Managing Your Career

You may be aspiring to more in your career or feel like you don't have control of it. Or you are unclear of what direction you want your career to take from here on. Or perhaps time is your issue and you are too busy to job search and network effectively.

It is often difficult to understand and resolve our own career issues. This is because they exist in the context of a huge range of options and our own unique and complex needs and attributes. We are often too close to the problem or goal and unable to see the situation objectively.

In addition, the extraordinary demands placed on executives today by senior management and boards of directors, and the need to juggle these with personal priorities, means that that your focus as a senior executive may become limited to purely "getting the job done". There is little scope for considering the ideal of enjoying what you do during the working part of your life and looking at the steps that might be needed to create this.

Philosophy

JobJoy: a state of elevated happiness in your chosen profession, career satisfaction

We all deserve a career that is truly enjoyable, that allows us to express our unique talents and experience, and to feel that we are making a difference. A career that is dissatisfying will inevitably impact on your personal life satisfaction as the two are inseparably linked.

At C-F-S Executive, we aspire to the ideal of "JobJoy" and our programs are heavily focused on assisting our clients to achieving this, by addressing the key career challenges that may be affecting your career satisfaction: Career Security, Work Life Balance and Confidence.

As your career manager, we will work with you to focus on your particular career attributes and drivers and use various unique tools to find the "buttons" that ensure career satisfaction for you.

Career Security

The unprecedented rate of change in the workplace today is a major factor in career satisfaction levels. The continuous development of technology, sudden shifts in consumer tastes and requirements, acquisitions and mergers among employers, shifting business priorities and market dynamics create feelings of impermanence in employees. Not your job, your employer, and increasingly, not even your career is secure.

It is important to invest time in managing your career so as to protect yourself and your ability to earn. This means becoming everything you are capable of becoming and effectively promoting your talents and abilities in today's job market.

Career atrophy is a dreadful consequence of failing to manage your career. It is a gradual, yet unavoidable dwindling of career skills and options that we will help you to overcome.

Work Life Balance

Our level of career satisfaction is inextricably linked to our overall life satisfaction, given that it is such a huge area of our lives. Organisations are driven forward by engaged and empowered people who are passionate about what they do. This is also true of our personal lives.

Today's executives face the pressure of long hours and unrelenting demands - 80 hour weeks, constant phone calls 7 days a week and busy travel schedules. The costs on family life, personal productivity and well-being can be substantial. You might be earning a fabulous package, yet your wife, children, family and friends feel rejected by you because you are overlooking their needs. In many cases, the imbalance is only recognised when it is too late!

The work-life problems experienced by many executives often impact their physical and emotional health, resulting in symptoms such as mood swings, depression, anxiety disorders, substance abuse and heavy drinking. Health is an integral part of your survival and is necessary to reap the fruits of all your hard labour!

If being successful requires you to overlook your work/life balance you are in potential danger. A review is necessary to set a viable plan that will ensure your career advancement and success, as well as a satisfying personal life.

Career Confidence

"The greatest fear of mankind is failure". Fear of failure is by far the major career issue faced by executives and professionals. Common scenarios such as retrenchment, age related challenges, stagnation in your current role or numerous interview rejections can have diabolic effects on confidence and performance at job interviews.

Just as athletes lose their perspective and condition when they become inactive, you too can lose perspective and condition when you become inactive in your career management. You lose sight of the unique career skills that have previously made you a valuable commodity.

Career coaching can assist you to view the situation from a more objective viewpoint so that you can reconnect with your strengths, abilities and passion and re-strengthen your confidence so that you are better equipped to secure your next career role. So often the high quality candidates miss out on roles because they do not have the confidence to effectively market themselves. The well marketed individual is the one most likely to succeed in their journey from A to B.

C-F-S Executive consultants are well-equipped to provide the coaching you may need to get your career back on track.