying the business problem first. She walked through her approach, including the decisions she made and the tradeoffs she had to navigate. Then she anchored her answer in execution and tied it to a clear, measurable impact. Same experience. Completely different positioning. That shift is what moved her from being considered to being selected. After months of not closing, she landed two offers. I am celebrating her today, especially in a market that is asking more from candidates than it did even two years ago. If you are still searching, this is your reminder that it is possible. But you have to meet the market where it is. You cannot keep showing up the same way you did 2, 3, or even 5 years ago and expect a different outcome. Receipts in comments ✨

If I send this to you, it means 2 things: I’m EXCITED, and I’m recruiting for a Director of Strategic Partnerships ($350k OTE). This is with Bond. If you apply, you will receive an email update from me. If you advance to the hiring manager stage, you will receive a call. I do not ghost candidates, and I do not disappear after interviews. This is a first-time Director opportunity with a clear path to VP. Base salary ranges from 180K to 200K, with 350K on-target earnings and significant upside tied to deal performance and equity. You will own global enterprise partnerships across home security, fintech, travel, and other technology sectors, while building the function from the ground up. The role is onsite in the tristate area (NY, NJ, CT), requires up to 30 percent travel, and demands strong enterprise deal experience in SaaS, cybersecurity, fintech, insurtech, or enterprise software. (this is a non-negotiable.) The CEO is requiring that this person is currently working in this role. I will be screening candidates this week and next week, and this is one of the only roles I recruit for each year in my fractional VP of HR capacity. I am not recruiting for any other roles and will not review resumes sent by direct message. Apply here: https://lnkd.in/gFg3mGQY If you have been waiting for your first Director title with real upside including moving to VP in the next 12-24 months. Apply!

In my 20's, I was a human doormat, staying silent when I should have spoken. Then, I overcorrected and spoke up about everything until I learned which battles deserved my voice. Perhaps that is why LinkedIn serves two purposes for me: to generate leads and as an outlet to help others. When I did pipe up, I was told I was "piping up" too much. I think that happens to many of us. We trade one extreme for another as we seek to establish balance and boundaries. Emotional reactions are human, but so is learning discernment. I do think it's human to suffer an emotional reaction to disrespect. I also think we have a responsibility to use our discernment to know when to respond and when not to. The real skill is in finding a middle ground. Because it's not a good idea to give someone the impression they can say anything they want to you. What I've learned: Not every perceived slight needs a response Setting boundaries ≠ being a doormat Choose your moments wisely "The need to comment on everything is the definition of busy work. There is great peace in reserving your perspectives for the right time and people rather than always talking just because you have something to say." - Anonymous True power isn't in speaking up about everything - it's in knowing which battles are worth your voice. credit: herleader on IG —- Hi, I’m April Little. I help current women leaders (Sr. Mgr, Director +) prepare for executive roles in 8 weeks or less. I am accepting 2 new clients this month. https://lnkd.in/gc-hbQBd ✨ Recent Client Wins ✨ Director --> Vice President Promotion (on page)

Black women have not stopped wanting executive roles. They have stopped trusting systems that do not reliably reward their talent. 90% percent of my clients are Black women and women of color. They are ambitious, capable, and deeply invested in their careers. Even with everything happening in the world, that has not changed. What has changed is how predictable and transparent advancement feels. I speak weekly with women and men who want to build long-term impact at the executive level. They are not disengaged. They are paying attention. They are watching patterns and outcomes. They are noticing who absorbs risk and who is protected. They are tracking which behaviors are rewarded and which ones quietly raise the bar. Some of this response is fear. Much of it is information. → Advancement that remains conditional → Visibility that increases scrutiny → Performance that expands expectations without expanding authority → Investment that does not guarantee continuity In environments like this, caution becomes a rational professional response. This is also why, in moments like these, job search often begins to outweigh development. A job search offers options. It restores a sense of control. It feels responsive to uncertainty in a way development does not always promise. That does not make development irrelevant. It explains why one often emerges as the clearer immediate choice. I’ll say this directly to you. It is okay to be prudent with ambition. Many of you are not done wanting more. You are waiting for evidence that the conditions are worth reinvesting in again. And when those conditions begin to stabilize, the leaders who move forward fastest are not choosing between development and opportunity. They are prepared for both.

For 7 years my best friend tried to get promoted into HR leadership and was passed over 3 times. (screenshot of our celebration in comments) Managers told her she was too introverted for human resources and lacked executive presence. When internal promotions did not work out, she moved companies to escape toxic cultures and build broader experience. That “job hopping” gave her depth across teams and functions, yet employers still questioned her loyalty and stability. When external director of HR roles opened in our city, she nearly talked herself out of applying. She hired a local resume writer she found on Facebook, and it did not convert because your value should not be outsourced to someone who does not understand your strategy or your vision. She had already spent years trying to get promoted, and now she was spending 10+ hours a week rewriting the same damn resume. After the umpteenth rewrite, I showed her a different system: Teal. As a #TealPartner so she could rebuild her approach without wasting more time. You can too: https://tealhq.co/4aFD2Yn Here is what changed. She built 1 strong base resume and tailored it intentionally instead of starting over each time. Keyword Matching showed which Director level skills the company emphasized most. She positioned her “career moves” as strategic breadth instead of instability. The Job Tracker kept her applications organized during a focused 3 month push. Because she stopped wasting hours rewriting and tailoring her resume, she redirected her time into networking, interview preparation, and studying the organization before each conversation. It took her 7 years to move the needle in her career. It took a few disciplined months to land a director role at a manufacturing company once her system improved. People called her a job hopper. The company that hired her saw a career explorer who had done the work. ✨✨Please do not share my posts in any groups without asking for permission first via DM. Taking and tagging me doesn’t count. Thx! ✨✨

15 years ago during the last recession, no one would hire me for entry level HR roles. I had just graduated college and could not get traction anywhere. After months of applying, I took a volunteer recruiter role to start. That role led to my first opportunity at a staffing agency. I spent my early career helping people secure roles that changed their income and stability. I watched candidates move into higher paying roles that shifted their families long term. That experience became my standard for how hiring should work across every role I held. I spent 80 percent of my corporate career in recruiting before moving into HR leadership. Even as an executive, I never forgot how difficult it was to access opportunity. That is why I pay attention to how hiring is evolving right now. Companies like Juicebox are focused on making hiring more structured and consistent. #juiceboxpartner Their AI helps teams evaluate candidates based on signal so decisions are more fair and repeatable. I was recently featured in Juicebox’s Guess Who game alongside talent leaders working toward that same goal. They also announced a $80M Series B and $850M valuation, which shows how much this space is growing. That kind of progress matters because better systems create more access for people who need it. If you are in a season where doors are not opening, keep going. The right systems and the right timing can change everything faster than you expect.

I am celebrating my client who was laid off after 20 years at the same company, spent 6 months on the market …started her new senior leadership role on Monday.🎉 Her entire function was eliminated and she had to reenter the market. She stepped into a role inside an 80,000 person global company. This is what we focused on in a market like this. Her expertise was already strong and well proven over time. We refined how she communicated that expertise with structures. We looked for intersections to create connection. In this market, expertise and likability start to merge in how you are evaluated. 2 months in she closed the deal. When it is your time, absolutely nothing can stop you! Happy Weekend! — Details changed for client confidentiality, will post official testimonial next week!

I run confidential executive searches today and have a 0% ghosting rate with every candidate I touch. That standard only exists because I recruit for 2 roles at a time, this is IMPOSSIBLE for the average recruiter with 30+ requisitions.   I’ve led recruitment teams during hiring surges and layoffs, and I know exactly what that looks like.   When companies grow, the first team expected to ramp up without warning or support is recruiting.   When companies restructure, it’s the first team to be cut before the last job is even filled.   That pressure doesn’t just create burnout. It creates breakdowns in communication that candidates feel directly.   As a #nootapartner, this is exactly why I partnered with Noota, because this is a systems problem, not a people problem. If you're tired of being ghosted or dropping the ball, try here: https://lnkd.in/eqX6E935 🎉Comment 'NOOTA' to recieve a 14 day trial for Noota talent. 🎉   Noota uses AI agents to automate sourcing, screening, and candidate matching from intake to shortlist so recruiters are not carrying the entire process alone.   It continuously searches across channels and builds a pipeline without manual effort so teams can handle 3 to 5x more roles without adding headcount or extending timelines.   It runs structured, asynchronous screening interviews so recruiters stop spending their calendars on calls that delay decisions and slow down hiring teams.   It scores and prioritizes candidates so hiring managers see stronger shortlists faster with clearer tradeoffs and better decision-making upfront.   And it integrates directly into your systems so work stays in one place and recruiters are not duplicating effort across disconnected tools.   Recruiting is not just posting a job and hoping people apply.   Recruiting means building a sourcing strategy from scratch mostly for roles that are not open yet.   It means spending hours researching passive candidates who are already happy where they are.   It means crafting outreach that earns attention from people who never planned to leave.   And it means doing all of that while managing competing requests, outdated tools, and hiring managers who want results overnight.   This is why tools that truly understand the weight of recruiting matter.   (I know what it’s like to work inside outdated ones.)   Because recruiters need support that understands the real weight of this job and reduces the pressure that creates these breakdowns.   Recruiters are not always the problem.   The system they are operating inside is what creates the behavior people end up blaming them for.   Restoring trust in 2026 starts with giving recruiters the time, tools, processes, and insight they deserve.   Not blaming them for the gaps they were never set up to close.

“The hard truth is that the careers that we knew no longer exist.” On the mic this week: April Little is a former HR executive turned executive career coach who helps mid-level professional women move into senior leadership. She and Hebba talk feedback, doing great work, and the TRUTH about career growth: https://lnkd.in/eKDqhsTN