Career Advice: Coaching By Cath
Featured Article
12 Easy Ways You Can Increase Your Motivation At Work
22/08/11 Daniel Pink, in his latest book, "Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us" says that carrot-and-stick motivation strategies don't work as well as they used to now that we're doing work that is less procedural and more creative, empathic and innovative. Pink says that the key to getting more motivated and doing your best work are in building 3 qualities into your work: autonomy, mastery and purpose...read more
More Coaching By Cath Articles
7 Unconventional Strategies For Changing Your Work
22/08/11In one of my previous articles, I explained why taking big leaps is rarely the smartest way to make your changes. Small steps allow you to test reality and adjust your strategy to manage risk and increase your likelihood of success as you make progress... read more
Four Drivers You Need To Stay Motivated And Do Best Work
22/08/11In his book, "Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us," Daniel Pink's main point about the surprising truth about what motivates us is that the carrot-and-stick motivation strategies that used to work so well in the Factory Age where we were doing mostly left-brain-directed, linear, predictable tasks aren't relevant or effective in what he calls, "The Conceptual Age," where creating, empathizing, telling stories, leading, connecting, inventing and solving heuristic problems has become such a big part of the work we do... read more
Why You Don't Have To Make Big Changes If You Want To Change Your Work
22/08/11In his book, "The Leap," author Rick Smith says that one of the biggest myths that prevents us from creating the work - and life-style that we want, is the idea that you have to make big leaps when you’re changing something. Here are some reasons why the idea of big change is a myth... read more
Enrich Your Connections; Enrich Your Work
28/07/10Many people are under the illusion that networking is something that's just for entrepreneurs and that employed folks don't have to network. Actually, the people who are most successful in the world of work - the people who always seem to move from one great job to an even better job and somehow always get the exact job they want - you'll find that these people are skilled connectors and networkers... read more
When Not To Take The Leap of Faith And Change Your Job
22/08/11In a recent teleseminar call, I talked about the idea that your fear isn't a bad thing - it's trying to do some very important and useful stuff for you (you can download the call recording here). Sometimes your fear is trying to protect you from lack or attack by alerting you to avoid a potential threat. And sometimes your fear is trying to point you in the direction of your most authentic dreams and values, and encourage you to get out of your comfort zone and grow... read more
Drive Your Career Development: Set The Right Mastery Goals
22/08/11In our high-change world, those who are most successful in their careers are the people who are committed to developing themselves by giving themselves goals or new levels of mastery to reach for. They don't wait for their annual performance review and their boss to tell them where they need to grow - they're committed to life-long self-directed learning and they're deciding and driving their own development directions... read more
Ask Coach Cath
22/08/11I have a university education and my problem is that I just can't get a good job that uses my qualification. I get discouraged when I see the job application requirements (like when they require 3-5 years of experience, which I do not have). I've applied to many job adverts, but I haven't gotten any responses yet. My senior manager has done the same course I've done, my supervisors have no qualifications, and I'm watching people without qualifications get promoted ahead of me. - Anon... read more
Rules For Success At Work
22/08/11Are you unwittingly following outdated rules for success at work? Each generation buys into and perpetuates a set of "rules for success" at work. We do it because we believe that following those rules will keep us safe, and we all want to be safe, particularly when it comes to financial security. So we do our best to learn the rules for success from our parents and teachers and to pass those rules onto our children... read more
Strategies For Managing A Successful Project-Focused Career
22/08/11In a previous article I talked about the outdated rules for success at work that were established and perpetuated since the Factory Age - the idea that career development should progress in a linear way, where you choose one interest, specialize early and spend the rest of your life getting more experienced and knowledgeable in that one role in that one industry... read more
How to Feel Secure When You're Changing Your Career
23/06/10We all have a natural desire to feel secure. Change shakes up our lives and we often feel insecure when we're going through major changes like changing jobs or careers. And then when we feel insecure, we try to avoid change or we try to control change by creating lots of goals and plans and rules... and then we end up being rigid and restricted and limiting our possibilities and results... read more
How To Develop Authentic Confidence When You're Applying For A New Job
22/08/11Applying for a new job or making a career change can be a scary leap that tests our personal confidence. We've all come across those rah-rah seminars where the motivational speaker excites the crowd and gets everyone to "build a power state" by jumping up and down and shouting a song or mantra loudly so that they can feel more confident. I've always found that sort of thing a bit disturbing. And as a life coach, it bothers me that some people think that's what I do for a living, and that life coaches are just about cheering people on to go after their dreams: "Yes, you can!" I call that cheer-leader coaching and I don't offer that service... read more
How To Be King Of The Career Jungle
22/08/11I remember one of my favourite holidays with my family as a child. We drove up to to the Etosha National Park in Namibia for a week or so of game viewing. Now safaris aren't everyone's cup of tea, but as an 11 year old, I'd only ever seen wild animals in cages at the zoo, so the challenge of spotting animals in the bushes and identifying them in our field book was very appealing... read more
Top Tips For Dealing With Unexpected And Unwanted Change At Work
22/08/11There's no doubt about it - we're all dealing with more change in our workplaces than previous generations ever did before us. And a lot of difficult changes are being forced on us, as a result of broader changes across the world. Nobody really wanted the economic recession and the changes it's brought in our workplaces and businesses, and a lot of us haven't wanted the constant restructuring, re-staffing and system changes going on all the time in our workplaces either. But as the world becomes more interconnected, as technology continue to advance, and as we all try to keep up and stay competitive in a global economy, we're all having to deal with more change than ever before, whether we like it or not... read more
