by admin | Feb 4, 2019 | career change, Coaching
According to Gallup and their ‘State of the Global Workplace’ report, 85% of employees are not engaged, or are actively disengaged, at work. SAD (Seasonal affective disorder) particularly affects people at this time of the year (with 1 in 15 people affected between September to April*).
Whatever the reasons, feeling disengaged at work (losing your mojo) brings with it feelings of lethargy, and a ‘can’t be bothered’ attitude to work. In fact, all you want to do is stay at home in bed, with the duvet pulled over your head, or throw a sickie.
So, when it feels like everyday is a slog and the world is getting you down, here are some simple steps to getting yourself back on track, and to ‘Reclaiming Your Mojo’:
1) Make a list of the things you like/love to do outside of work – We all need things to look forward to, so make sure you fill your diary with plenty of ‘twinkly’ moments; a weekend break away every 3 months, tickets to the theatre or a night out at your favourite restaurant.
2) Make a playlist of songs you love to sing or can’t help but dance to– Research shows that the fastest way to change our emotional state is by listening to music that puts you in a good ‘space’ so, put some on, turn it up loud and dance like no one is watching!
3) Create a vision board – Get a load of magazines, put your playlist on, grab a glass of veg juice/prosecco (whichever you prefer) and create a vision of what you would love in your life right now, however wild. Pull out gorgeous images and uplifting, inspirational words, put them on your vision board then place the board somewhere you will see it (and be inspired by it) every day.
4) Connect. Put your phone/iPad down, turn the TV off and be around people – As human beings we are meant to connect with others, not be alone or isolated in our own world all of the time. It is important to talk to others, to interact, to laugh, to enjoy being in the company of friends or family. After all, they can be a great source of inspiration and motivation when we’re feeling less than radiant.
5) Exercise – I always thought you needed to feel energetic in order to do exercise. Turns out it’s the other way around! – Aerobic exercise (a fast walk, running, cycling, dancing, sport) is brilliant for destressing and clearing the mind. Serotonin floods the body with ‘happy hormones’, cheering you up and giving you the energy to get your Mojo back.
Here’s a 6th one just because I like to give added value…think about the vision you have for your career (maybe you have one maybe you don’t)– Have a bit of fun and write (with no limitations!) a 5 year plan. Then work it back to a 3 year plan, then to one year. Can you see this being a possibility, where you are currently? Make a list of things that need to happen to reach your one year plan, and see how your current environment shapes up – if it doesn’t then it’s time to make some changes.
*Source www.mentalhealth.org.uk
Nicola Lyle is the Managing Director of Fired Up Careers and an Executive Coach & Leadership Trainer. She started her career in the drinks industry where she worked for over 15 years in sales and customer marketing. She has been a qualified and practicing coach since 2005, was a trainer for the Ministry of Defence for 3 years in Germany and currently works as a leadership and management trainer working with Executives in a wide range of industries.
Nicola is hugely passionate about helping people to have the career that fulfils and empowers them to live their best life. She offers Executive coaching, group coaching programmes and occasional retreats. Just drop her a line, she’d love to help you get your career on track.
You can contact her at Nicola@firedupcoaching.org or find Fired Up Careers on Instagram or take a look at www.firedupcareers.org
by admin | Jan 22, 2019 | career change, Coaching
We’ve all been there (and many of you will be experiencing this right now); back to work after Christmas to an overflowing in-box, meetings that need to happen, projects requiring attention and deadlines looming large on the horizon. It can all seem incredibly daunting to the point of being overwhelming.
If you find yourself in this position (and let’s face it you’re not alone) there are a number of tactics you can employ to help ease the situation, depending upon how ‘overwhelmed’ you are feeling, of course.
If you are spinning in circles, unable to concentrate or feel incapable of doing anything productively, don’t try to tackle the whole to-do list at once. Instead, concentrate on the immediate things that need to happen today, tomorrow or next week (or even the next 5 mins if you feel particularly fraught).
‘A journey of a thousand leagues begins with a single step’ Lao-Tzu
Prioritize your concerns in order of importance, identifying what you have control over and what you cannot influence. If you have no influence over an outcome, let it go or at least distance yourself from it.
Take regular breaks of around 45 mins (our brains start switching off after this). If you’re working on something and you feel your heart beating faster, or your adrenaline spiking, then step away. Go and make a cup of tea or get some fresh air, change your scene then, when you’ve calmed down, return to what you were doing (even without feeling stressed we should take 15 minutes out, every hour and a half, to retain our equilibrium).
Turn off your email, and notifications on your phone, and do the work. If people try to interrupt, tell them you would love to help them in an hour or so (or whenever is convenient for you) when you’re not so busy. Once your concentration is broken it takes around 20 minutes to settle back into a task again, so don’t allow it to happen.
Create a list of your top 3 things to focus on: Must Do; Like to do; Amazing to do and tick them off as you do them. Our brains love to achieve, so setting manageable goals you can tick off will give you a good feeling and help you to feel in control.
Say ‘no’ to anything not on your agenda, unless it’s part of your vision for 2019 (not got one? Sign up for my FREE 2019 Planner) or it’s especially career enhancing. Don’t allow other people’s ‘wants’, ‘needs’ and ‘priorities’ to become yours!
Create the right environment for YOU to work in. If you’re more productive with music playing, grab your headphones. If you need quiet then find a quiet space to work in, block out the time in your diary and tell people you’re unavailable while you do the work.
Manage your thought process – if you think ‘I’m never going to get through all of this and then I’m going to get fired’, you’re going to have a very different experience to the person who thinks ‘OK, where can I start, which is most urgent?’
In essence we need to compartmentalize the overwhelming feelings we are experiencing; Is the world going to end? No. Can you do this? Of course you can. All it takes is to think differently, to change your emotional state and to keep your attention focused in the moment.
Nicola Lyle is the Managing Director of Fired Up Careers and an Executive Coach & Leadership Trainer. She started her career in the drinks industry where she worked for over 15 years in sales and customer marketing. She has been a qualified and practicing coach since 2005, was a trainer for the Ministry of Defence for 3 years in Germany and currently works as a leadership and management trainer working with Executives in a wide range of industries.
Nicola is hugely passionate about helping people to have the career that fulfils and empowers them to live their best life. She offers Executive coaching, group coaching programmes and occasional retreats. Just drop her a line, she’d love to help you get your career on track.
You can contact her at Nicola@firedupcoaching.org or find Fired Up Careers on Instagram or take a look at www.firedupcareers.org
by admin | Nov 30, 2018 | career change, Coaching
So, you’re unhappy at work, stuck in a career rut, have a boss you hate or work colleagues you can’t relate to. In short, it’s time to work out what you want, and how you’re going to get it.
What you need now is someone who will help you find the answers that seem to be eluding you. Someone to hold your hand and guide you in the right direction. Someone to support you and help move you forward. What you need is someone who will ask the kind of questions that make you think, and make the kind of observations that may surprise you. What you need is a coach, not a mate.
Whilst both will offer support, do not confuse them.
Your mate will commiserate with you, joining you in slagging off the boss you hate or who upset you. Your mate will be on hand with a large glass of wine, or two, a shoulder to cry on and some soothing words. Your mate will be on your side, regardless of whether you are right or wrong, listening to your outpourings and oohing and aahing in all the right places. Your mate, especially a ‘bestie’, may well drop everything to rush to your side. You will be left with the warm, fuzzy feeling of being loved and supported, but not necessarily with the solution to your underlying problems.
With coaching there’ll be no wine, only a cup of tea (you might even have to make this yourself if it’s an online session). You’ll also have to book your session which will typically last no more than an hour.
You’ll get to talk through your issue, cry if needs be, and receive focused, undivided attention. However, unlike ranting to your mates, you’ll be encouraged to think deep; you’ll be asked questions that will challenge your perception of what’s really going on.
It may take one session, it may take several depending on the issue, but by the end you’ll have a clear idea of the outcome that will work for you, an action plan to make it happen and, of course, support, encouragement, and a surge in confidence. You will feel uplifted knowing the next step you take will be the right one for you and that it will be a positive move forward.
Mates have their place but it’s important to be clear on the distinction between the two support networks. Coaching is action-orientated requiring time, commitment, and focused attention to shift the issues that have plagued you, getting you to where you want to be.
For an empowering, supportive, action-orientated coaching session that will move you forward, please contact me, Nicola, at Fired Up Careers
Nicola Lyle is the Managing Director of Fired Up Careers and an Executive Coach & Leadership Trainer. She started her career in the drinks industry where she worked for over 15 years in sales and customer marketing. She has been a qualified and practicing coach since 2005, was a trainer for the Ministry of Defence for 3 years in Germany and currently works as a leadership and management trainer working with Executives in a wide range of industries.
Nicola is hugely passionate about helping people to have the career that fulfils and empowers them to live their best life. She offers Executive coaching, group coaching programmes and occasional retreats. Just drop her a line, she’d love to help you get your career on track.
You can contact her at Nicola@firedupcoaching.org or find Fired Up Careers on Instagram or take a look at www.firedupcareers.org
by admin | Oct 31, 2018 | career change, Coaching
I’m sure we’ve all been there at one time or another; overlooked for the longed-for promotion, passed-over for a more suitable model or moved ‘sideways’ under the guise of a move up – so what do you do about it when it happens to you?
No doubt there will be feelings of shock, anger, disappointment or inadequacy – it’s how you deal with it that will shape the rest of your career.
WALK AWAY OR GIVE UP?
You could find yourself in trouble if you allow those feelings to overpower you. Feelings of ill-will can lead to workplace resentment which, in turn, could lead to the deliberate undermining of colleagues or the person who got ‘your job’.
What we should be doing in these difficult times is examining why we have been ‘overlooked’, the easier option however is to allow bitterness and anger to creep in, or the green-eyed monster to take control. As a result, work relationships start to erode and, more worryingly, your own self esteem and maybe even integrity.
It might be easy to avoid the fact you’ve started engaging in work-place sabotage or passive-aggressive behaviour; on the surface doing your job whilst at the same time, doing your best to make life difficult for those you’ve decided are at fault. In short, acting like a sulky child who didn’t get what they wanted.
Even if you truly love the company you work for, this behaviour can only result in your own unhappiness, increased resentment and ultimately may end in resignation or dismissal.
WHAT’S THE ALTERNATIVE?
OK, so you may have just received, in your view, a monumental slap-in-the-face by not being promoted, given the new project or moved to your dream role, but this is a good time to sit yourself down and ask why? Why was I overlooked? What did the person who got the job have that I don’t?
These are difficult questions to ask, mainly because no-one wants to feel they are second-best or have to face their own shortcomings however, asking those questions is essential if you want to grow into the person who is able to take these setbacks and learn from them.
Sit down with your boss and find out why you were overlooked; what do you need to improve upon, what could you have done differently, where are your skill gaps?
Armed with this information you can start to look at things objectively; to re-frame, refocus, and thereby move forward to a more rewarding role within your existing company, or a more challenging and lucrative role somewhere else – ultimately to grow into the person you want, and need, to be.
Nicola Lyle is the Managing Director of Fired Up Careers and an Executive Coach & Leadership Trainer. She started her career in the drinks industry where she worked for over 15 years in sales and customer marketing. She has been a qualified and practicing coach since 2005, was a trainer for the Ministry of Defence for 3 years in Germany and currently works as a leadership and management trainer working with Executives in a wide range of industries.
Nicola is hugely passionate about helping people to have the career that fulfils and empowers them to live their best life. She offers Executive coaching, group coaching programmes and occasional retreats. Just drop her a line, she’d love to help you get your career on track.
You can contact her at Nicola@firedupcoaching.org or find Fired Up Careers on Instagram or take a look at www.firedupcareers.org
by admin | Jul 26, 2018 | career change
I was 39, I’d had a little girl and then we’d been living in Germany for 6 years with my husbands job, now we were back in the UK and it was time to re-start my career.
During those 6 years I’d had a coaching practice and lovely clients that had moved with me as we’d gone from Germany to the UK and back to another part of Germany, but with the 2nd move back to Germany I’d decided to park my business. It felt too much moving it all of the time and I had this need to be around people more on a daily basis, so I was a trainer for the MOD for a few years and worked in the leadership team of a school for a short while.
What wasn’t happening for me as a 39 year old woman, was a sense of identity, of understanding who I was anymore and what I had to offer (even Career Coaches have their off days!). All I knew when we landed back in the UK was I needed my independence again. I wanted to work in an office with other people, where I didn’t need to think about house stuff and I wanted a sense of having a traditional career that was going somewhere. Basically I wanted to feel like my best career years weren’t behind me.
So what did I have to offer I wondered. Well before becoming a mummy and then Germany I had worked in the drinks industry in Customer Marketing, and I was very experienced. However I’d now had a break of 7 years from the UK workplace and I didn’t really know how to position myself. Plus, I was a year off 40 and that had to matter, would they even want me in the drinks industry at that age I wondered.
I decided to hedge my bets and apply for a role at the same level at which I’d left, maybe even slightly lower. Luckily for me, the guy who was supposed to be interviewing me on the day was sick and his boss saw me instead. After reading my CV he asked me why I was applying for a job at this level, I was honest and told him I hadn’t known how to pitch myself. He asked me to go away and consider a more senior role he had coming up and a month or so later, I started.
Without realising it, my confidence in my abilities in corporate life had hit the floor. I couldn’t tell you when it happened, it just did and I don’t think it took very long either. My sense of identity was shot. I remember waiting to go in for the interview and watching all these beautiful people waft by in their trendy clothes….when I lived there German fashion was slightly dated…..I felt out of step, old fashioned and when I took the job, I then wondered whether I was out of my depth. Imagine the changes in technology in 7 years, there’d been a few. And yes of course I’d used computers in the interim but not to the same level as was expected at work.
If I’d stopped and thought about all or any of these things that were bothering me – the lack of confidence, unclear on my direction, skill fade, feeling out of place, not sure I looked the part – I’m not sure I’d have made it out of the door to the interview. But I did and one thing I can tell you, is that all of these concerns fade, as quickly as they come they go when you’re taking action.
My first month was a massive learning curve where I was adapting at work, but also at home. I just couldn’t do everything I’d done before now I had a full time job, so some changes had to be made and that was difficult for everyone, my 6 year old and husband included. Was it wrong, selfish of me to want this job? I don’t think so. It was my route back to myself and I grabbed it like a lifeline.
Within 5 months I’d been promoted and given a permanent role to lead the team, and with my confidence back in full flow I knew I deserved it and was capable of doing it too.
So if you find yourself in that space where you’ve had a significant career break, what are my tips to you?
- Write down everything you’ve done or achieved, including things outside of work. Put it up on the wall at home where you see it everyday and make yourself look at it to remind you of how capable you are
- Hire a coach to support and guide you in understanding the right type of work for you, don’t waste time flitting from one job to the next
- Have your CV updated by a professional
- See a clothes stylist if you can to update your wardrobe, John Lewis have personal stylists you can book. If you look the part you’ll feel the part
- Have your hair and make up refreshed
- Get your family on board in reassigning responsibilities around the home, before you start the job!
- Concentrate on what you can do, what you’re good at in interviews
- Believe in yourself
Good Luck! If you need any help getting your career back on track, drop me a line, I’d love to help you.
Nicola Lyle is the Managing Director of Fired Up Careers and an Executive Coach & Leadership Trainer. She started her career in the drinks industry where she worked for over 15 years in sales and customer marketing. She has been a qualified and practicing coach since 2005 and was a trainer for the Ministry of Defence for 3 years in Germany.
Nicola is hugely passionate about helping people to have the career that fulfils and empowers them to live their best life. She offers Leadership Training & Executive Career Coaching, plus occasional retreats. Just drop her a line, she’d love to help you get your career on track.
You can contact her at Nicola@firedupcoaching.org, or find Fired Up Careers on Instagram as firedupcareers or take a look at www.firedupcareers.org
by admin | Jun 17, 2018 | career change
More than 10,000 large firms have now supplied data in relation to earnings as required by the Government Equalities Office. There have been some interesting statistics come out of the data* including:
- 3/4 of all companies who submitted data pay men more than women
- Only 14% of the 10,000 reported a pay gap in favour of women
- Not only do 3/4 of men receive more pay than women, men also receive higher bonuses than women
- Men take the majority of higher paid jobs
- Education has a 20% high pay gap (in some cases men were paid twice as much as women)
- The Finance sector has the biggest bonus pay gap where women were paid 35% less than men
Some of this won’t have come as much of a surprise to the women reading this and some of it may well have done. A few years ago I worked alongside a male colleague who was doing exactly the same role as me, however I was under no illusion there was equality of pay. Guess what, I was ok with it. Yes he had a couple more reportees than me, it wasn’t that though. He had spent longer in the role and I recognised he was therefore more experienced and should be paid accordingly. I don’t believe this is always about gender either. I know of women who have been doing the same job and again, there has been inequality of pay.
So I wonder, what should set pay scales apart? Should it be the depth of experience in the role, the value of the results you deliver, or should there be complete parity across the board, no matter what?
In my humble opinion, the question should really be, regardless of gender, what value do you add? What are you doing to set yourself apart from the rest of your colleagues? Is it enough to turn up to work on time, do a good job and go home… or should we be taking the time to strategise our future and what we bring to the table?
If you’re happy with the status quo, to pick up your pay cheque and go home, this article isn’t really for you. The readers I’m talking to are those of you who are interested in developing yourself, growing, feeling a sense of achievement and striving to add value to whatever you do, whether for yourself or an employer.
Consciously Creating Your Future
Stop now and think about who you want to be today, and also tomorrow. What is your vision for your career? Where do you see yourself going? How much do you want to earn? Who would you love to work with? What would you love to do? What are your secret dreams?
More importantly, how are you going to bring these aspirations and dreams to reality? Is there a place for them in your current environment or should you be planning your next career move because sometimes, even when we are adding value and doing everything we can to support the business, there still isn’t equality and we’re not always getting paid our worth.
You may not have the answers right now, but simply taking the time to ponder these questions and be curious about what the answer might be, will set you apart from Mr/Ms Average and start you on your quest of adding value. Why? Because most people drift through their career journey with their eyes closed, simply reacting to whatever life/business throws at them. You on the other hand, will be consciously creating your future. Which one do you think brings real results?
If you would like a head start on where to focus your efforts for an aligned and fulfilled career, where you feel you are adding value and being paid your worth, please get in touch to book a Career Strategy session and discuss putting your career on the right path for you.
*Source: BBC News Gender Pay Gap: Six Things We’ve Learnt by Clara Guibourg
Nicola Lyle is the Managing Director of Fired Up Careers and an Executive Coach & Leadership Trainer. She started her career in the drinks industry where she worked for over 15 years in sales and customer marketing. She has been a qualified and practicing coach since 2005, was a trainer for the Ministry of Defence for 3 years in Germany and currently works as a leadership and management trainer working with Executives in a wide range of industries.
Nicola is hugely passionate about helping people to have the career that fulfils and empowers them to live their best life. She offers Executive coaching, group coaching programmes and occasional retreats. Just drop her a line, she’d love to help you get your career on track.
You can contact her at Nicola@firedupcoaching.org, or find Fired Up Careers on Instagram as firedupcareers or take a look at www.firedupcareers.org
