Unlock Your Potential: A Guide to Career Coaching

Unlock Your Potential: A Guide to Career Coaching

Often we are surrounded by a myriad of career options and, as we all know, we live in the era of excess information. Yet, it can feel like we don’t have many choices when it comes to career decisions and next steps; or that the large amount of choices and variables is actually adding pressure for us to make the “right decision”.

So, more often than not, we feel stuck. The easiest option might seem to either continue with whatever we are already doing, the ‘default’ option or do what we are supposed to do, based on our society values or personal circumstances. Unless you have gone through some sort of career crisis, keeping on living in a ‘default mode’ or taking conventional steps might feel practical, easy and reasonable.

There is however a risk to that. One day, you might wake up and realize that you are not fully happy and that you are stuck in a career rut or perhaps, you might unconsciously and progressively become apathetic to anything career wise. 

Have you ever felt like that? Are you unsure of what your next career step should be? Do you feel like you live in a default mode or just follow what you are ”supposed to do”? Do you struggle to make decisions in general when it comes to your career?

This is actually a very common feeling in today’s society, and one of the root causes is that the majority of us are disconnected from ourselves. So instead of looking for short-term external solutions to help us get out of the feeling of being stuck, all we need is to connect with our inner selves and get clarity from our inner knowing.

This is where Career coaching comes into play, as it is one of the most efficient tools to help you find clarity by connecting with your inner knowing.

Demystifying Career Coaching:

I often come across clients (or potential clients) that want advice and are seeking some sort of guidance to help them make a decision, move into their next career step, get out of the “default mode” or “career rut”. This type of support, however, is not what Career coaching offers.

This field based on giving advice is in fact covered by another professional discipline, known as “Career counseling” or “Career advising”. It’s provided by career counselors, experts in career development theory, interpretation of assessments and the use of counseling methods. They help with making “realistic” choices about your training, education and professional paths by providing advice, information and guidance, based on data and information and, in short, external facts and data. 

When looking for a job or considering our next career steps, we tend to automatically start by searching for what’s out there first. We look for job opportunities available and try to identify what are the roles and companies where we could potentially fit in. We look at data, assessments, certificates that tell us what we are supposedly good at, we seek for someone professional who can tell us what next steps we should take, etc. This looks like the easiest and quickest fix. However, we need to ask ourselves: are we really tackling the core issue and is this a long term solution?

Conversely, in Career coaching we focus on the inner knowing to initiate the process, we work from the inside out. This means, we are not just looking for what’s available out there, finding out where you could possibly fit in or what might be the most “realistic” best decision given the data and external factors (which can actually be quite limiting if you think about it). In coaching, we first look for answers inside the self, we connect to the unlimited knowledge and power that comes from within. And then, only after we increase your self awareness, we look for what’s out there that can fit in within your unique combination of values, preferences, skills and desires. So we do it the other way round.

Another key differential factor in Career coaching, is that we aim to move from the “should” mindset to the “want”, from “decision” to “choice”. When we decide on something, we reach a conclusion after considering all facts, data, information and from that decision we expect a particular outcome. Instead, when we are choosing something, we are selecting our own preference from a set of options and possibilities. Because it’s our preference to choose to do something, we commit to it and the focus is on the course of action and not so much on the outcome. 

With the above in mind, in Career Coaching, the Coach partners with the client to explore from the Inner knowing and the preferences of choice of the client himself. Hence, our sessions are mostly led by the client and they start with the client declaring his intentions, needs and wants. Through the tool of conversation and thought-provoking questions, the Coach assists the client to explore underlying issues, barriers, strengths, feelings and typically the session ends with an action plan to reach the desired outcome. 

Benefits of Career Coaching:

Through the process of coaching you gain insights, clarity and tools to work on yourself and your objectives. Rather than being taught or told what to do, you initiate a process of self-awareness and self-development.

The main approach with career coaching is to actually help you look inwards, to answer the important questions for yourself. When you work with a Career Coach, together we dig deep into your unique preferences, strengths, skills, values and desires. We explore fundamental questions like: what your core values and preferred transferable skills are, how you prefer to work, what your dreams and aspirations are when it comes to the professional area of your life, what success means to you, what might be stopping you from getting what you want, how your personal circumstances might impact your decisions, etc. 

Hence, you will feel that your career goals, choices and courses of action come from an alignment within yourself, as a unique individual. The increased self awareness and clarity on goals will provide you with a longer term and more conscious career plan, which taps directly into your intrinsic motivation. Being aware and aligned with your core values will also make your decisions a lot easier in the long run. 

Once you gain clarity, call out your preferences and pinpoint what it is that you want to achieve in your career you then work on a plan together with your coach to find out how you will get there. This is also a crucial part of the coaching process, as the coach will partner with you and hold you accountable in order for you to achieve your desired next steps and manifest your goals.

Is Career Coaching Right for You? 

If you want to:

- change or improve your professional career 

- Connect with yourself & others in a more meaningful way 

- Find what motivates you & how

- Be aware of your current blocks & self-limiting patterns & overcome them

- Build self confidence & drive to achieve your goals

- Gain overall clarity to improve your communication & action plans

- Unlock your potential & create the results that you want for yourself in any area of your life

And if you are willing to do the work, to get challenged and to start living the life you want for yourself, then Career coaching is for you. 

What to Expect from Your Career Coach:

To initiate a coaching process with a client, I always start with what we call a ‘Chemistry’ or ‘Initial Discovery’ session. These tend to last around forty-five minutes and offer a chance for us to get to know each other, clarify the concept of coaching, create a coaching agreement and assess whether we are a good match. Essentially, I want to trust and believe in my client and I also want to work with people who are committed. 

All my sessions can be in person or online (which offers higher flexibility) and you will decide when to book. There is free cancellation, with a notice period of at least 24 hours. After designing our coaching agreement, we also have set the base for how we will work together. You will choose the regularity of our sessions and you can freely book them any time. 

When trying coaching for the first time, although I offer a minimum of 3 sessions, I highly recommend at least doing around 10 sessions in order to see real change in your life and awareness. After that initial immersion, you will see that you might need the coaching session to be less regular as, during the process, you will also gain tools to both work on yourself and make our coaching session even more efficient.

There might be some check-in points throughout our coaching process, which will help us to assess if you are happy with our progress or what needs to change. From your Coach, you can expect support in the process and to be held accountable.

In my process of working on myself and becoming my own best version, I would love to help others achieve the same as well. Personally, I am nurturing, highly empathetic and I have a strong ability to notice people's strengths easily. When I start to work with you as a coach it’s because I believe in you, that you have the inner knowing, power and tools for us to work together and help you manifest the life that you want to create for yourself.

Costs:

The cost of Career Coaching can vary vastly and it depends on your location and the experience, popularity of the Coach. In Sydney, prices start from AUD150 per session but they can go up to AUD800 per session.

I am currently offering free Initial Discovery sessions and special deals for Coaching packages: Click here to see session prices.

1 Initial Discovery session + 3 Coaching sessions (45 min/ session) = AUD345

1 Initial Discovery session + 6 Coaching sessions (45 min/ session) = AUD660

1 Initial Discovery session + 10 Coaching sessions (45 min/ session) = AUD1,050

In summary, through the process of Career coaching, you can gain awareness, insights and tools to understand yourself better by exploring what your values, preferences, motivation and objectives are. Essentially, you are working on your goals from the knowledge that comes from within. Rather than being taught or told what to do, you initiate a process of self-awareness and self-development that can help you move into a more motivated, conscious driven direction and attain a longer term impact in your career. 

Partnering with a Coach will also help you to be challenged, to be held accountable and make things happen for you in the short and long term. What I also love about it is that going through the process of coaching will also make you a more independent and self developed individual, as the self-knowledge tools you will gain are yours forever.

Lastly, once you start achieving your goals in one area of your life, you will want to continue “winning” in other areas of your life and you will continuously work on becoming a better version of yourself and living the life you want. 

If you feel like trying Coaching with me, please reach out! Initial consultations are currently free and I will love to meet you and have a chat about all things coaching :) Book here