From Abstract to Reality: Step Four- MISSION

From Abstract to Reality: Step 4 – Career Mission. It is first described, then put in context of the first 3 Steps followed by a look at 3 Words that explain the Nature of Career Mission.

From Abstract to Reality: Step Two- DREAMS Transcript

From Abstract to Reality: Step 4 – Career Mission. It is first described, then put in context of the first 3 Steps followed by a look at 3 Words that explain the Nature of Career Mission.

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Well Hello! Murray Comber here again with another career chat Today, From Abstract to Reality: The Four Steps in Between.

We’re talking about Step #4 which is Mission.
Now Have you ever heard anyone say something like this…

“Now there is a man on a mission or,
There is a woman on a mission”

What Do They Mean?

It means its about a person who is fiercely determined to get what they want. It Implies…

• Actionable
• Movement

It is no longer in that person’s head space. It is clearly visible and obvious to them and they’re pursuing it. That’s what Step 4: Mission is all about.

Let’s Position That For You

In the context of the overall steps shall we. Let’s review the abstract to reality process

Abstract is the state of nothingness regarding your career. There is no…

• Direction
• Idea
• You don’t even know what you’re going to do.
• And if you’re in that place then you need to begin to wonder because…

Wonder Illuminates

Its like going out and seeing bright stars in the night Sky. Its for your career parallel on that searching for things in the massive area of careers that begin to shine like stars.

“What can I do? What can I do?”

And things will pop up and you will bring attention to them.  And when you do that, those things become dreams and

Dreams Anticipate

With several possibilities in mind that you have clearly identified, you narrow them down and you prioritize them. Hopefully you’ve got more than one, but you have two or three you can choose from. And once you are there you move from…

Dream to Mission

The difference is that Vision is a Dream with a Plan. You have created a plan of action in order to pursue it and get you there.

Once you have your dream and a plan connected to it that’s where mission steps in. Mission Activates so,

• Wonder Illuminates
• Dreams Anticipate
• Vision Motivates
• Mission Activates

With a plan in place, you take action and begin to make the vision happen. Then you end up with your reality, this state of arrival at your new career, a new direction and a fresh start.

So, With This Word Mission, What Is The Nature Of It?

Well the first thing we’ve already talked about a fair amount.

Mission is Active

Where vision is the dream with the plan, mission is activating the vision’s plan. You’ve got steps to follow. There’s stages that you can go through.

And that leads to the second aspect of understanding Mission’s nature…

Mission is Measurable

With the plan’s components naturally being steps and stages, you can measure how many of them you’ve accomplished and how much is left to go. And you know really where you’re on the continuum between the beginning and the end of that career transition journey; where you’re at. Now the third part of this is really important…

Mission is Changeable

During the process of your journey you may discover tweaks that bring more clarity to your original vision. And it sends you down a slightly different path that is even better than original.

I have that happen quite often, especially when a person heads off to College or University. When they get there, their eyes are open to similar things in the field that are more appropriate and more targeted than the original direction that got them into that place in the first place. So, they’re in the right arena, they’re just changing sections. And that’s fine. You can do that.

However, a little bit more serious than that, you may also discover going down that path that you’re following, that it just isn’t living up to the original vision that you had thought. The thing that you had dreamed about. Though you’ve started the steps and are going down, there’s just something that isn’t resonating. And if that’s the case, you may have to restart the journey with your second or third vision alternative. What that means is that you’ve got to go back to your dream and choose your second or third dream then put up a plan of action to that and begin the mission all over again.

I know that sounds like it’s a little bit troubling but, the better idea is to get you into the careers that you want not just any career but the one that is specific to you. And if that’s the case then a restart is better than pursuing and ending up where you don’t want to be. Once you’ve completed all your steps, you’re there your mission is complete, and you will either have launched your career, or you’ll be in preparation for it. But…

That’s the overall process from going from Abstract to your New Reality.

• Are you there?
• Have you been there?
• Are you waffling in that journey?

Well I Can Probably Help You With That

Connect with me here in this media or any other site you may find me. We can chat, have a talk see if we can work together.

If you want to review or repeat and see any of the other videos in this series the “From Abstract to Reality” series, your access point to that will be on the end screen of this video in just a few seconds.

The Next Video

We’re going to wrap it up with a final video on this Abstract to Reality series by giving you a high fly over giving you a visual look of exactly what is going to be going on and we’ll wrap this series up.

So, we’ll see you then.

You have a great day.

Bye for now.

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From Abstract to Reality: Step Three – Vision

From Abstract to Reality: Step 3 – Career Vision There is a major difference between a Dream and a Vision. In this video, using my own story, I will put Vision in context with the other Steps in the Series and specifically identify what Vision actually is.

From Abstract to Reality: Step Two- DREAMS Transcript

From Abstract to Reality: Step 3 – Career Vision There is a major difference between a Dream and a Vision. In this video, using my own story, I will put Vision in context with the other Steps in the Series and specifically identify what Vision actually is.

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Well Hello! Murray Comber here again with another career chat.

Today, ‘From Abstract to Reality: Step Three – Career Vision’.

In terms of your career, are you feeling internally empty? If so, your direction is probably in confusion, lacking substance, perhaps even leaving you with a sense of inner void. If that’s the case, that’s what I mean by the ‘Career Abstract’ and that is where the series begins…From Abstract to Reality with Four Steps in Between.

Those steps we talked about…

#1 was Wonder

Wonder ‘Illuminates’ like bright shining stars in the dark sky, each one of the possible opportunities you see for a career is a bright shining star that glows and you pick up on it.

Step #2

Those things that you pick up become dreams and dreams ‘Anticipate’, they create anticipation when you latch onto the brightest possibilities that you identify. This leads us to today’s lesson.

Step #3 – Vision

Vision ‘Motivates’. When you explore and create a plan and pursue one or more of those potential careers, you’re in the visionary process.

Metaphorically Speaking

Well wonder is the bridge between ‘Abstract & Dreams’. Similarly dreams are the bridge between ‘Wonder & Vision’. So then what is career vision? Let me illustrate by using my own personal story.
I remember when I was in the process of career counseling. I was in the wondering stage grasping for some direction and out of that vast cosmos of wonder I would think of the target a few of the bright stars, those dreams and here are few as an example

1. Given my interest in both music and working with my hands and tools, out of my world of wonder, Piano Rebuilding and Tuning became one of my dreams. I could have been very comfortable with that but, that one didn’t stick.
2. Also, with my experiences of pastor with marriage counseling and working with many marriages and families, I knew that finances were a major issue in those relationships. Marriage Counseling built on a Financial Platform was another dream that I had. And I could have really enjoyed that one. Helping people get through; understand their finances but, that didn’t stick either.
3. Neither of those dreams were my brightest star but, with my passion when we identified it for what people did with their lives combined with my long-term, since a teenager, interest in assessments, sitting with my career counsellor, knowing what she was doing, Career Counseling captivated me. It was a dream that I could latch onto. Something that had substance and frankly it blew past the others and within months I was in formal training.

So, my dream…between the dream and the formal training was this visionary process.

From Dreams to Visions. What’s that?

Out of my wonder I identified several doable dreams. One of those dreams became a vision. It became a vision when I when I created the path and make it a reality. You see, a vision involves a plan of steps that motivates you to take your dream from where you are to where you eventually want it to take you…where you want to be.
Mine involved several steps both practical and psychological.

Here are a few of my Practical Ones.

 My Family

Getting my family on board. I had a wife and two children. I wanted to make sure that they were on this journey with me.

The Application

To go to college to be conceptually approved, all the paperwork. Then finally…

The Interview

The process of formal acceptance where I had to sit in front of people. And they talked to me about what I would be doing as a career consultant. Then once approved, because I was accepted…

The Financial Arrangements

It had to be paid for somehow. And there was something called

Accommodation

You see the college I was going to was two hours away from home and required four days a week away from my family. And so I had to arrange for the accommodation and the transportation back and forth.

Now let’s look at a couple of Psychological Ones.

Personal Realignment

Dealing with the concept of a career shift. For anyone its huge. it was with me. Also just…

Raw Emotion

From me, mine was the fear of returning to school as an adult, and that really affected me emotionally

Because you see, when Inner Values caused me to move away from what I was doing, I left the reality of the familiar into nothingness. I didn’t know what I was going to be doing.

And that was ‘My Abstract’.

And when that happened, with the help of a career counselor…

• We walked through the overwhelming vastness of wonder then,
• She helped me birth the dream that I identified then,
• Together we shape the vision.

We shaped the vision…the road map to follow, to allow my new life to unfold.

What then is vision?

Where…

• Wonder Illuminates
• Dreams Anticipate
• Vision Motivates

A Vision is a Dream into which you design a plan of attack to make your Dream actually happen.

• Once you start on that journey
• Once you begin to activate the plan
• It leaves vision and becomes your next step…

MISSION

What does a Mission do?

A Mission ‘Activates’ and

That’s the final step…

Step #4 in the Abstract to Reality Series.

We’re going to be dealing with Step 4 in the next video. I hope to see you there.

Hopefully, my story will help you to create yours; create some anticipation motivation within you.

Do you want to catch all of these videos? If you haven’t seen the Abstract to Reality series, you’ll be able to catch where to see those on the end screen of this video in just a few seconds.

I invite you to join me also join me in the next video…Step #4, Mission

Talk to you again soon.

Have a great day.

Bye for now

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From Abstract to Reality: Step 2 – Dreams

From Abstract to Reality: Step 2 – Career Dreams. Are You “Living the Dream”?, If not, this video will weave you through the tapestry of Notable Men and Women who taught us much of what we need to know about fulfilling our dreams

From Abstract to Reality: Step Two- DREAMS Transcript

From Abstract to Reality: Step 2 – Career Dreams. Are You “Living the Dream”?, If not, this video will weave you through the tapestry of Notable Men and Women who taught us much of what we need to know about fulfilling our dreams

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Well Hello! Murray Comber here.Well Hello! Murray Comber here.

In today’s video, From Abstract to Reality: Step Two – Career Dreams.

Like the last video wonder, dreams are part of the abstract on the way to reality. Wonder is where dreams are born. And no, I’m not talking about the kind of dreams you have while sleeping.

Let me illustrate

Have you ever asked the question, How’s life? And they give you this three-word response, “Living the Dream!” Basically means…

• Doing what they want to do
• Living the type of life that they want to live, without regrets
• Achieving all their goals
• Enjoying the fruits of the labor

Sounds nice doesn’t it.

The implication of the statement is. That happens when…

• One creates a dream scenario
• Pursues it, and
• Eventually accomplishes it

Now let me weave a few quotes together from some very notable people, names that you will probably know, and create a tapestry about how we can pursue our dreams.The first one is simply this,

You’ve Got to Do it, You Got to Do Dreams

Canadian humorous Stephen Leacock said this

“It may be that those who do the most, dream the most.”

So, if you want to do more, dream more. And when you have a dream, our next point is…

Dreams Need to Simply Start

Social Activist Martin Luther King who was most known for his ‘I have a dream’ speech, also said…

“You don’t need to see the whole staircase; you just need to take the first step.”

And yet how often are we to, once we have a dream, take that first step. He encourages to do so. Because you never know. It could end up being what the Third Point is…

World Changing Dreams

And if it doesn’t change the world at large, it’ll certainly change your world, which is most important.

I’m sure King was inspired by underground railway conductor, Harriet Tubman who, despite of all the odds on her very, very difficult job regarding living her dream said this…

Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach the stars to change the world. The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.

Do you believe in the beauty of your dreams? Well, Sometimes it…

Takes a Little Bit of Stick-to-itive-ness, Tenacity, to Do it.

Because dreams come in stages and the stages of dreams were talked about by Hollywood actor Christopher Reeve known for his role as Superman. But also, that he had a horse accident and became a quadriplegic. And he put it this way…

So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable and then, when we summon the will, then soon, they become inevitable.

That’s called stick-to-itive-ness, yes, stamina and tenacity. And if you pursue your dreams that way our next point is that…

Dreaming Leaves You with No Regrets

You probably don’t know the name Samuel Langholm Clements, but he is better known by his pen name, this author and humorist, Mark Twain. He had some tremendous advice…

Twenty years from now you’ll be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones that you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore, Dream and Discover.

Yes, dreaming is about exploring and discovering.

The only thing that can really get in the way of that is,

Dreams Biggest Obstacle

The American football quarterback, Tom Brady, put it simply this way…

The only thing that will stop you from the fulfilling your dreams, is you

You!

Do you have a dream?

If yes, follow the advice of these notable people. If no, then listen to my last video, Step 2 on ‘Wonder’ and keep wondering and keep wondering until you discover a dream or two that you can latch onto.

And once you find that dream, then follow the advice of Napoleon Hill who said…

Don’t wait! The time will never be just right.

Do you have a dream? Are you procrastinating? Are you waiting for the right time? Don’t!

Simply start and recognize that you can see down the road the fulfillment of your dreams if you’ll put some action to them.

Our next Abstract to Reality video will be on Step #3 where will talk about ‘Vision’.

If you haven’t seen the former videos and would like to learn about the ones on this theme and topic and others that are coming down the pipe, then all you have to do is watch the end screen and I’ll point you to where you can get access to those.

So, you have a great day!

We’ll see you again soon,

Bye for now!

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When You Read Career Coaching Success Stories it Usually Points to One of Two Things…

1. The Career Coaching success was in a very narrow field and all that person’s energies were focused on that one area, or
2. During Career Coaching, the person was surrounded by a team of people that made the broader accomplishment possible.

Even so, a person can be at the top of his/her game in one area and a total washout in another. A typical line I often say during a group or individual session is,

“Everybody is absolutely brilliant somewhere…everybody is an absolute idiot somewhere”.

Human nature wants to put our brilliance on display and conceal our our less fortunate side. Coaching can helps us deal with this nagging internal issue. However, any coaching is not for the weak of heart but for the ‘strong’! It takes strength of character to be able to say, “This is where I am not good…my nemesis…my Achilles heal”. But here is the good news. To be able to say it, own it, and do something about it, already means you possess the earmarks of a winner.

Career Coaching has the ability to objectively identify one’s strengths and weaknesses. It doesn’t just emerge from dialogue, but the use of assessments provide concrete feedback. In other words, assessments give the dialogue direction, They aren’t the magic pill that informs you exactly what you should be doing in your World of Work.  This dialogue based approach is usually very revealing, creating those ‘Ah Ha’ moments. At that moment, more often than not, you are able to validate what you both intuitively and experientially already know. It’s and awesome feeling to get the weight of ‘not knowing’ off your shoulders.

Lets Address a Few Dichotomies to Illustrate the Point.

• Do you thrive on impulse and spontaneity? Chances are your administrative skills aren’t strong.
• Is logic your forté? Perhaps you have been told you are not all that compassionate.
• Are you brilliant with details and micro-management? Then someone may have accused you of not seeing the ‘big picture’.
• Is your best work accomplished when you are alone, without distractions? Then you probably don’t thrive on the energy of a brainstorming session.
• Has the the inner world of impressions and hunches been a guiding force within you? Then those you work with may demand documented proof before you take action.

Even though the above may illustrate your personal strengths and weaknesses, reality is that both sides are strengths…yours and someone else’s.  Which ones yours are can be identified in career coaching sessions, then you can be trained in specific strategies to…

• Focus on and develop these personal abilities
• Understand the opposite side, and
• Manage relationships with those that differ from you.

So…why don’t you take the plunge. Have confidence to show your inner strength of character. Find a career coach and let your path to success begin today!

I’d love to hear from you. Leave your comments below.

Or perhaps you are ready for one of these 2 programs…

Quick Start – A Starting Point for Career Coaching

Career Management System – A Complete Program to Manage Your Career

Happened while on practicum with

three workers who were being downsized

during my Career and Work Counselor Training.

A huge company was phasing out an entire division and hundreds of people were about to become jobless. There was enough lead time that the company set up a career resource department to help these employees find new jobs. Three employees, inexperienced in terms of anything to do with job search and placement where manning this center. I was sent in for a week to walk them through some processes.

Being a strong believer in the objectivity of the career assessment approach, I was able to walk them through the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) as well as the Strong’s Interest Inventory (SII) to begin to establish their personal career profile. One of them in particular, a male in his late 30’s, was skeptical with the assessments. His career in this Fortune 500 company, the best paying employer in town, was as a Purchasing Agent. With his pay cheque soon coming to an end, he was at a crossroad in terms of what to do next.

I’ll never forget the day that I say down with him to go over his Strong’s Interest Inventory results. Very quickly he changed from an assessment skeptic to a believer. The number one career that he always wanted to have was the exact career the Strong’s scored him highest in…a school teacher. Can you imagine, an aspiring teacher that wanted to instruct kids was sitting in an office of an international company, purchasing supplies. All excited as a new career consultant, I was prepared to help him walk through this transitional journey. Maybe this company’s departmental shut down was a blessing in disguise, but then came the serious twist that changed everything.

After high school, he had gone to a highly reputable university and earned a B.A.. University was his first break from home. Dorm life became party central and his extracurricular activity ended up being more important than the reason he was supposed to at university in the first place. As a result, though he graduated four years later, it was with only a 68% average. In order to go to teachers college, he had to graduate with at least 80%. Later, during his purchasing agent days, intrinsically knowing what he really wanted to do, he had applied to teacher’s college and been turned down due to his low university average. His university lifestyle had squandered his preferred future away.

I wish the story had a happy ending. I’m not certain where he is now or what he is doing, but I do know that over the years he compensated this lost opportunity by being highly involved in the city’s athletic programs. He became very busy volunteering as coach of kid’s playing in a variety of sports, but the reality is, his career had gone wrong.

The choice of your future, your career and the preparation for it must be taken seriously…and the earlier the better. This story has made working with students in Senior High School of my favorite clients. I love to get them before university happens. So…as soon as you can…

• With the help of a qualified Career Coach, choose your future wisely
• Study all you need to know about all you could potentially do
• Understand the benchmarks and indicators of what that job is all about
• Let these keep you on track

Following this advice, you’ll reduce the odds of suffering a disappointment, lamenting like the gentleman in the true story above, “Had I only known!”

Do you have a career story of success or disappointment you would like to share?

Leave your comment below. I’d love to hear it… and others could learn.

The best executives are not the ones that do it all, but the ones who make sure it all gets done.

In order to do this, you may have an understanding of all the components but will not be personally wired to do them all. If you are a great administrator, you are probably not a great marketer. If you are skilled at research & development and are a corporate visionary, you are probably not as adept at human resources and personal mission. But, in order to succeed, you need to grasp the frameworks of all four.  There is a strong probability that you arrived at being an Executive because the Peak Performance principles of where you function best have been well executed, but what do you need to do to keep you there?

In my post on Peak Performance I stated this:

The pieces are put together like a puzzle and out of this comes a clear picture of you…your preferred skills, tasks, roles…your work environment…where you fit on the team. This Peak Performance picture is valid and functional when identified and accepted.

As you read this statement, you quickly realize that the energy of the process is centered on you, as you embrace self knowledge and cognitively align yourself with the identified truths. Executive Coaching is the same in concept but flips that energy outward. Instead of helping you to apply the learned principles inward towards self, it helps you with the flow of that energy away from you at three levels:

1. Towards other people individually; each person that makes up the team

   Do you have a clear picture of where others fit on the team, and can you identify and draw peak performance out of them?

2. Towards other people corporately; the team itself as a unit

   Do you have a clear  picture of what the team needs in order for it to maximize it’s potential, and do you know which individuals  (#1) to put in place to make sure that happens?

3. Toward the business itself and its employees, which you and your team are leading

   Do you and your team (as a group) have a clear picture of where your organization is positioned, and where it is going, and either directly or indirectly have adequate knowledge of your employee base to make sure the best ones are positioned to move the organization forward?

Peak Performance coaching helps you to maximize your own personal potential based on where you fit and best perform as you inwardly strive for excellence. Executive coaching assists you,  making sure the energy of that same principle extends from you flowing outward to every level of your organization. This ensures you are striving for the same degree of excellence with your team and all those you work with.

If you are performing at your peak, the obvious questions are:

• Is your team?
• Are your managers?
• Are your employees?

If “Yes”… great! If “No”… what are you going to do about it?

Feel free to leave a comment or Contact Me if you would like to discuss coaching sessions.

When you were a small child, did you ever have one of those educational “games” which had square, rectangular, triangular, oval or circular shapes made of wooden or plastic? The objective was to put them into the matching shape cut into a larger flat piece. Well, the day you put all the right pieces into the correct shapes was the day you were introduced to the world of “Peak Performance“. From that point forward, you recognized what you were doing. It was just a matter of increasing the speed of getting the task accomplished.

Peak Performance then is knowing what pieces or aspects of your person belong in the right spots, then increasing the proficiency. Further to this, it is knowing what aspects are not a fit, then doing one of two things. First would be to delegate that skills or ability to someone who is so gifted and proficient in that area. If however that piece could not be delegated, the second would be to learn from someone who does it well so you can adequately fill your role.

Peak Performance “Coaching” is objectively exploring and identifying what those pieces within you are. Some of you will know this intuitively… “I know I can do that well and it comes easy to me. Why do others struggle with it?” Others will be identified by the feedback of your peer group or team… “Would you please do this, you’re a natural at it. The rest of us agree that this is your strength.”

The other way of identifying your pieces is by using assessments that objectively measure several areas. A few of these are:

1. Behaviours
2. Abilities & Skills
3. Personal, Life and Work Values
4. Core Needs and Personal Anchors
5. Functions that gather information
6. Functions that make decisions
7. Learning Styles
8. Interaction Styles

When the assessment results are in, you and the coach have something concrete to “talk about”. It is out of this dialogue that the pieces become evident and the patterns emerge. The pieces are put together like a puzzle and out of this comes a clear picture of you…your preferred skills, tasks, roles… your work environment… where you fit on the team. This Peak Performance picture is valid and functional when identified and accepted.

Using this picture you can align your current employment to become the new, improved and more productive you.  Then you can work on your proficiency and speed. So ask yourself:

• Does my job fit my competencies?
• Is there latitude in my current position where I can increase my performance and productivity?
• Can I clearly identify my areas of comfort and discomfort?

If “Yes”, then Peak Performance Coaching may be for you. If “No”, perhaps Career Coaching should be your priority so you can find employment with a better fit in order to maximize your potential.

Feel free to leave a comment or Contact Me if you would like to be have some coaching sessions.

Murray

People Skills: A debate for some when it comes to loosing the purse strings.

I don’t mind spending money but I really dislike wasting it. So here’s the issue!

At the government level, we regularly hear both the opposition and press criticizing government overspending in the obvious areas. However, the largest waste of government occurs in the less obvious…not in the mismanagement and the opulent lifestyles of politicians, nor some of the “vote for us” programs. By far the single greatest abuse of tax payers dollars is People Skills related. It is the inability of leadership, management, teams and work groups to effectively work together as a unit producing positive results that bring a higher return on investment. It is the same in any work environment regardless of sector. If people can’t work together as a cohesive unit, the project slows down, personalities get in the way, poor leadership practices occur and the outcome falls short of the standard…and that costs a lot of money. When morale is low for extended periods of time, job dissatisfaction sets in, and the discontent is part of the reason that 30% of employees are always looking for another job…and replacing that employee costs a lot of money.

So how do you fix the problem? People Skills, or Soft Skills training by qualified facilitators has been put on the back shelf for too long in favor of two other areas.

1. Concrete, hard skills instruction in technical & management practices, or
2. The purchase of the of latest overpriced technical equipment.

Though necessary, these come with the hope that better practices and machines will improve the situation. Let’s rethink that for a moment by contemplating what is missing.

People Skills training will:

• Help people understand themselves and others
• Improve communication
• Identify the behaviors, skills, roles, and abilities of the staff in order to match the person with the need
• Teach the essence of what makes people tick
• Strengthen the character of each employee and,
• Enhance the group and team dynamics of those that are behind the practices and machines.

Ultimately, this can create and more healthy work environment with better outcomes, at an increased rate of productivity. Predictably, in such an environment, there will be that far less staff moving on to other opportunities resulting in thousands of dollars being saved in staff replacement and training.

Dollar for dollar this could bring you your largest return on investment. In this economy when money is tight, investing in your human capital could be the best decision you ever made.

If you have a comment or a story that confirms or suggests something different that this post, please feel free to leave a comment!

So you need help with matters pertaining to your career?

I remember…as if it was yesterday…the day I had my first visit with this career specialist who was to assist me in one of the most important decisions of my life.  I wasn’t completely leaving my former field of work, but I was very aware it needed to be adjusted implementing a fresh approach. Back in the fall of 1999, I knew who I had been, but really didn’t know who I would become, where I would end up or how I would get there. I was both afraid and excited at the same time.  So…

Who are you?

1. A student looking at career and university options
2. A frustrated employee needing a career shift
3. A person who has gone through the devastation of job loss for one of many reasons

There are a few names for people who can help you out and each name determines the approach that will be taken. The three main names are:

Career Counsellor

• Career Consultant
• Career Coach

The Career Counselor during overall process would look at and deal with emotional factors surrounding your situation focusing on matters pertaining to the “heart or values” of the matter. The Career Consultant during overall process would look at and deal with rational factors surrounding your situation focusing on matters pertaining to the “mind or logic” of the matter. The Career Coach during overall process would look at and deal with motivational factors surrounding your situation focusing on matters pertaining to the “action aspect” of the matter.

If you search the internet you will find all three but reality is that anyone helping you in your career path should be able to move fluidly between each one as your personal need arises, even though they may be stronger on one area more than another. Which approach is needed depends on your personal situation.

If for example you have gone through job loss through downsizing, you will probably need to deal with some of the anger or sorrow factors before you can move forward with the rest of the process. More of the counsellor would be required here. To try to take a logical or motivational path here would probably prove futile.

If on the other hand there is no emotional attachment to your current career situation, but you have no idea where to begin, then objective analysis of your position by assessing your skills, abilities, drivers, interests, core needs, resumes, interviews, market research, etc. would be in order. The objectivity of the consultant would be required here. To focus on emotional or motivational path here would be a waste of time.

Perhaps you are either over or have no emotional issues but all the objective work has been completed but you are having a hard time getting the drive to move forward to the next step of career discovery or transition, you would be in need of a cheer leader and accountability partner. This is where the Coach steps up to the plate and helps you with motivation. To try to move forward when there is emotional baggage or a lack of functional and process understanding would be futile here.

If you are dealing with introductory or transitional career issues, where should you go from here?

1. Take time to reflect…have a look inside
2. Take an inventory, and document it
3. Get feedback from those close to you

When you are sitting down in front of the one you have chosen to work you through the process, you can tell them exactly where you are and a good Career Counselor, Consultant or Coach will know exactly where to begin.

So, what is your story? What has been your experience with a Career “Guru” of some sort? Do you really understand the role of such a person in your life?

Comment below – I’d love to hear from you!