Professional 1:1 coaching and mentoring. If you are interested in CPD or Continuous Professional Development and have a Personal Development Plan for work then this blog is for you.

We all have professional development needs whatever stage we are at in our career. Addressed, we will continue to develop and grow in our professional life. Some of these needs can be addressed by a course or reading. Increasingly, professionals are looking for a tailored one to one approach and this is where professional coaching and mentoring comes in.

I thought that I would write about the 3 most common development needs that clients have been using me for as their coach and mentor.

1. Confidence and resilience bouncing back from difficulties. Belief in your ability to achieve a specific outcome. For example, I am working with a client who wants to trust herself to answer tricky client questions rather than needing reassurance and deferring to senior colleagues. The work we are doing started with her practising state management tools until these became a habit or unconscious competence. Now we are working on response strategies and options rather than a reactive "I don't know. I will get X (senior colleague) to call you." To develop her resilience we are literally developing her mind and body strength in a few ways so that she is ready to act in the busiest of times and trickiest of scenarios. We are also using NLP or Neuro-Linguistic-Programming for belief change work.

2. Developing presence. Here I am working with clients on a number of areas including body language, tonality especially word emphasis and avoiding monotone delivery, impactful behaviour and presentation. Clients enjoy resetting or establishing their brand and practising ways to encourage interest from key stakeholders. The key thing here is for it to work as well as being authentic and comfortable for you.

3. Being strategic and decisive. In this area we start with defining what this looks like and the behaviours involved. For example, not micromanaging and planning ahead. We also practice using a number of strategic frameworks and decision making tools.

The point is that we all need to be honest with ourselves and talk about where we are falling short of our potential. By getting real and identifying our development areas specifically, we can address them and get better results. Having discussed this with a number of clients we all agree that when we do this we are honouring ourselves, having self-respect and staying away from the sloppy end of the spectrum!

 

Make Choices & Feel Understood

One of my clients told me recently that the best thing about coaching with my support was that she now felt understood and able to make choices. I wanted to explore this further with her which she agreed to.

My client said that saying her thoughts out loud and having me listen and say that I understood was a big relief. When she had done this with friends in the past they had listened without saying anything and then went on to talk about their own experience in this area. As a result of this she had stopped sharing her thoughts with friends and had felt increasingly overwhelmed by them. Her feelings had been fearful, panicky and anxious for years.

Being understood is one of our major needs as humans, along with giving and receiving love and making choices. 

Sharing that being understood made her feel safe and secure to express her true thoughts.

My client said that once she felt understood she felt that she could identify her choices and be self-directing in her life.  She suddenly felt a massive energy surge that replaced a feeling of helplessness.

We cannot control our feelings. We can control our thoughts. A good coach will work with you to help you to understand and control your thinking in most cases and in turn help you to experience more positive feelings.

If you are feeling like my client was please get in touch to discuss your needs using pam@westofenglandcoachingandcounselling.co.uk or 07712716602.

Career Transition

 If during lockdown you have been contemplating a career change then this blog is for you.

The past months have created more uncertainty than most of us have ever experienced before.

They have also generated unprecedented changes in the ways that we live and work.

One of the benefits of remote working is opening up a massive opportunity in terms of careers.

Perhaps lockdown has facilitated your desire to do something different, for example, to meet your other responsibilities. 

Research correlates a number of factors with career satisfaction. Some of my work involves helping clients to diagnose what careers would work best for them in providing career satisfaction.

The starting point is work values. I would advise that you brainstorm your work values and then prioritise the top 5. For example, mine are health and wellbeing, learning and development, results, connection and freedom. 

Your next step is to consider some career options that come to mind that would meet your top 5 work values.

You may then research say the 3 career options that you think of. Perhaps one stands out as unrealistic and one just feels right. You can then start to think about the gap between where you are now and what you want to do in your career. Perhaps training or coaching is the next step.

I work through a number of other predictors of career satisfaction with you to help you to establish the best career fit for you.

For help in career transition please contact me via pam@westofenglandcoachingandcounselling.co.uk

If you have changed your work environment due to the C-19 pandemic please read on.

Perhaps you are now working mainly from home. Whilst there are benefits to you of this 'where' I am working, such as less commuting time, you may have started to notice some downsides such as sitting for long periods, not taking breaks and working more hours. 

I am working with several individuals just now to help them to adjust their daily habits so that they feel more in control of their thinking and their behaviour.

One lady is working on her eating and exercise habits using a plan that she put together last month with my support. The plan is tailored to her personality and the way she works as well as sugary snack substitutions that she enjoys just as much!

Working from home, albeit often with a virtual communication network can feel lonely and disconnected.

I am working with clients to make small as well as pleasant changes that address the impact of the new working from home model.

Personal development is the best thing that you can do for your wellbeing, helping you to master your psychology and improve your physical health, due to your mind-body connection.

If you would like help and support on your personal development journey, please get in touch in the first instance via enquiries@westofenglandcoachingandcounselling.co.uk, sharing a bit about what you would like to address.