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As my career coaching and life coaching has evolved over the years, I have focused on women and work. And the following are the most prevalent topics of conversation.
Do any of the following resonate with you?
- I find myself at a crossroads in my career/ my life
- I need a change and would like to get back to the workplace
- I’m confused as to which option to pursue
- I’m afraid of making the wrong move
- There is so much negativity that I don’t know what to focus on first
So what do we do? for those of us in the workplace dealing with a toxic work environment where we may be feeling undervalued, bullied, mistreated, disillusioned and in pain, we have a knee-jerk reaction to run as far away as possible from our current working norm. We want to change career, change industry, and change everything.
For mum getting back to the workplace it is a similar story, we are in pain, we feel undervalued, we don’t believe our skill set is still relevant, we are unhappy with the fact that we have somehow lost the person we were (pre-children) and wonder how to discover who we have become.
What I have discovered during my experience, as a coach is that the first thing to be addressed is how we interact with the world.
As mum leaving the home we often forget to focus on ourselves. We forget to give time to our own development as an individual; every decision is based on what is right for the family, the children, and the partner/husband/wife. So much so, that when it comes time to focusing on ourselves to get a CV written up or to remember the skills necessary to be successful at interview we have forgotten and no longer feel capable of these basic steps. We have forgotten how to successfully interact with the world outside of the warm blanket of motherhood.
We all forget that vital step of recognizing how we engage with the world.
Ask yourself the following
- Am I actually showing up at work,
- Am I courageous enough to be vulnerable?
- How is my self-awareness and emotional intelligence,
- How are my communication skills,
- Relationship building skills,
- Decision making skills,
- Boundaries,
- Work-life balance?
The question we never ask is what can I do to improve and develop myself, to be more resilient, to plan and manage my career, to negotiate, to pass that interview, to get that job, to change myself and as a consequence improve my life/career/relationship/etc.
