New Approaches to Career Development

If your career has been impacted by the technological, information and economic whirlwinds whipping around us it may help to know that practitioners themselves have had to do some hard thinking about new ways to help their clients find sustainable and satisfying careers. If you approach a career coach now you may find the experience broader and more holistic than before.

A new paradigm for career development has come about as a result of the massive change that has happened in the business environment over the last five or so years. For the applied psychology, coaching, career counselling and mentoring fraternity this means that we need to rethink our approach to doing career work with clients.

Traditionally, where work environments were stable and roles defined, career assessments based on 'sound' career theory provided us with a level of understanding about the career congruence potential for an individual. Career theory was rooted in the assumptions that personal traits are stable and that career development follows a sequence of predictable life stages.

Although assessments and inventories are very useful, the competencies and confidence required to navigate the work environments of today require so much more than understanding an individual's values, interests and career drivers. So much more is also required from the practitioner to assist the client to transform the contextual limitations and issues they experience. These refer to are the environmental limitations that affect us such as government or corporate policies, market forces, economics (recession) and globalisation.

The knowledge economy of today calls for new approaches and much more dexterity and wisdom from practitioners. No longer is it enough to do an assessment or two, arrive at some idea of what career congruence might mean to the individual and then leave them to get on with it.

Now, we need to enable our clients to construct lives that are meaningful by opening up the possibility for higher levels of control and flexibility and helping them to recognise that one's career identity is not separate from the whole-of-life reality.

A recent paper published by Mark Savickas et al in The Journal of Vocational Behaviour (April 2009), suggests that practitioners should develop the "discipline of change". In other words, they need to be 'change agents' who deliver 'life-design' interventions(holistic approaches that look at whole-of-life experience) in order to help people deal with the challenges of a chaotic and very changeable world.

We know that change is constant now, but more than that, it is difficult to identify any stability in life, regardless of life stage. This lack of stability presents the need for a whole new framework for career development.

This new framework focuses on:-

1. Validating personal stories and subjective experience. This develops an awareness of life themes, vocational personality and resources, enabling a willingness to take responsibility for choices and experiences, and the learning gained from these
2. The need for adaptability and flexibility: being open to addressing developmental tasks, workplace issues and transitions in order to build resilience and optimism
3. The importance of taking action: engaging in diverse activities and feedback to build new life and career dimensions by opening up views and experiences of the world
4. Being intentional: imposing meaning on experiences by being self aware. Reviewing, refocusing and proactively making change to increase confidence and sense of control

Organisations and individuals who use the services of career practitioners and coaches come to us with a very different set of challenges than they did five years ago. People are now dealing with enormous amounts of complexity.

When looking for a career coach or mentor who can assist in the ways described above, look for one with the following qualities:-

1. has an 'authentic' approach and will tell you whether they can meet your expectations with their process
2. has a strong understanding of the corporate/business experience yet who has a 'holistic' or 'whole-person' approach
3. has the confidence to go deeply without getting into a therapeutic process
4. has a strong ability to stimulate storytelling with excellent reflective listening ability to pick up on themes and context dynamics from those stories
5. whose experience and diverse skills open up worlds of possibility for the client
6. has an ability to 'enable' a client's understanding rather than 'telling' or 'advising' too much

Best of all get a recommendation from someone who was empowered by their experience to make change and who developed a whole new level of understanding about who they are in the world as a result of the process they went through with the coach.

In summary, career coaching now requires a process that offers more in-depth work with people to enable them to cope and respond to the challenges they face now with greater confidence. A simple structure of 3-5 sessions with a career coach would provide the space and focus for people to talk about their stories of life and work, to identify themes and personal development opportunities, then to look at new ways to open up their experience in a more positive and helpful way and to create goals and steps which are meaningful and aligned. Finally, a good coach will motivate people to believe in themselves and provide practical tools for making the transitions required to make positive change with greater confidence

Acknowledgement

Kaye Avery is a career coach and facilitator with significant experience in her field. She works with individuals and teams to help people transform their careers by building alignment in their work and congruence in life in general. Her clients range from corporate clients who entrust Kaye to coach and mentor their employees to improve performance or make successful career change, to individuals wanting to transform limiting situations and self confidence.

Kaye has a Graduate Diploma in Career Development and is completing a Masters in Career Development research project this year. She is also a certified NLP practitioner, a registered Myers Briggs Practitioner and a trained coach. Kaye is a Professional Member of the Career Practitioners Association of New Zealand (CPANZ) and the Human Resources Institute of New Zealand (HRINZ).

Practice: 25 Vermont Street, Ponsonby, Auckland
Phone: 021 47 47 65
www.career-coach.co.nz