A huge part for mid-career women returners or re-designers is understanding and reengaging with their sense of value as a professional. If you have been away from a conventional career for some time, you may have lost sight of your identity as a professional and need some time and support to bring your value back into your line of vision.
Here are the ways in which engaging with a coach can support you as you build your way forward…
1. Help You Establish a Career Path, Not Just a Job
At Disegno.life, the words life and career run alongside each other. A good coach will get to know you first – working with questions such as what drives you, what’s your motivation in life, what are your backbone values which you hold dear. Too often people choose careers based on others’ aspirations, earning potential or social status or simply fall into what seems obvious or feels comfortable – this is not the stuff of happy fulfilled lives. Your career coach should be an objective mirror to you, helping you to understand yourself in a fuller sense’. With a more rounded sense of self, you will then be able to build your way forward in choosing and creating your more fulfilling life and career plan.
2. Build Your Confidence in Your Career and Yourself
“Doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will”.
To have a successful (whatever that definition means to you) life and career, you must have the confidence to take the steps which enable you to keep building your way forward into the life and career that you desire. Having confidence will enable you to engage with your values and also, have the courage to ask for help and support. Working with a coach will help you to re-engage with that sense of self and provide you with the tools to gain insights on where you stand in relation to the industry/sector you want to join and the peers who populate that sector.
3. Keep You Accountable and Motivated
Accountability breeds response-ability. – Stephen R. Covey
We are far more likely to maintain consistency and stay on track with motivation and plans when we are accountable to others. Somehow that just seems to be a fact of the human condition. A career coach will work alongside you to help you define, draw out and create a plan for moving forward in your career and life – by sheer dent of that process they will also keep you accountable which will help you to keep taking steps to move forward. A path taken all alone is a lonely one.
4. Help You Navigate Through Difficult Career Decisions
Invariably as we navigate our way through life and career changes, we will have those big moment decisions. Whilst family and friends are wonderful sources of strength and support, they are not unbiased in their advice. They have a vested interest which of course, will have a bearing on the advice they give.
A coach, on the other hand, is unbiased and will help you to navigate through difficult decisions in an objective way. They will help you to understand what your own individual choice architecture is and what is the best right decision for you (not the right decision but the best decisions for you in relation to who you are and what you want from life and career).
5. Sharing your story:
Be yourself. Everybody else is already taken. Oscar Wilde.
You have approached your life and career decisions in a unique way – it’s simply impossible to do it any other way. You are an individual, on your own individual journey through life. A coach will help you to understand the story of your career to date, the story of where you are now and the story of the future which you are crafting. Through digging deep into your story and reconnecting with who you are, you will be better able to tell your story to prospective contacts, colleagues and employers.
You are your story – you just need to find a way to tell it.
Call to action:
If you are in a moment of transition in life and need the support of a coach to help you navigate your way forward, you can join a coaching programme, have a one to one call or set yourself up with a personal coach. If any of those options feel like a step too far right now, you could start by developing a coaching mindset by reading all the wonderful books that are out there.
And of course, connect with us at Disegno.life anytime for a non-committal check in chat. We are always happy to hear from you!