These Days Everyone Can Benefit from Having a Career Coach

Career Coaches have been an easy target over the past 30+ years. Skeptics may say the work of coaches is woo-woo, or intangible, but millions of people are benefitting from a secret weapon, the coach who helps them navigate nuanced and tricky professional and/or freelance careers. As a career coach for the past 30 years, working in universities and also with my own coaching business for 20 of those years, I have coached clients through the lay-offs and reorganizations of the early 90’s, the early 2000’s and the Great Recession. On a daily basis, I and other professional coaches, support clients to make major life decisions and changes, discover new ways of leading their teams, start their businesses, design new roles, and relocate for jobs, family and educational options. Finding themselves, as Lauren Mechling mentions in her article in the?New York Times?on 11/20/21,?Career Coaching Today: Forget the Corporate Ladder and Find Yourself?is, and has been, at the root of the entire process of career and executive coaching. If climbing a corporate ladder?is what matters most to my client, I’m going to help them to know?why, and then we’ll work to make that happen. No one I work with takes action without coming to know more about themselves.?

We’ve all been hearing a lot about the 4.4+ million people who have left their jobs during this past year. The media has coined this movement as the Great Resignation. I consider this to be a bit of a misnomer. Sadly, people who have labored in the food service, healthcare, factory and warehouse sectors were disproportionately hit by Covid-19; tragically, people died?because?of their jobs and their exposure to Covid-19. It’s no wonder so many have fled their jobs. However, in the white collar world, this wave of resignations means that people are quitting what may have previously been coveted?jobs, to now take other positions where they find better leadership, more interesting work, more money, better resources, and most importantly, respect and balance.?

Having seen so many employment cycles, and experiencing the pandemic with my clients, I see something different than other downturns. My take-away right now is that many leaders at the top, and those who manage downward, have lost quality workers due to their lack of transparency about their own difficulties meeting organizational goals. Blatant disregard for the hard work and yes, sacrifice, that these information workers have made during the past two years is staggering. Currently, I have several clients whose departments have been diminished by layoffs or attrition, but their leadership expects the same output as always. Attempting to fulfill the same ambitious expectations with significantly less human capital and other resources has my clients frustrated, resentful, and exhausted. They are looking to leave as well.

On the job search side, remarkably, I’ve also had clients go through multiple rounds of interviews with one company, only to be ghosted. Think of the time it takes to simply schedule these interviews, let alone the preparation that goes into them. Respectful communication from company representatives should be the baseline here. I am embarrassed by the behavior of these hiring managers, their companies, and their leadership. The lack of respect that hiring managers and leaders have for those who depend on them for potential employment seems to be waning during a time when the opposite is called for. You could say these leaders have forgotten what it is to be vulnerable. Removed from the unenviable position of job searching during, arguably, the most uncertain time of our lives, many leaders appear to have lost touch with what the majority of job?searchers and employees are experiencing.??

Research shows that leaders who are willing to share their own uncomfortable vulnerability, their authentic humanity, can increase the sense of safety and collaboration within teams, leading to greater productivity and satisfaction in their organization. When, early in the lock-down days of the pandemic, the?Center for Compassionate Leadership?conducted a study?to discern how vulnerable and authentic leaders saw themselves in their organizations, a predictable dichotomy appeared. More senior executives/leaders self-reported behaving with higher vulnerability and authenticity. Significantly fewer employees, however, reported that their leaders were sharing their vulnerability or authenticity during our worldwide pandemic. Interestingly, when my clients identify the companies they find most attractive, it is those whose senior leaders are more relatable, those who admit their mistakes, and who mandate health and wellness initiatives like extra days off and flex time, because they recognize the toll these times have taken.?

My smart, motivated and creative clients have been overlooked, over-worked, over-managed or on over-drive, for too long.??They know it’s time to take a good look at themselves and their capabilities, to get past their loss of confidence and energy, to find a way of working that doesn’t deplete them, but rather empowers them to be who they’ve worked so hard to become.?

Yes, some of my clients are absolutely looking for a more radical kind of change. We work on these aims, not through palm readings or astrology (I admit I’m intrigued!), but through deep conversations, achievable research, and other exercises that ultimately result in my clients being able to hear and listen to themselves – something they don’t do when they’re in a constant scramble to meet professional deadlines they are motivated to achieve – up to a point. My clients re-connect to themselves as a result of our deeply human conversations. Reacquainted with their unique ways of contributing, and achieving, clients feel less anxious and more equipped to go for what they want. During these pandemic times we’ve seen how much we all need each other. Conversations with a skilled career coach may just fill a void far too many have been experiencing.