Guest Post by: Sally Arnold, Career Coach and Founder of Creating Encores
Career moves and career changes are inevitable. For many women, the career paths we envision and embark upon early in our career do not resemble the paths we are on now. The excitement, inspiration and sense of being valued can disappear. Instead we often find ourselves working in environments where we feel alone, undervalued and lonely. You know that something has to change, but does this mean you need to make a change to stay or do you make a change to go. This is the crossroad one must cross, and it can be a daunting process. Here are some steps to help you work through the decision.
Talk Through It
When you reach a stage where a career move or career change is beckoning, it is important to seek help, whether it is a trusted friend or a professional business coach. It is important to find someone who has been along this path themselves because they understand the personal and professional feelings, thoughts and challenges.
Create An Action Place
Put an action plan together to move you through this time. Map out the challenges and steps to overcome them. Where do you want to be in your career and what do you need to do, who do you need to talk to and what do you need to learn to make that happen.
Visualize Your Goals
The most important place to begin reviving your career or personal life is to spend time creating a vision of a world that inspires and excites you. When you immerse yourself in new thinking and ways moving forward, the feeling of being stuck starts to melts away. Think of of it like putting soap on a stuck zipper of your favorite dress. You want to wear this fabulous dress, not let the stuck zipper stop you from looking great. Think of this metaphor as the start of creating a vision for you to stay or to go. Great dress, looking good. Elite athletes and global performing artists have been using visioning as part of their training. This process of visioning applies for organizations too.
Connect With Your Inner self
There are numerous research by management consulting firms and reputable institutions that describe the importance of connecting with the inner self and wisdom for career fulfillment and leadership excellence. Change can only come from your inner self. Executives need to look inside first rather than outwards. By doing this, leaders become aware of their behavior and how they contribute to their challenges. I wish many years ago when leading a team that I had the inner knowledge of my behavior. Especially how my coping mechanisms contributed towards the lack of flow within my team. I was responsible and did not realise it at the time. I believe that I would not have left this great career if I had understood myself better and been able to turn around my inadequate behaviors.
Lead From Your Heart
Our work life needs to model our personal life; if we are not in touch with our inner purpose and passion then we suffer; so does our leadership capabilities. The new language that is developing is to lead from the heart, not from the head. For a moment, imagine the parts of your life that make you laugh. I call this understanding – like putting pieces of a jigsaw puzzle together. When we truly understand our inner selves then we can make the choice to stay or go.
I have seen many executives stay and feel reinvigorated in their career after spending time understanding their inner self, and how to address the challenges within to create a new picture of their career. They don’t want years of expertise to be lost and to leave a career that now has potential.
And for others with this new knowledge, it is time to leave; to celebrate a career that gives leverage into a new professional path.
Either way, change is important.
Sally Arnold, – Creating Encores, enables clients to unlock their creative mindset to facilitate effective problem solving and career re-invigoration. She guides businesses, women and teams out of areas of challenge towards resolution and success.
Register for her upcoming Workshop in NYC on October 3rd & 4TH –“Get Unstuck, Fall in Love with your Career”
