It’s Sunday afternoon. You’ve had a great weekend with the family or friends. The sun’s setting and a feeling of dread begins to come over you. This is a very familiar feeling and you’ve experienced it most Sunday nights for some time now.

If I am describing you, it seems you’ve got yourself stuck in a job where you are not happy. It’s common and I am asked by many clients to ‘get me out of here’.  But, you know what? Sometimes it’s not the job that’s the problem. Often, it’s the fact that you’re avoiding a difficult conversion with your manager, colleague or direct report. For some reason, along the way, you’ve experienced some conflict, or you’ve been handed a project you really dislike or you’re working with a department that’s really letting you down, and you’ve chosen to just suck it up, rather than deal with it.

In this Forbes article, 5 Keys of Dealing with Workplace Conflict, Mike Myatt makes a very meaningful point about leadership and conflict, stating that they “go hand-in-hand. Leadership is a full-contact sport, and if you cannot or will not address conflict in a healthy, productive fashion, you should not be in a leadership role.”

Ouch! That hurts doesn’t it? Well, my friend (okay, we may not know each other yet, and it may seem a bit familiar for me to be calling you that, but . . you know what I mean) . . . the truth does hurt. If you want to be the leader you know you can be and you want to progress your career, conflict needs to become your friend and asking someone to help you ‘get me out of here’ is perhaps not the first action you should be taking

But you haven’t taken action and you are avoiding the difficult conversations.

So it’s Sunday evening, and the feeling of dread is getting stronger.

There is good news!

You can have the courageous conversations with your manager or colleague and finally deal with the issues, once you know how. What you need to do is develop strategies to deal with what’s causing the feeling of dread. This will help you work your way through them in a less emotional and more proactive way.

I help many of my clients do this, which can lead to them choosing to stay in their current roles. They come to the realisation that, by tackling the issues that bother them more rapidly and as they occur, they are able to avoid the feeling of dread and are enjoying themselves much better on Sunday nights! And some of them even have a stronger sense of purpose about their roles as they are clearer about their overall career plan and where this current opportunity fits into their grand plan.

So here’s the thing. A Career Coach is much more than a person who can help you develop an action plan for your next career move. We are also experienced HR professionals who can guide you on how to achieve greater satisfaction in your current roles. So often I see clients make the mistake of thinking recruiters can play this role for them. Don’t make that mistake!

A Career Coach can help you be more effective in your current role, or, if you’d prefer, we can help you feel better on a Sunday night and avoid that feeling of dread. We can do this because we are your advocates!  For more about my views on this and the difference between a Career Coach and a Recruiter (and why you need to be talking to me WAY before the active job seeking phase) please read Career Coach Vs Recruiter: What You Need to Know!

Examples of Courageous Conversations I’ve Helped Clients Have

If you’re thinking “Marina, I’m not sure what you mean by a courageous conversation”, here are some examples of how I have helped my clients have courageous conversations. My aim is to help you understand why you will get value from investing time in yourself and seeing me for a career consultation to help you develop a stronger sense of your strengths, potential areas of development and possible next steps (within and beyond your current organisation).

• Conflict Resolution – how to broach more difficult topics with your manager, colleagues or direct reports that you perceive to be a potential for conflict (but they are part of the reason for the Sunday afternoon feeling of dread).
• Career Conversation with your Manager – how to explore with your Manager your options within the organisation to move sideways or up in the near future or how to seek feedback about why you were not considered for a recent promotion.
• Preparing for Performance Reviews – how to maximise the annual performance review conversation to help you receive recognition for your efforts and explore future career opportunities with your Manager.
• How to Identify a Mentor – in the absence of formal mentoring program within your organisation or industry body, I can show you how to approach relevant informal mentors within and outside of your organisation.

Marina Pitisano

I am a passionate Career Coach who works with individuals in the explore and search phase of their career journey, helping you realise your strengths through my career coaching and training programs. I enjoy showing people the path to greater career satisfaction and providing insight and tools to help you make your next career move.

The post I’m an Employee, Get Me Out of Here! appeared first on Letz Create.

Ask any successful business owner, and they will tell you the long hours they put in to get results. Hopefully, if they are doing what they love, they will also tell you it’s worth it!

I believe that many people who are thinking about going into business do not realise how much hard work it takes to build a successful business. I enjoy working with individuals who are thinking about starting a business, so that I can help arm them with the knowledge to navigate their journey as a small business owner. As a Career Coach, I often meet people who do not enjoy their jobs and are looking for a change. They think that owning and running a business is the answer to happiness. And, for many, it is!

But how do you decide?

Is Small Business For You? Workshop

At the start of 2015, Karen Hollenbach, the Founding Director of Think Bespoke, and I, put our heads together to develop a workshop for clients who were trying to decide if small business was the right step for them.  We’d both observed, in Career Consultations with our clients, the almost ‘fairytale’ view some people had towards the idea of starting their own business. We wanted to give our clients the key insights and tools to help them decide if small business was in fact the right choice for them.

In August, 2015, we successfully ran the first workshop at Small Business Festival Victoria’s headquarters in Exhibition Street, Melbourne. The participants enjoyed the opportunity to work through the tools and consider the questions our reflection exercises were asking.

Is Small Business For You? Free 1 Hour lunchtime Information Sessions – Melbourne

 I am very excited to be running this event once again this year. This event is part of Small Business Festival Victoria 2016 Program, and Karen and I are hosting a free 1 hour information session in the CBD at Monarch Institute (see event details below) and will also be running this session for the City of Monash in Glen Waverley on 4th August.

These Is Small Business For You? 1 hour sessions are free and will arm you with the key questions and tools to help you decide if small business is for you. Learn more about the approach and innovative skills required for success in small business, while discovering tools and resources that will help you decide if starting your own small business is the right career move for you.

There will be 15 minutes at the end of the session to ask questions.

 Wednesday 10th August 12-1pm

Monarch Institute,
Level 10, 10-16 Queen Street, Melbourne

Click here to reserve your spot

Wednesday 24th August

Monarch Institute,
Level 10, 10-16 Queen Street, Melbourne

Click here to reserve your spot

Please come along and say hello and even book in for a 30 minute mini Career Consultation after the information session with either Karen or myself to help you get you started. These sessions can be booked separately to the free 1 hour information sessions and are great value at just $30.

We want to make your decision to start a small business one that you have really thought about and believe is the right next career move for you!

Marina Pitisano

I am a passionate Career Coach who works with individuals in the explore and search phase of their career journey, helping you realise your strengths through my career coaching and training programs. I enjoy showing people the path to greater career satisfaction and providing insight and tools to help you make your next career move.

The post Is Small Business for You? appeared first on Letz Create.