What can a Career Coach do for you in 2024 and beyond?
What is Career Coaching?
For those who’ve had some professional coaching, it might seem blindingly obvious. But for those without any coaching experience, it can be a mystery – a process too often wrapped up in jargon, confused with emotionally-rooted therapy or mixed up with specific skills training.
In this quick blog I shine a light on career coaching with some views on what it’s for, how it works and what a coach does– while also dispelling a few myths and knocking a few misconceptions on the head.
What are the benefits of coaching?
The Institute of Coaching says “coaching positively impacts careers as well as lives by helping people to – Establish and take action towards achieving goals, become more self-reliant, gain more job and life satisfaction, contribute more effectively to the team and the organization, take greater responsibility and accountability for actions and commitments, work more easily and productively with others and communicate more effectively”
The ICF says “80% of people who receive coaching report increased self-confidence, and over 70% benefit from improved work performance, relationships, and more effective communication skills. 86% of companies report that they recouped their investment on coaching and more”
What is a Career Coach?
There’s no such thing as a typical career coach. While many come from an HR or training background, it’s not unusual to meet a coach with long experience of sales or of senior management. What is common is for coaching to be a second career, built on the experience of another role.
Their role is simple: they’re there to get you moving. But within that, there’s room for a plethora of different styles, not just depending on the coach in question, but on the client’s needs. If you need a confidant with a sympathetic ear, that’s fine. But maybe you need a planner who can set out a clear set of tasks, a mentor to offer a few words or a motivator to give you a (friendly) kick up the backside.
Whatever the approach, a huge part of their job is listening. The world of recruitment and the jobs market offers some obvious goals and a clear framework, your coach won’t come to the process with a set agenda – you decide the terms of your career progression. A coach might offer advice on how to achieve your goals, but they don’t make difficult decisions for you.
What Career Coaching isn’t
First off, let’s get the silly stuff out of the way: There’s nothing spiritual or deeply emotional about career coaching. If you’re looking for ‘the new you’, you should probably look somewhere else.
What my coaching offers is a world away from therapy or counselling. It’s a professional service for setting and achieving professional goals. It’s true that, in the process of identifying those goals, you may discuss matters personal to you – like your family life or even your health, but there will be no hugging! Just loads of great open discussion and advice delivered in a safe, honest and confidential way
Career Coaching is not a substitute for common sense, or for ambition. While it can help those people felling stuck in their jobs, this is not a service designed to give the aimless some direction in life. It should give you the focus you need to forge ahead in your career, but it’s neither a shortcut to success nor an easy option for your career.
Next Steps?
So, if you are stuck in a career rut, need a new job, scared of interviews, facing redundancy or the sack! wanting promotion or just getting back into work after some time off then get in touch, I’ll even buy the coffee!
