How career coaching can help you navigate the workplace

You can barely open a magazine these days without seeing an article about why you need to see a life coach. Headlines like ‘rewrite your life story!’ or ‘is it time for a new beginning?’ are everywhere. As well as exercising our bodies, we are increasingly encouraged to exercise our minds. We need to be mindful. We need to be able to switch off. We are encouraged to meditate and avoid toxic people. While this sort of discipline is undoubtedly helpful, how does it fit with the reality of life in the workplace? It’s admirable to go in each day armed with a positive mental attitude, but what happens when the two worlds fail to fit together as nicely as one might have hoped?

The workplace can be stressful, and things happen that are beyond our control. People don’t always behave the way we feel they should... Colleagues can be unreasonable and even downright unpleasant! While we may wish to avoid these people, it’s rarely a realistic prospect in a workplace where people have specific roles, and you need to interact with them to get stuff done.

In an ideal world, we should be able to talk openly and honestly to our managers about interpersonal issues at work, as well as making them aware of significant events outside work that may affect our resilience. However, many of us don’t feel able to because we fear being negatively perceived in an increasingly competitive workplace where outstanding performance ratings are rewarded.

The trend towards more inclusive, transparent organisational cultures is positive, and in such workplaces, employee authenticity is encouraged. This should mean a shift to a more tolerant, accepting way of working, where people feel they can be themselves without judgement.

The reality, though, is that organisations are still at different stages of this journey in terms of their employment practices. While some have taken steps to demystify their processes around career progression and genuinely strive to be meritocratic, many more have not. With the best will in the world, such changes can take time, particularly in larger, more established businesses. Despite progress, women remain underrepresented in many senior leadership positions and may feel pressure to conform to established leadership norms to succeed.

As an employee, it can be a challenge to see colleagues or peers getting promoted or fast-tracked when you’re not clear on how they have made this happen. You can stay calm and work to keep your emotions in check, but it can be hard not to get frustrated as you try to work out what you could do differently to enable your own progression. Throw an attempt at work-life balance or the constraint of caring responsibilities into the picture, and your ability to influence the situation can feel limited.

As an HR professional, I’m all too familiar with the ‘they work really hard’ refrain of the line manager as they justify another promotion or salary increase to an employee on the basis that long hours equal added value.

How can a coach help?

So, what should you do if you find yourself perplexed about what to do next to achieve your career goals? One option is to employ the skills of an experienced career coach. Hiring a career coach isn’t cheap, but if you’re feeling stuck or confused about your career and what to do next, a coach can be a valuable resource.

A career coach will work with you to help you achieve your goals. This could include helping you to put strategies in place to secure that promotion or navigate the politics of your organisation and get yourself known. A career coach can help you through difficult situations or conflict at work, or help you to understand the different dynamics within your organisation and guide you to try new approaches and techniques that may be more effective.

Importantly, your coach is independent, on your side, which is not to say that they won’t challenge you, and there to support you, without judgement, as you work towards your full potential.

If it gets to the stage where you feel you have done all you can in your role or organisation and think you want to try something new, then this is also something your coach can help you with. Ultimately, your career coach should be someone you trust to help you navigate challenging situations on your career journey.

Many of us spend time and money outside work investing in our well-being, whether through working out, meditating or even therapy. Yet at work, we continue to rely on internal structures, which are sometimes broken, to help us fulfil our potential. A coach can help you take ownership of your career so that you can work towards your professional goals and have a lot more fun doing it.