Coaching Skills: How to take the next steps in your career

Guest post by Jenny Rogers, executive coach and author of Coaching Skills: The Definitive Guide to being a Coach and Are You Listening? See more about the book on her website here.

GETTING OUT OF A CAREER RUT

You know that feeling. It’s Monday again and you don’t spring out of bed. Work no longer brings joy but you trudge through your week as best you can. Don’t ignore that feeling. It’s probably time to review your options.
In my work as a coach with hundreds of people who feel stuck, I’ve found it’s best to start with a ruthless look at what’s going on in your present job. Research suggests that there are five key factors. They are all about needs that must be met if we are to feel fulfilled at work. How does your current job rate here?

Core factors to feel fulfilled at work

Coaching Skills: How to take the next steps in your careerMark on a 1-10 scale

Status: this is about respect and fairness. How much of that do you get?

Autonomy: how much freedom do you have to make decisions? How much do you feel in control?

Relationships: Do you get on with colleagues? Is there a positive atmosphere of mutual support?

Skills: How far are you able to use all your skills? Do you feel you are growing and developing?

Sense of purpose: does your work matter? Does it make a contribution to something that is important to you?

Coaching Skills: How to take the next steps in your career

What would need to happen to make this better?

Changing jobs is potentially stressful. How could you improve your present role? If you scored your current job low on autonomy, you might ask your boss for more responsibility. If the relationships area is the difficult one, is there a colleague where an already good relationship could become more personal and supportive? Maybe you’re feeling resentful about your job title or your salary. Don’t assume you can’t negotiate here.
Asking for a pay rise

Do your homework carefully. Benchmark your job against others in your sector. People can be coy about money but why not ask colleagues straight out? HR will not disclose any individual’s details but they may give you a candid answer about how your pay compares with that of others in similar jobs.
Choose your moment carefully. If the company is struggling, now will not be the time to suggest they spend more money on you. Ask for a meeting with your boss to discuss your performance. Start by asking how they rate you. Assuming the answer is positive, say, ‘I’ve been here [name the time] now and feel I’ve made a big contribution [you describe where you went beyond what was being asked of you]. Stress your commitment to the company’s goals then say, ‘I’d love your views on how my salary could be increased. I’ve done some research here and I’ve found out that at [here you name a competitor] people in my role are being paid [whatever they are being paid.]

What room is there for increasing my pay?

Warning: don’t have a ‘bottom line’ figure in mind. Don’t threaten to leave. Don’t talk about why you need more money for personal reasons.

If this doesn’t work

Weigh up the risks of leaving against the risks of staying put. A good question here is, ‘If nothing changes and I’m still here in a year’s time, how will I feel?’

Your benchmarking will have given you useful data. Do more research. Who is growing? How do they recruit?

Who could you approach? Bear in mind here that personal contact is everything, even when jobs are formally advertised.

Think about what you offer a new employer. Think especially about what problems you can solve for them and make sure this is what goes into your updated CV. Don’t let AI write your CV. Don’t use cliches like ‘self-motivated’, ‘team player’. Targeting narrowly is a better way to approach job searching than the scattergun approach.

Jenny Rogers, executive coach and author of Coaching Skills: The Definitive Guide to being a Coach and Are You Listening?

More about Jenny

In addition to her lively practice, Jenny also spends much of her time volunteering for Smart Works, a charity helps women in difficult circumstances secure employment and change their lives by providing work wear, coaching and support.

Her impressive client list ranges from Chief Executives and Directors of government departments, universities, banks and arts organisations including Channel 4, Barbican and the Guardian Media Group, to Smart Works, an organisation helping women secure safe and stable employment. In 2019, Jenny won the Henley Business School Award for Outstanding Contribution to Coaching. Prior to becoming an executive coach, Jenny draws from a long career as a producer for BBC Factual television, where she commissioned Delia Smith and Madhur Jaffrey (she’s a keen cook!) – and as an entrepreneur, having founded her own company, Management Futures, to lead innovation in coaching facilitation, training and supervision for future coaches.

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