Here’s a question for you, ‘Where are you in your career?’ Could you answer instantly or did you pause and consider your answer? If you paused then perhaps you are hiding rather than focusing upon getting your career working for you? Here are some tips on how to spot you are hiding and if you are, actions to take to address this.
It’s all too easy to get wrapped up in your current role, your to do list, the next project and forget to take a step back to consider where you are in your career and where you want to go next. I refer to this as hiding under your career bed, we’ve all done it and I’m no different.
When I reflect on my career to date I can pinpoint the times I’d paused my career and started to hide under my career bed. When did I do this? When I’d outgrown my role. Why did I do this? The challenge had started to reduce and as a result it was affecting my confidence and self esteem, making it harder to think where do I want to go next, push myself forward for a new challenge.
Work is a significant part of our lives and is a critical contributor to our confidence and self esteem, when it fulfils our motivational needs we are buzzing, we enjoy coming to work, pushing ourselves and encouraging those around us. We and the world around us is constantly changing, our needs change and it’s important to evaluate your working world regularly to identify if it’s still the right fit for you, if it isn’t then it’s time to think about what’s next. This is why I remind my client’s to interview their role regularly, to enable them to identify when it’s time to start looking for the next step to avoid the confidence and self esteem barriers appearing.
A few questions for you to ponder;
1. What motivates you?
2. How often have your motivators been met in the last month at work?
3. Are you noticing it’s getting harder to motivate yourself at work?
If you aren’t experiencing your motivators being met and/or you are noticing difficulty in motivating yourself at work it’s time to ask yourself ‘Am I in the right role?’
I did this five and half years ago, I was being made redundant and it would have been easy to look for a role similar to the one I was leaving, however, I’d already started to outgrow this role, so now what?
I’d finished my OU Psychology degree and knew I wanted to apply what I’d learnt directly but how? I identified that I wanted to become an executive coach so started a course to train to become one, over that year long coaching qualification I did pro bono coaching to build up my skill set and experience as a coach.
I set up ThriveMinds in 2014 and have been coaching and training on Confidence, Self Esteem and Motivation ever since. It aligns beautifully with my unique motivators but I also continue to regularly interview my role with my coach, my business is growing and I’m changing so it’s something to always revisit regularly.
Your Career- Are You Ready For Your Next Career Step?
If the answer feels yes then here are my top 3 actions to take;
1) Review your LinkedIn profile, and ask yourself ‘Does this profile reflect me as of today?'
2) List your motivators and plot your past three roles against these and reflect on what this shows you about your motivators as of today.
3) Ask yourself, ‘Who do I know that can help me to uncover my next career step?’
To find out more about the coaching programmes I offer please visit www.thriveminds.co.uk or email me on cathy.hilton@thriveminds.co.uk