The article Becoming Your Own Career Coach by Helen Tupper and Sarah Ellis in Harvard Business Review first reminded me of cutting my own hair, something best left to the experts. However, upon further reading, I realized that becoming your own career coach is an effective way to learn about significant self-awareness skills either on the job or as you look for a new one.
Working with a career coach is the best way to build self-awareness and get unstuck, but it’s not the only way. Tupper and Ellis outline self coaching tips for getting to know ourselves better, identifying areas for growth and overcoming obstacles. These insights prompt positive personal action, pave the way for meaningful career conversations and improve connections with people in our network.
Self coaching is about getting curious about ourselves and our unique ideas and actions in response to career challenges, “careers can feel uncertain but self coaching is a capability we all have control over.” Here are two examples of self coaching techniques that help to build awareness:
· Reflect on career challenges – take five minutes to create a mind map with one specific career challenge in mind. Consider the who, what, when and why of the challenge to uncover new insights, reflections and possible options for addressing it. Do this often enough and you’ll start to see patterns of behavior that are working either for or against you. For example, reflect on why all your career challenges involve the behaviours of others?
· Compare intent with impact – set a goal for how you would like to ‘show up’ at a meeting or presentation. Afterwards ask a colleague participant for feedback with a question such as “what one word describes my approach or impact at today’s meeting?” This helps to identify whether your intent and impact are in alignment, referred to as ‘self awareness alignment’, or you have a potential gap and opportunity for personal growth.
The authors also present a number of ‘Coach Yourself Questions’ or CYQs to aid in your journey of improved self awareness, such as: “what gives me the most energy at work?” or “what would I like to be true in 12-months’ time?” Open-ended questions focusing on what you can control helps to unlock your creativity and clarify career goals.
The article by Tupper and Ellis provides new ideas for building self awareness that will help create career resiliency, whether you are in a job or looking for a new adventure. Unlike trying to cut your own hair, being your own career coach is not something just for the experts – it’s good for everyone. Self coaching builds your capacity to be insightful, reflective and compassionate – important skills for the career journey that lies ahead.
Stay tuned for more reviews of relevant, timely and actionable information on how to make the job search easier. For information on how Career Aviators can make your job search easier, please contact me at donnalynn.clarke@careeraviators.com