At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic I thought my Career Coaching service would be driven largely by redundancies. But that has not been the case. Instead, I’ve been busier than ever helping clients who no longer want to settle for less than they deserve. They want to feel fulfilled in their work, to have a sense of purpose, and most want to make a positive difference in some way.
But how do you go about this if you’re not clear about what you want? You don’t know what to look for.
A good place to start is by reviewing what your career values are. Values are highly contextual so it’s not as obvious as it sounds. Values are like a software programme running in the background. They make things happen and they influence us in every area of life, they determine how happy and fulfilled we are, but incredibly we are mostly unaware of what they are.
I do the exercise below with every new client. It helps me get to know them quickly at a deeper level and build strong rapport, which is essential to get the best from our work together.
Let’s get started:
- Ask yourself this question ‘What’s important to me in my work’? ‘What do I want in my work’? Examples: work as part of a team, the autonomy to make decisions, or to be able to be creative.
- Keep asking this question without changing any of the words, until your list is complete.
- Try not to edit your list retrospectively.
- Now prioritise each Value. Score 1-10, 10 being the most important.
- Next, review your prioritised list of Values against your current experience and role.
- Mark which are being nurtured and met, and which are not being met in your current working environment.
- This should give you a bit more awareness about what is missing from your current career/job/work.
Clearly, doing this with someone – me for example, will extrapolate a lot more from this exercise. For a more in depth discussion about your career book a free 45-minute Discovery call with me and find out how I can help you.
