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Why I love being a career coach Part 2 – Peter Wilford

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This is a 2 part blog by Peter Wilford. This is part 2.

Read part 1: https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/why-i-love-being-a-career-coach-part-1-peter-wilford/

Giving people focus.

As a Career Coach we need to be flexible in our style and approach to each client and their specific and unique requirements. Clients also need to know where they are going and how to get there. I am naturally structured and like to give clients a focus so that they know that they are following a clear path and can see and track their progress along the way.

This does not work for everyone of course and nor should it. When I get feedback that “you gave me a real focus to everything we did which was hugely beneficial” I know that I have delivered. I enjoy working to agreed deadlines and keeping people on song!

Positive Testimonials.

We all like getting feedback from people we work with.  I have had many fantastic testimonials over the years from happy clients and this has been great. Many of them have kept in touch with me and I with them long after they have finished a programme.

Some have been with me for over 10 years and they have referred other people to me.  I am always very driven and professional with my clients and don’t expect feedback without fully deserving it but it is still good to hear that my work has helped them in some way.  

Getting results.

This is always motivational. For many clients a good result is not purely getting a new job. It can be to recover from a bad redundancy experience, discover new skills and undertake further training, fulfil a life-long dream to set up a business, get feedback from a successful presentation or land an interim assignment.

I especially enjoy when the outcome is different from our initial assessment and the client has surprised themselves and proved themselves completely wrong by moving into an area of work that they had never imagined in their wildest dreams would be where they would end up.

Read why I love career coaching by Rachel Brushfield: https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/why-i-love-career-coaching-rachel-brushfield/

Why I love being a career coach Part 1 – Peter Wilford

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This is a 2 part blog by Peter Wilford. This is part 1.

Understanding people and what makes them tick.
I love meeting people for the first time and getting to know their unique story. I enjoy finding out what makes them tick and why they do the work that they have chosen to do. I like having these conversations outside work, at dinner parties, over a coffee or when meeting someone new.

My innate personality and interests underpin this. I have become very self-aware from doing many psychometric assessments during my HR and Training career and that has made me even more fascinated by other people and inquisitive about them. As well as this I have always had a genuine interest in others and I like to feel that I can quickly put people at ease with my warmth and openness – also with my humour!

The fact that I can do this professionally is a fantastic bonus and that is why when I first became a career coach at age 42, I realised that I was doing something that I really enjoy.

Making a difference.
There is no doubt that I have helped to change people’s lives, both directly and indirectly, through the work that I do and that this is very rewarding and a driver for me. It can be in many ways. It may be by helping them to secure a new position against the odds, encouraging them to go it alone and set up a new business or just to give them a focus and new sense of self-worth when their confidence and self-esteem has been at a low point.

I have seen visible changes in people for example when they see what they have really achieved at work captured effectively in their CV, learnt some fresh insights into their personality which make them realise what is unique about them and why then can change direction in their careers or just by helping them nail a job interview and convert it into an offer. I enjoy every new success and this has spurred me on to the next challenge.

Variety.
No two clients are the same and no two days are identical. I enjoy that. At any one point I can be working with 15 or more clients from across the whole of life and society. I used to have a saying that my clients varied from “Bankers to Ballerinas, Lawyers to Florists” and that is true.

Recently, I have been working with a CEO of a Mid-sized Pharma company, a recruitment consultant who wants to move into Risk Management, a fresh graduate who is rudderless, A change management consultant in Financial Services, a Criminal Lawyer who is developing a portfolio career, a Senior Payments executive, an Insurance Underwriter who is the other side of the world, a publishing specialist who is looking to work freelance, a Chief of Staff in the Retail sector, and a virtual PA. As well as this I have 10-15 outplacement clients all moving on from recent or pending redundancy.

I have learned to switch quickly from client to client during the day and provide a seamless level of support to each one. All of this is motivational and enjoyable. I also do some other work as well as Career Coaching and that gives me fresh focus when I return to my real passion.

Read Why I love career coaching by Rachel Brushfield: https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/why-i-love-career-coaching-rachel-brushfield/

Exercising your entrepreneurial muscle

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More competition for jobs and consultancy work makes being entrepreneurial as well as resilient essential.

The word entrepreneurial can make people put pressure on themselves, as it is associated with entrepreneurs, and many people don’t identify themselves in this way.

Alternative words for entrepreneurial

Other words that you can use instead of ‘entrepreneurial’ that may feel more ‘you’ are:

  • Enterprising
  • Imaginative
  • Ingenious
  • Inventive
  • Pioneering
  • Resourceful
  • Creative

Coronavirus has forced entrepreneurial behaviour

The coronavirus has seen a massive amount of fast change and reinvention with on-line learning and teaching, for example.

Our local pub is planning to re-open in July re-organised to accommodate social distancing with an App to pre-book tables and pre order and pay for food and drinks. Food and drinks will be placed in a holding bay, for people sitting at tables to collect themselves, protecting the staff and minimising touch and risk of infection, instead of staff serving at the tables. This system will also enable more planning, and perhaps less waste, with prior knowledge of what ingredients are needed and in what quantity.

Invention and innovation

Entrepreneurial behaviour underlies the inclination to undertake invention and innovation, including the creation of something new, as well as the distribution and adoption of the new throughout society. Think Zoom and Team which are now the norm, when a few months ago, not everyone had heard of or used them.

Portfolio careers require entrepreneurial behaviour

Entrepreneurial behaviours are essential with a portfolio career, a career made up of different work strands, where you create different opportunities for yourself. As an analogy, just as with cookery, the more ingredients that you have – skills, experience, knowledge and contacts, the more ‘recipes’ you can create for yourself.

What are entrepreneurial behaviours?

Confident/’can do’ attitude

Proactivity

Learning

A mistake/failure is an opportunity to learn/relearn

Try different things

Curiosity

Assertiveness

Being inventive/enterprising

Resilient

A preference for change

Desire to change the status quo 

How would you rate yourself currently on these entrepreneurial behaviours out of 100%?

Developing entrepreneurial habits helps to develop entrepreneurial behaviours.

10 habits of entrepreneurs

What are the habits of entrepreneurs?

1.  Plan a day in advance

2.  Get proper nutrition

3.  Position themselves to serve others

4.  Set clear S.M.A.R.T. goals

5.  Take calculated risks

6.  Know their strengths and weaknesses

7.  Hire ‘A’ team players

8.  Are constantly learning

9.  Always look for opportunities

10.               Evaluate their actions and priorities every day

6 tips to develop your entrepreneurial ‘muscle’

  1. Block out time in your diary each week for personal and professional development
  2. Diarise a half day or whole day away day every 2 months to think, reflect, plan and create
  3. Read Charles Handy’s book The New Alchemists
  4. Learn to coach yourself – ask yourself open incisive questions e.g. for a trainer: ‘What trends are growing in the tech sector that I could adopt for the training industry?’
  5. Diarise ‘important not urgent’ tasks to make sure that they happen. According to Stephen Covey, author of the international best seller The 7 habits of highly effective people these tasks are:
  • Preparation
  • Prevention
  • Planning
  • Relationship building
  • Empowerment
  • Self awareness, learning, exploration & development
  • Learning new skills
  • Creative thinking
  • Networking
  • Prioritisation
  • Training & development
  • Exercise 

6. Push out your comfort zone each week – do something that you have never done before

Get in touch https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/portfolio/connect/

Alex Wade’s portfolio career – guest blog part 2

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Alex Wade book Flack cover

This is a two part guest blog by Alex Wade about his portfolio career. This is part two.

Alex is a writer and his principal interests are law, sport (especially football, surfing and boxing), poker and travel, as well as general features, football match reports and book reviews.  Many years ago, when he was a media lawyer, Alex worked for leading libel firm Carter-Ruck before becoming now-Express Group proprietor Richard Desmond’s first Head of Legal Affairs. Subsequently Alex’s unreconstructed tendencies got the better of him. His life went off the rails but boxing played a large part in his rehabilitation. This story is chronicled in Wrecking Machine, a Sunday Times sports book of the week.  Alex has travelled extensively and written about New York, Albania and Kazakhstan; Barbados, Ireland and Andalucía; Captain Cook country, Mexico and Francis Ford Coppola’s retreats in Belize and Guatemala. He lives in west Cornwall with his partner Caroline their two sons.

The rest of this blog is in Alex’s own words.

Here is a link to part 1 in case you missed it:

https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/alex-wades-portfolio-career-guest-blog-part-1/

What do you most love about having a portfolio career?

The freedom. I was never any good at having a boss.

What are the challenges of having a portfolio career?

You’ve got to hold your nerve. Work comes and goes. In lean spells you’ve got to trust and believe that things will come round. One way to counter the anxiety inherent in this lifestyle is to have fingers in many pies.

Who or what helps you to manage your portfolio career?

My partner, Caroline Davidson, is brilliant. Together we run an editorial services business. She’s the organised one. I’m not.

How do you approach marketing your portfolio career?

Don’t be afraid – get out there and pitch. People can only say no.

What if any, is the personal brand used for your portfolio career?

For my own work I guess it’s brand Alex Wade. But I’m aware of how pretentious that might sound so let’s say there’s some irony in that answer…

What skills/experience/qualities does someone need to have a portfolio career?

The main thing is being… nice. Obviously you’ve got to know what you’re doing, whatever your field, but the portfolio career isn’t a place for corporate back-stabbing and pompous fools. It’s where you need to get on with people – to like them, being with them, working with them, in the knowledge that you’re not dependent on them so can always walk if they turn out to be obnoxious.

What advice would you give to someone considering a portfolio career?

Seize the day, especially when it comes to writing. Traditional jobs are changing overnight and old-school journalism isn’t a safe bet anymore. So think laterally about other people who might want your words, and go and find them.

What benefits do portfolio careers bring specifically to women and mothers, rather than to men?

I don’t want to presume to answer this one!

What are your top 5 tips to successfully manage a portfolio career?

  • Be disciplined – accept that you rarely have a day off
  • Work at it
  • Be generous to people – help others and they might help you
  • Hold your nerve
  • Think laterally – I once sold a travel story to one place six times over

More about Alex Wade

Personal web site:

www.alexwade.com

Alex Wade’s first novel, Flack’s Last Shift, is published by Blue Mark Books (£14.99).

www.flackslastshift.com

Alex’s Editorial Services business:

www.frugalspeech.com

LinkedIn profile:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-wade-5322724

Follow Alex Wade on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/surfnation1

More about portfolio careers:

Download our free report Discover Portfolio Careers

https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/who-has-portfolio-careers/

Webinar about portfolio careers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iF29AGuRIVw&app=desktop

Find out what your transferable skills are, download our free Skills report:

https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/what-is-a-portfolio-career/

Download our free report Pain Free Career change from this page:

https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/testimonials/

Check out our web site Inspiring Portfolio Careers:

https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/

Follow us on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/talentliberator

Do You Find Career Change Daunting?

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Career Change Feel Daunting?Career change can feel really daunting, can’t it. Like a ladder, taking it one step at a time is wise.

Download our free report “Pain free career change” and you can make career change safe. Take the first step now and click on this link to download your free report http://www.careerstrategies.co.uk/