How do you coach for career transition while maintaining current performance and satisfaction?

I recommend starting with assessing their personal brand to gauge where they are right now. When you start at brand, you begin from the foundation. As I always say, we all have a personal brand, by design or by default. Your personal brand is your reputation, is the way others feel when they interact with you. After assessing how you’re perceived today, then clarify where you want to go. Dive into your values, and how are you being perceived by your target. When a client wants to transition to a new career path, we start with assessment to create a roadmap that shows which assets to shed, and which ones to build upon. This strategy will clearly determine the steps to reach their destination.

Most coaches start in the middle with assumptions about what a person is likely to want, or should want. It's vital to be able to spend the time getting to grips with the real motivations, assumptions, and uncertainties first. Fit at a particular point is what's important.

What I’ve found helpful is to spend time reflecting and updating your identity. What are your strengths, what achievements have you made. Asking five close friends how they would describe you is great way to gain perspective. From this position of strength start to visualize your future. See yourself doing something you are passionate about that energizes you. Really feel it, what behaviors and mindsets will you have. What type of relationships will you have, what skills will you leverage . When this vision is clear, then map out how you will achieve this, give yourself a timeline then find a coach to hold you accountable.

It’s always a good start to uncover their natural gifts, we all have them, to ensure that they align their career to these gifts as much as they can which becomes their backbone and strengths.

Once the perfect next step is identified, while transitioning, it is my firm belief leaving a clean wake is critical. What this means to me is leaving a lasting favorable impression with the people you are leaving "in your wake". Be the example of exemplary leadership while moving forward towards a clear vision of "bigger and brighter". Make sure there is a solid successor in place, trained and ready to take charge of your position in your absence. Ideally you are remembered for doing your job well, putting personal passion into your daily routine - no matter how big or small the job was from your perspective. One never knows who is paying attention - potentially a future employee, employer or business partner.

The coachee has to find ways by himself / herself. As coaches, we will be as supportive as possible but we can't do the coachee's tasks and research. Moreover, there's often a need to cultivate patience and the coachee has to learn how to keep a good energy even if the opportunities don't succeed.

The coach should take care here and ask more questions, otherwise it will be more a consulting or mentoring, which is different from coaching.

As a coach it's important to allow the coachee to come up with their options and alternatives. The role of the coach is to help evaluate each option, rather than present new ones. As the coachee evaluates various alternatives, they will tend to connect with more people in the circle and bring out more relevant possibilities over the engagement.

Exploring options could have three phases - suspect, prospect, target. Coachees starts with a list of options that they suspect they could try. They gather hard data for those options, like skills, salary, demand etc. The ones that fit their criteria, move to the list of prospects. Subsequently, they gather soft data, like work-life balance, culture, etc. typically through informational interviews. The ones that fit their criteria, move to the list of targets.

Help the coachee to develop a very strong plan, in a way that there is not other plan , there is no second plan, otherwise the energy will be splited and the results can be directly impacted. Help to create a strong plan!

The plan typically needs to have micro-experiments that will allow the coachee to experience the new career. It could be learning, mini-projects etc. The experience can inform the coachee as to how the new career might work out, which is essential in reducing uncertainty about the new career.

This is a critical part of the transition period. This is where we have to face our fears, those gremlins locked away in our subconscious. So called truths we’ve held onto that drive our decision making without our awareness or permission. As a coach you have to use active listening and powerful questioning to bring these fears or gremlins above the surface. This will bring clarity to the real issue and enable informed decision to be made. When this is done right it will make the transition process exciting and life changing.

This is the critical step and why I believe mental fitness is so important, especially when going through transitions. Transitions always bring uncertainty, you have to prove yourself again. There is always the unknown, you believe in your heart you are capable, but the result is out of your control. There is no doubt it will test you and require all of your skills and resources. It will require you to show up as your best self and sustain your performance to achieve success. Mental fitness will allow you to tap into your mental, physical, emotional and spiritual energy tank when you need it most and deliver.

Depending on the emotionnal state of the coachee, I sometimes change the frequency of the appointments. For exemple, a 10 minutes meeting everyday can give a strong boost to the coachee !

There is a lot for the coachees to balance during such crucial transitions - time, attention, priorities, emotions etc. A routine or schedule can help the coachee in such scenarios and help them make the most of their days. Journaling can be helpful for emotional regulation.

One thing I've found is that wrapping up the coaching journey for career transition with a thorough review of outcomes and results is incredibly valuable. This phase involves guiding the coachee in assessing their achievements and newfound insights, while pinpointing their subsequent steps and prospects. Incorporating methods like the Kirkpatrick Model, the STAR technique, or the Feedback Sandwich can effectively quantify and showcase the coachee's accomplishments. Equally important is helping them embrace setbacks and lessons learned, fostering growth through challenges. Lastly, celebrating successes and honoring their transformative journey is a key aspect of this final step, solidifying a well-rounded career transition process.

Pay attention in the feelings and insight… follow your heart sometimes makes total difference! The brain sometimes is not the best option to follow. Human being!!!

In my experience, learning to allocate time into important spaces such as sleep and reflective time are essential to keep fresh along the journey

I strongly believe that when an opportunity fails, the next one will be better. This helping belief is a efficient tool to remain positive and efficient in interviews, even if the previous one didn't go well.

Changing a career can feel like changing one's identity. It requires one to go through the process of disintegration and reintegration of one's identity to transform into something new. The process is never easy and everyone can do with some support in such scenarios.