Empowering Professionals to Take Command of Their Careers
Empowering Professionals to Take Command of Their Careers
Starting a new profession is stressful. You emerge from school with a lot of theoretical knowledge, but not much experience in applying it to accomplish results. The early years are critical for establishing your reputation, building good habits, and developing key relationships. Coaching can help accelerate your learning process, enhance your relationship-building skills, and increase your value to your company more quickly.
You've established yourself as a talented individual contributor by developing strong technical skills, acquiring substantive expertise, and providing outstanding service to internal and external clients. Now, it's time to become a leader and trusted advisor. Whatever your industry, you'll need to prepare for a new set of challenges. Coaching can help you define the outcome you want, grow the skills and knowledge you'll need, and reach the goals you've set for yourself.
As an individual contributor, you were valued for producing great work and results. As a leader, your company needs more from you - managing relationships, leading teams, developing talent, and performing administrative duties are just some of these. Coaching can help you set and reach targeted goals for contributing in your areas of greatest strength while building skills in new areas.
In today's volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world, companies must be nimble and client-focused to stay profitable. Efficiency and responsiveness are key as companies adapt to changes in their clients' industries, operations, and needs. The lifetime employment model is gone, and promotions cannot be taken for granted. To keep your career moving forward, you must continue to develop and adapt.
Constant change is the new status quo. In this environment, resilience and adaptability can bring a sense of stability to your career. Resilience can be developed through conscious effort. Maintaining a sense of optimism, finding meaning and purpose, and taking responsibility for your career can help you stay strong in the face of setbacks.
While solid internal relationships can be critical to short-term success, do not neglect to build portable, external relationships that provide a solid foundation for your entire career. While true job security is a thing of the past, you can create 'employability security' by nurturing external relationships and building portable skills.
In addition to deep subject-matter knowledge, today's professionals need portable skills that can apply in a variety of business settings. Proficiency in problem solving, persuading others, project management, and communication skills can make the difference between a 'good enough' career and a deeply satisfying journey.
Building a professional career today rarely involves climbing a well-established ladder. Newly-created positions, changing business demands, and reorganizations may be challenging, but they can also offer new opportunities to develop your career. In the absence of a clear upward path, consider 'sidestep,' 'backstep' and 'slingshot' strategies to sustain career growth.
Things will not always go the way you expected, no matter how carefully you plan. When life throws you a curve ball, let go of rigid expectations. Recognize opportunities to unlearn habitual behaviors that no longer work, experiment with saying yes more often, and take informed risks from time to time. Those can be pivotal moments in our lives, the ones that help to build our true identity.
Why do you get out of bed in the morning? What motivates you? What do you believe is your purpose in life? Take the time to understand why you do what you do. Understanding your 'why' can lead you to fulfillment in making your next career move, whether that move is up the ladder, over to another area, or out of the organization.
Investing in your career development may seem like a long and daunting process. Day after day, deadline-driven tasks take over while longer-term "important but not urgent" projects get sidelined. Do not give up control of your career by operating on autopilot. Take the first step and e-mail us today.
