Will I lose my job?  “Stood down”, what does it mean anyway?  Am I in the right job?

These uncertain times can certainly bring up the concern of job security, but also presents an opportunity to truly check in with yourself and to consider “Is this the career path I always wanted?” or “Is my work a true expression of who I am?”

Why is this the best time to find out?

(a)  This could be the wake-up call you have needed to commit to your passion, to look for  greater fulfillment in a role where your strengths are appreciated, or an environment that “just-feels-right”.  It’s important for you know exactly how to do this, with the right guidance, personalised tools, and perhaps the right coach.

(b) The stress of uncertainty compounds over time.  Instead of waiting for conditions to change, why not alleviate your stress by getting clear about your purpose, your capability, and craft a plan to get you where you want to be.  When you move from confusion to clarity, stress naturally disappears.

It’s time to gain clarity of purpose and of your future.

This crisis has hit hard and very quickly.  It has thrown all normality as we know out the window and has left us disrupted and agitated. People wonder what is going to become of all this, of their jobs and of their way of life.  The stress of this sustained crisis is likely to affect many people for months to come.

In these times, it’s important to know that anxiety and grief are natural states, however without intervention, your wellness can go from bad to worse.  According to medical research conducted by Harvard University, chronic stress can keep us in fight or flight mode, and can diminish our performance and capacity to think effectively by up to 50%.  Unless we take charge of our career related stress and wellness, the impact of this crisis could have grave financial and human consequences.

Fortunately, we have a few specialist coaches with a dual focus and expertise in the areas of career change and wellness.  They encourage and guide clients along a two-pronged process which releases stress and anxiety and helps to clear the mind of clutter and negative patterns – clearing the path with a plan to align identity, strengths, and purposeful careers.

Who can help you make a successful career change?

Shahran Masood, a Performance Coach | Career Change Specialist | Resilience Coach on the team, says “with clarity of mind and greater self-awareness you’re well on your way to call on your strengths and express yourself honestly in work, business and life”.  Shahran will support you in the alignment of your (new) identity and with your career development plan. While receiving consistent coaching and being held accountable, good habits will form, your confidence will grow – as you bridge the gap from where you are, to when you want to be.

For full details and pricing go to our Contact Us page to make your request or call Sandy or Shahran on 1300137706 for confidential discussion.

The post Job Security?? But weren’t you thinking about a career change anyway? appeared first on Life Coaching Melbourne.

I wholeheartedly believe that creativity is something that can be ignited in each and every one of us regardless of who we are or what we do for a living. Now, I can appreciate that creativity means different things in different industries, though I believe that being creative is simply being true to ourselves.

Being true to ourselves means spending more time doing what makes us happy, doing what we love. It means giving ourselves the opportunity to really listen to that inner whisper living inside us all, that points us in the direction of a more purposeful, fulfilling and playful life. When we tap into that source which I call creativity, we step into a space where we can take more risks, we can think outside the box, we can be more innovative and courageous as we navigate forward in our professional and personal life.

We lead lives that can be enormously busy juggling different balls, sometimes all at once. My philosophy is that putting creativity in the driver’s seat can inspire self-confidence, resilience and authenticity in our working and personal lives. When we ignite that creative spark, we live more in curiosity, rather than self-doubt. We live more in purpose, than confusion. Finally we live more in humour. And you know what they say about humour? Smiling is the highest form of meditation. I highly recommend it!

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As always, the first step in doing something about a blind spot is awareness. And yet, having light shone onto a blind spot can be very challenging. It can have us questioning ourselves and our way of being and it can impact our confidence. It can absolutely feel like criticism, but it’s usually not.  Really, it’s an opportunity for growth and personal development and as such, it’s a gift.

So how do we lessen the sting and increase the learning? I think there are a number of key steps:

1. Approach any feedback around blind spots with a learning mindset.  

Be curious. What does the behaviour, approach or mindset look like in different contexts? That is, how does the behaviour show up for us?

For example, while I’m not proud of it, I know it doesn’t bring out the best in me if I don’t feel heard. This may show up in responses that are a little sharper than I intended, or I may interrupt instead of allowing someone to finish what they’re saying. The trick for me is to look further and see if needing to be heard actually shows up in other places that I’m a little less aware of. I need to be attuned to the signs that may be more subtle, but may still impact my interactions with others. This may be needing to finish a story, or being upset when someone interrupts me. Then I need to understand the impact this has on those I’m interacting with.

2. Create Space

Viktor Frankl says that “between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”

I think the next step in addressing blind spots is to create space. Once we are aware of a trigger, or of situations where we tend to slip into default behaviour that isn’t helpful for us (this could be holding back from saying what we need to say, it could be blaming others rather than being accountable, it could be repetitive patterns of behaviour with family members or colleagues), we then need to create the space to allow us to be more proactive in our responses. We can do this by breathing, we can do this by being curious about and observing our reactions, we can do this by acknowledging the emotion we’re feeling and then reappraising the situation and our response options. These are just a few of many options to create space.

3. Explore New Responses

This is where we get to play with new responses. Now that we know what we’re doing and we know the response we will get with our default behaviour or mindset, we can use the space we’ve created to think about some alternative options. We can give them a try and see what the result is. How does the situation change? How do we feel using this alternative approach? Is it more helpful for us? Is it better received by others? Does it help us achieve our goals more effectively? If yes, keep doing this. If not, try another approach. This is a great chance to explore, to experiment and importantly, to learn.

4. Practice Self-Compassion

Practising self-compassion isn’t actually a final step. It’s really something to implement the whole way through. Remember that no one is perfect. No one gets it right all the time and no one expects us to. And while some situations may not bring out the best in us, in most situations we probably behave very well and we probably do get it right. However, we are human and as such, we are fallible. What defines us is how we view our imperfections. This is where we circle back to implementing a learning mindset and the best way to do this is with curiosity and without judgement.

So, notice what happened and if it happens again, use this as an opportunity to identify your triggers and to play with new ways of responding.

Will it always be comfortable? Probably not. Will it enable growth, learning and personal development? Absolutely, if you let it.

The post Exploring your Blindspots appeared first on Life Coaching Melbourne.

I was working with one of my favourite clients, she is a well established business woman, energetic, focused and highly driven.  We were working on her business, she was growing but it was lacking foundation and visibility.

In one of our sessions we looked at her client base and some of her clients had not paid her for work she had completed. Even though she had contacted them on several occasions she still did not receive payment, it sounded like my client had not set her boundaries (and policies) clearly enough.

It prompted me to ask her some challenging questions and once we dove into this topic a little bit deeper we uncovered something quite interesting.

It turned out she was (without being aware of it) under-valuing herself and her services on a regular basis. She was telling me that when she submitted her quotes for jobs and the client would say “oh this is a bit expensive” she would quite often drop her price. This type of behaviour was not only present in business but in other areas of her life as well.

You see me client wants to be liked by everybody…. the reality is not everyone will like you.

We adjusted her strategy, implemented some steps that would give her confidence when having to address the payment or pricing issue in the future.

Soon after, my client contacted me to tell me about one of her clients she had recently quoted, the client rang her and said “your quote seems a bit pricey”, her response this time was different instead of reducing the price she stepped him through the value they would be receiving. She concluded the conversation with “I will leave it with you and let me know when you have made your decision”.

Within two hours she received a call back that she had won the job.

This is one of many stories, if you don’t believe in yourself enough or your product or service then how will your clients?  If this question and story triggers some discomfort within you it is time to explore your belief systems and re-invent your communication from a new and stronger position.

Sarita,  Business Mindset and Strategy Coach

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As you start a business your focus will likely will be on acquiring clients and building your database to help covert future clients.   It can be quite easy to go off on tangent when someone comes to you for your input.  You get excited about a new client and immediately swing into action to serve them, right?  But sometimes, if you haven’t done your homework or established a method for qualifying people before you swing into you action you could potentially find your service offering isn’t the solution they really need.  This can lead to negative feedback or worse.

Here are my 5 tips on how to fish with the right net so you acquire the most suitable clients as you start out.

1. Define and be willing to broadcast in your marketing material who are the kind of  clients you want to work with. Be clear on what is your area of expertise and what problems will you help them solve.  And equally important, do they align with your values?
2. Do your homework, before seeing a client check them out, get as much background as you can
3. Who are the right networking groups for you and sort them in different categories, like learning, collaboration, referral business etc.  Create your A, B and C lists of groups you can gain referrals and equally importantly, can refer business to
4. Define who can you collaborate with within the A list groups. Sometimes it’s a great idea to think outside the obvious
5. Strive to do things better every day so you can serve your clients better

When you follow these simply tips you may well find your return on your time invested in networking and client acquisition is greatly rewarded.

Sarita,
Business Mindset and Strategy Coach

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3 Steps to Leading a Multi-generational Team

Gen Y have not only now entered the workplace, but they have also entered management roles which means that they need to lead, motivate and engage different generations with each bearing their own strengths.  The challenge is as much about understanding the generational differences and communicating and leading accordingly as it is about maintaining cohesion in the team.

There is a new leadership skill needed in town and that is being able to create a melting pot. This means creating an environment where differences are recognized and interact harmoniously to create a common culture.

Gen Y leaders whose team is composed of different generation can facilitate the process by following these 3 steps:

Step 1: Agree on the Common Grounds

This is the core. This is the “agora”, the fire camp, where everyone regroups, has cohesion, belongs and agrees. Part of this is the culture, the values, the mission and the vision as well as the goals.

Members need to understand clearly what they are working towards and what the business will stand for and what it will not tolerate to achieve it.  When this is in place, it is easier to negotiate, limit conflicts and come to an agreement simply by asking “Is this getting us closer to where we want to go? In a way that we can stand by?”

Step 2: Understand Individualities

Yes most generalizations about Gen X and Gen Y are correct, but they remain generalizations that don’t take into account the different type of personalities or background and history of the individual.

Have a coffee chat with your team members, find out what makes them tick. What their values are, their life goals, their pet hates and their strengths. And, maybe above all, how they like to operate.

 Step 3: Enable the Harmony

Now you need to create a harmony between all the differences you have found out in step 2 so you can get the best results as set in step 1.  To do that you need to guide your team through 3 steps, in the following particular order.

• Respect: Each member must respect others’ way of thinking and operating, whether they are from a different generation or have a different personality.  This is the first and most crucial step. Even if other ways don’t always make sense or aren’t always effective, understanding others should not be a prerequisite to respecting others.

• Best Practice:  This is about finding in each different approach what can benefit all to achieve the agreed common goals. Whether it is using technology like Gen Y or creating processes like Gen X. Generate a structure around it, create procedures to document what works best.  Because you already have step 1 in place, which was creating a common ground around results, it is easy to convince each party to follow what makes the most sense in terms of outcome.

• Apply:  Now implement the structures that have been created and see members using each other’s best practices.  Each strength is being recognized and used for the greater benefit of the business.  In any given situation, the first step is always to come from a place of respect. Nothing is all good or all bad about any of the generations.

Adopting the point of view that all Gen Y have the entitlement syndrome and all Gen X or baby boomers have old-fashioned views is not getting us closer to a positive outcome.  Instead, let’s focus on what strengths each has that can benefit everyone else. In other words, let’s focus on the solution rather than the problem.

Still unsure on how to deal with a particular individual? Click on the Contact Us tab and book a time now to discuss and let’s create a strategy adapted to your situation.

Nathalie Gevinti

Life | Leadership | Executive Coach | Workshop Facilitator 

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