Careers coaching and well-being

Career coaching will help you focus to achieve your goals and to move on to the next stage in your career. This is confidence-boosting. An additional benefit will be a wonderful sense of increased general-well-being, and this is the area I want to focus on in this article.

There’s a direct link between job satisfaction and well-being; if you are happy in your career then this will overflow into your general enjoyment of life. Examples of where this can happen are;

• the participation in a piece of work that you are proud of
• the opportunity to learn new skills
• the social benefits of being in a supportive environment with colleagues

The benefits of career coaching

1. Career coaching will empower you to be proactive. The very act of seeking out someone to help you work out what you would like to achieve in your career is a positive step. It may be getting you out of a rut in your career. It is a way of saying to yourself that you are worth investing in. You are taking the time to review where you are and where you’d like to get to.

2. Working with a coach will help you to increase your belief in your ability. The coach will focus on your strengths and will look at your work values to get to understand what motivates you. Coaches use positive psychology and are trained to act as a catalyst to increase your confidence. They will challenge any negative thinking. By working with you, they will be alert to any unhelpful attitudes or beliefs that might be holding you back.

3. After each coaching session, you’ll be sent off with an action plan. Therefore, you’ll also have a sense of agency, where you are setting constructive goals that focus on the future. This will help you to stop ruminating over past or present problems. Optimism is a key element of a positive mental attitude, which means you will possess the willingness to entertain the possibility of positive outcomes.

There are also some indirect benefits that you may find with career coaching:

First, if you can advance in your career due to the support you are getting from your coach, then this can lead to greater financial security. This will, in turn, increase your well-being, as financial pressures and debts lead to anxiety. Lack of money undermines a sense of agency and can leave people feeling powerless.

Secondly, if you can get into a career that fits in with your identity and values, then you will feel a strong sense of social belonging. Your vocational identity is an important component of social identity. Along with social interactions and belonging to a social group, finding your niche in the world of work has many positive outcomes. Forging friendships with colleagues helps boost your well-being and enables you to avoid feelings of loneliness.

There are also other examples of where career coaching will boost your well-being.

If you are in an unsupported environment at work, where work is distressing and affecting your health and work/life balance, then career coaching will be helpful. You will feel supported, as by sharing your situation with someone, this will help you to examine your choices. Careers coaches will not directly tell you what to do, but you’ll be given time to think and space to reflect. You'll feel encouraged to air what you are thinking and feeling. This will help you understand how this affects your results and next steps.

Another similar example is in the case of learned helplessness. This is where someone repeatedly finds themselves in a stressful situation. It happens so many times that they lose the belief that they can control or change the situation, so they begin to accept it and go along with it.

By the same token, through your coach, you will be able to increase your locus of control. That is to be able to expand the control over the outcome of events in your life. This is opposed to the belief that external factors are the main determinants controlling your life, and that you cannot do much to restrict them.