Career Development Coaching

Find the Path for Your Work Life

Career Development Coaching and Life Coaching are services that have a strong overlap. Both kinds of coaches help you find and follow a path that suits your fits you. Career Development Coaching is essentially a subset of Life Coaching that requires a particular expertise. Marcia Bench, founder of Career Coach Institute defines Career Coaching as

Contracting with a life coach for career development coaching services: You will work together to attend to areas of your work life such as career management, career change, professional and leadership development, professional, executive, and leadership development. Just as important in career development coaching is working to balance all the"spokes" of your wheel of life with your career.

Already have a job? Maybe it isn't working quite working for you, not quite what you envisioned for your career path. Maybe you haven't figured out what works for you? What if you know what kind of job you want but haven't had the umph to pursue it? or can't get past some internal barriers that keep getting in your way?

Right career path, good job, lousy environment? Maybe you really want to stick with the job or career you have, but...the boss is difficult, the work environment is painful, the commute is too long, the hours aren't working for you any more...." A career development coach can help you with that dilemma!

Too many passions to pick just one? It might be that you don't know where you want to go because there are so many interesting and diverse opportunities. One of the most challenging dilemmas I get to help clients with is answering the question, "But how can I pick one career path? ... there are just too many exciting opportunities to pick and stick with just one?" It might be an issue beyond your control.

Here are some more issues I can help you with in our career development coaching sessions ...

• Ever dream of working for yourself? You may think about self-employment but don't know how to start!
Are you are unemployed or are afraid that it will happen soon.
• Does your application win the interviews for you but the interview doesn't win job offers?
• Have you been looking a long time and the search just isn't panning out for you?
• This is a GOOD issue: maybe you have several job offers, or another department is trying to lure you away from your current job.... and you want help choosing which path to follow.
• Are you graduating from college and want to be sure that you go in the right direction to meet your career goals?

Authentic Vocation Addressing all those kinds of challenges and many more, a career development coach can help you seek and find what Marcia calls "Authentic Vocation." By helping you look closely at 8 key areas of your wheel of life through a lens of "Business Reality" a coach can help you find work that not only utilizes your skills and provides adequate (or better!) income, but is also deeply fulfilling in a holistic way.

If you've worked with a life coach before, you'll recognize the areas career development coaching work in:

1. Life Purpose or Mission
2. Life Values and Character Strengths
3. Motivators and Interests
4. Knowledge, Skills, Abilities
Life Experiences including Employment, Volunteering, Fun and Enjoyment, Education and Training, and lots of others!
5. Ideal Job/Career/Entrepreneurial Targets
6. Ideal Work Environment.

Why Hire a Career Development Coach?

Sometimes you hire a Career Development Coach as an individual for your own career and professional purposes and sometimes your employer will hire the coach. Regardless of who hires the career coach, there are a lot of reasons for hiring one. What follows is a pretty exhaustive list, there are many other reasons not listed.

• You know what you want but you don't know how to get it.
• What you really want means you must change careers.
• What you want means you need entirely new skills and training
• What you want means you need to get un-stuck from your current job or industry
• What you want means you need to stretch yourself and reach out for higher levels of achievement.
• You want to be more effective with the relationships in your position.
• MAYBE YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU WANT!
• You want to identify your leadership levels and skills and develop your your strengths.
• You want to succeed in the newly acquired leadership position you have achieved.
• You want to develop interpersonal communication skills that will move your career forward
• You want to experience and respond to social and political climate at work in a healthier way
• You want to learn to manage workplace conflict in more effective ways
• You have received 360 feedback and want to improve some (or certain) behaviors.
• You want improve your work/life balance.
• You are in a dual-career relationship and have some decisions to make as a couple.

Link from Career Development Coaching to Positive Changes Coach

Link from Career Development Coaching to Personal Development Coaching Go to Finding a Life Coach

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