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Archive for business coaching

What is Capacity?

June 6th, 2019
Freedom

I have recently gone on an interesting journey. One that was unexpected and quite enlightening. If you already know me, then it is obvious I have more certifications than I need, but I love learning. So, when I saw a new certification called Certified Capacity Coach, I was intrigued. My certs all surround resume writing, career coaching, interview coaching and assessments. What would I do with a Capacity Coaching cert, and what the heck did that mean? I will answer those questions throughout this article.

Admittedly, at first, I was a bit dubious. My coaching is definitely outcome focused and I border between coach and consultant. There is no “get the crystals out, light the candles, and sing Kum Ba Yah” in Karen. Regardless, I just dove in and gave it a shot. The first three weeks were rough, and I was still not sold. It felt a little “hippy dippy” and that was not my style at all. But when I allowed myself to see past my bias in my feelings, I discovered a very unique skillset I was about to add to my coaching. 

Some things were inherent to my coaching style already, but I never thought about them as part of my “style” until this coaching class. I learned to ask myself the question “what is it like when you don’t have all the answers?” Certainly, I knew this in dealing with coaching clients and in my own life, and was willing to admit it and go looking for answers. However, I never thought about various situations where it may have led me to feel inadequate or worried as to my qualifications – or as I call it – the Imposter Syndrome. This is where my classmates came in, coaching me to see the worth in feeling those emotions, and how to leverage them with my clients. While I have never been afraid to admit to a client that I have weaknesses to bolster their trust, in my personal self-assessment, I probably made it “less than” it was or used it to bash myself depending upon the situation.

Now I am set free to say, yep, I screwed that up, and here is what I learned from it, and that is just fine. After all, mistakes aren’t there to create problems, but to teach us, expand us, and better us going forward. Giving myself more compassion in my personal life will enrich my coaching and my writing, as I am probably hardest on myself with my writing of blog posts for my own site. Meanwhile, I have truly engaged my “Controller” to clear all the clutter, both in my home/office and mind, cleaning up and clearing out excess paper and stuff. With the help of my fellow coaches I have developed a more targeted set of goals, combined with compassion that doesn’t allow the Controller in me to sabotage my forward motion, and won’t allow “fight or flight” to constrain my progress.

So, what does capacity mean? It means FREEDOM. The freedom to be more connected with clients.  The freedom to be compassionate to myself and not just my clients.  The freedom to always frame failure as learning.  And the freedom to go after loftier goals that can actually create more capacity (or freedom) in my life. FREEDOM means peace, it means being more productive, it means more clarity, and most importantly it means a more abundant life. 

Oh, and as a side note, I write articles and then make myself crazy with rewriting, rereading and sometimes not posting for months (or ever). I challenged myself to write this new post on the subject of Capacity in one morning, did so in 45 minutes, didn’t initially review it, just wrote it and sent it out to my class. I even read it back to my class as well the same day (again without reviewing). Now comes the goal of only reviewing once prior to posting on my blog. Update: I only reviewed once, a couple of months later, and posted. Freedom is a blessing!

Karen Silins is a multi-certified, award winning resume writer, career, business and personal branding coach working with individuals and small businesses. After graduating with degrees in education and vocal performance, she made her own career transition into the Human Resources realm. Karen left Human Resources to become an entrepreneur and help jobseekers, executives and fellow entrepreneurs achieve their goals. She keeps current regarding trends in the resume writing, coaching, HR, small business and marketing industries by working daily with individual clients on resume development and career coaching, executive/career management coaching, consulting for small businesses in business plan development, marketing, blogging, hiring and overall HR processes, and providing 20-50+ seminars and workshops annually to a variety of organizations in the greater Kansas City area. She can be reached via her website at www.careerandresume.com.

Categories Business Coaching, Career Coaching, Career Management, Inspiration, Life Coaching, Opinion
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Wonder Why Your Networking Is Not Working?

July 12th, 2016

 

Wonder Why Your Networking Is Not Working?

People, including experts, make networking so tough, and such a formalized process.  We write entire books on how to network.  It’s really quite simple – have a conversation, and remember that networking isn’t about you in a job search or a business interaction; it’s about you talking with another human being.  Just talking, we can do that, right?

We have so many opportunities to network in our daily lives.  Parties, weddings, funerals (not during the ceremonies mind you), church or other religious institution gatherings, and of course, networking events.  We should start promoting networking as a state of mind, not a process or methodology, or something only done on special occasions.

Wonder Why Your Networking Is Not Working?I recently had a business person in my Your Business Plan:  The Entrepreneurs Compass six-week program say the following “I attend networking events all the time and I can’t seem to get any leads.  I go there with the intent of getting business and just never get any decent contacts.”  My answer:  Stop going with the intent of getting a client, and start going with the intent of helping someone else.  I would tell a jobseeker the same thing.  Stop going to a networking event and trying to “get” something out of it, and start giving to others.  My course attendee was needless to say stunned at my comment and then the lightbulb went off.  She realized the entire strategy of going to an event to “acquire” a contact or new business was too much pressure on her and the other networker.  I explained that when our focus is on what we want, we communicate it in body language, our voice, and very likely the verbiage we use.  All we are saying to a potential contact is we want, want, want.  Not the most attractive communication approach.

When you take your eye off of yourself in a networking situation, and offer a fellow networker a tip, pointer, referral, potential contact, job or business lead, or just give someone a little guidance, that kindness will always come back to you in a positive way.  I’m not talking about getting the crystals out and singing “Kum-Ba-Yah” here, but when you give you truly receive.  Not only do you receive the knowledge that you helped someone else, that help to another always seems to return to you as help when you need it.  Remember the “practice random acts of kindness” idea – it works!

Wonder Why Your Networking Is Not Working?The other two tips I offered to the business person in my seminar were more for people who tend to be on the shy side.  First, take someone with you to an event, and even better, someone who is outgoing and let them do some of the work.  Trust me, those of us who aren’t shy will be glad to help, and you may be assisting another jobseeker or business owner network too.  Second, if you are alone, don’t feel as if you must go make a formal introduction to anyone initially.  Instead walk up close to a person on the outskirts of the event that like you is probably shy, and say the following:  Wow, there are more people here than I expected, or… there are fewer people here than I expected.  If they talk back to you in a friendly way, CONGRATULATIONS, YOU ARE NETWORKING.  Now introduce yourself and start a real conversation.

Wonder Why Your Networking Is Not Working?This isn’t rocket science, we don’t need more books on networking, but instead we need to as career and/or business coaches to show our clients how simple and empowering it can be once they step slightly outside their comfort zone.  In particular, we must emphasize this is an ongoing process with people you know, people you need to reconnect with, and people you have yet to meet, and can happen in most any social situation.  Putting people first makes you a better person, and I have found once my clients get a taste of that success in building relationships they want to continue the pursuit.  Who knows where that can lead?

 

Karen Silins is a multi-certified, award winning resume writer, career, business and personal branding coach working with individuals and small businesses.  After graduating with degrees in education and vocal performance, she made her own career transition into the Human Resources realm.  Karen left Human Resources to become an entrepreneur and help jobseekers and fellow entrepreneurs achieve their goals.  She keeps current regarding trends in the resume writing, coaching, HR, small business and marketing industries by working daily with individual clients on resume development and career coaching, consulting for small businesses in business plan development, marketing, blogging, hiring and overall HR processes, and providing 50-70+ seminars and workshops annually to a variety of organizations in the greater Kansas City area.  She can be reached via her website at www.careerandresume.com.

Categories Business Coaching, Job Search, Networking, Personal Branding
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