 Why I coach
(or, how I discovered that coaching was the right career for me)
One reason I find my work as a business and career coach so exciting is that I have personally enjoyed the excitement, hard work and discovery that go into both changing and transforming a career. Here's the path I followed.
Wasting My Life
Many years ago I was an attorney practicing law in Chicago. I hated it, but it was hard to turn my back on the large salary, the prestige, and my investment of three years at Harvard Law School . . . not to mention the fact that I had no idea what to do instead. I stayed several years longer than I should have in a job that made me feel like I was wasting my life. (Don't get me wrong, some of my best friends are attorneys. It just wasn't for me.)
Traditional Career Counseling Didn't Work
I finally went to an outplacement firm for counseling on finding a new career. They were very good at teaching me skills for a job search like how to network and how to negotiate salary and benefits, but they did not have much to offer towards discovering which career would get me excited about going to work in the morning. As career counselors are trained to do, they gave me personality, skills and interest tests and sent me on informational interviews, but nothing helped me find the right job. When my career counselor finally suggested that I read through a massive book of job titles and descriptions to see if anything struck me, I realized he was as lost as I was.
Finally, Change
That's when I did some intensive soul searching. It took me several months, but I eventually realized that I wanted to counsel people on a more personal level than I had as an attorney. I decided to go back to something I had considered in high school--therapy. I am sure that if I had worked with a coach when I first decided to make a change it would have happened sooner and for a lot less money.
Two (more) years of school later, I had my masters degree in marriage and family therapy from Pacific Lutheran University and a new career as a therapist. Now, as a therapist I enjoy going to work and using my listening and motivational skills to help people change their lives for the better.
Ongoing Growth
After working as a therapist for a while, I decided to include business and career coaching alongside my private therapy work. Being a coach offers me an opportunity to help people who are doing okay but want their careers to bring more satisfaction to their lives, just as I had wanted. With my experience of change and transformation I realized I could do both therapy and coaching.
Coaching and therapy are fundamentally different, so I don't do therapy with my coaching clients. Still, in coaching I use the training and skills I have developed over the years to help people discover, design and move towards their ideal careers. Nothing could bring me more satisfaction. So the road to my coaching practice has shown me just how much positive change can happen on a new career path.
Latest Projects
In addition to my own coaching practice I am also working as a business coach with Wilson Strategies, providing coaching for business people ranging from entrepreneurs and executives to individual team members. My focus at Wilson Strategies is working with individuals and teams who are adjusting to new positions or challenging situations, sometimes seeking a complete turnaround from "not working out" to star performance. I am also one of the editors for a web site called businessListening.com, about the importance of coaching and other forms of feedback for leadership, customer relationships, and persuasion.
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