Core values - your secret weapon to work, careers and more…

Could you list your core values? Did you know goals change but core values are consistent for most of your life? Understanding your core values will help you learn about yourself and help make the right decisions for YOU. This is useful when it comes to many aspects of life, specifically around work and careers. If you don’t know yours, take the time to learn and understand them. It will help you understand why you have been more suited to some roles than others, why you don’t always get on with certain people (!) AND can help to motivate you when striving for goals and change. Right…so what are yours? One of the easiest exercises I get people to do in coaching and workshops is the following…

• Think about your greatest achievement or thing you are most proud of. What was it? Take a moment to really think about this.

• What did if give you a SENSE of? Write these words down. As many as you can.

• What was your most enjoyable job or role? Again, think about this in some detail.

• Again, what did it give you a SENSE of? Write as many things down as you can.

• How do people describe you in terms of values? Write them all down.

• You hopefully have started to repeat the same 3-4 words (these are most likely your core values). Some examples may have included ‘integrity’, ‘achievement’, ‘safety’, ‘security’, ‘honesty’, ‘recognition’, ‘authenticity’, ‘courage’, ‘freedom’…. the list goes on!

Please share (comment) for any that come up for you! This is just the start!

If you do these exercises quickly and without overthinking, you are more likely to write the ones that are most natural to you. By understanding your core values, you will know what motivates you most and your ‘pull’ factors. This will also help to identify a company with values that most resonate with you (you can find most company values on their website). It will also help to explain why you may not have got on well with a certain work colleague in the past (usually when they go against a particular value) or enjoyed a certain role or company (again, if it goes against a core values). These result in ‘push’ factors and things you want to run away from!  This all helps to understand the past and therefore inform the future and future decisions.

I hope this has given you a taster into values and why they are important. Understand them, use them in your CV, applications, interviews etc. They are what will make you stand out and make you UNIQUE - they are your secret weapon. They are also usually linked to your strengths (another topic!). You can learn more with me through 121 coaching and/or at a Career MOT and Goal Setting Workshop (next one 22nd May) where we cover this and much more. Check out the website or get in touch for more info.

Jen X

6 Good reasons why you need a killer CV and where to start!

1. Start with the end in mind and start researching – what is your dream role? What are the similar job descriptions that exist, what knowledge, skills and experience do you need/have?

2. Start listing all your jobs (even if you think they are insignificant), most experience is relevant and will have transferable skills you can highlight. Include all relevant non-work activities too – these all count.

3. Start tailoring your roles to your future job in terms of knowledge, skills, experience and key achievements.

4. Enjoy the process and be proud of what you have achieved to date - this process will help you get in the right mind set and be ready for smashing interviews.

5. Use a good CV template that isn’t too fussy and keep it to two sides ideally – edit and tailor your experience, skills and strengths, so they are suited to your dream role.  

6. Start applying for jobs! Use your CV content in Linked in and other social media, start networking and telling other people about your work and experiences to date.

Calvert Coaching is offering a 15% limited discount on CV packages - includes two coaching sessions and a final CV. See website for more info www.calvertcoaching.co.uk or contact me directly.  

Using positive affirmations in early motherhood

I have been attempting to apply some of my coaching tools with my son and I wanted to share what I found worked in the hope it can benefit others. I believe so much of the journey into motherhood requires mental resilience, confidence and courage – especially early on. This is also when it is the hardest with the aftermath of any type of child birth, being sleep deprived and completely shell shocked! This article is about positive affirmations and how they may help….

I found positive affirmations invaluable for the first (bombshell) weeks to allow me focus on my instincts and be the expert in my own life. I spent a lot of time in the bedroom in the first few days with my son and having the affirmations on my wall really helped. Some of the affirmations included ‘trust your instincts’, ‘you spend the most time with X, so you are the expert!’ and my favourite ‘advice/comments from other people is well intended’. You normally are the person spending the most amount of time with your child in a 24-hour period, so this does make you an expert! Basically, my affirmations were a reminder for me to have confidence in myself and in my own judgements. You lose count of the number of (well-intended) people that provide advice at the beginning. It can sometimes be overwhelming and often contradictory leaving many of us in a state of confusion and worry. Once I started to spend time focusing on myself and trusting my instincts, I realised I didn’t need to follow a specific book/theory/advice/person. I felt a sudden sense of relief and it helped me to relax – providing even more benefits to me and baby. By trusting and focusing on your instincts, you also give yourself the time and space to focus on your child (rather than googling manically like I was doing). I was able to work out what was wrong with my son much quicker and identify what he wanted, which often was right – because I was using instincts. Other people also saw my affirmations when they came to visit me and that also helped to communicate what I was trying to achieve and they would normally support the statements. This would further boost me and my husband’s confidence early on and help us continue with this approach.  So in summary, trust your instincts and start writing those positive affirmations!

Setting goals and staying positive!

During a period of change there will be ups and downs along the way. During my career transition, I managed this by setting myself short, medium and long term goals...

In the short term, I changed my work password to 'Calvert Coaching'. It was a daily reminder for me where I was heading - subtle yet effective way to remind myself of where I ultimately wanted to end up. In the medium term, I wanted to stay in the job I was doing but have the capacity in terms of a work life balance to start my own business. I currently have a good job, a great team and it is a nice place to work. The new flexible working policy that came into play in 2015, means you can request flexible working arrangements without needing to cite childcare as a reason. I decided to ask to go part time, find a job share partner and spend the other half of the week starting up the business. This in itself felt like a big decision but once I went part time, I had more time to focus on the business and managed to win a couple of coaching contracts which felt great. It was a bit scary but so, so exciting! For me, this was the start of knowing it was possible to make a career out of something I love!

In the long term, I would like to have paid clients - both private and corporate and work towards a full-time job as a coach. A work life balance is also very important to me so I am very keen I also enjoy the journey on the way to this new career.  In terms of enjoying the journey, I am about to have a baby (this month in fact!) so my goals will most certainly be adjusted/incorporated for the new role in my life.  

It really is amazing what starts to happen when you start moving forward and making decisions towards your goals –  breaking it down into the short, medium and long term. It sometimes feels scary at the time but really helps you to become less 'stuck', helps break the larger goal into manageable steps and long term, ensure you live the life you want.

DIY website?

Earlier this year, I spent about 30 hours teaching myself how to use a Joomla website and template to start my coaching business. I was sure this was something I could easily learn and would be a sensible place to save some pennies when starting up. I learnt how to create a domain name and install it onto a website. I loaded up some holiday pictures to the new website (the only ones I really had were mainly sunsets..). I created a homepage (most of the 30 hours). I then took a step back and looked at my creation - the output of hours of work... I so wanted to be proud of it. It was at that point, I decided that there is a very good reason there is an industry in this stuff! I was embarrassed at what I had produced and would never want to openly promote it! I admitted defeat and got someone to do a website for me (a profession). My DIY website was a great effort but it certainly wasn't professional looking.  The website you see today has been created by someone who is experienced in web design and working with start ups. My website needed to be professional and credible and unless you are a whiz on the computer (I didn't think I was bad but I am certainly not a whiz), the time can be much better spent. The skills I learnt on the Joomla template were not wasted. I feel very confident now to make the changes needed on my own website. The added benefit of working with someone else was that I really had to think about my business model and who I wanted to target - again valuable for new businesses. I ended up getting exactly what I wanted for the website and it was money very well spent. The process of working with someone else (WRB Design), also helped me to think about the clients and the work I want to do - what will my business look like? Which customers do I really want? and who do I want to target? I knew who I wanted to help and why I wanted to do it - my mission and vision - this was a start. I then had to investigate what will people actually pay? How much do I need to earn to sustain myself and my outgoings?  Hence my prices - which I also decided to include on the website. I am very pleased with the site and my decision to outsource this important part of my business. It would be great to hear what others think and any similar stories. Enjoy! 

Getting the party (business) started...

So I wanted to start my own business. My first thoughts were where to start and how can I apply my coaching principals to help me? Over the last few months, I have been tackling names, accounts, website and finding time to work on the business to name a few... 

Naming

You can't really do much without a name! You need it for a website for a start. My husband is a Marketing Director so I asked for his help in a brainstorming session on what I could call myself. He has a habit of asking some challenging questions which I knew would come in handy. I suggest if you are thinking up names, don't go it alone and involve other people. We had a 4 hour train journey to Scotland and had time to kill - perfect! In the brainstorming session, we started by listing all the words that my business would be akin to - 'transformation', 'career coaching', 'confidence', 'contentment' - the list went on.. Each one also had already been taken (Companies House and google can help). I also thought I was being unique when thinking up vegetables e.g. 'Carrot coaching' Not so unique - many of these were also taken! Then there was something that was unique, my maiden name 'Calvert' and the possibility of 'Calvert Coaching'. It initially felt odd and somehow a bit self indulgent so I parked it, kept seeking alternatives, then kept coming back to it. The two 'Cs' could also work well in terms of design, it was memorable and at the time I was looking www.calvertcoaching.co.uk domain was available (and cheap). 'Calvert' also means 'to herd', so some sort of meaning too..maybe it could work...I slept on it...