Is Executive Coaching for You?

If you have been working hard climbing the corporate ladder, but it seems that you are making little progress in your career, it may be time to consider executive coaching. Executive Coaching allows you to strengthen your leadership and interpersonal skills with real-time feedback. As you rise in the organization and take on increasing levels of management responsibility, your ability to work with and influence people becomes critical to your success. Executive Coaching is an effective way for you to sharpen your interpersonal skills, look at old problems in new ways, and re-energize your career so that you can lead your team to achieve their highest level of performance.

For more information on the benefits of executive coaching, check out the following Harvard Business School article, "What an Executive Coach Can Do for You".

Ten Years Carpooling Kids and No Skills for a Resume? Not so Fast . . .

During the summer, my friend Sheila told me, "I've been out of the
workforce for ten years so my software engineering skills are obsolete."

"I've spent 10 years carpooling kids to sports,organizing play dates, and raising money for the boosters. You do career development and coaching, "she said," What would you say to someone like me?"

Plenty.

Sheila, like many of our clients, has marketable skills she has developed over the past ten years even though she was outside the paid workforce. She just needs help identifying those skills.

When Sheila took over as fundraising chair for her school boosters club, it had a budget of $20,000.00. Over the course of three years, under Sheila's leadership, the boosters raised more than ten times that amount. Sheila, a software engineer, had never been involved in fundraising. It was during her time out of the paid workforce that she developed a very valuable and measurable skill - fundraising for a non-profit organization. And, she enjoyed it!

We suggested that Sheila add her fundraising experience to her resume in a section called "Development Work". We helped her brainstorm all the fundraising activities she has been involved in, the specific tasks she performed, and the amount of money she raised. With targeted help from us, she was able to articulate a list of development projects, her roles and responsibilities, and accomplishments.

Many people underestimate the skills they have acquired during their years outside the paid workforce. A career development professional can help them identify their marketable skills and craft an impressive resume that highlights their achievements.

En-Vision Your Way to Success!

There are many places we get blocked in our job search- not knowing where to start, needing a resume, or giving in to the belief that we don't have valuable skills to offer. These are three common "stuck points" that typically bring clients to their first career coaching meeting with us. While these challenges are real, they are not what's truly keeping people stuck. More often than not, it is the lack of a clear, focused, well-formed Vision of what job they want that is the primary reason our clients can't move forward in their search.

When you have a clear, exciting, focused Vision of the job you want, things begin to happen that you did not expect. Opportunities become apparent that were not there before, information to help you move forward seems to come out of nowhere, and people you did not realize could help you, reach out and make important connections.

One of our clients decided that he wanted to go back to school to get his Ph.D., and that afternoon, when the mail came, a brochure for a local college arrived, highlighting a Ph.D. program he was interested in.

Was this magic? Not really - just the power of our minds to discern information that is important to us.

During the course of our day we are bombarded with untold amounts of stimulus. It is the job of our brain to filter out information that is unimportant. Once we clearly define something as important, such as a Ph.D. program, our brain allows that information in.

This happens all the time. Have you ever decided that you wanted a certain kind of car? For example, you decide that you want a red jeep wrangler that you can drive onto the beach in the summer. Suddenly, or so it seems, you see red jeep wranglers everywhere - in the parking lot at the grocery store, driving down the highway, even on television. Advertisements for the jeep bombard you in the newspaper and on the internet.

So, how does this work in our job search? When we clearly focus on, define, and articulate what we truly want in our next job, our brain allows that information in, and we begin to see possibilities and opportunities everywhere, just like the red jeep. We get excited about the job search and we are able to do the hard work of writing a resume and networking. We are able to think about what we have to offer.

And, the first step in the process of creating a vision of your next job is to think about what skills, strengths and experiences you have, and what you really love to do. Then, write down a very specific, detailed description of your ideal job. Begin by asking yourself these questions:

What kinds of activities and tasks, when I am doing them, make me lose track of time?

What activities have kept me most energized?

What is the most satisfying part of any job for you?

When I imagine my ideal job, what am I doing, where am I doing it, and who am I doing it with?

A clearly defined Vision is like a magnet pulling you forward toward your goals. We help clients individually and in small groups think very specifically about what they really want in a next job. Once they can state their Vision, they can begin to move forward - and watch their possibilities expand!

Get "Unstuck" in your Job Search

We were recently asked to share our coaching expertise through a guest blog on new author, Joe Twelves' career explorations blog called Career Decisions Made Easy. Joe and his family have worked together to publish a unique resource called Conversations: Find Your Niche!


Read on to see what we had to say . . .

As career coaches who work with new college graduates, we see the same story over again.

You have been looking for a job with little success. It's incredibly frustrating, and even worse, your self-esteem has taken a hit and you begin to think, "Do I really have anything valuable to offer?"

We think you do. You have more skills and marketable experiences than you realize.

The reality is that it is very hard to maintain a high level of energy, enthusiasm and optimism during a lengthy job search. You feel stuck and don't know what to do to move forward. At this point, job seekers turn to us to help them jumpstart their motivation and learn new ways to approach the job search.

When we coach a client, the first step is to "Start With Your Strengths" - the process of identifying a list of all your strengths, experiences, and skills that you have developed over the course of your life (paid or unpaid) that can then be crafted into a compelling resume.

When individuals get "stuck" in their job search, they tend to focus on the negative - skills they don’t have, work experience they don’t possess, and even personality traits they were not born with. Their thoughts are peppered with "If only" statements. "If only I had learned a second language. . . then I would have a job." "If only I had five years experience in marketing . . . then I would have a job." "If only I was more outgoing . . . then I would have a job." Focusing on the negative keeps you stuck. Focusing on all the skills, strengths and experiences that you DO have accomplishes two things: 1) it creates forward momentum in a positive direction towards your goal; and 2) it provides a wealth of new content for your resume. When you "Start With Your Strengths", you feel re-energized AND your resume becomes stronger.

So, How do you begin to examine your strengths?

First, and this is very important, enlist the aid of an empowering partner to help you with this step. An empowering partner is someone in your corner, who will enthusiastically help you achieve your goal. It can be good friend, a trusted mentor, or a career coach like us. An empowering partner will make sure that you uncover ALL the skills, strengths and experiences that you possess. Let us illustrate the importance of working with an empowering partner with an example from one of our coaching sessions:

Karen (Career Coach) Tell me four things that you've done in the last four years that you've found really rewarding.

Lila (new grad job seeker) One thing I did that I really loved was my summer job as a camp counselor at a science camp.

Karen: Great! What skills did you learn or use as a camp counselor?

Lila: I really can't think of too many that apply to the job market - I basically organized the kids and made sure they got to their different activities.

Karen: Really? That’s all? So, when you took the kids to their activities, you didn't participate at all?

Lila: Well, actually, I designed some of the activities and helped the kids during the activities.

Karen: Can you give me a specific example?

Lila: We had a lot of thunderstorms that summer and the kids got really fascinated with weather. So, I got some money from the camp director and we built this weather station. It was so cool. We could track wind speed, wind direction, air pressure, rainfall, and temperature. I made up these weather games that compared our data with other science camps around the state and the kids really got into it. By the end of the summer, I showed all the counselors how to use it with their kids.

Karen: Ok - so not only did you get funding for an operational weather lab, you cooperatively designed and built the lab with your students, you designed science curriculum, you taught the curriculum to your students, AND you trained other educators in the curriculum you designed. All of those skills are important to put on your resume. And, as you can see, those are a lot more skills than simply making sure kids got to their different activities!

An empowering partner will challenge you to think deeper and clearer about the skills and experiences that you have. It is just the beginning to thinking about your job search is new positive way. It will jumpstart your energy and motivation and help you get “unstuck”!

Success Story: Coaching Turns Career Impasse into Fruitful Job Search

The impact comes from positive psychology, the science behind living a more fulfilling life. It’s the key ingredient in our 6-step coaching process that helped Maureen move forward in her career. Positive psychology focuses on harnessing the power of one's strengths, and challenging negative self-limiting thinking, to keep you moving forward toward a goal.

Maureen was a smart, motivated, and mature 24 year old who landed a dream job, right out of college, as an event coordinator at a well known nonprofit. Two years later, feeling stuck and needing to move on, she lacked direction and confidence. Maureen had difficulty considering her career options because of a negative belief she had developed that she wasn’t good at certain aspects of her job. We wondered if this was really true, or had something caused her to believe this. We learned that a year into her job, Maureen lost her mentor. She continued to organize and coordinate large scale volunteer events, but without supervision or real guidance. Because she did such a good job, she was given more and more responsibility. Although she was outwardly successful, she felt overwhelmed by the magnitude of the job, and lost confidence. We helped Maureen to see that she may actually be very competent at this job, but was currently in a situation where her responsibilities outweighed her training. Maureen became hopeful that she could have a successful career in nonprofit event management if she could change her situation.

Through our process, we helped Maureen shift her thinking about her abilities so she could see her strengths and the very real marketable skills she had developed. Maureen realized that she wanted to continue in the nonprofit sector because it was meaningful to her, that she had a very high skill set for someone of her age and experience level, but she clearly needed a mentor to keep learning and growing in a professional capacity. Finding a strong, supportive mentor became a top priority in Maureen’s job search, above and beyond the organization or job description. With the sharpening of her focus, she found exactly the right job in a very short period of time. And, two years later, she is still working successfully and growing in that job.

The way we think about our experience, abilities and potential matters more than most people believe. Negative thinking is the number one thing that holds us back and is often times reflected in the jobs we seek, on our resumes and even during interviews. We help individuals like Maureen shift their self-limiting thinking and identify and highlight their strongest abilities and skills so that they can begin to move forward in meaningful ways.

College Graduate Seeking Employment? Five Strategies for Uncovering New Job Opportunities that Work

A recent article in Business Week refers to them as “The Lost Generation”- unemployed or “underemployed” young adults feeling frustrated with their job search during the highest unemployment in decades. For recent college graduates, it’s especially difficult. High expectations and newly minted degrees are met with the reality that there may be few employment opportunities, let alone in their chosen field of study.

And it’s not only the recent grads who are discouraged. With each passing day, their parents also become frustrated - especially after paying a small fortune in college tuition - to realize the college degree is not a sure ticket to a good job. But all is not gloom and doom. Those young people who adapt to the realities of the changing economy will be successful in launching good careers. As career coaches, we help recent college graduates think about their job search and career goals in new ways, and we offer practical strategies to help them move forward. Here are some examples:

Start With Your Strengths: What are you really good at? Maybe you are a people person. Maybe you are a logical thinker. Or an excellent writer. Think beyond your major and last summer’s job to what skills you bring to these ventures and really enjoy using. Although the job you imagined yourself doing while you were in college may not be available, there may be other fields you haven't yet considered where your skills will be valued.

And Build From There: Make sure your skills and strengths shine through on your resume. Instead of listing your experience in chronological order, highlight your abilities and selling points, and use your experience to support them. For example, if you have terrific computer skills, say so, and then name situations in which you've used them. These can be paid or unpaid experiences. Functional resumes, as career coaches call them, help you market your real abilities to industries in which you've had little or no experience.

Adjust your Mindset To See Opportunity: Although our world economy appears to be stuck right now, it’s actually in transition. Recognize that many of the jobs lost in the economic downturn are not coming back, but new ones will arise. Learn as much as you can about what is happening in the world, so you are able to identify opportunities of the future and be in the front when hiring begins. For example, the auto industry appears to be in the decline, and this may not a good time to look for manufacturing jobs. But to make a comeback, the industry will need young designers who think about cars differently than in the past. Jobs for designers are opportunities that will arise from the crisis.

Also, what you may consider “just a job” or a “stepping stone job” until you find “a real job”, can introduce you to exciting new markets, interesting people, and opportunities that you never considered before. Try to let go of the idea that there is only one clear career path for you, and be open to new experiences that come your way.

Become A Possibility Thinker: A possibility thinker is someone who perseveres to reach his or her goal, and when obstacles arise, he or she finds a way to blast through them. Sometimes, it takes more ingenuity than others. In a challenging job market, young people need to become resourceful, proactive problem solvers and create job opportunities for themselves. One way is to create your own internship. Offer a business, hospital, school, or non-profit organization your time, energy, and skills for a limited time for free. This provides you with concrete work experience to put on a resume, and a network of new business contacts. And, often, an internship leads to a paid position.

It’s All About Relationships: Many new grads send out hundreds of resumes or job applications and get no response. This is very frustrating. While it's useful to expand your job search as much as you can, it's equally important to target specific markets, and build personal relationships through networking. Networking is a necessary skill that can be developed through coaching and practice. We teach young people how to make contacts, and effectively describe your skills, experience, and career objectives to people you meet. Think of everyone you meet as potentially moving you closer to your goal.

Note:It's important to network beyond traditional circles such as college career centers and college alumni. Get creative. One idea is to attend networking events and conferences for professionals already working in your field of interest. Focused on Green Energy? Go to a Sustainable Business Networking meeting. Thinking about starting your own business? Attend a Women-Owned Business networking breakfast. Most professional networking events are inexpensive ($25) and open to the public (if not, call the contact person and ask to attend). You will meet people who might be hiring (or know someone who is hiring), and at the very least, you will make valuable networking contacts. A little creativity and a dose of chutzpah can pay off!

Don’t Go It Alone: Career coaching involves helping new graduates face the changing economy, with the vision, skills, and positive mindset to take productive steps toward a meaningful career. You can learn the skills involved in capturing a job in a competitive field, but it often requires some help. Identifying your own skills and strengths sometimes takes an outside perspective. Practical skills - such as effective relationship building and networking, crafting your resume to showcase your talents, and interviewing with confidence - improve with coaching and practice. Learn these skills now, and they will benefit you at every stage of your career.

Re-entering the Workforce- Are You Part Of The Trend?

Are you thinking about returning to work after staying home to care for your children? You are not alone! Professional women who have taken time off are successfully re-entering the workforce in record numbers. And this trend is beginning to capture the media's attention.

Erica Noonan, staff reporter for the Boston Globe writes at length on how this trend is affecting Boston Area women. In Return Mission, Noonan writes, "Though home with children today, more college educated women are planning to re-launch careers, this time with a new perspective."

As career coaches, we work with many women who want, or need, to go back to work, but do not know where to start. Whether we work with them one-on-one or in small groups, we always begin by identifying their strengths. Women lack confidence about their skills and marketability when they have been out of the workforce for a number of years. Yet, they have more experience and skills than they think. Our process for helping women move forward with their careers is grounded in positive psychology, and one of the most important principles that we espouse is that lasting personal growth only begins when we acknowledge and embrace our strengths. Beating ourselves up by focusing on our weaknesses, simply keeps us stuck. Women need to catalogue their strengths, build on them, and most importantly, gain the confidence they need to move forward in the marketplace.

Many women find it difficult to recognize their strengths. So, we begin by asking a series of questions:

-What is the one thing about yourself you wouldn't change no matter what?
-Where and when do you see yourself doing that/expressing that part of yourself?
-How do you feel when you are doing that/expressing yourself in that way?
-Can you think of a time when you utilized this strength that made you really proud?
-Now, imagine yourself at work utilizing this strength. What are you doing?

Once you begin to identify those skills and strengths that you have been using and enjoying, you can begin to focus on how to move forward in your career.