My clients, and those of you who read my blog, know I’m a proponent of knowing where you want to go before embarking. Your personal goal(s) and definition of success all factor in your daily actions and happiness. It’s always interesting to watch people’s faces when they come to me feeling overwhelmed, looking for coaching specifically about time management and I ask them how they define success and other seemingly unrelated questions. When I explain how it’s all related, I usually get something like ‘that’s cool’ or ‘woah.’ As I’m writing this blog at the end of the year, it’s customary to reflect on your thoughts for the next year.
This blog has a twist though. The questions I ask will not be specific to the next year – they’re to get you to reflect on the next 5, 10, 30 years. I coach my clients to have a plan for the next steps in your career; to do that, you need to know what’s beyond the horizon. This requires you to know your values, beliefs, and ideals. You must identify what’s negotiable and what’s not. My executive coaching clients liken this to the strategy for their company or organization. The interesting thing is that corporate strategy seems to come naturally, but individual strategy doesn’t. The other area of focus for everyone is how to manage the change. A recent article indicates there might be another ‘Great Resignation’ wave coming. Many are leaving their jobs, but have they planned for what’s next? Or have they identified what will be different when they do leave? This is a big focus for some of my executive clients that are later in their career. They’re not ready to retire, yet they need to figure out how they transition from being the decision-maker and head of an organization to someone that’s not.
How does one go about figuring this out about themselves? Maybe you ‘know,’ but you don’t bring it to the fore when you’re about to change jobs or career. It all comes down to values, and you may operate to them, but becoming conscious of them and being intentional under pressure is the value to this exercise. A challenging and engaging exercise I like to run for some groups is to pose moral dilemma scenarios. This really gets people thinking how they would react to certain situation. Answers to questions like those below give you the guard rails. Obviously, this list is not all inclusive, but to start your thought process.
- How do I react when someone has a different opinion than me? Do I react differently to different issues? Different situations? (potential topics: race, sex, political view, vaccine status, etc.)
- How integral is my belief system to my behavior and actions? What limits are imposed and are they self-imposed or situational? If there are situational limitations, why? (faith, morals, etc.)
- When I see someone is down on their luck, wronged, or mistreated, what do I do? In all situations or are there constraints? (homeless, maligned, abused, ignored, etc.)
While you can do this on your own, having an unbiased, non-judgmental person always helps you go deeper; not just in answers, but in understanding. This is part of my coaching experience. Understanding how YOU operate in different situations allows you to correct behaviors you don’t want and use those you do as a strength. This process works if you’re in the C-Suite of a company, leading an organization, an individual contributor, or ready for a change, imagine the power and confidence with you in control. How can I help you today? I’m happy to chat.
