Category: Career Advice Blog

Bill is 39. He worked for the same company for the past 8 years, as a Management Accountant. He did his work ok, but his real passion was restoring old cars. When he was told that his department was being restructured, and that he would have to compete with his colleagues for fewer positions with talk of redundancy in the air, he felt a mix of anger, guilt and anxiety.

Redundancy Notice

How would you react if you were told your job was redundant? Would you panic or feel relieved? Would you take out that dormant self employment plan? Or maybe escape for a two week holiday? Or just take time to work out your future?

In my experience as a career counsellor, many people have a knee-jerk reaction to redundancy. They either rush headlong into frantic job search activities or too quickly into trying to embrace a long-held dream of running a small business.

It takes time to transition.

Redundancy = Transition

William Bridges, in his excellent book ‘Transitions: Making Sense of Life’s Changes’ (2004), distinguished ‘change’ from ‘transition’. Change is the concrete event – you lose your job, you get married, you change country. Transition is the psychological process needed to adjust from one status quo to a new one.

Bridges described three stages we go through:

• ‘letting go’
• the ‘neutral zone’ and
• ‘new beginnings’.

At the letting go stage, we may feel a combination of shock, sadness and relief. The neutral zone is a mixed bag of anxiety, anger, guilt but can also yield creativity during this fertile arena of uncertainty. It helps to acknowledge, and not deny, the stage you are at.

To do that, try writing down those things you will and will not lose from the change you are going through. Perhaps you will lose a bunch of colleagues you liked, but you won’t lose your skills or experience. Maybe the new status quo will enable you to reap some gains? Try writing down these gains as well: for example, new contacts, learning, skills, a lifestyle aligned more with your values and needs, and so on.

At CCS, we help many people to get through this neutral zone, by taking time to clarify who they are and what they want.

Do book one of our free Introductory consultations to find out more about career coaching and how it can help you cope with redundancy.

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Can you earn a living as a career coach? This is a question we are constantly asked. You may be working within an organisation right now, and considering your options for the future. You have done some career coaching and enjoyed it. You may know one or two people who have set up as coaches – perhaps calling themselves executive coaches, performance coaches or even career coaches. It seems an attractive option: work for yourself in something you enjoy…

….But you are scared. What about the financial security you are used to? Could you make it work? What is the demand? What would it be like working on your own? How do you start to make the transition?

Top Tip No 1: develop your vision

Think medium or even longer term about what your coaching practice could look like. And I mean ‘look like’. When I first started CCS, I had a very clear vision of what I wanted to do, what gap in the market needed filling, and the values underpinning what I wanted to achieve.

Try this exercise we use with our clients: using a large sheet of paper (A1 preferably) and some felt tips or marker pens, put down images or pictures of what you would ideally be doing in your future business. Don’t think about practicalities at this stage.

Cover the kind of clients (eg individuals or corporate), the business or client needs you will be meeting, where you will be working, what will be positive outcomes, and the nature of what you will be offering. If you hate drawing, either just draw anyway, but do it quickly! Or, cut out photos and make a collage. Now ,sit down and talk your vision through with a trusted friend or colleague. Or, if you have one, your career coach. Talking it through is key: it can make some far fetched ideas seem more reachable and enable you to get some clarity on your ideas.

The next step is what we call ‘scaling’. Giving your future ideal vision a scale score of 10, ask yourself ‘where am I now on that scale?’ A 3 means that you are 30% of the way there.

Whatever score you give yourself, just ask yourself this question: ‘what is already happening that tells me I am at ‘x’ on the scale?’ For example, it may be that you are already doing some career coaching.

The next question is: “what do I need to do to move just 1 point up the scale?” Give yourself a timeline, and make sure you talk through your plans and how you intend to make them work.

Top Tip No 2: find the bits of career coaching you love most

If you are to work for yourself, you will want to enjoy what you do. Remember the saying: ‘if you find a job you love, you will never work another day in your life’. What I love is the insight that clients get through the use of my career coaching skills, and the collaborative effort to move forward positively. What would you love about running your own career coaching business?

It is definitely worthwhile spending time identifying what you really enjoy doing. Make a list of those times in the last five years or so when you have really enjoyed yourself. Take a piece of paper and divide it into two columns. On the left side write down up to six ‘enjoyable moments’, in or out of work. In the right column, write down what you enjoyed about each one, and what you gained or learned from the experience. Or just make a list of everything you have ever enjoyed doing. Do this quickly, maybe take ten minutes.

Now, with either or both exercises, go through them with a highlighter pen, picking out any themes you notice. Better still, get someone else to look at it with you.

Then, ask yourself these questions:

• which parts of career coaching do I enjoy the most?
• does my current work-life (yes, both) meet my enjoyment needs?
• if not, how could I fill the missing gaps?
• would working as a self-employed coach/career coach provide the missing enjoyment?

Top Tip No 3: identify your value proposition

What are your USPs – your unique selling points? When you work for yourself as a career coach, trust is crucial. You will get most of your work through your contacts, and so you will want to expand your contacts via satisfied clients, and others who know about you and your value proposition. How will your clients experience a service of value?

This starts with identifying your beliefs and values that could underpin your career coaching work. For example, at CCS I believe our role is to empower clients, trainees and organisations to be more self managing in their working lives. I also believe in the importance of establishing mutually beneficial and trusting relationships with our clients, over the long term. One way I do this is by sharing CCS materials with trainees – I am more concerned that CCS trainees used the materials to aid their coaching, not the other way round. I also run an Alumni group for graduates of our training courses, which acts as a forum for shared learning.

What are your core beliefs that will inform your value proposition? Remember, there will be lots of times when you need to communicate this crisply, perhaps in a networking situation, so it is worth spending time to get it right.

Top Tip No 4: take your time to transition

Be clear in your mind about the difference between ‘change’ and ‘transition’. Change is the event – for example, one day you are employed, the next, self-employed. Transition is the emotional process you go through to adjust to that change.

It’s takes time to adjust to change. So, give yourself that time. One way is to allow your ideas to evolve through gaining some further experience of the field. This could help to build your confidence. Could you consider reducing your working hours, and developing your business idea and experience during that freed up time? This minimises the risk, and allows you to steer a gradual process of separation.

There are a number of ways of using this time: make sure you get properly trained as a career coach to plug any skills or knowledge gaps you have identified. You could write a draft business plan, and get critical feedback (ie not just from your friends and family). If you feel ready, you could begin to see some clients on a pro bono basis.

Top Tip No 5: find role models

Spend time with people who could be role models for you. Learn from others who have made the shift. When I first started CCS, I made sure I got to know all the key people in the field. I joined our professional association. I began to see from the inside what was happening in the marketplace. I could not have made the move successfully otherwise. People were encouraging by their example. I learned so much from them, and then adapted what I learned into my own style, vision and preference. This also stops you from feeling isolated at the beginning of a new career path.

What to do next

You are welcome to call or email me to discuss your current thoughts. I would be happy to explore your ideas with you.

Click here if you would like to know more about our Accredited Career Coach Training.

More: Accredited Career Coach Training

At this time of year, I take out my grubby notebook that sits by my bed, and write down my ‘positives’ from the last twelve months. It stretches my memory, but it’s worth it because:

• it forces me to focus on the positive at a time when we are blasted with negativity from the media
• it reminds me what I have achieved, learned, been proud of and struggled through
• and it points to what has been important for me this year – what I have valued.

Then I start writing what I’d like to focus on doing in the coming year…

2017 – The Year of Your Career Change?

…If you are thinking of a career change, and the Christmas break is a time when many of us reflect on what we are doing with our working lives, try our Values exercise below, to work out what really matters to you in your working life. I believe that our values can change as we gain experiences; negative events as well as positive ones can sharpen what really matters to us.

Career Change: Case Study

Take Jamie: he spent ten years establishing himself in his chosen career – Accountancy. He did quite well, but felt battle weary by the time he reached his early thirties. He started questioning why he was working late most weekdays and taking work home as well. He had started to sleep badly, was getting irritable at home, and his social life began to suffer. It had been tolerable in the first few years, or rather he had gone along with what was asked of him.

When he sat down and did the Values Exercise, he discovered that he placed low importance on ‘power and authority’ and much higher on ‘autonomy’, ‘learning’ and ‘variety’. We discussed whether he needed to change the way he worked or change the organisation he worked for. He decided initially to talk with his manager about new projects he could get involved with.

Contact CCS Today

Making the decision to change your career should never be done rashly. It is wise to sit down with someone who can help you to review and reflect dispassionately.

Do contact CCS today to book your FREE initial consultation. Here’s the Values Exercise to get you started on your career review:

Click here to try our Values Exercise »

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Happy New Year!

Strength spotting is not as hard as you might think.

People who use their strengths at work:

• have more energy
• have higher levels of self efficacy (the belief that we are able to achieve the things we want
• experience less stress
• are more likely to achieve their goals
• are more engaged at work.

But because we seem hard wired to notice our weaknesses, we need to work harder to notice our strengths – or get better at strength spotting – and so use them more often. It is said that we need to balance each negative comment with five positive ones to have a healthy marriage, and six positives to have a smooth functioning business team!

There is ample research to back up this assertion: Gallup (2010) showed that we are six times more engaged at work when we use our strengths. Linley et al (2010) showed that people who use their strengths in striving to achieve goals were far more likely to achieve those goals and be more fulfilled .

A strength is a quality in your DNA ( like the fish in the Einstein quote!). Think of a leopard and its spots. In order to spot a strength in yourself , look for:

– the activities which attract you (even when tired)
– the topics and skills you learn quickly
– the areas you perform well at
– moments when you feel ‘authentic’ – i.e. really you
– those activities you prioritise
– times when you are ‘at your best’ or ‘in the zone’
– positive energy in your voice tone and body language.

Strength spotting tool

Below is CCS’s strength spotting tool:

1) Make a note of 1-2 times in the past when you have been ‘at your best’ or ‘in the zone’. Try to talk these through with someone you feel comfortable with, for example, a friend, partner, colleague or coach. (This is particularly important if you are currently feeling a bit down or disillusioned). Identify what it was that enabled you do be ‘at your best’ and also list the strengths you used.

2) Over the next week or so, make a conscious effort to notice the things you do where you believe you are using your strengths.  Note down the activity and the strengths you used in the Table below.

For example:

• Cycling. Strengths: physical stamina, fitness, determination, goal focused
• Learned a software package quickly. Strengths: IT skills, openness to the application of new ideas
• Prepared a presentation. Strengths: creative use of graphics package, visual acuity
• Working on keeping good relationships at work. Strengths: listening, connecting with others

My strengths spotting record

3) Now you have your list of strengths, you can think about how you will deploy them to improve your career development. Use the following questions to prompt your ideas:

In which projects at work could you use your strengths more?

• In what ways could you more frequently demonstrate your strengths (if you feel they are currently underutilised)?
• Could you develop your strengths outside of work?
• How could your strengths help to develop your career over the next year or two?
• Do your main strengths point to a new role or career direction?

How can CCS Help You and Your Career?

At Career Counselling Services, our career coaching programmes enable people to identify their strengths and think about ways to better use them now, and whether an alternative role or career direction might be a better outlet for them.

So why not contact CCS today for your initial FREE consultation?

Contact CCS Today

About Rob Nathan »