Leaving your job? How to say goodbye and prepare for what's next
Are you leaving or changing your job? You may well have the customary goodbye cake, card or drink with colleagues and then focus your energies on the role you are moving into. But is this enough? How we close one chapter in our lives impacts on how we perform in our next chapter. Now is the time to reflect on the role you’ve had, where you are at and where you are going. An ideal way to do this is through a coaching walk.
When we are at work we have a relationship with the wider environment. We may spend much of our time in our office but we also connect with a whole range of related spaces. A favourite sandwich shop we visit at lunchtime, our route to work, perhaps a walk from the bus stop, a bench we sit on for a breather or a bar we often go to for post work drinks. When we leave our job we also end these routines and change our environment. Our experience of work encompasses how we exist and move through these spaces. They hold the memories and stories of our working life and give insights that can be unlocked to explore how we have developed. An exit coaching walk uses these spaces as the setting for a coaching session.
What spaces are part of your work routine? Over your next few days at work, try mapping out the places that form part of your work experience. Try choosing one of these places and spend a few minutes there. Be mindful of how this place makes you feel and what it means to you. How does it fit into your working life? What stories or memories are associated with this place? Also, consider how the place or you have changed over the time that you have worked there. This inquiry can serve as the beginning of creating a whole new perspective on your professional life leading to consideration of what you want to leave behind and take with you into your new role.
Exploring the spaces around work can also allow you to raise awareness of patterns and routines around how you behave at work. What keeps happening? Where do you always go? You can then ask how these patterns benefit you or hold you back. A new job is a chance to make changes in many ways.
There will be many challenges and exciting adventures in starting a new role. You will create new routines and belong to new spaces. Spending some time reflecting on the job you are leaving and the places and routines that are part of that can make a real, positive difference to how you start and thrive in that new role.
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