When you hire a career coach, you’re not just hiring them, you’re hiring them for their expertise, experience,… (+) background, and connections. Make sure your package fits what you need to achieve.
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All great career coaches draw on their own expertise. Aligning that source of expertise with your own specific coaching goals is key to achieving your goals.
Coaches draw from a variety of sources of expertise. Professional experience, often based on decades in a particular industry or sector. formal training; research; and a wide network of relationships and contacts. And it comes from a deep sense of empathy for the client.
Although information can often come from multiple sources, it is often possible to identify one primary source of each coach’s expertise. Different types of expertise may be useful for different coaching needs.
framework
If you’re looking for help with a major change or a stalled career, a coach with a formal framework for guiding people through such events can be extremely helpful.
Julie Gerdeman is the Global Head of Data and Analytics at BNY (Bank of New York Mellon) and a client of coach Mark Nevins. She uses several frameworks such as the “Stakeholder Management Plan” that she learned from Mark. According to Julie, “This includes understanding key influencers and the dynamics of engaging with them to achieve your most important goals.” With Mark’s help, she creates a map that shows all the key players in her network (her own personal stakeholders) and how they play a role in achieving the outcomes she is aiming for, and then I used it as a guide for my interactions with them.
She believes the “Four Questions Pulse Check” is a useful framework not only during performance appraisal season, but also, with Mark’s encouragement, in regular conversations with her direct reports. She attests that this is “very simple and usually generates productive discussion.” Here are the four questions Julie asked:
What went well? What are you most proud of? What went wrong? What could you have done differently? What can you learn from it? What are your top priorities, or big rocks (as Mark likes to call them)? What did you accomplish? What do I want to do and what do I plan to do? What do I need to do to achieve those results? Are there any obstacles I can overcome?
Julie finds this framework to be very effective. “Members of my team were quick to open up and provide a ‘safe space’ to share things that might not be going so well and how we can work together to address them. ” Question 4 in particular is a great way to make sure you are doing everything you can to remove obstacles to achieving your goals. We’ve found that this framework works with everyone, at any time. ”
Working from this source of expertise, coaches need the wisdom to adapt the use of the framework to individual clients. Joel Bines is a retail expert, managing partner of Spruce Advisory LLP, author of The Metail Economy, and a client of Mark’s. “A framework is essential to effective coaching,” he says. “At the same time, adapting a framework to the situation rather than dogmatically sticking to it is what makes a good coach a good coach.”
That flexibility is key. “When I met Mark, the first thing I said was, “This is someone I can’t coach,” but what I really meant was, “I’m different, so I don’t want to take a conventional approach.” If he had pushed for a framework-first methodology, we would have made no progress. Instead, he applied his framework to my situation. As a result, he became a valuable coach, friend, and advisor.”
the study
For those seeking career fit advice, a coach with a deep research-based source of expertise can be the right choice, and can help you understand the relationship between your own personality, preferences, and career alternatives. Promote evidence-based consensus. Jack Merritt is a senior consultant and executive coach at Gallup, where his coaching practices are based on the CliftonStrengths System. CliftonStrengths (formerly known as StrengthsFinder) is built on extensive empirical research to identify a stable set of strengths in each person to help guide career selection and development.
Jack has been coaching at CliftonStrengths since its inception in 1999. She said: “CliftonStrengths not only increases mutual awareness of our clients’ innate talents, but also helps them feel confident in their abilities, understand themselves more deeply, and live authentically. , are encouraged to value the unique strengths of others, build diverse teams, and approach interactions with curiosity rather than judgment, ultimately setting them on the path to greater success in their leadership roles. It will be opened.”
life experience
A powerful source of expertise for coaches is their own life experiences. Working with such a coach is especially suitable for people who are struggling to get out of difficult situations. Daniel Gasser is no stranger to difficult situations. The Zurich, Switzerland-based coach, who was addicted to heroin in his late teens, was able to overcome his drug addiction, but fell into alcohol abuse for the next 30 years. “I was a complete failure,” he says in a Swiss-German accent. A serious traffic accident a few years ago triggered a successful change in my life. She now specializes in coaching women on how to deal with men like themselves.
network
A coach can not only tap into a source of expertise, but also integrate the client into it. This is the case when the source of a coach’s expertise is their own large network. This allows coaches to stay informed from a wide range of sources and forge new connections with clients. If you personally want to expand your network and find new clients and business opportunities, choose a coach with this source of expertise.
Cory Warfield has 500,000 followers on LinkedIn and teaches clients how to build their own networks. Alexey Navolokin heads semiconductor company AMD’s commercial sales organization in Asia Pacific. When I started working with Corey four years ago, he already had 70,000 LinkedIn followers. Corey provided “guidance on building and maintaining professional relationships through LinkedIn. He helped me create engaging and valuable content that showcased my expertise and engaged my followers. He helped me craft effective messages to reach my target audience and generate leads.” Following Corey’s guidance, Naborokin has surpassed his coach’s reach and now has over 700,000 followers. There is.
Coaches themselves appreciate the value of a good coach. David Citron’s company, expressocoaching.com, “helps adults with ADHD who are procrastinating on their goals to unleash their superpowers in just four minutes a day,” says David, who works with Corey. is also a customer of Although David was having great success with existing clients, he wanted to reach a wider audience. By working with Cory, he grew his LinkedIn followers from 9,000 to over 100,000 in 4 months. We currently have customers in 31 countries on six continents.
When you hire a career coach, you’re not just hiring them, you’re hiring their expertise, experience, background, and connections. Make sure this package matches what you want to achieve.
