Why work with a career coach?
Valid question.
Perhaps a colleague or boss has recommended you work with a career coach. Perhaps you have a vague notion that a career coach could help you gain more success or clarity on what you want in career. But isn’t that something you could just do by reading a self-help book? Or just finding more motivation? Or just working harder?
Why a career coach is worth it
Since 2015, as a career coach and therapist, I’ve helped my clients achieve specific goals like:
- Gaining promotions to directorships and other leadership positions.
- Successfully transitioning from self-employment to an employed career.
- Setting up “side-hustle” projects and businesses.
- Successfully transitioning to different roles and industries.
- Setting up new businesses.
- Becoming more visible and taking up more space either online or in person.
- Creating more income or asking for pay rises.
- Getting their ‘mojo’ back to feeling more enthusiastic about what they do.
- Making changes to work/life patterns and creating more joy and ease in their work.
- Speaking with more confidence and self-assuredness when under pressure.
- Handling conflict with calm confidence.
Seeing my clients create the changes they want and have the courage to do things differently is such a delight for me. You might already be thinking “ok, you’ve convinced me there’s something to this coaching malarkey” . But let’s not stop here.
I believe there’s much more value in coaching than just the achievement of a goal.
Achieving things is great. Success is something to be celebrated. But it’s the transformation along the way that really makes the difference to my clients.
How do I really bring value to my clients?
I don’t give advice on CVs. I’m not a career advisor. I’m not here to give you information about specific industries or formulas for success.
Instead, I help you get clear on what you want. I help you cut through the noise and confusion and connect with what you want for your life and work. Once you gain that clarity on what’s most important for you, moving towards it becomes an exciting adventure that you can’t wait to embark on.
For some people that’s all they need. Once they cut through the confusion, they are free to fly.
For others, they need something deeper.
The importance of inner work
When people start creating changes in their lives it tends to bring up ‘stuff’. Our brain uses our past experiences as a tool to predict our future. If we’re moving towards a new future, we’re often going to have to change aspects of who we are to make it happen. As our unconscious mind wants to keep us within the confines of what’s familiar, it will come up with all kinds of excuses or blocks to keep us stuck.
After all, if these changes were easily done without support, wouldn’t you have done it by now?
For some it’s the inner critic that keeps sabotaging their efforts with “this doesn’t happen for people like you” or “you’re just not good enough for this”.
For others it might be patterns of panic or anxiety that send them into over-thinking overdrive. Physical sensations like a knot of tension in the stomach or a racing pulse can be enough to stop them from reaching out to a contact or raising their hand for the next opportunity.
When my clients come across blocks like this, I don’t need to refer them to a therapist. I am the therapist. Whether it’s simply a fear of the unknown or a complex pattern of childhood trauma that sabotages your progress, I’ve got you. My therapeutic training is solution focused and is tailored to you so we can deal with the emotional block in the fastest, safest way for you.
Information vs Transformation
Why do I believe you should work with a career coach?
Because you’re more likely to achieve your dreams. You’ll have someone alongside you to support you, point out your blind spots, call you out on the ways you’re holding yourself back and to guide you through a process of taking action that grows your courage and self-belief. You’ll experience the power that comes from taking radical responsibility for your life.
Furthermore, when you work with a career coach like me, who can also help you with the inner work, you experience a profound transformation. That inner transformation comes from unpicking limiting beliefs, dissolving anxiety and fear so that you have the courage to reach out to that contact you’ve always wanted to connect with. To use your voice powerfully in meetings or interviews. To stop living in the land of ‘what if’ or ‘what will they think’ to taking tangible steps with curiosity so you can find out for yourself.
Sure, I can give you all the information in the world about finding flow, how to take powerful action or create more opportunities. In fact, I do that all the time and it’s always helpful.
But it’s no replacement for the power of personal transformation. For feeling more comfortable in your own skin and living your life in a way that feels authentic and joyful.
One of my favourite e-mails came from a former client who wrote: “thank you for helping me feel more like me again”. That’s where I believe my clients gain the most value from our work together. And when they inevitably achieve their goals from a place of feeling like themselves, it’s simply the icing on the cake.
Curious to explore the value of career coaching yourself?
Feel free to book in for a free 45 minute clarity call and we can help you decide which programme will be most powerful for you to get where you want to be.