
Career Coaching
Sunday just gone I ran a workshop titled Life Chef Recipes for a Crackling Career, it was a fantastic day with a lovely group of intelligent, hardworking individuals, all looking to find more fulfillment in their working life.
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When I asked the group attending my career coaching workshop how many of them felt satisfied, alive or strong within the role they performed at work or at the end of their working day. Not one single person put their hand up.
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I then rephrased the question and asked how many of them felt fulfilled, strong or alive approximately 80% of the time in their chosen career or place of work. Nothing….
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Oh dear I thought, ok stay optimistic and let’s drop this to 70%, still no one….. 60%, one hand went up!
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“Ok how many of you fell alive, or satisfied within your chosen career / work approximately 50% of the time,” 40% of the room put their hand up…ok we are are getting somewhere, I thought.
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Once again I rephrased the questions, “How many of you feel weak, unfulfilled and drained at the end of most working days?”The remaining 60% put their hands up.
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Ah ha I thought, I had started too positively..so I asked .”How many of you feel unfulfilled, drained and or weak at the mere thought of going into work?” the same 60% put their hand up.
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Why is it that so many people feel weak or unhappy at work, do we go into our careers with too high an expectation, are we expecting our career to fill us up in ways that are not possible, or are we simply failing to listen to the clues life leaves us?
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Many people who come to me for career coaching recognise that they are highly skilled for their jobs or perform their roles incredibly well, however if you asked them if they felt passionate or invigorated about the tasks they perform on a day to day basis most would say no, not at all.
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The problem is we are taught and often assessed on the basis that our strengths are what we are good at and our weaknesses are are what we are bad at. Work with your strengths and focus on improving your weaknesses. WRONG!! Your strengths are not just about what you are good at a strength should be based on what makes you feel stronger and alive when you carry out that activity.
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So my question to you is what makes you feel alive, what gives you strength, what aspects of your previous jobs or career paths did you enjoy the most? Pay attention to what is going on within your work, that will tell you what direction you need to be headed in?
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Trust me, every time I have sat down with my clients and looked at what makes them feel strong and alive and what weakens them we come up with some amazing realisations. We then reconfigure how they spend their time, eliminating many of the weak tasks as possible and increasing the strong tasks/ roles within their life and career. By then end of our short time together it is amazing how differently they behave and feel, and how they suddenly start to flourish both with their work life and private life.
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Finding your authentic strengths within the work you do does not neccessarily mean you have to quit your job or turn your life upside down, on several occassions it has involved going into an organisation and looking at how they are maximising their teams strengths and weaknesses.
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RECOMMENDED READING BOOK REVIEW, MARCUS BUCKINGHAM – FIND YOUR STRONGEST LIFE
(Mainly aimed at women, but is ok for men as well, if you look past that)
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If you want to identify your strengths, find out what makes you come alive and discover where you maybe need to pay more attention then I would definitely suggest you pick up a copy of Marcus Buckingham’s book Find your strongest life, (ISBN 978-1-4002-8078-0).
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I love reading and not a day goes by when I don’t have a book or two, three sometimes 6 in my handbag at any one go! However there is only one book I have been pulling out of my handbag the last 3 days, between my client appointments. Marcus’s book has definitely hit my top 10 when it comes to career coaching and finding your true path.
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His obvious passion for finding out what makes people strong, and clearing up any myths based on gender and ability definitely resonates with me. Finding your strengths and living a strong life is something I have been consciously paying attention to for the last 15 years and working with my clients on for the last 10 years so I know this works. Great book, easy read and don’t forget to do the strong life test at www.StrongLifeTest.com
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Alternatively if you would like a FREE 30 minute Career Coaching session to look at where you are headed, what makes you strong or weak and how to feel alive and on track with your career, please feel free to call me on 020 3239 9338 or email me at office@thelifechef.com
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Until next time
With love from
The life Chef
(Cooking up a storm in the Universal Kitchen!)
Mary x