Early this summer, as talk of credit crunches began, I encountered a new breed of career coachees. Paradoxically, their stories suggest that hanging onto jobs we don't like is a strategy full of risk in recessionary times.
In May, a bright, skilled Londoner called Milly came for coaching. She was managing PR in-house for a merchant bank - an outwardly glamorous job. In fact, frustrations with her role, the ethos of the bank, and her colleagues had been escalating for a year or more. Yet she was, recession and all, suddenly considering career change in an urgent rush.
Was it a good time in PR to be shifting? Was she feeling particularly ripe and ready for a new career where she sensed she'd shine bright?
Sadly not.
She was, it turns out, considering her career shift too late - with her professional confidence at a punishing low. Where once Milly was sure of her professional mobility, now she harboured creeping doubts that she could shine her way into a new job, let alone into a different field.
What can happen in tightening economic circumstances, is that professional nonchalance can translate into fear.
At the start of 2007, Milly acknowledged to herself that this job wasn't her dream -it didn't express her values, and her colleagues didn't seem to appreciate her natural creativity. But it had its upsides and life was full in other ways. Back then, confident that she would be free to change when she wanted to enough, she ignored the inner callings and stayed awhile.
But, as has happened in most organisations over the past year or so, the climate around her gradually changed. Pressures increased. Better results were expected from fewer people,
Without fundamental passion for the bank, Milly saw that she hadn't exactly been ‘going the extra mile'. Unlike some of her keener peers, she hadn't been cooking up ideas at weekends. She'd been lukewarm, unenthusiastic even, at times. In short, she hadn't been one of those go-get, can-do people we love to keep in our teams.
If she hadn't taken her career into her own hands, Milly's position would almost certainly have continued to grow more insecure. But instead, there's good news.
As you might imagine, a person who's been trapped in a cycle of disinterest and underperformance is particularly ripe for career coaching. Milly (and other fear-cycle coachees who have recently appeared) are oh-so-ready to explore what will really make them tick, to discover what careers seem important in the world.
They are delighted to be rediscovering their under-used talents and thinking where they might be applied.
They are longing to find the colleagues who won't expect them to park large chunks of their personality at the office door each morning. They're also relieved to feel energy, ambition and focus running through their veins again. They are some of the fastest-moving coachees I've ever had.
I think this reveals a paradox of our times. If you aren't inspired at work, it's not really safe to cling on, ‘play safe' and delay job search for better economic climes.
In recession, a lack of passion soon shows up. The fear-cycle is corrosive. It's best to heed the signals of dispassion, non-alignment and disinterest as soon you can. Start exploring the right career for you, and prevent the rot of lacklustre performance from taking hold.
It's actually prudent to seek out work you will love. For when you find work that reflects your values, it will be meaningful; when you find work that expresses your talents, it will be joyful. Shining and committed, you'll perform to your full potential. You'll feel and be secure.
Rosie Walford runs The Big Stretch coaching holidays in Spain and coaches career shifters and leaders to find the work that they really believe in. I have developed exercises to help you pinpoint careers that will fit with your worldview, and to explore your potential ripples of influence through your work - tools which I also use in leadership programmes worldwide.
Sometimes my coachees invent new, interesting initiatives in their current place of work; others transfer (without loss of seniority) to a new field. Sometimes they clear up the factors that have been spoiling their experience at the organisation they are in. Let's see....
See www.thebigstretch.com or email me now: coaching@thebigstretch.com
By Hiren on 29 September 2008 at 15:44