Breaking Up (With Your Job) is Hard To Do
I have a client who is completely fed up with her job. She is spread too thin, underpaid, under-resourced, isolated, and dissatisfied. She has tried hard to make the job work better, but it has now become clear that the fundamental problems with this job are not going to change. She sees that it will never provide what she wants and needs from her job: financial reward, respect, teamwork, meaning, and balance. If this job were a boyfriend, her friends would all be urging her to dump him and find someone more worthy. And yet she is finding it difficult to leave – in part because she feels...
Read MoreFrom Lawyer to Coach (NFL Coach, That Is)
The story of lawyer-turned-football-coach Daron Roberts offers some great lessons on career change. Roberts turned his back on a Harvard Law School education to start from scratch and become an NFL coach. While your transition may be less dramatic, you can learn from his inspiring story. 1. You can change your career. It’s that simple (though not easy). So don’t let your past choices or inertia dictate your future career. Even after investing time and money in law school, Roberts wasn’t bound by his education. He discovered his passion through volunteering at a...
Read MoreInterviewing Beyond Your Comfort Zone
I recently coached two people who were preparing for job interviews that were a stretch from their current position. Several themes emerged that lead me to provide the following guidance to job-seekers. When interviewing for a job takes you another rung up on the managerial ladder, especially if the job takes you beyond your comfort zone, you may feel insecure about how to prove to your interviewer that you can take on the greater responsibility. Don’t panic. Your resume was good enough to get you in the door. The interview is your opportunity to synthesize the elements in your...
Read MoreGet Experimental
Here’s the deal: you don’t change your life by thinking really hard about it, or by dreaming, or talking about it. You change it by taking action. I just watched a talk on youtube given by my fellow coach and former co-worker, Michael Melcher. It’s a great overview of how coaching works — no hidden tricks or gimmicks. He outlines four basic pieces of career coaching that guide the process: 1. Values, 2. Vision, 3. Relationships, and 4. Experiments. Number 4 is key. Yes, you need to know what you like and what’s important to you (values), and you need to...
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