Being clear about your career

Ask any executive coach in London about what their main topic of conversation is and most will reply ‘being clear about your career’. It’s a pretty general desire, but the specifics of a person’s progress through their career is as unique as their fingerprint. There’s no right way to move on or up, there’s no guaranteed formula for success, there’s no defined path to get the professional and personal balance in life you’ve been dreaming about. 

The main thing every executive coaching client benefits from though is clarity. If she says ‘I want to shift from a regional to a national position in the next 3 months’ that’s great; if he says ‘I want to be able to influence the board to see that they need to update their methods by the end of the year’ that’s perfect; if they say ‘ I want our team to have a shared vision, to work together with respect and to each have interests outside of this company’ that’s clear. 

As well as being a trained executive coach and working with leaders and change for over a decade, I’m also a qualified Human Givens psychotherapist. My coaching clients don’t seek me out because they have issues – they’re already high performers in their fields – however I do know that each one has unreleased potential. The psychotherapy piece in my exec work really only comes into play from a brain function point of view. When I spot a client who says something to me like ‘I want to be a Director in the next 2 years’ – it’s my job to make sure that those aren’t just words. Clarity is the starting point – it’s where the conscious mind has decided what it wants to experience next; reality is what I’m seeking for each client though- the manifesting in real life of what they’ve been holding as their intention – and that requires the sub-conscious to be convinced. 

When your sub-conscious is convince and working in alignment with the goal you’ve defined, the brain will begin to filter the infinite amount of information available to it in a different pattern. A colleague’s conversation may no longer be random, but can shift to having helpful elements in it. You’ll filter in information from what you hear, see and sense in a new way. You’ll begin to pay attention to new doors opening, moving you closer to the people and situations that are where you want to be too. That’s clarity shifting to reality. 

The clearer you can hold yourself in every moment of every day the faster your brain will find you the pathway to the solution you want. Things that will help you keep clear are:

• talking out your vision regularly (to yourself in affirmations and selectively to other people)
• seeing your vision (are there pictures or images of what the goal would look like – keep them with you (in your wallet, on your phone, on a vision board) and look at them often)
• meditating – it’ll turbo your results because it combines the thought of the outcome with the feelings that go with it, therefore re-convincing the sub-conscious to be onside
• spending time with others who have what you want, or want what you want – shared wisdom and motivation are key
• eating well, drinking lots of water, exercising and getting quality sleep. Your physical self is going with you on this journey and it’s in partnership with the health of your mind, so remember to treat your body with the greatest respect.

The journey you take from here to there will be unlike the journey any one else has taken. Intend to stay light and upbeat every day. Be kind to yourself. Speak with respect to others. And smile as you open your eyes in the morning – it just sets the tone for the day.

About Author:

Jennifer Broadley is one of the UK's leading executive coaches. She works with corporate leaders, business directors and successful entrepreneurs. She specialises in CEO coaching, prosperity coaching and providing the most cutting-edge and intuitive leadership and personal success programs in the UK. Jennifer is passionate about the ongoing self improvement of the world's future business leaders – the way-showers for our precious next generation. She coaches, speaks, writes and runs workshops on 'The 7 Steps to Personal & Professional Freedom'®. You can buy her book You can call, email or message Jennifer from www.jenniferbroadley.com 

Coaching conscious leaders

It takes an aware and bold leader to continue to step into areas of discomfort as they stretch themselves in the name of personal & professional development. They know already the link between self development and higher results – and they make conscious decisions to commit the time and effort to the ongoing refinement of thoughts, words, actions, skills.

Most leaders I’ve worked with are:

• Clear thinkers – the conversations they’re having in the moment have a ‘how is this contributing to the biggest future’ slant on them
• Resilient – they don’t take knock-backs personally. They learn, adjust, get up and approach again from a different angle
• Risk takers – the next steps are calculated and when the key people are in the position they’re going

Beyond this awareness are servant leaders who in addition:

• Engage their heart – they consider the individuals, they go beyond ‘biggest future’ to ‘legacy’
• Emit authenticity – they’re healthy, disciplined, inspired and conscious that ‘all of it’ (people, attitude, ethos, standards, respect …) contributes to ultimate success and results
• Live accountably – there’s no blaming; just the highest personal standards of clarity, impeccable speech & motivation and they ‘be the change they want to see’

In a recent conversation I heard this: ‘most of the adults I work with use the same emotional strategies they were using in their teens’. Thankfully that’s not my own experience with my clients, but I get what he meant in saying that.

If you take 100% responsibility for evolving into the sort of person who can be, do, have and achieve the things you dream about, you can experience the freedom that goes with it; because then everything’s something you can do something about.

Coaching conscious leadership is tough head, heart & soul work. Persistence in strengthening those skill-sets though brings with it unparalleled results, extraordinary rewards and individuals who literally become beacons in their lifetime.

Jennifer Broadley is one of the UK's leading executive coaches. She works with corporate leaders, business directors and successful entrepreneurs. She specialises in CEO coaching, prosperity coaching and providing the most cutting-edge and intuitive leadership and personal success programs in the UK. Jennifer is passionate about the ongoing self improvement of the world's future business leaders – the way-showers for our precious next generation. She coaches, speaks, writes and runs workshops on 'The 7 Steps to Personal & Professional Freedom'®.You can call, email or message Jennifer from www.JenniferBroadley.com.

Say it like it is … the ‘whole’ truth

I can talk about leadership development and companies can hire me as an executive coach to encourage more advanced and successful leadership but I may as well be a lorry driver (a secret fantasy of mine since the Yorkie advert era) and they may as well torch their people-investment spend if we can’t talk about the truth. The WHOLE truth. Here’s some of what I’ve been processing with various executives this week:

• We’re definitely committed to your part in the company’s succession planning – but we are making a round of redundancies and it’s unconfirmed as to who’s in that mix
• We value your experience and your results are unparalleled – however, we can’t invest further in your team to free you up to do what only you can do
• It’s just the culture of the company – the systems are established and can’t be changed. It’s too big a conversation over too long a period to take advantage of the opportunity that’s presenting itself right in this moment

Here’s why change takes SO long to put in place in some large corporates … because even the finest leaders find it challenging to support a concept that may result in them losing their job!

I’m not saying that leaders, MDs, board members and directors don’t have exceptionally valuable experience to offer to the corporate mix … in the majority of cases, of course they do! But if you keep telling the story that ‘the next stage of how this company can serve its clients (readers, listeners, customers, patients, subscribers) has to be designed to keep me in the picture’ you may be limiting your service to the company, making decisions from a place of fear and lack as opposed to freedom and abundance.

The truth will set you free means that:

• when you sense something is right and purposeful – trust that you will be respected and rewarded by speaking it out and boldly enabling the most enlightened solutions to come to pass
• you may have to learn to communicate at a much higher level – and trust that chaos and ‘pruning’ are part of the process of developing a healthier, more flexible, transparent and authentic way of doing future business
• you stand up and take action with 100% integrity – even when speaking out the tough parts requires humility – and by doing so, in today’s world of corporate leadership you will set yourself apart

I leave you with some word from one of the biggest rule breakers and new thinkers of our recent corporate business heritage, Steve Jobs:

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”