If you want to make a change in your career, it helps to first Gain Clarity on what you really want.
That’s why every client who starts career coaching with me has a Strategy Session to understand this.
To demonstrate the power of this Framework, I will take you through the experience of one client who’s career trajectory completely changed after their Strategy Session (but in a way they did not expect).
If you want to get the job you want, get paid what you’re worth and set yourself up for future success, I find it’s a very useful exercise to answer these 5 questions in order:
- What do you want?
- Why do you want it?
- What do you actually want?
- What will it take to achieve it?
- Will you commit to it?
When you can answer these questions genuinely, you should emerge with two clear paths.
- Either you land on what you want and can proceed with conviction.
OR
- You realise what you thought you want isn’t what you want and you can explore a new path.
This particular client answered the 5 questions in their Strategy Session.
They struggled to define what they really wanted, but they were good at what they were doing and knew they didn’t want to keep working for their current organisation.
Their answers to the 5 questions weren’t in clear alignment, so they agreed to gather more information by searching for a similar role in a different organisation.
But the next session they returned with job openings that were quite different to their current role.
At this point I asked them whether they knew what they wanted to do yet, to which they didn’t know.
So I made an observation.
“Do you want to be doing something completely different to what you’re doing right now?”
The question struck them.
But they knew the answer.
“Um… yes… I think I do”.
It turns out they had a strong desire to work in a creative field.
They hadn’t entertained this prospect at the first Strategy Session because they’d spent years developing their skills and connections in their current industry, and had subconsciously resigned themselves to following this path.
So we revisited the 5 questions again, and this time I asked them to let go of this bias and try to provide answers more true to them.
The answers flowed quickly and easily, as if they were waiting below the surface just waiting to emerge the whole time.
The client was shocked by how quickly these answers came, and even though they were a little uncertain about what this meant for their future, they gained the confidence to explore a new career path (which I’m pleased to say is going very well for them).
If you’re thinking about making a change in your career, I encourage you to give the 5 questions a go.
But before you do, make sure you let go of all your existing biases and assumptions about the career you should have.
What is the career you actually want?