Resources That Can Help with Career Progression

http://www.coachingconfidence.co.uk/resources-that-can-help-with-career-progression/

In today’s guest post Sean Conrad shares resources that coaches may want to use for career and employment coaching.

Resources That Can Help with Career Progression

by Sean Conrad

When you’re coaching someone who wants to advance their career, there are numerous tools you can use to help them. But people often overlook some resources or programs their current employer may have in place that can be immensely helpful.

Here are 7 common talent management resources that anyone can use to help advance their career.

Why not ask you client to explore using these basic talent management resources as tools for better self-knowledge and career advancement? You can even discuss the results together in your coaching sessions, and help them put action plans in place.

1. Employee Performance Appraisals

Employee performance appraisals can be a great source of information about personal strengths and areas that need development. During their appraisal meetings with their managers, people are often more focused on showcasing their accomplishments so as to influence their pay rise. They forget to pay attention to the details of what their manager has to say about their performance.

Their performance appraisals often contain really valuable feedback about areas of weakness that they need focus on developing in order to progress in their careers. It can be very helpful to take some time to reread past performance appraisals, looking for trends, and looking honestly at some of the “negative” feedback. They can then work to address any identified skill gaps that may be standing in the way of their advancement.

2. 360 Degree Feedback

Many organisations allow employees to solicit 360 degree feedback from others, as part of their performance appraisal process. 360 degree feedback can help them get a broader picture of their strengths and weaknesses, which they can again use to focus development activities and prepare for that desired career move.

3. Job Postings

Reading their organisation’s job postings is a great way to become familiar with the education, skill and experience requirements for a new job. Your client can use job postings to find out what they need to do/learn in order to qualify for a promotion or to take their career in a new direction. And reading job postings regularly is a great way to uncover any new openings they might be qualified for and interested in.

4. Job Descriptions

If their company makes them available, reading job descriptions is another great way to learn about the requirements for that next job. Your client may find jobs they didn’t know about that use their core skills in a different way, or an entirely new position that really interests them. Just like job postings, job descriptions will give them a great summary of the requirements for the position so they know what they need to do to prepare for a move. Job descriptions are a great way to figure out if they’d even like the job they think they want.

5. Employee Profiles

If their organisation has online employee profiles your client can browse the profiles of those already in a job they’d like to move into and see what that person’s background, education, skills and experience are. It’s another great way to learn more about job requirements and focus their development activities. They can also use them to build their network or identify potential mentors.

6. Training and Development

Most organisations allot a specific training budget for every employee. Yet it’s amazing how many employees fail to take advantage of this. Encourage your client to find out what their training allotment or entitlement is, then make use of it. They can sign up for learning activities that will help them prepare for their next career move and help make them more valuable in their job today.

7. Team Work Assignments

Almost every organisation has teams or committees in place that bring together people from various parts of the organisation – these are often called cross-functional teams. Sometimes they’re focused on special work projects, but often they deal with business processes, employee engagement issues, customer satisfaction challenges, corporate social responsibility initiatives, etc.

Working on a cross-functional team is a great way to broaden ones knowledge and skills and meet people from across the organisation. It can expose the person to different parts of the business, broaden their understanding of their industry and build their network. All these are great career advancement tools they should seek out. Encourage your client to seek out cross-functional team assignments, or even volunteer for one.

These common talent management resources are available to employees in most organisations. You can easily encourage your client to seek them out and take advantage of them as part of your career coaching work together. With your help, they can become valuable tools for better self-knowledge and career advancement.

Benefits of Coaching

There are many wonderful benefits associated with professional coaching. Did you know individuals who engage in a coaching relationship can expect to experience fresh perspectives on personal challenges and opportunities, enhanced thinking and decision making skills, enhanced interpersonal effectiveness, and increased confidence in carrying out their chosen work and life roles?

Consistent with a commitment to enhancing their personal effectiveness, they can also expect to see appreciable results in the areas of productivity, personal satisfaction with life and work, and the achievement of personally relevant goals.

According to the 2009 ICF Global Coaching Client Study, companies that use or have used professional coaching for business reasons have seen a median return on investment of seven times their initial investment. Individual clients reported a median return on investment of 3.44 times their investment.

Coaching can help with a variety of goal areas. Findings from the 2010 ICF Global Consumer Awareness Study, showed that more than two-fifths (42.6 percent) of respondents who had experienced coaching chose "optimize individual and/or team performance" as their motivation for being coached. This reason ranked highest followed by "expand professional career opportunities" at 38.8 percent and "improve business management strategies" at 36.1 percent. Other more personal motivations like "increase self-esteem/self-confidence" and "manage work/life balance" rated fourth and fifth to round out the top five motivation areas.  

http://www.coachfederation.org/find-a-coach/benefits-of-coaching/

4 Essential Things to Know About Career Counseling

To understand career counseling better, you should know that career options can be determined objectively and systematically with this process, various individuals are evaluated with it, it aids in fitting the right job to the person with the right skills and can prevent you from landing into a job that you do not like.

After college, choosing the right career path may be a bit difficult, but Santa Clarita career counseling may help you decide on the right option. Career counseling can provide a lot of benefits. To know more about it, go through the list below:

1.This system is an objective and systematic way to determine career options

Career counseling may also be called as career advising or career coaching. An objective and systematic approach is used in determining the best profession suited for an individual based on certain factors. Planning out long-term careers, zeroing in on possible career opportunities, assessing the strengths and personality of an individual, and reviewing job options are some of the services provided in career counseling. Seminars and discussions on job hunting, making advantageous choices among many career options, making long-term career plans, taking skill-based examinations and learning different ways of transitioning into work place are the typical activities in career counseling sessions.

2.Assessment of different individuals is done with it

Anyone can get advice from a career counselor. Such professionals are often employed by schools and universities to assist their students. Some counselors may conduct individual sessions or group sessions. A counselor gives guidance for people wanting to have or change jobs and explore new opportunities. In some instances, career counseling may provide specialized services for certain areas. Career counselors are particularly trained in instances where the audience groups are minorities, single parents or people recuperating from an illness.

3.This program matches a person’s skills with the right career

Career counselors use a wide variety of tests to help you determine your strengths, interests and other potentials that you may have, as well as to help you assess your skills and knowledge. After this, the counselor will determine which career options are most suitable for the person and make recommendations. An individual usually goes through aptitude tests and different exams that integrate career assessment and training given by career advisers. They may also provide additional services like occupation research, compiling references, interviewing lessons, and resume writing.

4.It may lead to a more fulfilling job experience

People who are fulfilled and happy with their job are those whose profession suits their personality and expertise well. On the contrary, those who end up working on a job that they are unfamiliar of will feel the downside of job experience. Those who seek career counseling may be surprised to find out some hidden potential they did not previously know about. This potential may be maximized by embarking on the right career path.

In order to feel self-fulfillment and joyful living, your career should meet more than your basic nee

     REF-: 

http://www.egodevelopment.com/4-essential-things-to-know-about-career-counseling/

INTRODUCTION

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coaching is based on the idea that each individual can motivate himself or herself. Coaching is based on an open relationship based on mutual trust between you and the coach. Your capabilities, creativity and resourcefulness are taken as a starting point. At the beginning of the meeting you define the career question you would like to investigate during the session. During the coaching process your coach will show understanding, challenge you and motivate you in finding ways to reach your objectives.

In the past career coaching was more focused on guidance with regards to which occupation to choose. Thus, choosing a career was seen as more of a static and one-off process.

These days we find ourselves in a dynamic network economy where knowing how to steer and motivate yourself is vital and the distinction between work and private life becomes increasingly blurred. Thus career coaching has evolved to a process which stimulates you to think about yourself and enables you to make career choices that fit with who you are.

To illustrate career coaching I am highlighting some coaching conversations I have had with some clients.

We discussed where these doubts came from and ordered and evaluated them. The client and coach decided on a plan which included changes she could make in her current role and other companies and jobs that interested her. She tested her ideas with people in her network and made enquiries. She remembered the director she once met of a company she was interested in. Despite the fa

“I am not sure whether this is the right job for me” 

ct she found this rather scary, she called him again and managed to set up a meeting. Eventually she got hired by him in a job that suited her skills.

“I want to work abroad but I don’t know how I can go about it”

We discussed why the client wanted to go abroad and what he wanted to do there. We looked at what the dream of going abroad meant to him, while at the same time analysing what he would do if that dream would not be feasible for the moment. Then we discussed all the options he had, made a plan so he could start to test the plan with people in his network. He then decided on the route he wanted to take.

“I am about to graduate but I have no clue yet on what I want to do”

The coach invited the client to take a step back to assess the situation. We looked at the doubts, what they were and if he knew why they were there. We looked at his background; how his parents made a living and what their expectations were of his future. The client took a career test and we discussed the outcomes, his personality, his skills and the best scoring career paths. We made a plan on which career paths he wanted to further investigate and how he was going to do that. During the research process he met an alumnus of his university who recommended him to the recruitment department. That is how he found his first job.

As you can see, the coaching process sometimes generates a new step, eg finding a new position. But this is not always the case. The research process by itself may suffice and may generate a newly found balance. Something along the lines of ‘Ok, I have investigated it but have decided to leave things the way they are for now.’ Or new ideas may pop up, small changes you can make in your current job that make your job more rewarding.