Career Coaching
Posted on October 22, 2022 by Danielle Noble, One of Thousands of Career Coaches on Noomii.
Career coaching helps you tap into your values, strengths, and inner wisdom to thrive at work.
People want meaningful work and meaningful work can guard against burnout. One aspect of what makes daily work meaningful is the opportunity to learn, grow, and flourish.
Career coaching helps you tap into your values, strengths, and inner wisdom to thrive at work. It’s for people who want a fulfilling career that utilizes their strengths and aligns with their values and interests. Whether you’re looking to switch jobs, change fields, step up, or transform your outlook, a coach can help establish professional goals, create a plan, and overcome obstacles that may be in the way.
If you’re thinking about career coaching, chances are you want to grow. You want to develop both personally and professionally. You want to get outside of your comfort zone and take your career to the next level. Part of this growth journey means that you need to put yourself in a growth mindset.
People who believe their talents can be developed (through hard work, good strategies, and input from others) have a growth mindset. They tend to achieve more than those with a more fixed mindset (those who believe their talents are innate gifts). This is because they worry less about looking smart and put more energy into learning.
Dr. Carol Dweck of Stanford University first talked about the power of mindset nearly 30 years ago. Dweck says, “This growth mindset is based on the belief that your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts. Although people may differ in every which way in their initial talents and aptitudes, interests, or temperaments, everyone can change and grow through application and experience.”
Here are eight simple steps that can help you develop a growth mindset.
1. Listen to the mindset voice inside of you.
Internal dialogue like “What if you fail?” or “If you don’t try, nobody will see you fail,” means you have a fixed mindset voice. It’s important to listen to your internal voice so you can truly discover what type of mindset you have. This is the first step to successfully changing your mindset.
2. Recognize that you have a choice.
You understand the mindset voice inside of you is telling you not to try, to protect yourself from failure. Now, the choice is up to you. Will you listen to the voice?
3. Talk back with a growth mindset voice.
Instead of falling for the fixed mindset voice, talk back to your internal dialogue with a new mindset. Say things like, “I’m not sure I can do it, but it will be worth it to try.” or “If I don’t try at all, it is a failure. There’s no dignity in that.” This new voice will help you drown out the fixed mindset voice that is crowding your thoughts and ambition.
4. Practice.
Put yourself in situations that are challenging to help you practice your new voice. Work Is a great place for you to start to practice a mindset of growth. With new challenges around every corner, there’s many opportunities to thrive from setbacks and trials.
5. Find outside help.
Cultivating a growth mindset isn’t something that can be done alone. Consider hiring a career coach who will create a safe environment where you are comfortable and can talk without judgment.
6. Stop seeking approval of others.
While you need outside help, you also need to stop worrying about the approval of others. Comparing yourself to others, focusing on how you look to others, and hiding failures are all hindering you from developing a growth mindset, and finding success. Keep focusing on yourself and how you can grow, and stop worrying if others are looking at your progress. Chances are, nobody is.
7. Replace the word “failing” with “learning.”
As you come to recognize that failing is just a new way of learning, you’ll stop being so afraid of it. By embracing failure as an opportunity to continue learning and growing, you’ll be on your way to understanding what a growth mindset is really all about.
8. Take growth mindset action.
You need to follow through on the actions your new mindset voice tells you to take on. A coach will offer the necessary accountability for you to set growth mindset goals, shift your perspective, and take small actions that build a growth mindset. Sometimes, you may not succeed. But that’s ok. As you practice talking to yourself with a growth mindset, and follow through on the actions, you’ll cultivate the mindset of growth that you desire over time.
While it’s true that everyone has certain talents or areas where they really excel, no matter what your natural talents are, having a growth mindset will help you succeed in your career. The people who accomplish the most display determination and discipline, not just natural talent.
