Get CLEAR on Life or Career Changes

Posted on November 27, 2012 by Rob Pineau, One of Thousands of Executive Coaches on Noomii.

Part of leadership is managing change. Sometimes that change relates to your own career of life situation. Life and career transitions are not always easy. Sometimes you choose to make the changes yourself and other times the choice is made for you. In either scenario the change takes effort and there is usually a level of discomfort.

I’ve gone through a lot of changes myself in the past few years and have worked with many individuals in life and career transition. I’ve noticed some common themes and thought I’d share a model I developed that helped me better understand my own change journeys. I call this model the CLEAR change framework.

As with any model there are risks to putting it out there. It makes sense to me since I developed it and I hope that at least some of it resonates with you. Not everyone experiencing change would necessarily go through every step of this model and the stages are not linear. I know I jumped around between stages and sometimes got stuck in some stages for awhile. While everyone experiences change differently I find the model is simple framework to help organize experiences and emotions relative to significant change events.

C – Completion

L – Loss/Longing

E – Exploration

A – Acceptance/Action

R – Rebuild/Restart

COMPLETION – by it’s very definition change is about becoming something different. It’s often about moving, shifting, letting go, and finding the ‘new normal’. Part of any significant change involves recognizing and acknowledging where you were, where you are now, and looking to where you are going. Whatever the change you are experiencing it’s important to acknowledge what you are moving away from, to recognize it is, or soon will be “complete”. Sometimes it’s important to articulate, celebrate, or even mourn the ‘completion’ with some way that has meaning for you. Where you have no choice in the change you may feel a wide range of emotions including shock, numbness, anger, and disbelief.

If you take the example of a job loss, a forced job or career transition, then that final day of work when you walk out the door your employment is complete with that company. And while your employment may be complete, the connection you had with the people and other aspects of your role may not yet be complete. These may take some time to process and let go of. Stay aware and notice and declare when it’s time for you to say something is complete.

LOSS/LONGING – Significant changes may challenge your sense of identity and give you pause to reflect on the meaning of your life. You may feel a profound and deep sense of loss and long for things to be the way they were before the change. Alternatively you may feel stuck and be longing for something different, even though you may not sometimes be clear on what that is.

Again using the forced job/career transition this might involve grieving the loss of your sense of purpose, your dream, and your social network.

EXPLORATION – Who am I now? What’s next? Where do I go from here? Who do I know that can help me? Looking forward at what’s possible from here and starting to reach out, to talk about what’s going on, and to begin to explore the meaning for you. As with the other stages of this model there may continue to be an undercurrent of uncertainty and a tendency to look at things from a scarcity perspective versus that of abundance.

Continuing with a job or career transition, this would be where you revisit what’s important to you, your values, relationships, financial requirements, lifestyle, strengths, and passions.

ACCEPTANCE/ACTION – This is not acceptance of your loss – this is about acceptance of your situation and beginning to make plans for what’s next. It’s also about accepting some of the uncertainty the change may have created, integrating some of your learning and expanding your view of what’s possible from here.

With a the career transition this may be where you do market research or start networking and become more intentional about what jobs you are seeking.

REBUILD/RESTART – The action and the shifts in perspective begin to create results. You have committed yourself to your direction. You are focused, intentional and leveraging all of your learning to move yourself forward. This is the ‘new beginnings’ and refining your ‘new normal’. From here you are looking ahead much more than you are looking back.

Perhaps by now you’ve made the shift to a new career or new employer, or perhaps decided to become self-employed. The key is you that you have decided on a direction and are taking daily committed action to move yourself forward consistent with that choice. It is critical that the choice and direction are aligned with your values, strengths and passions so that you have the greatest chance of success and happiness going forward.

So as you go through your own changes in life and at work, get CLEAR and be intentional about acknowledging completions and in choosing new beginnings. And remember, you don’t need to do it alone. Seek out support from family, friends or professionals such as coaches or counselors.

Feel free to call or email me if you’d like to learn more about the CLEAR change model or inquire about career transition coaching.