Get your career back on track

Career coaches do much the same thing.

Samantha WakefieldThrough a discussions and exercises, they help clients clarify their work-related goals, and make realistic action plans to achieve them.

Like sports coaches, they are also there with lots of encouragement and support along the way.

Having lived the corporate life in various blue-chip organisations for 14 years, I have used coaching in much of my work, developing teams and individuals to achieve personal and business goals.

With so much change around us, driven by our working environments, or by our personal circumstances, many of us have experienced the feeling of wanting to things to be different, but have found it hard to know where to start.

I've seen first hand how effective coaching can be in supporting people to take the steps they know they want to take.

Over the years, I've seen some real success stories with clients going on to achieve things they couldn't have imagined when we first began working together.

I meet lots of people who feel they are not fulfiling their potential. That sometimes has implications for their family and social lives, as well as for the business they work for.

Let's face it, we all spend so much time at work, there's every reason to try and make it a fulfilling part of our lives. When I'm coaching, my role is to support and encourage anyone who wants to review where their career is going, and to make a small or a significant change.

Having worked in management and organisation development for the last 12 years, I have come across some really great examples of where individual potential has been recognised early, where individual aspirations have been talked about, listened to, understood and incorporated in the wider business plans - to the benefit of all involved.

For example, Peter was a middle manager who had been identified as a high-flier through the appraisal process.

He was expensive to recruit and a few thousand pounds had been invested in his professional development as part of his package.

His manager told me: "With less than two years experience, he had become restless and unfulfilled in his current role and was making a frankly less than spectacular contribution.

"Ironically, we all knew he had the potential to do much more. We had all seen it on his CV and in the interviews.

"It just seemed that he had lost his way, and couldn't tell us clearly what he was looking for in his career progression with us.

"The coaching work that Peter started with an independent outsider made all the difference. It wasn't an overnight change, but the results have been pretty impressive.

"Not long after the coaching work started, Peter took far more control of his future with us, and was able to talk more openly and specifically about the kind of role he wanted, and that made it much easier for us to plan with him, as business opportunities arose."

If that sounds like something that might be nice to do once the company has sorted out the serious business of agreeing the business plan and budget, or of completing the latest project or sale or of recruiting and training badly needed new staff, think again!

By looking at individual potential as an integral part of the business planning process, companies can avoid much unnecessary cost.

Staff turnover, particularly if it is at senior level, makes a significant dent in the budget.

Managing people who have lost their way (and their motivation or enthusiasm en route) can be frustrating for them and for the company, and expensive while they drift around looking for the exit sign.

To maximise everyone's contribution, I believe companies need to find ways to match individual aspirations with business plans and opportunities as closely as possible.

And that means companies need good quality information about what people are good at, what their weaknesses are and what they want for the future.

**Samantha Wakefield, from Wallingford, can be contacted on 01491 832679.