Most professionals will face challenges, stagnation, and utter chaos in their careers. In economic times like today, you might experience all 3 simultaneously. Your organization might be chaotic, creating enormous challenges for you and your colleagues; and because of all that uncertainty, you might feel stagnant in your career blocked from opportunities to grow within the organization but fearful of moving elsewhere lest you be "the last one hired and the first one on the RIF list." Professionals, around the globe, are seeking a better understanding of how to create a career that is resilient in these turbulent times. For many professionals today, that first step toward career resilience, is investing in career coaching.
Career coaching is becoming ubiquitous in the lives of today's professionals. Almost every one has a career coach guiding them on the tough decisions they are facing including should I stay or should I go? What's next for me? What do I really want to be doing? What's ideal for me? It makes sense that you would want expert advice, stellar resources, and a results focus relative to your career. It's commonplace to seek that out when facing an especially challenging business problem and it's clear that the ROI from expertise for an organization can be 10x, 20x, even 100x.
Take for instance one organization who sought out consulting to solve its logistic problems. Not only did it solve those problems that it once thought impossible but it was able to move way ahead of its competitors, started attracting top talent, and found itself on the cover of Forbes and featured in an HBR article recognized for truly game-changing innovation. The return on those fees was 10x not just the first year, but for 10+ years forward.
The same can be said for professionals who engage career coaching services. Problems they believed unsurmountable often aren't. It just takes an outside perspective, perhaps resources unknown to them, and a results focus to find not just one path forward but often multiple paths forward. And the returns we see at JobMorph for clients who engage us are massive: doubling of salaries, achieving life-long dreams, and a work environment that finally feels right. The return on those fees often is 10x not just the first year, but for 10+ years forward. Even, for some early in their career, for 40 years forward.
It's this powerful incentive that has led to career coaching becoming ubiquitous in the lives of today's professionals. But not all coaching is the same and if you are considering career coaching its important to consider these things before making a decision:
- Coaching is not regulated in any country. And coaching "accreditors" are also not regulated. Anyone can call themselves a coach and everyone can become a coaching accreditor. None of the certifications have any third-party validation as requirements for employment as coaches. It's truly the wild west and the buyer (you) needs to beware. So look for those try-before-you-buy-guarantees that last 30 days. If they believed in their abilities they would offer that. And if the guarantee is for 5 days or 7 days after purchase, that's a cooling-off law for them to do business in their state; in other words, they have to do that. Don't take that to mean anything other than not doing that would put them in the cross-hairs with their state regulators.
- Truly understand what your fees cover. Are you paying to achieve your goal? Or are you paying for a period of service -- say an hour, 50 minutes, a month, 3 months? Many coaching organizations are charging for their time and aren't really committing to achieving anything specifically within that time. If you sign up for a month, they aren't saying you will definitely achieve your outcome within a month. They are just saying that for this 30 day period, we'll provide our services to you for this rate. If that's okay with you, and you are understanding going in, that your particular challenge may require another 30 days, or another, or another -- and you have the fiscal resources to keep the meter running until you arrive at your destination, go for it. But most of us need to know the fare before we hop in for the ride. And if that's what you need, make sure you look for a a coaching company that operates more like Uber.
- Study closely the background of the founder/owner/CEO. Did they spend 12 years in marketing before starting a coaching company guiding professionals in their careers? This means you are buying content they have gathered from the public domain and will be redistributing to you through a drip campaign until you stop paying them. If that's what you want in terms of advising, this is the right organization for you. If want you want is someone who has experience actually helping tens of thousands of professionals take the next step in their careers, has actually undergrad and graduate degrees in psychology and business, then look for that. Find actual professionals in this space leading organizations after spending 10, 20, 30, and even 40 years in career coaching. As a professional yourself in your field place value in the idea that if someone is an expert in a field, organizations known to you would have hired them to do that work, time and time again. And institutions known to you would have conferred credentials known to you. Be wary of World Corporation of Recognition A.W.rM degrees. And be even more wary of letters you've never ever seen before behind someone's name. When something looks not right, it's most likely not right.
- Don't just rely on reviews from unidentified people. Not saying all anonymous reviews are suspect but if all the reviews come from unidentified but impressive titles and organizations, it's right to wonder why not one single person is willing to give his/her full name. Not one single person. Ever? This looks suspicious to me and it should to you, too: Alex M. Senior Executive, Microsoft. Betty R. Global Lead Project Manager, Amazon, Venkatesh P. Senior Recruiter, Google.
- Free isn't always free. If someone is offering all their services to you for free, they are getting paid somehow and you have a right to know, in advance of trusting your career to them, how they pay their vendors, their staff, themselves, and (if for-profit) their taxes. If they are 100% funded by the Crazy Church of the Moonstruck Mavens you have a right to know that. If your career is their side-gig, you have a right to know that. And if helping you for free is their way of gaining certification from some organization you have a right to know that. In advance. So ask about their business model. It's a fair question for one professional to ask another professional. Plus, knowing that can give you some assurance that they will be around for the period of time you might need their help.
Nothing I've said you don't know. I'm (I think) mostly reminding you what you know. In some ways that can be said for all consulting out there. We're not necessarily telling you things that you don't know or even things that you couldn't know without us. We're more of an accelerant. An extra pair of hands. An extra brain to tackle the challenge. An impartial colleague who is 100% on your side, always. And the owner of tons of data about what you are about to do that we can impart to give you a head start, a clear path, and avoid some missteps. It's no wonder then that consulting is ubiquitous to business and that career consulting has become ubiquitous to professionals. The ROI just makes sense.
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