Working with a Coach during a redundancy process provides the confidence and support many people require.
For managers, making people redundant can be a challenge. They might not want let their hard-working loyal team go, lack the confidence to tell them, not be in a position to answer the challenging demanding questions, wonder how the workload is going to be achieved. They may be on the redundancy list themselves.
You are in a team with strong values, working hard to deliver what the customer wants, to a high quality, on time and with in budget. You support each other when there is an urgent piece of work or when the work load is high.
The out of the blue, redundancies are being announced. What! Panic sets in, you are all expected to continue work and deliver as normal.
Are you in the process of being made redundant? Or maybe you have already been made redundant? Today this is commonly called being outplaced. No matter what people call it, some people find it incredibly difficult to accept. They feel let down, offended, rejected useless.
Other people see it as a great opportunity to change the direction of their career, take early retirement, do a role that is less demanding and stressful.
Throughout my working life in the corporate world, I performed a range of tasks, some of which I did well, and some not so well. This did not mean I failed at my job; it meant I was struggling with that particular task.
All too often we think that, because we did not do a task well, we are not good at our jobs. There are a range of reasons to consider as to why the task did not deliver as expected.
I had a client who said to me she had no idea that she could do what she could do. And yet I heard her say she was doing it when we were chatting about her job and what she did. So often we are too close to what we are doing and saying that we miss the little things that can really take us forward. Or we are so focused and determined about what we know that we miss the bigger, picture. Likewise, we can be thinking so broadly that we forget to look a little deeper and see what it is we are really capable of doing.
A coach is someone who dedicates time to listen to you and will hear what you are saying but do not realise you are saying. You could be having a conversation about your last job. What you did, what you liked or hated about it. What problems you identified and sorted. How you helped other people or maybe kept to yourself. Your coach will hear what you liked and did not like, what you found annoying, what you don’t want to do again, what skills and experience you have, your achievements.
When looking for a promotion or a career change, or to be better at what we do, we tend to focus and what we have just done. We look at the last role we performed or the last job we did.
Most people have had more than one job and completed more than one role. Working with your coach to look at all your roles and jobs and what you liked about them, what you did not like about them, what you have achieved and how you achieved it, you will get a really long list of skills and experience. Your coach will ask probing questions to help you remember more, understand more. Life time achievements are also taken into consideration, like running 5k (determination), getting a qualification (focus), participating in a team sport (team player).
With all these facts you are then able to look at what role you want, what skills you need and what you already have. You don’t lose a skill. It might become a little rusty. With a bit of effort, refresh it will come back.
Reach out, let’s build that picture of you as a skilled experienced person ready to go forward towards your desired outcome.
If this blog resonates with you or someone you know, and you would like more information or to get in touch, please fill in the contact sheet.
Thank you for reading this blog – How a coach can help you identify your skills, values, achievement. If you would like more information or to get in touch, please fill in the contact form.
Have you heard of the penguin method? I learnt about the penguin method when I started back into running after knee surgery. I was advised to train like a penguin i.e. walk for 10 minutes then run for 2 minutes. It is a bit like doing interval training go fast, go slow, go fast, go slow or go up a hill, go downhill, go up hill, go downhill etc.
Change is also a bit like a penguin. It can suddenly go really fast, everyone working frantically, and then it slows while the impact of the change settles.
This concept can be applied to the way you work towards changing something in your life. The thought of change can bumble along in the back of your mind, and then suddenly, you want the change to happen, and you work frantically at whatever it is you need to do for the change to happen. Then things will slow down either because you have reached your goal or you have run out of energy or you have got to focus on something else. But worry not, because after this slow pace, the speed will pick up again.
When you set yourself a target, take into considerate The Penguin. Working flat out will exhaust you, potentially lead to burn out, result in you possibly missing some other key event. Going too slow may mean you never achieve your goal, that job is taken by someone else, the run date has come and gone.
Plan your path of change as a journey of variable speed allocating the required time appropriate to all the different elements, allowing for slow times and rapid activity. Also plan different activities. A penguin waddles, swims, dives, slides to get to its destination. You can do the same. For a promotion or career change you can get a new qualification, learn a new skill, get a mentor.
If this blog resonates with you or someone you know, and you would like more information or to get in touch, please fill in the contact sheet.
Thank you for reading this blog – Change happens at variable speeds – like a penguin. If you would like more information or to get in touch, please fill in the contact form.
It is that time of the year when there are a lot of conversations, blogs, posts referring to the New Year, New Year’s Resolutions, New You.
For many years I used to set new year resolutions and be determine to keep to them. Let’s be honest they were not proper goals. They did not have an end date, they were not measurable, they were not aspiring they were not even specific. Deep down I did want to achieve them but, in a flash, I would break them and then become disillusioned and give up.
Today, I do set goals for myself. They are more achievable, have a date to work towards, success can be measured. I also create a path to achieve them with little check points along the way that can celebrate, be proud I am working towards achieving my goal.
However, I do not set the start date as the 1st January. Nope, I think of them throughout the year, and start them when I am ready, when the desire is really strong. Starting a new goal on the 1st of January is really difficult. You possible have a hangover from seeing the new year in, still have a fridge full of yummy Christmas food, its winter (in the UK), mornings are dark, its cold and potentially wet and windy. Going outside to exercise is not attractive.
There is no magic in the 1st January. It is a date. Whatever goal you want to achieve, think about what you need in order to be able to start it and succeed. Is it nice sunny weather, new cloths or running shoes? Perhaps its to review your CV and LinkedIn profile. By preparing to start your new goal you are actually already working on it. The start date will be when you are ready to dedicate time and energy to understand in more detail what is required to successfully achieve your goal and start those actions.
If this blog resonates with you or someone you know, and you would like more information or to get in touch, please fill in the contact sheet.
Thank you for reading this blog – New Year New Goals New You . If you would like more information or to get in touch, please fill in the contact form.
Being made redundant a couple of times I can identify with others who are going through the same process. The experience is unique to each person but I have found there are some common feelings of:
Having been through a couple of redundancies and managed a couple of teams through the redundancy process, I have experienced how it can impact those leaving the organisation and those remaining behind.
Are you a manager, Head of department, having to make people redundant? It can be a difficult role to play.
I was managing a team of people that were based in the UK and in America. The UK team were to be made redundant while the US team were keeping their jobs. It was a difficult time. The UK team were angry; worried about what was going to happen to they; questioned their ability; would they get another job. The US team were uncomfortable that their valued colleagues were being put in this difficult situation, that they were losing good hard-working colleagues.
