Career Crossroads

Do you feel there is more to you than your job allows you to be?

It’s not uncommon today to come to a crossroads regarding career decisions. You may have spent a number of years to get where you are and now you’re faced with a difficult decision.

Do you stay in a job that you’re familiar with, that offers a secure income but seems to be draining your life essence? Or do you start on a different career path that seems more appealing but could involve retraining, a drop in pay and loss of benefits?

This is a very common situation people face between the ages of 35 to 45, although it can also happen earlier or later in life. It affects successful executives as well as people who feel they are stuck in a dead end job. You might ‘have it all’ in the eyes of others yet still feel a strong sense of dissonance between what you do and who you are.

Feeling this way might be labeled a ‘mid-life crises’. Things seemed better years ago and in an effort to recapture the good times a new identity is, often erroneously, seen as the answer.

At its best this could involve taking on some regular exercise, an improved diet, reconnecting with old friends or extending social circles through a clubs, classes or common interest groups.

Sadly others feel that investing in expensive wardrobes, exotic cars, and other symbolic items is the answer. For some a new partner becomes alluring and a marriage or long-term relationship is broken up and the same feelings of dissatisfaction are carried into the new relationship.

This is because changing the outer world doesn’t necessarily equate to changing the inner world. While some exterior changes can have positive side effects, treating the symptoms and not the cause will only take you so far.

At Business Coach Auckland we know that to find out what really makes you tick you need to address both the inner and outer worlds. By gaining information about your conscious and unconscious processes, we can help you to also understand the deeper motives and drives that shape who you are.

This is crucial information to have when you are at a crossroads in your career. By gaining insights into these ‘hidden’ areas you will understand what your real strengths and development potentials are. These can be quite different to strengths that you may have developed by having to adapt.

Innate strengths are the areas that you are, or can be really good at by nature. When your work role is aligned with these core competencies you are able to express your real talents. You will experience a high natural energy flow, cope well under pressure, and find satisfaction in what you do.

The opposite of this is developing a career around what we call ‘adapted behaviour’. These are strengths that you have had to adapt to learn. They are useful and probably serve you well under ideal conditions. The downside is that they are not aligned with who you really are, and because they are not true to you nature these are the areas of work that tend to drain you and really cause stress when under pressure.

This is often the cause of the crossroads. Whether you are seen as successful or not, if your job is out of alignment with your inner world, if you’re in a role that doesn’t allow you to develop and express your inherent strengths, chances are things don’t feel right.

There can be a long-term cost to your authenticity and self-esteem by remaining stuck in a role where you have to adapt to meet expectations, and have no vehicle to develop and express the potentials that are really you.

The technology we use at Business Coach Auckland is like nothing else on the market. We are the only Auckland providers accredited to use the patented Inner Leader Development Compass, an assessment that will give you clear information about your inner drivers that behavioural based assessments can’t identify.

This is critical information, especially for those people standing at a crossroads in their working life. Whether you want to change careers, get clear on the best development path for you in your current career, or you just feel flat and under-utilised and know that you could be so much more, a comprehensive understanding of your inner make-up will help you to identify a path that is going to be rewarding and enjoyable.

If you’re thinking this might be for you, why not book in for an initial consultation to find more?

Vaughan
Business Coach Auckland

Business Coach Auckland: Be an Effective Communicator

Being able to communicate clearly and effectively is critical to business success, yet how many people think that simply TELLING someone something suffices?

Communication is a two way street, and it’s important to be able to LISTEN well if you want to be able to deliver your message effectively.

Business Coach Auckland

Listening can be categorized into four levels:

COSMETIC – This is when you’re not really listening at all, you might be pretending you are by giving the occasional nod or grunt to pretend you’re listening, but really your mind is somewhere else.

CONVERSATIONAL – As the name suggests, you are engaged in conversation. You are listening, though you’re also talking, thinking about what’s been said, thinking about what you’ll say next, and sometimes interrupting what the other person is trying to say.

ACTIVE – Now you’re more serious. You’re actively focused on what the other person is saying with the intent of understanding what’s being said and why it’s important to that person.

DEEP – At this stage you are completely focused on what the other person is saying. You’re able to listen beyond words and notice HOW the other person is saying things, and also what is NOT being said.

Listening is an active and intentional process, unlike hearing which is simply an auditory function. To listen means to actively perceive information, not only through the ears, but also through use of our other senses. Often it’s noticing what’s not being said that can lead to the greatest insights.

The first two levels, Cosmetic and Conversational, can be labeled as hearing. Yet you’re not really hearing the other person at all. Not until you apply the levels of Active and Deep listening do you truly get what the other person is saying.

To fully listen to another speaks loudly of your intention and acts as a powerful motivator for TRUST.

This is one of the reasons why emails will never be an appropriate substitute for effective communication. The printed word can never portray facial expressions, tone of voice, body language, and all the other signals that you use and can pick up in others through intentional listening.

Next time you want to communicate an important message, and you want to know the person hears you, understands you, and trusts you – incorporate some good open questions into your message and flex your finer listening muscles.

If this is a skill that could be refined in your business, you might want to consider contacting us at Business Coach Auckland and finding out about a customized Effective Communication program to enhance productivity and engagement in your people.

All the Best!

Vaughan
Business Coach: Auckland