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| ... And From the Career Excellence Club | ||||||||||
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| Editors' Choice Article Coach Yourself to Success Learning to Help Yourself
You can take this self-coaching approach to career or life issues too. In this article, Mind Tools coach Sharon Juden shares the steps that many professional career and life coaches help their clients take - so that you can apply this approach to your own life! (Of course, anyone who is determined to reach the highest performance levels would be well advised to work with a professional, and this applies to career and life issues as well as personal fitness. For these, there's no substitute for working with professionals like the Mind Tools career coaches!) Step 1: Know What You Want It's very easy to identify things you're NOT happy with and to get stuck in that negative state of mind. At this stage, coaches often hear comments like "No one at work takes me seriously"; "I need to lose weight, but I can't"; or "My boss is so frustrating." But if you want things to change, then you need to identify what you DO want and WOULD be happy with. Unfortunately, while "know what you want" is easy to say, a surprising number of us really don't know this - and simply telling us to figure it out won't help. And if we don't know the direction to take, where we end up may be no better than the place we left! Other people have only a vague idea of what they want, and they never take the time to be more specific. This means that they have a certain amount of success, but, because they're never fully committed to one particular direction, they can only get so far. To get past this, coaches encourage their clients to explore this problem to find its real root cause. For example, Sally may feel that her career is going nowhere because "no one takes me seriously." She might discover that this is because she takes on all of the small tasks in the team, and, because of this, she doesn't have time to work on the big ideas that would show her potential for promotion. Often, people start out feeling that they're "victims," and that the source of their problem lies outside their control. For instance, a frustrating boss won't go away, or weight can't be lost. But these people may find that their own attitude or response is contributing to the problem. With the root cause identified, "what you want" is the reverse of that situation. Your new thoughts become "I am focused on important tasks"; "I am clear about what I should and should not do to lose weight"; or "I am relaxed about my boss changing his mind." Step 2: Set a SMART Goal In "The Little Book of Coaching," Ken Blanchard and Don Shula say, "A broad target that's easy to achieve leads to the ‘puddle' of mediocrity." So, the next step is to express "what you want" as a clear goal. This might seem like an unnecessary step, but it's really important. A properly defined goal statement will act as a motivator. It will help you prevent yourself from backing out of things you SHOULD be doing, but perhaps don't really WANT to do. Use the SMART acronym to help you structure a goal. SMART stands for:
Write your goal down. This helps you clarify your thoughts, and it helps you see your progress as you look back over the various steps you've set for yourself. This way, you can see if you're on track or not. For example, Melanie is frustrated by her boss. She might set this goal: "By the end of the month, I'll have learned how to respond calmly and positively whenever Alex asks me to rework something. Then I'll do the work, understanding that it's an opportunity to impress him." See our article on goal setting for more on this. Step 3: Take Action Determine what needs to happen to move you toward your goal:
Step 4: Be Passionate Make sure that what you've chosen to do is something you really care about, and really want to happen - otherwise, you know you won't do it! Also, notice if you're holding back a little. Sometimes, we can stop ourselves getting too excited about an outcome because we doubt we can do it. If a lack of self-belief or the fear of failure is holding you back, try the following exercise:
Do you often give up when you hit an obstacle? Do you see it as a sign that you're not meant to continue, so you stop? If this is the case, then it's worth remembering success stories from the past – such as Colonel Sanders, who created Kentucky Fried Chicken. He didn't fulfill his dream until he was 65 years old. It's said that when he tried to sell his chicken recipe to restaurants, he was refused 1,009 times before he heard his first yes. And what about Walt Disney? He was turned down 302 times before he got financing for his dream of creating "the happiest place on earth." So, if you hit obstacles and doubt whether you should continue or not, decide if your goal is worth having. If it is, then be persistent. If it isn't, go back to Step 1. Key Points For complex career or personal issues, there's no substitute for working with a qualified, experienced coach. But for smaller issues, if you understand the approach that coaches use when working with their clients, you can often go a long way toward working through problems and challenges on your own. First of all, you need to make sure you're clear about what you want - and turn that into a goal. Then you must identify the actions you need to take to make that goal happen. And you need to be passionate and persistent about working on it. Good luck coaching yourself to success! And remember that we're here in the Career Excellence Club forums and in person if you need any help! |
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| A Final Note from James With yourself as your personal coach, available 24/7 and exclusively dedicated to your success – how can you fail to be inspired? Grasp this opportunity today, and get the coach within you working towards your success! In our next issue, we’ll be asking "Is This a Morning Task?", and we'll be finding out how to write a great business case - one that gets you the approval you need for the projects you want to run. Until then, have a great two weeks!
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