6 Reasons You Need a Career Coach and Didn’t Know It
Posted on January 21, 2019 by Emily Golden , One of Thousands of Career Coaches on Noomii.
Here are the 6 Reasons You Need a Career Coach and Didn’t Know It!
Recently I ran into an old friend and she asked me what I was up to. I told her the exciting news about having officially launched my Career & Leadership Coaching business. She looked at me knowingly and said “Oh! You are the person people call when they need to rewrite their resume, get interviewing tips and negotiate a higher salary, right?”
My response went something like, “Yes, as a consultant I offer these services AND advice giving is not coaching. Coaching is a higher level conversation intended to look at the bigger picture, the clients greater professional “what for”. As coach, I ask thought provoking questions intended to get my client out of his/her own way. I am trained to see and hear what’s in my client’s blind spot and reflect it back. From new awareness, my client and I co-create actions intended to create lasting shifts.”
Sound pretty cool but maybe a bit out there to you? Here are the 6 reasons you need to hire a career coach and didn’t know it:
1. Gain clarity around what YOU want
Sometimes the hardest step is the first step. What do you want from your career? Where do you want to be in 5, 10, 15 years? What will become available for you when you hit those milestones? A skilled career coach draws the conversation to a higher elevation to provide you with clarity around what YOU really want, distinguishing your true desires from what your family, company, friends, your community wants for you. All too often people jump straight into action when at a fork in the road in their career. Sadly, this typically results in meeting the same frustration down the road in your next job.
2. Keeping it really real
Everyone goes through periods when they ask themself if they are in the right job or profession. It’s normal to have questions. After all, most of us spend more of our lives working than doing anything else. Working with a career coach supports you in determining whether a career pivot is really what you you’re after. There are times a client will come to me for a career change only to learn that what they really need is a change in another area of their life.
3. Support and accountability
A career coach wants you to succeed; your coach got into this line of work to be of service to others. Support and accountability is a big part of what makes coaching so successful. Just like your personal trainer at the gym holding you to your commitment to build muscle and trim fat because you said that’s what you want, your career coach will hold you to the plans, milestones and actions you have created together. This will often reinventing your relationship to support structures. Leaning on people in your life and resources you typically do not rely on.
4. Holding up the mirror
Have you ever practiced a speech in front of a mirror or tried on an outfit before a big event and noticed something you didn’t realize was there? A nervous laugh, static cling on your skirt? Consider a coach to be a mirror reflecting back to you what’s in your blind spot, limiting beliefs you can’t see or hold as truths, mindset traps that have you engaging in self-sabotaging behaviors.
5. Own your career
Your career is yours to own. Too often we find ourselves at the effect of a difficult boss, challenging culture, endless piles of work, long hours. Settling into the position of victim is all too easy. A career coach will continue to stand for you by reminding you to be responsible for all of it and to be the cause of creating what you truly desire.
6. Living into possibility
As my daughter says, anything is possible. Even the word impossible agrees….Im Possible! A well trained coach will not buy into the limiting stories you’ve created about your career and capabilities. Look for a coach who has created breakthroughs in what’s possible for him/herself. A courageous coach will best support you through your inevitable breakthroughs.
Now that you know why you need a career coach it is up to you to make the first move. If you or someone you know is curious about career coaching, contact me to schedule a free 30 minute discovery session. New beginnings begin with YOU!
