How does career coaching help people?

Career coaching can be highly beneficial in a variety of ways. Here are some common ways career coaching helps people:

1. Career exploration and clarity: Career coaches can help individuals identify their strengths, interests, and values, and explore different career options. They can assist in clarifying career goals and aligning them with personal values, which can lead to increased job satisfaction and fulfillment.

2. Resume and interview preparation: Career coaches can provide guidance on creating effective resumes, cover letters, and LinkedIn profiles. They can also offer mock interview practice and feedback to help individuals prepare for job interviews, improving their chances of success in the competitive job market.

3. Job search strategies: Career coaches can assist individuals in developing effective job search strategies, including identifying job search resources, networking techniques, and using online platforms. They can also provide guidance on how to effectively search for and apply to job opportunities.

4. Career transitions: Career coaches can support individuals in navigating career transitions, such as changing industries, transitioning from being an employee to an entrepreneur, or returning to the workforce after a career break. They can help individuals develop a plan and overcome challenges associated with such transitions.

5. Professional development: Career coaches can help individuals identify areas for professional growth and development, and create plans to enhance their skills and knowledge. They can also provide guidance on how to seek out professional development opportunities, such as training programs, certifications, and networking events.

6. Performance improvement: Career coaches can work with individuals to identify areas where they may be struggling in their current job and develop strategies to improve performance. This can include communication skills, time management, conflict resolution, and leadership skills.

7. Work-life balance: Career coaches can help individuals achieve better work-life balance by setting boundaries, managing time effectively, and prioritizing self-care. They can also provide guidance on how to handle work-related stress and achieve a healthier work-life integration.

8. Confidence-building and self-awareness: Career coaches can help individuals build self-confidence, boost their self-esteem, and develop greater self-awareness. This can lead to improved decision-making, better communication skills, and increased self-advocacy in the workplace.

Overall, career coaching can help individuals gain clarity, set goals, develop strategies, and enhance their skills and confidence, leading to greater career success and satisfaction.

Deepak Chopra & Self-Worth

Great short video where Deepak Chopra discusses how self-worth can hold people back from success, how to overcome it, and the importance of defining our values. People "have the potential to make money and be happy at the same time."

#believeinyourpotential #followyourpassion #beliefsarejustthoughts #theuniversehasyourback #deepakchopra

The merging of two worlds

I started both my career development practitioner certification and my master reiki training in January 2021. At the time I didn't know how the two different disciplines would compliment each other, I just knew I wanted to do both. At the time I thought they were two separate streams.

Something I've noticed with many of my career coaching clients is they bring up wanting to know how to meditate and needing mindfulness during their career change process. Over the last couple of years meditating has become one of my favorite past times, and I've done a lot of experimenting with it so I'm happy to help 😊🧘‍♀️

If you're going through a career transition, job loss, work stress or dissatisfaction, preparing for an interview etc I've included a link (which is the same instructional video I used) in the comments to help you learn how to meditate. It came up in each of my client meetings yesterday so I feel like I need to share this!✌️

#careercoach #careerdevelopment #careertransition #jobstress #jobloss #mindfulness #meditation #youvegotthis #theuniversehasyourback

Re/Upskill vs Layoffs

An inspiring case study on reskilling/upskilling instead of layoffs. The company put 10-15% of their workforce on a different career path rather than layoffs. So many advantages to this approach, obviously retainment, but also deepening empathy and culture throughout the company.

Career coaches are skilled in determining fit and can take away the guess work and uncertainty when reassigning employees, yielding better results.

I’m working with a company doing career coaching within the organization and it has far exceeded what any of us expected. I hope more companies adopt this progressive approach!

#careerdevelopment #careercoachinginorganizations #reskilling #upskilling #careercoach #layoffs

Your inner guidance system

The "Emotional Guidance Scale" is a fascinating visual for navigating how you feel in your job (it applies to other areas of your life too, but I want to talk about career management 😊) and how you can feel even better at work.

You can gain clarity about what areas of your work you need to change or do more often.
⭐ On a typical work day, where are you on the scale?
⭐ Look at each of your typical tasks, and how you feel when performing them
⭐ What can you do to move up the scale when performing certain tasks, or get support where your emotions are near the bottom of the scale?

The scale is helpful to see which emotions are an improvement (I was surprised that anger is an improvement over fear). The idea is to move up the scale emotion by emotion until you are at the top, and living in joy/appreciation/empowered/freedom/love. This is also where you find your purpose because our emotions are our inner guidance system.

Imagine how great the world would be if many people were rooted in joy and appreciation at work!

#careercoaching #careerdevelopment #lovewhatyoudo #selfawareness #whatsyourpurpose

Passion ➡️ Work

There's a lot of focus on tuning in to your passion when it comes to finding fulfilling work. What does that even mean? How do you figure out what work you feel passionate about?

Perhaps an easier way to break it down is focusing on when you feel joy and gratitude. Many of us don't feel joy and gratitude constantly throughout our day, so when we do, the feeling is moving. When it does happen, take a minute and feel the depth of the emotion to fully recognize it. We're so busy sometimes we don't take the time to acknowledge our emotions.

Then how does it apply to work? Remember that feeling of joy and gratitude and how deep, profound, and moving it is. Tune into the frequency of feeling uplifted. When you're working when do you have glimpses of this emotion? What type of work are you doing or interaction are you having?

When we connect the dots between when we feel joy and gratitude in our personal and work life, it can show us the way to our most fulfilling work. Afterall, our emotions are our inner guidance system.

For me, two things that evoke intense joy and gratitude are sunsets and horses. It's happened often enough over the last couple of years that I now know the feeling well. Imagine my delight when I realized meeting with career coaching clients gives me a similar feeling. I labelled the feeling in my personal life, so then when it happened with work I instantly knew I was on the right track. ✌️

📸: Gypsy and the sunset on my birthday in the summer

#followyourheart #careerdevelopment #careercoach #feelinggrateful #meaningfulwork

😲

Half of Canadians want to change jobs in 2023. “Younger and relatively new employees were the most likely to seek out new work, the survey found. Millennial and Gen Z workers, working parents, tech workers and employees between two to four years at their current jobs were most likely to be eyeing a career move early in 2023.” Here’s a link to the Bloomberg article. #careerchange #careercoach #careerdevelopment

Thank you!

2023 is off to a good start! 🎉Thank you to those who voted, to my career coaching clients and my local entrepreneur network.

For those on the journey to more fulfilling work, Just Got ReDirected Career Coaching has some exciting new offerings coming very soon, stay tuned!

#thankyou #appreciation #careercoach #careerdevelopmentcoaching #entrepreneur #followyourpassion #thebestisyettocome #careerdevelopment

Skills, skills, skills

When it comes to my career coaching clients identifying their skills, two things usually happen:
✔️ They don't believe they have many skills and are pleasantly surprised when we do a deep dive skills analysis and they realize how broad their skills set is
✔️ Understanding how they can leverage these skills to either advance their career or make a career change is an empowering process

If you're considering a job or career change and want to level up your resume and interview game and be more competitive in the job market, Just Got ReDirected Career Coaching's ✨"Define and Leverage Your Skills For Career Success"✨ 1:1 online workshop is for you!

Not convinced defining your skills set is critical for your job search success? Check out these two links below to a FastCompany article and Deliotte's 2023 Global Capital Trends article.

*** other 1:1 online workshops offered through Just Got ReDirected Career Coaching: Career Change Through Success Stories, How To Prevail After Job Loss, Helping Youth With Their Education and Career Plan, Create Strategic Goals and Action Plan for Career Success, and What Type of Work Will I Find Fulfilling?

#careercoach #careerdevelopment #careerchange #jobsearch #skills #selfawareness #empowerment #yournewcareerstartshere

Career changers Unite!

The results of this #bostonconsultinggroup poll are interesting - 19% of the 21,000 respondents are not interested in a new career in 2023.

What will help the 63% interested in making a career change this year? Clear intentions and an action plan with small goals connected to their career vision.

#careercoach #careerdevelopment #jobsearch #clearvision #yournewcareerstartshere #careerjourney

Reading recommendations post!🤓📚

1. This HBR article details the detrimental effects of job loss/layoff on the people let go and the company. Some highlights:
* Increase in risk of suicide by 1.3 to 3 times
* On average it takes someone two years to recover from a job loss
* The stress of a job loss can impair fetal development
* The odds of developing a new health condition rise by 83% in the first 15-18 months after a job loss
* About 20% of terminations are done so in error
* Companies that perform layoffs underperform for nearly three years longer than those who do not

2. Stanford News article. “As layoffs in the tech sector mount, Stanford Graduate School of Business Professor Jeffrey Pfeffer is worried. Research – by him, and others – has shown that the stress layoffs create takes a devastating toll on behavioral and physical health and increases mortality and morbidity substantially. Layoffs literally kill people, he said.”

This prof also explains the social contagion of layoffs and how they don’t make the financial improvements the company expects them to make


Solutions? Consider career coaching to reassign employees whose jobs are being eliminated. And if you are letting someone go, provide outplacement services (not the same as EAP) to help them have a soft landing.

3. Finally, I just finished my first book of 2023 (pictured). It’s a good read for business leaders who want to lead with heart and integrity and be more intuitive in their decision-making. It’s an oldie but a goodie!

#leadwithempathy #layoffsandjobreductions #layoffs2023 #peoplematter #outplacementservices

Resume Fundamentals

Lots of talk about resumes these days, so here's my top 5 resume tips based on reviewing a bajillion resumes and recruiting in my HR days.

1. You need to understand your resume and be confident with all the bullets on your resume. In an interview, the hiring manager or HR will likely choose bullets from your resume and ask you about them. If possible, write your resume yourself so you're familiar and confident with the content 💃. If you have your resume professional written, make sure you're very knowledgeable about the details because if you aren't, it will show in the interview
2. Don't copy and paste the job description into your resume. Yes, people do this 😲. Instead, review the job description for overarching skills then consider how you used those skills in your past work experience. Then, make sure you highlight those skills in your resume
3. Quantify whenever possible. Use numbers🔢and percentages in most bullets as this will show HR the breadth of your experience and contributions, as well as your level of responsibility
4. Add a Highlights of Qualifications section at the beginning of your resume to showcase your accomplishments to date. You can include relevant training/education, key accomplishments and awards. When I recruited, I would spend most of my time reviewing this section of the candidates' resumes
5. Check the aesthetics. Make sure your indents, fonts, and bullets are consistently used. Customize your LI profile link and I recommend my clients use a word/google doc instead of a resume template so you have more space to showcase your skills

Good luck! 😊

Hiring Managers/HR/Career Coaches: What are your top resume tips?

#resumetips #resumewriting #jobsearch #knowyourskills #careercoach #careerdevelopment

Finding your calling

There's a lot of focus on finding your calling or discovering your purpose, but how do you really know which career is the right fit for you? 🤔

This question arose many times when speaking with attendees at a Career Expo recently and it's a topic I cover at length with my career coaching clients to ensure we're on the right path.

Research is a key way to gain clarity as it can either transform or confirm your career vision.

Time after time my career coaching clients benefit from talking to those who are in the career they're considering (informational interviews) - from shifting their career path to a different stream to gaining a mentor in a very competitive industry and being well on their path to making their dream come true. Two different outcomes, but both clients gained valuable clarity through the research process.

Sometimes it's a bit intimidating to request an informational interview, but I find most people are more than willing to share their experience. If you're open to having a call with someone considering your career, please do let me know and I'll keep you in mind for future clients. 😊

#careercoach #careerchange #research #careerdevelopment #supportothers #careeradvice

Rising like a phoenix from the ashes

I enjoy a good “phoenix from the ashes” career change story, even better when it’s a mid or late career change. It takes courage, knowing yourself, understanding your calling, and creating a clear intention and action plan to successfully make the switch.

A client I met with today said they were concerned they were too old to make a career change as they’re 25 years into their career yet no longer fulfilled by their line of work.

It’s nice to see inspiring stories like this TED talk which remind us we have infinite potential and it’s never too late to pursue your passion.

For our own career story we are both the writer and the main character. What’s the career story you’d like to write for yourself?

#careercoaching #careerchange #careercoach #believeinyourself

Jennifer Coolidge Inspiration

The career coach (and white lotus fan) in me really enjoyed Jennifer Coolidge's message in this video. Assuming it's nonfiction, Jennifer divulges her apprehension about presenting at the Golden Globes.

Such an inspiring story to show us that our fears, excuses, and self-defeating thoughts are just that, and when we move past them success is waiting for us with open arms. Career coaching conversations move people in a similar way - challenging their self-limiting beliefs and allowing for an expansive, creative, soul-resonating career.

Jennifer brilliantly showed us that overcoming our fears is possible and often our fears don't come true. We have infinite possibilities once we move past the limitations in our minds.

#careercoach #careerdevelopment #mindsetiseverything #success #youvegotthis #selfdiscovery #jennifercoolidge

Employee engagement and values

If you're not feeling aligned with your work or would like to improve your team's engagement, consider taking a closer look at the values of the role.

🤔 What needs to be important to you in order to be successful in this role?
🤔 Are there conflicting values that rank higher in terms of importance?
🤔 Then looking forward to work you'd like to be doing, how does the shift in work reflect different values? Are those different values a better reflection of your authentic self?
🤔 Leaders, consider the lines of progression for your team and whether a values alignment persists

Ensuring job candidates and employees are aligned with the values of their work (and future work), is critical for engagement. This HBR article outlines how a values misalignment is one of the four reasons employees lose motivation.

The connection between a client's values and work is a recurring conversation throughout career coaching sessions. By leaning into those values, people connect with work that is authentic for them.

#valuesdriven #careerdevelopment #selfawareness #careercoach #lovewhatyoudo #employeeengagement

Making values make sense

One of the main differences I've found between HR and Career Coaching, is career coaching's intense focus on aligning someone's beliefs and values with a career in order for it to be fulfilling.

We know aligning competencies, strengths, personality and interests are integral for ensuring employee success, but if the values and beliefs required for the job conflict with those of the employee, you can bet they will struggle because they're not being their authentic self.

Each job has different values and beliefs that need to be aligned with the employee in order for it to be done well.

I found a couple "values decks" from when I did the CDP program for the first time in 2000 and pulled my top five work values (pictured below - general creativity, influence people, innovative ideas, moral fulfillment, help others). What was even more telling for me was seeing my bottom five work values. I'll do a post on those soon. 😊

#careercoach #careerdevelopment #values #beliefs #authenticself #employeeengagement #beyourself

Three Years Ago…

I was going to write a reflection post about how my life has changed since March 2020, the start of the pandemic, because life has changed so much for me, like many others, over the past three years. It hasn’t been easy - I was one of the many people re-structured in 2020, and while I knew it was the best thing for me the pain of job loss is real. Mine was compounded by deciding to not go back to a corporate job, but rather I went back to school for 12 months full time, then started my career coaching business in the Fall of 2021. I missed having co-workers and the buzz of the office environment, and on-line school is tough!

Through all this change, I’ve now found my way to a more balanced life and my priorities have shifted. My job was often my first priority, just because family can be more forgiving and understanding. Now with my business I have 100% control over my time, and how I spend my time. Each day I spend time doing things that connect with my heart. I see my kids off to school instead of rushing to drop them at before-care at school. I see my parents once or twice a week for coffee instead of seeing them only on special occasions (even though they live 5 minutes away!). My passion for horseback riding led to me getting my own horse in June 2022, and I train/ride on my lunch breaks. I’ve learned how to cook better so my family now has home-cooked meals instead of take out most nights. I’ve created a business that I’m passionate about where I’m always doing meaningful work - either meeting with career coaching clients to help them along their career journey, or business development for my company that I’m creating, rather than completing work that isn’t necessarily leveraging my skills and aligned with my values. I’ve experienced the difference between doing “interesting work” and now doing “soul-fulfilling work” . The difference is life-changing, and the feeling when I’m aligned with the work I’m doing and knowing I’m making a direct positive impact in people’s lives is next level.

I’ve developed a love for a regular meditation practice. I’ve meditated so much over the last 2 years my mind is now calm, with thoughts entering one at a time rather than constant noise that is difficult to tune out. As I write this I’m sitting in my home office on a snowy March day with the fireplace on, a great playlist, wearing a hoodie and drinking green tea. This isn’t a reflection post, but rather a gratitude post. Gratitude for all the change the universe has given me over the last three years. Gratitude for stopping and listening to what my heart’s desire is and acting on it every day. Gratitude for my harmonious family relationships, a calm mind, and the privilege to focus my work on what fills my heart with joy. Gratitude for the unknown future and knowing that it will be good. Because the universe always has our backs.

Books for Personal Growth

"We are powerful beings with tremendous potential" is a recurring personal development message. Or, as Napoleon Hill phrased it in "Think and Grow Rich", my ✨all time favorite personal development book,✨ "whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve".

Such a powerful reminder that we are more than our self-limiting beliefs or the limiting beliefs others have of us and to continually challenge and purge those beliefs. From there, change to work or a career that's more fulfilling can flow.

The messaging in that book and my other favorites (pictured below) have been key in my new career journey, and I've re-visited them this year. 🤓

Happy One Year Anniversary, Just Got ReDirected!

A lot can happen in a year! I’m celebrating the one year anniversary of my career coaching company, “Just Got ReDirected”! It has been a year of firsts for me as a first time business owner, and I’ve enjoyed every minute. Here’s the top 5 things that have happened over the last year which were the most beneficial for my business and the most rewarding for me.

1. How does my heart’s desire to make a difference in the world show up in my career? Deciding on the vision of my company and how I want to contribute to the world has been immensely satisfying. I see career coaching as a way to make the world a better place because when we feel joy in our work and tap into our unique gifts, we make the world a better place. By being at the higher end of the emotional scale we are more inclined to attract what we want in life.

2. Meditation can help you get unstuck. Meditation has helped me make decisions and problem-solve whether the solution comes to me during/after meditation or when I wake up in the morning. I was really stuck when trying to decide where to do my career development placement. I meditated with that question in mind as time was ticking, I was going around in circles and I really needed to make a decision. During my meditation it came to me “University of Guelph”. I got up from my meditation, sent a message to a contact there, did my placement there and it was a rewarding experience where I had the opportunity to collaborate with and learn from a group of seasoned career development professionals. Another example, I knew I wanted to revamp my website (to the version I’m using now) but I was overwhelmed at the thought of moving all my content over, adding new content, and all the linking etc for the website. I procrastinated it and then one Saturday morning, as I woke up I had a clear idea of how to structure a part of it. I got up, sat at my computer and starting writing out what came to me in my dream. That action was enough to get me un-stuck, I kept moving, and I created the website to what you see today.

3. Clear blocks and purge self-limiting beliefs to move into your purpose. We all have programming from throughout our lives about what is valued, and who we are. This programming of our strengths and our worth is perpetuated by the corporate world of Manager/direct report relationships, feedback and performance reviews. In reality, what we can contribute to the world and our unique gifts are usually not fully expressed in our corporate jobs as we need to stay within the job description, and need to satisfy our Manager’s expectations. Once we clear our blocks and realize our full potential we can then engage in finding work that matches us.

4. Trust your feelings as they are your inner-guidance system. If something feels energizing and exciting, that’s a good sign to move towards it. Apprehensive or have a bad feeling about something? That’s a sign to stop and realize perhaps that person/decision is not aligned with your highest good. Not sure how you feel about something? Go back to #2 to gain clarity.

5. I bought a horse. You may think horses have nothing to do with career coaching… and you’re right! I took my passion for horseback riding and horse training to the next level by getting one of my own, her name is Gypsy. I work with her about six days a week, and it gives me the perfect break in my work day. Being outside and around the horses (and peacocks, dogs, cats) is great for mindfulness and the country drive to and from the barn is great for reflection or podcast listening. I’m in love and joy when I’m around Gypsy, for the significance of these feelings refer back to #1 and #4!

I’m grateful for the referrals and clients I’ve had over the last year who have supported my new business ❤️🙏The universe has our back, life happens for us, and everything unfolds in perfect timing. I’m just getting started, and year two is going to be even better 🙌 🤩