Elite Athletes, FTSE 100 CEOs and Serial Entrepreneurs have coaches… Here’s why you should too.

From Oprah to Metallica, there are many advocates for coaching, and with good reason.  It’s never been more important to surround yourself with people that make you feel empowered and uplifted. Even if you can’t be in the same room as them, having a handful of peers you can call or text in a moment of self-doubt can be the difference that shifts your mindset. For me, those people are nearly all women, and I truly believe there is power in having your own personal sisterhood.  As the IMF has warned, Covid-19 threatens to roll back the last 30 years of economic gain for women , with particularly grim statistics for female entrepreneurs. Women are more likely to run businesses in areas that have been hit harder by the pandemic, including beauty, health, social care and retail, and typically have less financial support behind them. Ultimately, this makes females in business more vulnerable to economic shocks. As a result of this, the rates of closures among small and medium businesses during lockdown were higher among those led by women .  It’s clear we need to stick together. And as difficult as the last year has been, some positivity has arisen from the changes we’ve all experienced.  Last summer, AllBright ran a global survey that revealed 69% of women were more likely to invest in their career development post-pandemic, with over half (57%) actively looking to change their career as a result of COVID-19. And what better way to invest in your professional development than by seeking the advice of a coach?

While my own sisterhood has been with me since university and has supported me from my first grad role through to now, sometimes you need an extra helping hand to encourage you to smash the goals you’ve set yourself. It took me several years to realise that beyond sharing with my friends, the only thing that would get me to the next stage of my career was to treat myself like a project and put the work in. This sounds daunting but there are pivotal moments throughout your career when nothing else will get you to the next stage. Once you reach this point, it’s time to enlist the help of a career coach . The first time I realised I needed outside intervention was when, as a young manager, I was in a stifling situation with a boss who liked to micromanage. This very different leadership style to my own made the day-to-day difficult and I needed a fresh perspective to help me see a path through. I remember the first session well because of my nerves – I didn’t know what to expect and as a planner, walking into the unknown was unsettling. That first session sticks in my head as I remember feeling so uncomfortable being asked to talk about myself – my goals, aspirations and barriers – for a full hour. It was liberating in some ways, deeply emotional in others, but I did get used to it by throwing myself into the process. I set goals with my coach which we worked towards in each session. It took me a while to get comfortable with the direction of our conversations, which sometimes felt disconnected from the work-orientated outcome I wanted to pursue. But working alongside a patient and experienced coach kept me on track and helped me outline a structure for myself that made me look down on my career as an objective challenge, rather than a personal one.  Within 8 months of that first meeting, I had landed a new role as marketing director, managing my own team and reporting into the head of the company. Would I have got there anyway? Maybe. But I’m sure that having a focused plan helped speed the process along.

The next time I hired a coach, I had a different career challenge to work through. I was working in a very male dominated environment at a senior level and I had the opportunity to go for a career defining role. I was so busy juggling my very demanding workload and my very young children that I just didn’t have true clarity about what I wanted. I was so busy; I’d forgotten who I really was .  Over months of working together, my coach helped me unpick some very knotty issues and allowed me to see the pathway towards getting the role I wanted, but on my own terms. I can honestly say that some of the things I learnt in the process are still with me today and have helped me shape some key aspects of our AllBright mission . If I were to summarise my experience of being coached into one ‘aha’ moment, it would be this; your career is a project that you can work towards, set goals and objectives for and - to some degree - manage! Once you reframe your career in this way, it provides a much greater sense of ownership and action. Projects will change, they’ll stall and then leap forward, but with effort and hard work, your goals can be achieved. Carve out time to focus in a structured way on what you want out of every week, write down how you aim to get there and make yourself accountable for hitting those targets. It sounds simple, but by adding structure, discipline and someone to hold the mirror up in an objective way, you can truly create the difference between a job you do, and a career you enjoy. If you’re ready to take the leap and work with a coach to help you rediscover your direction, explore AllBright’s Digital Premium Membership. You can find out more here If you’re looking further ahead to your first C-suite or Board role, you should also check out AllBright Elevator by clicking here

Join The Digital Sisterhood

We have launched the Digital Sisterhood to provide women everywhere with the community and support they need at the moment. Be that a safe space to ask questions – and receive honest answers – or somewhere to find a digital event that will offer you the information, or perhaps the encouragement, you need to get you through the coming days and weeks. We’re here for you, so please do head to  AllBright Digital Members’ Club to claim your 14 day free trial and join our community.

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