Thinking of moving on from the corporate world? 10 questions that helped me see clearly

My friends & ex colleagues from corporate world very often talk to me, candidly, their wish to get out of a 10-5 routine and do what their heart desires. Having observed me for close to a year operating independently in the domain of executive & business coaching, the questions are about when I thought about it & how I went about it?.  I do share honestly all of it. It seems to build their confidence. I am however cautious enough to add that each of us who change their career direction have to think through their transition and journey. Each individual is unique and so is their thinking.

At the end of the day, each one of us takes our decisions based on our goals & current situation. It is therefore imperative that we focus on these two and ask ourselves the questions. My ten questions would be:

1.     What would I love doing (goals) if I do not wish to continue a job in the corporate world?

2.     What are my key requirements and desires that I want fulfilled by being independent?

3.     What is so special and unique about these requirements that it can only be fulfilled by being independent?

4.     What more do I need to acquire (knowledge & skills) to do that successfully?

5.     Who all would be helpful & supportive to my plans & thereafter?

6.     Which stakeholders will be impacted by my decision and what would be their needs that I must take care of?

7.     How can I address the needs of my stakeholders (Parents, Kids, Spouse) in the transition phase?

8.     What actions I need to take, to be successful in my new career? Am I committed and comfortable doing those?

9.     What are my financial obligations that I need to manager now & later (within next 2 years of change)?

10.            What would I miss out on, if I do not make a career change now?

There could be questions, different and more, which people who have changed career could tell you. It is my view that answers to these 10 questions would make you reflect hard and take a better decision. My experience having gone through this phase and also coaching people have helped me frame them. I have helped a client make this decision & transition, successfully. Another friend decided against changing career as some of these questions helped him think more clearly.

I was compelled to write this blog as few days back a close friend and ex colleague met me and shared that he seems to be at the brink of taking a decision to quit. I sensed from his statements that he may be missing out on some pieces (after all I am a coach J ). So I asked him a few questions out of those I mentioned here. He thought & thought and smiled. He said no one has asked me these questions. “These questions are making me think & let me therefore write them down and work on it. It will give me clarity of thinking and possibly way ahead”.

What he revealed later was quite interesting. He shared “when I have bounced these thoughts off other close friends, they were unable to give me any valuable insight to help me set my decision, leaving me as indecisive and confused as previously”.

So when you come to a point where you cannot tolerate where you are, because you want to celebrate your goals, it's time for a new start. Begin with these questions.

Why do we need executive coaches ?

When I embarked on my journey as an Executive Coach in 2009-10, I was asked a question “what do the coaches do”. My response was that coach’s help people do better and achieve more than what they are doing currently or hope to achieve with existing plan, actions & thinking.

Some other asked me why anyone would pay for a Coach. My response continues to be, even star athletes & sportsperson pay for their coaches even though they are at their peak performance. To sustain their success and continue to excel is their motto & here the coach helps them do that.

People, who engage coaches, experience a renewed power to think. They go through insightful moments with their coach, where they observe themselves on “how they think” which is quite distinct from just plain thinking.

There is some perception out there that a coach is only for when things are going wrong or there is some problem to be solved or goal to be attained. Many people consider coaching when faced with an obstacle or challenge which seems apparent. However by the time they finish coaching, they are much more firmly rooted in there Being. They truly realise few things.

The first realization a coach helps people make is to identify the areas and goals that truly matter. Most people when they approach the coach carry a dilemma or a challenge which they can’t define effectively. They tend to be either too simplistic or overly complex. Coach helps them resolve through a series of thinking and vision questions which help coachee think clearly and respond. This is the first insight a coachee has, he knew it all along somehow he did not see it the way he now understands his challenge. It is here a coachee starts to observe himself. He initiates his thinking about “how he thinks”.

The second realization is that to move forward we must stay focussed on future & solutions. Rather than asking questions “ why “ am I here or what did I do wrong to be here , they start asking themselves “ what do I do to create the outcomes that I have to & How do I do it”. Actions become the focus.

The third realization is related to our way of thinking especially people in corporate. They almost suffer from the challenge of doing root-cause of every single failure. Have you heard a manager ask his team “Why did you not take actions to….?”. We feel the need to understand reasons for failure. We don’t need to do that all the time. In same situation a Manager may ask, like a coach. “what do we do now ?” or how do we move forward to correct the situation”. We must learn to curtail our instinct to ask these unnecessary questions which evoke thoughts of failure, defence, denials and threats.

There are many more realization’s a coachee has in this transformational journey, which I will talk about in my next blog.

So let me go back to questions being asked to me and other fellow coaches. Why do people need coaches & why do we need to pay for them. Let me attempt a strong case for both these questions.

Coach helps people stretch themselves through improved thinking. The heartbeat of a coach’s work is to take the ordinary world and make it sacred for the coachee he works with.

MDs/CEOs/Promoters & very senior professionals know the areas in their life that they have to improve. Yet they don’t know where and to whom should they approach to get their resolutions. There are no training programs for these complex issues and challenges. They do not have trusted advisors or people with whom they can share. Coaches are useful who act as sounding boards apart from helping them think and align their learning’s to their pace and style in the confidential environment needed. Successful people deserve to reward themselves with a coach, as sportsperson does. This way he stays at top of the game always. To give comfort, let me share that even Jack Welch had Ram Charan. 

So , If you value exploring your own life and your own mind, if you value understanding how you work and where you get stuck, if you want to clarify what’s important to you and gain fresh perspective, and if you want a champion in your life, then you would want to engage a coach. The same as you might pay for a personal trainer if you wanted to take your fitness to the next level or pay for a holiday if you wanted relaxation. Coaching creates results in business (Revenue, sales. profits etc.), personal (relationships, social etc.) and skills ( listening , team , conflict management , time etc.).

This is generally how I answer the question now, about why professionals need to invest in themselves by investing in a coach.

Marshall Goldsmith book is apt. “What got you here, won’t get you there”. So to move ahead and higher we must invest in ourselves and in our thinking. New thinking. Coaching isn't just about fixing problems, it’s an idea, a type of conversation one has with one’s self and with the world, and your coach facilitates that conversation.

The coaching relationship can last a lifetime, and it only gets richer and deeper with time.