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The Executive Connection SM
a publication of The Virtual Executive Coach SM
"Vision + Accountability = Success!"
In This Issue:
1. Preview
2. Executive Summary
3. The Career Change Coach
4. Helpful Hints
1. Preview
The Executive Connection explores the creative and analytical process of business development, team-building, and executive development. We are an interactive community of executives and small business owners who desire to network with like-minded high-performance executives to enhance our knowledge, skills, and aptitudes in the competitive business world.
Published monthly, the Newsletter offers coaching suggestions around the topics of: business development, financing, marketing, networking, incorporations, mergers, human resources, governmental regulations, and tax laws.
Topics are presented from the perspective of Keith Barton and represent only his ideas on creating and running your business. Because we are an interactive community of executives and business owners, other viewpoints are welcomed and may be printed in future monthly newsletters with permission from Keith Barton.
2. Executive Summary
December, 2006
Dear Executive Connection Subscriber,
This month features information on the The Career Change Coach.
Where Are You Headed? The Career Change Coach
Life coaching has been around longer than executive coaching in the coaching community. A listing of specialties within the International Coach Federation (ICF) lists more “life coaches” than any other category. Another category of coaching focuses on “career development and change.” With many mergers and acquisitions as corporations aspire to “take a larger piece of the action” executives are left without jobs and no place to go. Unless they have another interest that can be parlayed into an income stream, these fine seasoned warriors are left clueless and immobile, physically and emotionally.
A ripe area for coaching and one that I’ve had a modicum of success with is “Career Change” coaching that takes a holistic view of the person, especially their strengths and limitations, goals, desires, ambition, cognitive learning style, and personality.
A typical opening “pitch” to potential coaching clients might be:
Do you find yourself at a crossroad in your life? Are you overwhelmed with career choices and information from employers, career sites, outplacement, job counselors, websites such as CareerBuilder and Monster who have a multitude of positions with excessive criteria and meager pay? Would you like someone in your corner who can objectively match your interest, skills, and personality traits to fit a job where you will feel at home?
Career change coaching (CCC) for displaced executives is intended to insure:
- Goals match aptitude and ability
- Emotional support during your job search
- Work with potential employers
- Personality tests to measure positive interpersonal traits and emotional intelligence
- Value assessments to measure core beliefs
- Identity issues that affect career choices
- Ongoing support after your job offer to insure a productive start and learning curve
What makes for a good CCC coach? A number of traits are important which I shall refer to as the 10 Es:
Empathy: Your coach should have the ability to tap into your fears, doubts, and worries about changing careers, especially if you’ve been in a given job for more than ten years. Preferably, your coach should have at least two different career changes prior to their coaching experience. I’m reminded of the authors of “The Alpha Male Syndrome” where one of the co-authors (Eddie Erlandson) was a cardiovascular surgeon before embarking on a highly successful coaching career.
Educable: Your coach should be a good listener and willing to adapt to new technology and emerging markets. Choose a coach that is well-read, especially in business journals, and a futurist thinker that asks “what is possible?”
Empowered: Your coach should bring positive energy to your career choices and decisions. This is more than a transfer of power from the coach to the displaced executive; the process is derived from a “co-active” coaching relationship that is built on trust, commitment, and integrity. The strength of the relationship with your coach will determine success, not the coach’s qualifications or the client’s desire to be coached.
Encouraging: Displaced executives don’t need to “cry over spilt milk.” Instead they need positive encouragement and motivation that elicits hope and enthusiasm. In some sense your coach is a “cheerleader” who stands in your corner, pushing you to accept challenges that you once thought impossible or improbable.
Enlightened: Career choices and decisions are not made with a heuristic methodology. Intuition is imperative if a coach is to offer insight into their clients’ dreams, desires, and ambitions. After all the tests and scores are reviewed a job offer and acceptance of same boils down to a “gut feeling” that “this is the job for me.” This is not a mystical or elusive quality but an intuitive “hit” that taps unrealized energy in the job applicant.
Ernest: You want a coach who is determined to work for you in helping you to realize and support potential for change. Unemployed executives are not “happy campers.” After years of a steady income stream, the realization that financial obligations continue despite a drastic drop in revenue calls for a coach who understands the seriousness of your situation and has experienced the same in his or her own life. Nothing motivates like being in the trenches with your client. All the coaching books in the world will not lend credibility to your coach unless they have experienced limited income and financial risks themselves.
Eventful: Unemployed executives are not a happy lot. Worry, doubts, and fears pervade the initial shock of no job. In the near-term, these feelings are necessary to promote change, however painful. A successful career transition builds on a series of decisions over time, marked by critical and notable events that signal change as a process from uncertainty to certainty.
Exceptional: If you are between jobs you don’t want to invest in a coach right out of school with little or no “real world” business experience. Academic consultants are ill equipped to provide the knowledge, skills, and experience necessary for a successful career transition. Talk is cheap; ask your prospective coach for their resume. Any respectable coach will gladly comply. Also ask for list of past coaching clients (with their permission of course) and ask them how the coach assisted them in a successful career move.
Exemplary: Any coach who is coaching others on career changes should lead by example. You want a coach who has made at least two major career moves across two different industries. A coach familiar with start-ups, small business coaching, mergers and acquisitions is preferable to a coach who has only “counseled” individuals without considering the context and industry requirements and standards for chosen professions.
Extroverted: My bias is that a successful career coach should be an extrovert. You want a coach who is skilled politically and socially—someone who has mastered organizational culture, knows small business, networks with other coaches, belongs to the ICF, adept at forging and renewing business relationships, and belongs to organizations like a local chamber or other professional organizations.
In this month’s article, I’ve given you ten criteria for selecting a career change coach who will increase your chances of landing another job in the same industry or can offer a glimpse into a new career opportunity where fantasy and reality merge to create what is possible, given your intellectual, emotional, and personal qualities. It’s much harder to seek re-employment alone. You need a professional coach who exhibits the above qualities—where your success is embraced by your coach—where your opportunities for change are dependent on a strong coaching relationship built on trust and integrity. Good luck in your next career!
Helpful Hints:
Next time you ask for a coach, ask for them to email their resume to you. Make sure they have the business experience necessary to understand your current situation.
- If you’re between jobs join a networking group of displaced executives. Many churches offer a job networking group where businesses place ads.
- Even if you’re successfully employed, send your resume anonymously to a job that would be a “next step” for you. Do you receive a reply? Why not?
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The Executive Connection SM Mission:
The Executive Connection SM is dedicated to helping first-time business owners and executives to recognize resistance to change, while they create and manage their own businesses. My goal is to help you transform your vision into a successful business venture with the addition of accountability structures and silent partner.
The Executive Connection SM is a publication of The Virtual Executive Coach SM and Keith Barton, Ph.D.
We would like The Executive Connection SM to be as interactive as possible. If you have feedback, comments, topics you would like addressed, or can suggest additional resources to benefit us all, please email us at any time. Send your e-mail to
keith_barton@att.net
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Archives:
You can read previous issues of The Executive Connection SM in our archive section.
About Keith Barton, Ph.D
Dr. Barton received his Ph.D. in 1972 from the University of Texas at Austin and has been a practicing therapist for over thirty years. He is a graduate of MentorCoach and is accepting new clients. He has been an adjunct professor at the University of South Carolina, consultant to Fortune 500 companies in executive development, founded and managed Texas Community Living Ventures, Inc., in 1986 for providing group home services to persons with mental retardation, and has been running a clinical practice in Northwest Houston since 1990. He writes part-time with the goal of completing one novel a year. His desire to coach others derives from his passionate interest in helping others become attuned to their creative powers of storytelling.
Dr. Barton has training in coaching, cognitive and family therapy and health psychology. He has published articles, made presentations and conducted workshops about:
Small Business Development
Employee Wellness Programs
Anxiety and achievement
Stress management
Self-esteem
Communication skills
Leadership styles
Core values in the workplace
Executive Development
High-performance groups
Physician support groups
Writer support groups
© 2010
The Virtual Executive Coach SM and Keith Barton.
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