A Workshop Emerged from the Themes of Coaching Tech Clients
After 12 years of coaching software engineers to VPs in the tech industry, I found this common theme: feeling fulfilled about our work and contribution is challenging.
Managing a thriving relationship with the boss, peers, and other stakeholders is not easy. They would always want more from us; our passion would be interpreted as aggressiveness, our analytical thinking style would be seen as a lack of executive presence. And the list goes long. In addition, managing a family, kids, along full-time demanding work becomes a losing battle at times. No wonder 55% of the adult population feels Languishing, a lack of zest.
As high-performing, high-achieving leaders and individual contributors, all of my clients had decent success navigating such situations. They all have developed capabilities to understand and make progress in those situations. However, there were times they felt stuck, and they wished they could get some guidance on how to get past that stuckness. They came to coaching.
Each of them had a unique set of values and an inspiring vision for their life. But the daily grinds of work got so much focus that they often felt lost. The judgment-free space in coaching helped them look into those more holistically and design their next steps more thoughtfully. In a short few months, they saw the progress the way they had never experienced before. It resulted in recognition, job promotion, a more significant responsibility, along with more balance and fulfillment.
So, what tools did they use for such outcomes? I am listing some common ones here:
- .Attend all crucial areas of life: There is more to life than our usual focus on work and taking care of our family’s day-to-day needs. Our life has eight or nine areas that nourish us. When we ignore one or more of those for a very long time, it can diminish our life satisfaction. Here is an analogy: If you take only Vitamin C and ignore Vitamin B, you will suffer from the deficiencies that Vitamin C alone can’t fix.
- Shift your Focus from Problem to Vision: Addressing day-to-day challenges like piecemeal could be counterproductive. It is like running from one fire to the next. Instead, shifting our minds from the problem to a bigger vision gives us more brainpower and grounded energy to address them creatively and more sustainably.
- Identify and Honor Your Core Values: Core Values are a set of ingredients that makes the soup of our soul. When present, they create an experience more meaningful and more engaging for us. Overall the results become positive too. Knowing our core values and aligning our vision and actions with those gives us the foundation of meaningful, fulfilling experiences.
- Choose the Agile way: In any R&D type of work, it is almost impossible to plan everything from the beginning. Innovative companies use the agile approach. They design their sprints based on what they know and then build the wireframe version based on that. Iteratively they learn and then create the next sprint. We can apply the same philosophy for our growth too. Having an agile approach allows us to try a new way of being and adjust it along the way. It also aligns with the adult learning methodologies.
I teach these tools in more detail in this 4-part workshop, Growth, Purpose, and Joy: A Career Vision Workshop. Cohort one starts on January 7 (4 Fridays), and cohort two on January 8 (4 Saturdays). To learn more, please come to these Free webinars (multiple dates, noon and afternoon times) for an overview of these tools with real client stories and hands-on practice. So register today, embark on the journey of Growth, Purpose, and Joy!