FAQs
Career & Coaching Questions
Q: I haven't a clue what I want to do next but I know I need to make a career change - can you help?
A: It's totally normal to be unclear about what exactly you're looking for. My career-change programmes are designed to help you to gain clarity on what career fulfilment looks like to you, generate multiple ideas and test them out before creating a practical plan. Clarity grows with every step of the programme.
Q: I have a lot of ideas but don’t know how to choose what’s right for me. Will career coaching help?
A: Absolutely! Making a well-informed choice based on what YOU need for a happy life with fulfilling work is where coaching really brings clarity. AI might be great for generating ideas, but making a personal decision using criteria that matter to YOU, requires a more personal interaction - not one based on what people in general, or people you age might need.
Q: I’m worried my current career is too specialist - how can I match my skills to new options?
I’ve worked with many career-changers who worried they had worked themselves into a career cul de sac! My career change programmes allow you to identify your strengths and which skills you enjoy using, then explore where you could use those skills to also bring more meaning and alignment. Starting with what YOU need and want from your career is where we start.
Q: How can I make a transition to a completely new career?
I use a tried and tested process to identify the best option for you at this stage of your career, and to enable you to understand with great clarity why this is perfect for you. With this clarity, you will be able to present your past experience and your current motivations to convince potential employers that you are worth investing in. You believe in this fit, so it’s easier for them to buy into it too.
Q: What is Coaching?
A: A confidential professional relationship to address the client’s agenda. It involves full commitment from both client and coach to the process, tasks, challenges and questions posed. It is not therapy. In our first session we will design how we will work together.
Q: What is Co-Active® Coaching?
A powerful alliance designed to move forward and enhance the lifelong process of human learning, effectiveness and fulfillment. The client and the coach are equal partners in the coaching relationship and the work is in service of the client’s agenda. Guiding principles of this type of coaching include the belief that people are naturally creative, resourceful and whole, and that coaching can evoke transformation.
Q: What is career-change coaching?
A: A coaching relationship that focuses on the client’s desire to change direction in their career and life. Coaching techniques will be used within a process to uncover who you are, what drives you and what you want your ideal life and work to look like. The process allows you to generate many possibilities, then focuses on one to create a viable plan for your future.
Q: What are values and why are they important for career fulfilment?
A: Values reflect what’s important to us and are a way of describing our individual motivations. Together with beliefs, they are the factors that drive our decision-making. Who you are, what matters to you, what upsets you and what underlies your decisions are all connected to your values. Our values are a compass pointing out what it means to be true to yourself.
Q: How Can I Find Out More About the Freestyle Programmes?
A: If you need more information beyond the programmes pages, hop straight over to the Contacts page and leave me a message. I always respond to inquiries swidtly and will be happy to help you get clear on which programme could work for you.
Q: I've been on a career change programme before but got stuck - can Freestyle help?
A: Yes! Because this is a personal service, every client is able to benefit from the length of programme that suits their needs (from 1 session to a fully comprehensive 6-session programme). We'll start by reviewing where you are right now and get your career-change moving again. Personal support and individual accountability are at the heart of my work.
Q: What can a career change professional do that AI can’t?
AI is great for gathering information, potentially generating ideas, and using a huge data source to research careers for you. BUT, it’s not necessarily great at seeing YOU, understanding what matters most to you, where meaning lies for you, and ‘reading’ you as a person. When you are sitting opposite a good career change coach, they will ‘see’ what is happening for you, challenge you if your words say one thing but your body language says the opposite, remember beliefs and topics you have previously identified as important, but are now ignoring. A real life career coach will draw upon intuition based on a life of experience - of real human beings. A career coach has been trained to be unbiased and put the client at the heart of the process, while AI will have hidden biases in their processes as well as in the data they are using.
Guidelines for Using my Resources
Copyright and licensing
My resources, programmes, services and Infographics are all under copyright with all rights reserved. I’ve created these in the spirit of generosity to enable more people to start creating a more fulfilling working life.
This means you are welcome to share them with your team or for your own use, but please do not infringe the copyright by re-distributing under your own brand or for your own commercial gain.
In a nutshell ~
You Can
· use my free resources for your own career development
· share an image of my resources on social media with links to my website (thank you!)
· write about what you discovered from my resources on your blog or newsletter (thank you!)
· contact me about a licensing agreement to use copyright resources under your own branding or with your fee-paying clients
You Can’t
· re-distribute under your own branding to your clients without permission or a licensing agreement
· adapt for your own commercial use without a licensing agreement
· switch around a couple of words and circulate as your own material
To respect copyright and avoid IP / copyright theft, please:
· direct interested clients to me / my web site so they download, sign up or buy resources or services directly for themselves
Thank you for understanding and enjoy creating your own resources with your own unique stamp!