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The purpose of this paper is to present research findings on the experience of career barriers by women who have changed career, and to suggest the practical implications of these findings for career management.

An established, qualitative methodology, interpretative phenomenological analysis, was used to explore participants' experiences. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with eight women who had changed careers and were analysed to identify the salient themes.

Participants experienced career barriers, but their subjective experience did not necessarily match objectively defined barriers. One participant, for example, experienced redundancy not as a barrier to her career path but as an opportunity. It was only when situations or events threatened the self‐concept that problems were experienced as barriers. These barriers were not insurmountable and participants used a number of strategies to overcome potential barriers.

The findings suggest that career management or counselling should acknowledge and explore the client's subjective experience of career barriers. Strategies such as challenging or reframing potential barriers can be effective methods for helping clients to dismantle them.

This research points to the gap in career theory and research on the experience of barriers in adult careers. It presents evidence on the subjective nature of barriers and on strategies used to overcome them.

The European Business Excellence Model (EBEM) is nowadays a familiar framework, used for a spectrum of purposes, with the most frequent aim from its full deployment being the attainment of organizational success. The EBEM's requirements, however, involve abstruse management concepts and thus, there is, frequently, a significant variety within the suggested approaches to face the criteria requirements. Although, such integrated business excellence models should not necessarily be of a very prescriptive nature, allowing for deployment latitude among sectors and types of businesses, a more homogeneous understanding of the suggested approaches to the requirements might be a welcome basis by both academics and business professionals. This paper aims to resolve some of the questionable concepts associated with the practical deployment of EBEM.

Integration of the known literature, stemming from both published articles and best practices already made available, to form a well defined framework of suggested approaches to the EBEM's requirements is the approach taken.

The findings associated with the first requirement of Sub‐Criterion 1a of the EBEM (“leaders developing the Mission, Vision and Culture”) are reported here.

Most of the relevant information describing current, applicable business practices is not yet publicly available, and has to be deduced mainly from responses to questionnaires/interviews.

Specific frameworks of suggested approaches for the well known EBEM's requirements have not, as yet, been made available in the literature.