In today’s whirlwind world, keeping your career on track is a job in itself; it requires constant vigilance. With the fierce shifts in the competitive landscape and instant surprises, reorganization and possible job elimination are rampant. Career setbacks are also par for the course. During the time of our parents’ careers, job or career coaches were not even on the scene. Today, they are as common professional service providers as doctors and baby sitters.
Why? Most manage their careers by trial and error. There is no clear blueprint for success when it comes to one’s career and each person has their own challenges. Although a trial-and-error approach can be done on your own, it is grievously expensive and emotionally draining. To seek advice from an expert and to surgically attack a particular career or job issue can be quite fruitful and also economically profitable. Stories abound of how using just the right approach to negotiating your salary can make a difference that, in comparison, pales the fee you pay the coach, who helped you get what you went looking for. Sometimes, you do not even know what you should be looking for (Unconscious Incompetence) and a good coach can point it out and help you get it!
Secondly, a job and how one is engaged in it are deeply personal matters. Most think that what is happening to them is unique, and, if it is not going well or is not going as they had imagined, it must be their fault. Additionally, as one climbs the organizational ladder, new responsibilities pile up and few are aware of how best to discharge them and to make a mark. As your seniority increases, responsibilities increase commensurately, too, and even more importantly, expectations increase as well!
Most deal with their career reactively or reflexively. This means that if they see a position opening up that gives them a shot at the next promotion, they will figure out some ways to position themselves to attain that promotion. In almost all cases this is too late. The manager has already decided who is (is not) going to fill that position, well before you have become aware of it. The same applies during layoffs. Most are under the impression that layoffs are based on surplus headcount. This is not always the case. In many cases employees are earmarked to be included in the list of lay offs. This can be avoided, too, if you know what the signals are.
Most employees cannot see these signals. Their focus is on doing a good job assigned to them and on not getting into trouble. There is a completely different dimension that most employees are not even aware of in the corporate world; it is almost a scotoma in their career field of vision: Relationships and Politics. Relationships are built by making a special effort that goes beyond just doing a good job. Right relationships are key to a career success. As one gets more responsibilities it is not the quality of their work that matters as much as their relationships with those who can influence key decisions that matters. Politics is a social sport; in any organization it is the spice that enlivens the existence of an otherwise hum-drum existence. Those who know how to play this well always come out on top!
One reason why most manage their career by trial and error is that there is no articulate framework that allows them to chart a career and navigate their course with confidence. Yes, there are myriad books, tapes, publications and tools in this arena, but most fail to provide the ready answers to the situation that is specific to a person that cannot always be captured in a generic sense. Each specific case must be addressed with specific strategies that cannot be generalized. The difference it makes in the outcomes can be significant: multiple and lucrative job offers materialized in a short order, a greater starting salary, a sign-on bonus, a better title, a promise of a promotion, etc. Over the life of a career these advantages can be priceless! Yet, their cost is minuscule by comparison. Finding the right coach is central to this process.
Yet one more factor in career or job success is how one is able to deal with what is happening to them in their situation. Most people get emotionally attached to their situation and are not able to look at what is happening to them objectively. They develop a fear of defeat when it comes to negotiating their needs with those who can address them. This is particularly true during salary or title negotiation. Most are not able to present their case in objective terms of value and responsibility; they focus more on salary and title. With this perspective, it is hard to get what you are seeking.
So, how does an effective job or a career coach can help you in these situations? The following list may help you understand a bit better the value they can bring to you:
- By working with a coach, you can discuss your concerns. Most clients operate in the state of Unconscious Incompetence in this realm; they don’t know what they don’t know and hence they let things happen to them and then discover that they are getting the short end of the stick. An expert coach can present to you the options and show what strategies you can leverage for the best outcome.
- The best time to seek out a career coach is when you do not need one, or think that you don’t. In my own practice I cannot even count the times when just a casual conversation at a party or social gathering resulted in that person signing on as a client and deriving unexpected benefits. A good coach can help you not only avoid the traps that most do not see, scotoma again, they can help you overcome them and have you come out on top.
- In today’s flux, even employers do not fully understand how to identify the right opportunity to fill and then find the right candidate to fill it with. Many merely open a job requisition based on a vacancy by posting a job description that itself may be hopelessly out of date, if not outright irrelevant. An astute career counselor can help you position to redefine that job in ways that gives you advantage and a better way to capture the new value in that position (more money, a better title, or better prospects, once you land)
- A coach can show you how to position preemptively yourself for success. This is not an approach most employees take. They rely on their manager or the “system” to offer them what they think that they deserve. They are deeply disappointed when opportunities pass them by. By preemptively positioning a client for a course of action and by developing a plan to achieve the outcome a coach can catalyze their goals and can position for getting what they cannot otherwise achieve.
- A coach can be indispensable during a client re-invention. In today’s climate where new opportunities abound, a re-invention can help re-ignite a client’s career.
- A good career coach can also serve as your life coach. In today’s world the work and life issues are intertwined and are even nested. A good work-life balance is important for your own welfare.
Finding a good career or life coach is not difficult. Just ask those how might have used one or check out directories of professionals where such services are listed, such as LinkedIn.