You may be wondering what career coaching is and what it can be used for. It isn’t just for those who have been made redundant to plan their next steps. Whilst this is a common use of Career Coaching there is so much more it can help with. In this blog we give you 7 great examples of how and when career coaching could help.
1. You’re Not Sure What Next
You may have just left education or you may have been in a job a while and are really not sure what you want to do next. You may be feeling stuck in a job that you hate, but don’t know what else you could do or want to do. Career Coaching can help you explore:
What you are good at.
What you enjoy (this isn’t necessarily the same as what you are good at).
What other people think you’re good at.
What is important to you in your job.
Once you understand these in more detail, you can then start to look at what jobs or organisations match your answers and take action to find a job you love.
2. You Know What Next But Not How to Get There
If you know what you want your dream job to be, but you’re not sure how to get there. Or maybe you’ve been applying for your dream job and are being knocked back with the excuse of not enough experience or too much experience. Then career coaching can help you review why you're getting that feedback and what you can do to tackle it.
62% of employees don't like leaving their comfort zone according to Forbes.
If you experience these knock backs it’s all too easy to fall back to what is comfortable and safe. A coach will challenge you not to settle and to stretch yourself even if it feels a little uncomfortable and they will be there cheering you on.
Career coaching will give you the time to reflect on what you’ve tried, why you think it’s not working and come up with other ideas to try. It will help you identify the steps to getting your dream job.
If you’ve got too little experience, you can explore different ways to get that experience, if it’s too much we can take a look at how to tailor your CV to the role you want next.
3. You’ve Been Promoted Into Your First Managerial Job
Yesterday you were their colleague and today you’re their Manager. The transition into Management isn’t easy, you’re outside your comfort zone.
Coaching can help you navigate some of the problems you might encounter as you move into your new role. It’s a safe place to discuss problems, without fear of judgement and come up with ways to solve them. The common types of problems that coaching could help with are:
Communication with your team and other key stakeholders
Dealing with conflict
Maybe you’re managing someone else who applied for the job and wasn’t successful
Managing your time effectively
How to deliver a project successfully
4. Dealing With The Challenges of a New Job
When you start a new job it can be daunting, you might find that you’re doubting yourself and your ability. You might feel out of your comfort zone and not sure what to do about it. You might be struggling to understand your new Manager or your team might be causing you issues.
Career Coaching can help you:
Plan your first 90 days
Build your confidence
Create a great relationship with your Manager and team
Work through any challenging relationships within your team
5. Building Confidence at Work
Maybe you hate giving presentations, perhaps you see other people getting promoted and you know you could do the job, but because you lack confidence you get overlooked. There could be certain work situations that give you anxiety and you want to learn how to deal with them more effectively.
Coaching can help you build confidence in a range of situations, it can help you define what confidence means to you and create your own version of confidence.
6. Creating More Joy in Your Current Job
Maybe you like your job, but you don’t love it. Career coaching isn’t all about moving onwards and upwards. You are in control of your happiness or at least up to 40% of it if you have to be scientific. Coaching can help you design and influence the 40%.
If you like your job, but maybe it’s taking over and you want to get more work life balance then career coaching can help. It can be used to support you by prioritising what is important and working out how to create time for yourself, those around you and the hobbies you feel you’re neglecting.
Studies have found that changes in attitude and actions are more impactful on one’s happiness than changes in one’s circumstances (Sheldon & Lyubomirsky, 2006). This means that just by changing how you think and act in your job can have more impact than changing your job itself.
If you work out where you currently spend your time and energy and what you want to be different you can then plan some changes. You can try out different ways of time management, you could look at a situation differently to work out ways to make your job more enjoyable.
It may also identify issues to raise with your Manager that will make your job easier and more enjoyable. You can plan and practice the conversation in the safety of the session, which can help reduce the nerves when you speak to your manager for real.
7. Planning Retirement or a Career Transition
When you retire you can feel like your purpose has gone, yesterday you were a Managing Director and today you’re just you. You might be worrying about how you’re going to fill your time or you may have lots of grand plans but don’t know where to start.
Your career transition may be into the world of consultancy or self employment and you’ve never done it before. It’s a different way of working, that needs different skills and you’re not sure what to do next.
Planning these big life changes is easier with a coach to support you. They can help you identify next steps, prioritise and work out who else you can ask for support.
This list is just the starting point, there are lots of areas career coaching can help you with. If you have a problem with your career and you want to make positive changes and move forward rather than staying stuck it’s likely coaching can help.
If you want to find out more about the process of career coaching check out our blog that explains what it is and how it works.
If you’re still not sure if it’s the right thing for you why not get in touch for a free no obligation conversation. Just fill out our contact us form. You’ve got nothing to lose other than 20 minutes and everything to gain by taking the first step to solving your issue.
References:
https://compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1751-9004.2007.00002.x (summary of Sheldon & Lyubomirsky, 2006)
**The information contained above is provided for information purposes only. The contents of this blog are not intended to amount to advice and you should not rely on any of the contents of this blog. Professional advice should be obtained before taking or refraining from taking any action as a result of the contents of this blog. Snow Limits Coaching disclaims all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on any of the contents of this blog.