What does it mean for an employee to do “their part ” when it comes to finding career fulfillment?

I read Marshall Goldsmith’s book, Triggers, and the conversation he had with his daughter, Dr. Kelly Goldsmith, Assistant Professor of Marketing at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, about active questions resonated with me. It affected me so much that Coach Goldsmith and I had a phone conversation about it over the summer.

The concept of ownership is at the very core of my career coaching practice. Meaning, I work with clients who no longer want to sit on the sidelines while work happens to them. Instead, they want to take responsibility for their own career development. They are done handing that control over to someone else while hoping for the best.

Coach Goldsmith and I share the frustration with employee engagement conversations that, until now, have been almost entirely one-sided. Consultants and thought leaders focused on helping companies build engaged workplaces continue to focus squarely on the employer side, and regularly preach about what employers should do to improve their employees’ desire to engage while at work. But there is an entire half of the conversation that is missing here. My purpose, as a coach, is to motivate and inspire employees to do their part to balance the scales. It is entirely possible to be truly engaged in your job without depending on your employer to get you there. Much of it depends upon your outlook.

So we come back to the question: What does it mean for an employee to do “their part ” when it comes to finding career fulfillment? That’s where active questions come in. Questions like Goldsmith shares in his book puts the onus on the employee. Questions like:

Did I do my best to find meaning today?
Did I do my best to be happy today?
Did I do my best to build positive relationships today?
Did I do my best to be fully engaged today?

Employees cannot sit with a victim mindset when asking themselves these questions. When I find that a client cannot shift out of victim mode, I know that coaching isn’t what they want; they want someone to hand them answers. People who are truly looking for career wellness, achieving the optimal state of work wellbeing at any given time, must decide to figure out how to use their strengths and skills in a meaningful way. To succeed on this journey, you must have goals but not a fixed expectation of the outcome. You must be open to experimenting. The employees who have this exploration mindset are the ones who will step up their level of engagement for your company while they’re sorting things out for themselves. They will hold themselves accountable – not rely on you for all of the answers.

To get there, they must be actively seeking. Actively questioning. Actively engaged for their own reasons.

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Image courtesy of Pixabay.com

by Barbara Berger

Uncategorized

Employees – Step Up Your Game!

October 13, 2016

Game On!

You may be one of the really lucky people who can say you work for a company that offers all kinds of employee engagement opportunities and flexible work schedules. Maybe you can say that your company has worked hard to create a culture where you are invited to explore different aspects of your strengths and skills. However, it’s probably more likely that you are rolling your eyes, thinking, “My company doesn’t even get it; they’re still in the dark ages.”

It doesn’t matter which of those categories your current work situation falls into, or if it falls somewhere in between, what matters is that you become aware that nobody is in charge of your career wellness but you.

A healthy career has no room for victims.

Some of you may not be employed at the moment for many different reasons. Some of you may be employed, but miserable. Regardless of your situation, the first step is always the same step. Awareness. Self-awareness plus career awareness equals career wellness. It is the truth about how career fulfillment works.

But what does career awareness mean?

What we’re really talking about here is an awareness that your career happiness is up to you – all of it. Awareness and ownership are the first steps to career fulfillment. The good things that happen, the not-so-good things that happen, the victories and the setbacks. When I talk with clients about awareness as step number one, I definitely mean awareness of values, of interests, of natural behavioral style, skills, and strengths. I also mean awareness that you can’t be a bystander and hope that it all works out like you want.

How do you achieve awareness?

If you want to be aware, you’re going to need to get down-and-dirty honest about all of it. You will need to take responsibility, be bold, brave, decide to take risks (or not) and get very clear with yourself about whether you want to participate in this constantly evolving thing which is your career. You will need to pay attention to the signals your body is giving you and to the things you are curious about. You will need to tune in to what your intuition is telling you.

Stop Shying Away from the Touchy-Feely

One of the biggest challenges employees and employers face when trying to transform their careers, or supporting the career development of their employees, is dealing with the reality of awareness. The language itself can border on therapy-like words. You’ll need to deal with that, or find your own words that make you less squeamish. Part of the courage needed to self-actualize your career is moving past your own judgment about how you get to awareness.

If you don’t, you’ll be handing that power over. You’ll be allowing some company or whatever current circumstances you’re in, decide for you.

Awareness means never giving your power away.

Want more great insights championing the employee side of employee engagement? Want to spark your own career fulfillment fire? Sign up to get career wellness posts delivered directly to your email.

Image courtesy of Pexels.com.

by Barbara Berger

Blog Page, job search anxiety, Mid Life Professionals, Women in Transition

Why Trust Career Serendipity?

May 24, 2016

Look back over your career. How did you land where you are? Chances are you’ll be able to identify a random meeting, an unplanned collaboration, or chance event that represents a critical moment that helped you on your way to where you are right now.

Pooneh Mohajer, founder of Hard Candy and two other startups, talks about career serendipity:

It’s funny, we have these plans for ourselves, these well-laid plans, and then you meet someone or are influenced by something or exposed to something; and we end up going in another direction, which is great.

Read the full Inc.com article here.

Notice serendipitous events. Be mindful enough to sense your gut reaction to them. Be brave enough to act on them. That’s how to create a brilliantly fulfilling career.

by Barbara Berger

Blog Page, job search anxiety, Mid Life Professionals, Women in Transition

Can’t Find Your One True Calling?

March 30, 2016

A client just shared this TED Talk with me. If you have 12 minutes and have experienced anxiety with the question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” you must watch this video. I’m now an official bSI6ImhvbWUtZmVlZDpkZXNrdG9wIiwibiI6IjAifQ
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by Barbara Berger

Blog Page

Have Your Career Cake

April 8, 2015

There is something incredibly rewarding about working they way I want to work, not because someone is telling me what to do or how to do it. Something so fantastically different about working my own gig and knowing that the compensation is a result, from start to finish, of my own efforts. Not to mention that I value the money so much more because I’m in a helping/teaching/giving role which is where my gut knows, and past career experiments show, I belong.

There is something so decadent about having the freedom to structure my work day as I choose. It might mean the ability to take a break to eat the last piece of cheesecake for a mid-morning snack (I just did that), or thinking through a presentation while taking the dog for a walk (much better option than the cheesecake.)

But that’s me.

Does it mean I sometimes work at midnight, or during the evening between my boys’ baseball games, and on weekends? Yes, it does. There’s a cost to every decision. However, for me, this way works best.

I love my offices. I have a home office where I work with candles lit, or incense burning, or loud music, or soft music or Howard Stern on XM. I talk to (and answer) myself. At my other office, where I see clients and pay rent and get my dose of human interaction, it’s tiny and cozy and it’s me. (Sans Howard Stern and the out-loud personal dialogue.)

I value freedom, and variety, and days that I get to structure any way I like. Some days I’m seeing clients all day, some days I’m delivering workshops, other days I’m writing resumes, or LinkedIn profiles, or blog posts. I love options.

But that’s me.

What about you? Do you need quiet? Do you need lots of social interaction? Do you need tight deadlines to perform your best? Do you want to walk away from the day at 5:00 and not have to think about it until you punch in again the next morning? Do you need to be outside?

There is no one way, no way more important than another, to work. There is only your best way and you need to know what it is so you can help make a well-informed decision about your career options.

If you know that you need structure and clear-cut, specific guidelines during your time at work, then that is a huge piece of the puzzle for you. And when you know something like that about yourself, and how you work best, you begin to make choices. Better choices. Aligned choices. Choices that lead to career wellness.

How do you find out what your best way is? You experiment.

Pamela Slim talks about “thinking like a scientist” in her book Body of Work: Finding the Thread That Ties Your Story Together.

When talking about what makes or breaks an entrepreneurial journey, Slim writes;

What I mean specifically is a willingness to create a working hypothesis, test it, observe with curiosity, ask why, tweak, retest, observe, et cetera, until you are satisfied.

Experimentation is not only a journey for entrepreneurs, I believe it is how we need to view career development as a whole. Anyone’s career. We are all experimenting in our own way, to find our individual best way, to work.

Take some time to reflect on past experiences, pay attention to current situations, and make a list of times when you know you preformed at your best.

It’s not for the weak; this experimentation thing. There are lots of hypotheses that deliver disappointing results. When this happens, add the experience to your list, break down what you learned about yourself, and experiment again. And again.

Keep experimenting until you notice that one of your experiments leads to unexpected peace, surprising happiness and an increased feeling of overall wellbeing.

When that happens, celebrate with cheesecake.

He’d rather walk!

cheesecake photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/10506540@N07/5806546039

by Barbara Berger

Mid Life Professionals

New Career Without the Newbie Feel

February 3, 2015

One of my favorite career-change sites is Careershifters. I always discover something valuable in their articles that helps a client or two of mine along the way. I found this gem today and had to share for anyone who is thinking of changing careers or making a move to a new industry. http://tinyurl.com/k4mdkzl Nobody likes to feel like the newbie…so don’t be one!

by Barbara Berger

Blog Page, Mid Life Professionals, Uncategorized, Women in Transition

Enough with 5 Tips, 3 Tricks, 10 Ways….Gimme Just One Thing!

November 13, 2014

You want one thing? You already have it. Question is…are you using it?

I was having coffee with a friend a few weeks ago. This friend happens to be a millennial. She also happens to be a gifted writer who, instead of flexing her award-winning literary muscles, is flexing her biceps and triceps doing backbreaking work in the fields of her organic farm in Eastern PA. She’s also getting an intense workout in the business world as she is building her “Lady-Run, Earth-Friendly Vegetable Farm” brand as well as her strategic partnerships in Philadelphia. She works harder than anyone I know. She still writes when she has time, and you can read her story in her own words at her Farmer Liz blog.

We were talking about how it can appear that people who have successfully changed careers or started a business had something in their corner that made it easier for them to get a leg up; a spouse to cover expenses for a year, a key contact at a dream company, a mentor who seems to appear and take the person under their wing. Farmer Liz said, “But everyone has one thing. My one thing is that my relationship with my parents is great and I can be a transient there when I need to be.” This allows her to be mobile between Philly, and her farm and her part time gig as she grows her full-time business. She went on to talk about a few of her friends and their respective ‘one things.’ She was right; they all had something. And they used it.

Sometimes the thing is easy to see – the trust fund, the free ride to college, the friend who knows a friend, etc. Sometimes, sheer determination, courage, desire or intuition are not as tangible and, therefore, more difficult to recognize as a competitive advantage. And, believe it or not, sometimes we see it, but we don’t use it.

So, in the world of formulated how-to posts, the obligatory bullet point for career shifters, industry jumpers, new grads, business starters or dream builders is:

Identify your one thing and leverage it.

There are people who don’t understand why you wouldn’t use something (ethically, of course) if it helps your career along. But, in another corner, are folks who are wired to turn a blind eye to a helping hand or to exercising an advantage; believing it will devalue any achievement. They don’t even need their peers to resent them for it; they are more than happy to discredit their own progress. It sounds like this: “It’s only working out well because…, People will think I only succeeded because…, It won’t really count because…” So, as Farmer Liz would say:

Give freely, and accept graciously and with gratitude. If you really want it, you’ll swallow your ego and go for it.

Stop feeling guilty about your one thing and stop apologizing for it. Your peers had something in their corner, too, and maybe they didn’t use it or never took a helping hand when it was offered; and maybe they are all still stuck. Success doesn’t only count when you work tooth and nail to earn it. It counts just the same when you acknowledge and leverage your one thing and work hard too. Because, to launch in a new direction, there will always be plenty of hard work. Just ask my farmer friend.

Go ahead and feel free to walk uphill, in the snow, for 20 miles, with no shoes, carrying a 100 lb. backpack every day for 10 years until you make it to your destination. Or water, care for and cultivate the one thing that just may make the trip a bit easier. And then use it.

by Barbara Berger

Blog Page, Mid Life Professionals, Uncategorized, Women in Transition

Faking It, Loving the One You’re With, and Other Temporary Fixes

October 27, 2014

You know you’ve done it. Somewhere along the line we’ve all done it. You faked it. You just wanted to get it over with – the day, the meeting, the week – so you delivered an Oscar-worthy performance and, surprised by how easily others can be fooled, you did what you needed to do and then got on with the rest of your world.

And then you did it again. And again. Until one day you admit that deep down you know you should be getting more out of this than a paycheck…which you desperately need. But don’t you deserve to enjoy it a little?

Yes, you deserve to enjoy what you do for a living. And, your employer deserves an engaged employee. So what happens when you know that you aren’t happy where you’re planted but, for whatever reason, you aren’t ready to make a move?

First, ask yourself this revealing question that I ask all of my career coaching clients:

Are you being a (designer, teacher, sales manager), or are you a (designer, teacher, sales manager)?

If you ARE what you’re doing from 9-5 you probably answered with certainty and a feeling of, “Duhh, how could I possibly be anything else? It’s what I am.”

Clients who answer like this typically seek tactical guidance to get them back on course. We may work on their resume, focus on job search strategy or pump some new energy into their LinkedIn profile to get them to the next step of what they already know they are. The feeling of faking it often dissipates as they begin to make some strategic adjustments.

If you are BEING your title from 9- 5, you probably answered with a sigh of frustration and something like “I’m BEING a _____, it’s not what I am.” (a.k.a. “I’m pretending. I’m faking it.”)

Clients who answer this way usually want to find work that is aligned with what they know about themselves, or a way to bring more of themselves into their current situation. Many times they aren’t even sure where they belong. It’s a different level of faking and they are drained and uninspired for most of their work day. Even though they may be good at their job, there is no communion between who they are and what they do.

First of all, it’s important to note that probably at some point in your life you’ll find yourself being something in order to cover the bills. It may be during your early career as you are paying your dues or during a financial or family situation that takes priority. When that’s the case, you have to try even harder to are it in other areas of your life to make sure you aren’t depleted. So, if you know that you’re being it (faking it) from 9 –5, begin to notice when you are it outside of your day job. Who says you have to define yourself by your 9 -5 title anyway? Oh, that’s right…the world. Don’t listen.

I’m not saying that passion can’t equal a paycheck. It certainly can. But it doesn’t always. And, rarely at every stage of life are you getting paid for doing what feels perfectly right.

Sometimes there is a little faking involved as you put in your time, try things on and discard titles that don’t fit. But you don’t want to be placed on a performance improvement plan, and you don’t want to look like a slacker, and you don’t want your reputation to be affected just because you’re putting the puzzle together. You also don’t want to feel this level of detachment from your work forever.

Try these mind tricks to help sustain you and keep you as engaged as possible:

Start telling yourself (and others if you want) your story in a new way: “I’m an organic gardener and I work as an accountant from 9 to 5.” I’m a musician but I work as an office manager during the week.”
Begin to subtly infuse value into what you’re being by seeing how it contributes to your ability to are outside of a paycheck. (The money you make being it affords you the resources you need to are it in your private life.)
Love the one you’re with. Seek other areas in your organization that might sound interesting. The more you experiment, the more you learn. Sitting still is like dying a slow death.
Find ways to try to bring some of your are into the daily being.
If you have ideas of what you really want to get paid to do, start taking meaningful action steps to determine what it will take to make that a reality. Doing is the bridge from BEING to AREing.

I really don’t believe that we were born to fake it through life. Even at work. If you find yourself in that pattern, it’s a signal for you to pay attention and make some adjustments. Play some mind tricks to create a subtle shift in perspective and to help you get unstuck. And then, when you feel a pull that can’t be ignored, start building a little bridge….you may find what you are on the other side.

Image: Pi from Leiden, Holland via http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lab_coats.jpg

by Barbara Berger

Women in Transition

Coaching Women in Career Transition

October 7, 2014

5 Biggest Lessons From Year One

In the spring of 2013, I initiated my own mid-career transition when I resigned from the most amazing company ever, MyHR Partner, to become certified as a Career Coach and start my own career consulting practice, Career Wellness Partners. I expected the first year to be a year of learning about running my own business – and it certainly was. But, there was one thing for which I wasn’t prepared at all:

I wasn’t prepared for how much I would learn from my clients.

I work with women in all kinds of transition; women who are recently divorced and re-entering the workforce before they planned, mid-career women who are suddenly unemployed and determined to make their second act one that matters, and women whose career dreams took a back seat while caring for ailing parents. I work with women who have experienced such loss they don’t even know where to begin to build their lives (let alone their careers) to some state of “normalcy.” And, I work with women who are trying to find a way to infuse meaning and joy into their current work situation.

My background as a Hiring Manger provided me with the skills to assist clients with the mechanics of the job search; resume writing, interview prep, LinkedIn profiles, applicant tracking systems (ATS), etc. Through education and training, along with plenty of pro-bono work prior to launch, I discovered my own coaching style. That’s when the learning really began.

Here are the top five lessons from my first year as a Career Coach for women in transition:

1. Work heals – Work pays the bills. It also can be a place of refuge, rebuilding and recovery. It can be experimental or monumental. It can be a primary or parallel endeavor. Work can help free us from debilitating introspection, spiraling depression and loss of connection. Work sucks sometimes. And sometimes, it saves.

2. “Way leads on to way” – My favorite line from Robert Frost’s The Road Not Taken is “Yet knowing how way leads on to way…” My favorite because it speaks to endless possibilities resulting from one small step. And I’ve learned that getting beyond lesson #3, so that women feel worthy to take that first step, is the most important part.

3. Fear & Lack of Confidence Cause Paralysis – These are big saboteurs for most women and we feed them by the negative way we talk to ourselves and frame our circumstances. They keep us stuck. Watching women learn and practice strategies to combat those obstacles leads to lesson #4.

4. Strength. Resilience. Persistence. Spirit. – Wow. Remarkable. Awe-inspiring. Humbling. I am blessed to witness such personal transformation and rebirth.

5. The Power of Women Helping Women – Transitions expose our vulnerable spots. I work with men too. But something genuinely magical happens when women work together in the spirit of owning, and then honoring, their talents and desires.

By combining my insatiable curiosity of career discovery, industry-specific skills, and an innate drive to help and inspire others, I have found my “work worth doing.” I send heartfelt gratitude to the inspiring women who have trusted me to help them find theirs.

by Barbara Berger

Blog Page, job search anxiety, Mid Life Professionals, Uncategorized, Women in Transition

Career Wellness Partners, LLC, Named Resource for Divorce Mediation Center

March 12, 2014

ALLENTOWN, PA – Career Wellness Partners, LLC, a Lehigh Valley Career Consulting Company, has been named as a Professional Service Provider by Doylestown-based Alpha Center for Divorce Mediation. The Alpha Center, founded in 1995 by Keila Gilbert, Esq., is dedicated to “providing families with excellent legal, financial and parenting guidance; thereby, empowering them to intelligently navigate their divorce transition and establish the best quality of life possible after divorce.”

The Alpha Resource Center, LLC, a sister company, was formed in 2006 and is dedicated to providing programs for saving marriages and assisting with divorce recovery. It is here, where Alpha partners with professional service providers including family therapists, financial advisors, mortgage brokers, health and wellness professionals and career advisors who can be helpful during the transition of divorce.

Barbara Berger, Certified Career Coach and owner of Career Wellness Partners, works with individuals in career transition. “Divorce is one of life’s most difficult transitions and, as if the pain of separation itself isn’t bad enough, often one or both parties find themselves in a career crisis as well. They may have to change jobs or re-enter the work force. Sometimes a divorce is a wake-up call and a spouse decides it’s time to switch industries, relocate, or re-focus their career goals. Other times, divorce proceedings have a negative impact on an existing position and one of the parties finds themselves out of work and needing to take a transition job. My company works with these individuals to help them find a way through the overwhelming career decisions and helps them find focus. Many times, people just need a place to begin.” Berger said, “I look forward to the partnership with the Alpha Center as we have a mutual desire to help people find their way during a very difficult and emotionally-challenging time.”

Since its inception, the Alpha Center has grown to 10 locations in Eastern PA and is continuing to expand. “The key to Alpha’s long history of success is the quality and dedication of the professionals who are a part of our program and resources. We believe that Career Wellness Partners will be a wonderful resource for our clients since many of them face career transitions as direct result of their divorce transitions. Life after divorce can be richly rewarding and Career Wellness Partners will be there to ensure that it is all that it can be.”

Career Wellness Partners is not a search firm or headhunter, but provides resume writing, mock interviewing, and job search strategies in addition to Career Consulting and Coaching.

For more information about Career Wellness please contact Barbara Berger at 484-862-9523, Barbara@CareerWellnessPartners.com or http://careerwellnesspartners.com/ For the Alpha Center please contact Arielle Krause at 800-310-9085, alphaoutreach@alpharesourcecenter.com, or http://www.alpharesourcecenter.com/

by Barbara Berger

Active Questions to Energize Your Career

Employees – Step Up Your Game!