Why I became a Career Coach

My motivation to become the best Career Coach possible.

We all have reasons why we do what we do, our characters and experiences create a framework around which we build our lives.

I realized I haven’t shared my motivation for becoming a career coach with you.

So, I thought I would unpack my metaphorical rucksack and share a few things that brought me to where I am.

Like many, I am passionately interested in people, and have always had a need to understand human nature.

I love to watch family, friends and clients develop capabilities, skills that help them to move towards the life they want to live and the person they want to grow into.

So what influenced me to invest years to become a qualified Career Coach?

I ..

• worked in diverse teams and environments for over 20 years, often building lifelong friendships with colleagues. Occasionally I worked with people I didn’t gel with which created a struggle to build mutual respect. I became obsessed with understanding why this happens and how to make relationships work even in challenging situations.
• spent years recruiting people for companies and building teams which encouraged me to become very curious about why some people really enjoyed work and thrived under pressure while others didn’t or couldn’t.?I wanted to help people feel better and be successful at work.
• suffered with PTSD and panic attacks after a distressing knife attack in London but was lucky enough to be referred for support. This helped me start learning tools and techniques to cope, diminish and finally eliminate negative physical reactions and unhelpful thoughts. I feel passionately that with helpful strategies and the right approach we can massively improve our lives.
• saw first-hand bias at work, watching some colleagues being shortlisted for interviews and promotion opportunities, moving up the career ladder, whilst others, equally capable were side-lined or unnoticed. I wanted to stand out in a non-aggressive manner, I studied, practiced and developed better awareness of how to speak with people in a way that builds trust and connection, I want to pass techniques on to others using coaching skills I developed.
• have interviewed hundreds (probably in the thousands) of people, which has helped me understand efficient and effective communication and influencing skills, a deep understanding of how to build rapport and trust quickly.
• witnessed inequality in the workplace, feeling appalled by the effect this had on the lives of individuals. I was intrigued to discover, analyse and examine different methods to effectively handle challenging situations both internally within ourselves and externally at work.
• worked for people for whom I had great respect, and others whose values I did not support. I developed a new skillset which allowed me to influence and work with people who were different from myself whilst focusing on moving to more rewarding environments.
• came to understand workplace ‘politics’ and watched how people ‘played the game’. It became essential to build skills to market myself for promotions and opportunities whilst maintaining my values of authenticity, honesty and truth.
• poured everything into my work only to be ‘passed over’ when greed and personal gain reared its ugly head. I learnt that I needed to develop skills to help manage my career effectively and control my own progression. Once I employed the attitude of ‘self-management’ I was able to quickly build my dream career and my best life.
• loved working in teams when the chemistry and direction WORKED together creating highly fulfilling, empowering and successful environments. So much so that I want to help others create and experience the same feeling.

These experiences and reasons have led me to support others to build successful and fulfilling careers, I have developed and applied internationally recognised and qualified coaching skills in order to do so.

These reasons are WHY I continue to grow my coaching skills daily and support as many people as I can through my business.

I now have a career that I love and a life which I am thankful for every day of every year.

I am very grateful for all I have learned and want to help others build a life they love as well.

If you’re looking for help with accelerating your career success, happiness and growth then make sure you find out the ‘Why’ behind the career coach you choose to work with.

After all, it’s our?WHY?that is at the heart of all we do and where our values become clear.