The Client: When I first met Jane she was a senior executive in a large commercial firm. She had a solid career track record and a comfortable life. Jane however had been sitting with the growing sense that she might be ready to push herself towards a career that felt more deeply meaningful for her. Some years ago she had gained a nonprofit Board position and realised she enjoyed this far more than her day job. She wasn’t sure if she could manage a career direction change financially, if it would be stimulating enough for her, or where she would go if she did move. After our first consult conversation she decided she was committed to thinking about it in a more focused way. She signed up for 6 coaching sessions.
The Journey: As Jane and I worked together she became clearer about her motivation for moving sectors, gained insights about what was holding her back, and began to feel a growing excitement about what her professional life might become. She began to broaden out slightly what the coaching was there to achieve. She realised she had been somewhat traumatised by a previous role and manager, and processing this experience, along with working with her inner critic voice helped her to feel stronger and back herself more completely. She did the work of learning about the areas she cared about, refining her criteria, building her networks and reflecting on her opinions in her growing areas of passion. She set a financial expectation that was realistic and did the work of deeply reflecting on her values and assessing what was most important to her.
The Outcome: Jane ended up deciding that there really was just only one organisation that she wanted to work for, and one position on the executive team that would excite her and match her skills. She decided to take her time moving sectors, choosing to really build her topic knowledge while she built her networks. Through using her networks she built a relationship with someone in the organisation who had the power to hire her, and joined the organisation. She proved her worth and not long afterwards joined the executive team in a position that allowed her to contribute all her strengths. Jane secured her dream job in her target organisation in about 12 months.
