Feeling a little restless in your career? Or mired in a full-on existential crisis? Danielle Adams of QueenSuite Coach knows exactly what that’s like and how to go about gaining a fresh approach to professional development.
Ready to Reset?
“The day you wake up in the morning and your feet feel like lead,” Adams says, “you know you need a change. You’re dragging yourself to work to do the job or check the boxes.”
Adams has been there. “I was a commercial underwriter feeling out of alignment with my career trajectory and no longer engaged at work.”
There are two types of motivation that can call us to change. On one hand, the dread just described, but on the other, the promise of greater opportunity. If work is something that gets in the way of that thing you love doing, learning about, are fascinated with, maybe it’s time for a shift.
Create Your Compass
There isn’t always an explicit dream hanging over us, vivid as a fringed piñata. “As strange as it might sound,” Adams says, “I tell people who don’t have a more tangible goal to make the feeling the goal.”
Adams tends to say that she “coaches the F out of her clients,” that F standing for Feelings and Fears. What do you want to feel at work? A big trend with those reaching out to Adams recently has been a desire to do work that will help people. If that resonates, what might helping people look like for you?
“Everyone experiences six areas of influence,” Adams says, offering another way to drill down on your next direction. “Social, Mental, Emotional, Physical, Spiritual and Environmental.” Detractions in any of these areas can cause imbalance. For example, in the past two years, we’ve all felt an impact socially. Maybe it’s left us feeling a need for more interaction, or a need for much less!
“People are looking at what they need to thrive,” Adams says. “We’re done with surviving.”
Let Others Inspire You
Adams was a financial professional working in small business lending when a coach working for a coaching credentials organization applied for a small business loan. It was then that Adams recognized something that called to her and she was able to start figuring out her next step.
People in our lives are great sources of inspiration and can put us in touch with new ideas and support us along our journeys.
“We can still build or maintain relationships now,” Adams says, even in a Zoomified world. In fact, it’s even easier and more expected to use technology to casually reach out. “My favorite thing is to send audio messages.”
Look through your friends list or LinkedIn, see who you haven’t talked to for a while and see how they’re doing, what they’re up to. You never know where it will lead.
R.E.S.E.T.
Adams devised the RESET acronym that guides her coaching when she was working on her own transformation:
- Review.
- Energize.
- Strategize.
- Empower.
- Take action.
Gather information during review, energize by focusing on how you want to feel, strategize to simplify challenges and opportunities into actionable goals, empower yourself with confidence and take action by doing something, however small, to move you in the right direction.
With this system, analysis is married with acknowledgment of emotional energy to orient you toward a positive shift in a way that is thorough and sustainable.
A Cyclical System
After an action is taken, whether it’s to revamp your resume, apply to that more-your-thing internal position or get coffee with someone in a field you’re curious about, the whole cycle starts again.
Reset and return to why you’re looking to make a change, how you want your life to feel and what to do next. “With each small action, you have the opportunity to take information from that and create a new choice,” Adams says. “Even if the outcome isn’t what you planned or intended, that’s OK.”
Nothing’s set in stone except your dedication to yourself as you explore.
Consider Coaching
“Everyone has their answers,” Adams says. “It’s just about peeling back the layers of the onion.”
An objective third party like a coach co-creates a client’s goals, dreams and options, so if you feel tangled in opaque onion skin, talking to someone like Adams could give you the perspective you need to see the world as wider and your life as yours to mold.
It can be scary to make a change, but whether you’re looking at a new career path or just evolving your position within an organization, encourage yourself.
“I remember my last day working for that company,” Adams says. “It was terrifying, but so exhilarating. It’s about taking ownership, that you get to create your opportunity.”
Imagine not just what you want to be doing, but who you want to be.
The Expert:
Danielle Adams
QueenSuite Coach
Published as "Ask the Expert" in the May 2022 edition of Lehigh Valley Style magazine.
