Too many people turn to career coaches for easy fixes, magic potions, and/or sure-fire solutions to job or career challenges. That’s not how it works!
False assumptions about career counseling/coaching can undermine the effectiveness of the coaching process.
A November 17, 2009 NY Times article recounts single visits to each of three career counselors, looking for a hypothetical “Plan B” for the author’s career. She accurately noticed three dramatically different approaches, and concluded that none of the three was able to help her develop an alternate career path. It appeared to me that she was looking for a magic bullet—and in a single visit, no less!
Career coaching works best when the client and coach work together, side by side, toward a common goal. Successful outcomes occur when both the coach and the client fulfill their separate responsibilities to the best of their abilities.
Ideal coaching clients are invested in the outcome and committed to achieving it—whether it’s picking a career, changing careers, or solving a problem at work. The coach will be asking difficult questions, exploring possibilities you may not have considered, and challenging you to look at things from different perspectives—not be selecting careers or fixing workplace problems. Instead, the coach and the client together work to determine what changes the client wants to make, and what it may take to effect those changes. The motivation to make those changes must come from the client.
Are you currently motivated to make a change in your work or career?
What would you gain if you were able to make that change?
What Can a Career Coach Do for You?
Too many people turn to career coaches for easy fixes, magic potions, and/or sure-fire solutions to job or career challenges. That’s not how it works!
False assumptions about career counseling/coaching can undermine the effectiveness of the coaching process.
A November 17, 2009 NY Times article recounts single visits to each of three career counselors, looking for a hypothetical “Plan B” for the author’s career. She accurately noticed three dramatically different approaches, and concluded that none of the three was able to help her develop an alternate career path. It appeared to me that she was looking for a magic bullet—and in a single visit, no less!
Career coaching works best when the client and coach work together, side by side, toward a common goal. Successful outcomes occur when both the coach and the client fulfill their separate responsibilities to the best of their abilities.
Ideal coaching clients are invested in the outcome and committed to achieving it—whether it’s picking a career, changing careers, or solving a problem at work. The coach will be asking difficult questions, exploring possibilities you may not have considered, and challenging you to look at things from different perspectives—not be selecting careers or fixing workplace problems. Instead, the coach and the client together work to determine what changes the client wants to make, and what it may take to effect those changes. The motivation to make those changes must come from the client.
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