written by Career Coach and Award Winning Leadership Coach, Nick Roud. Auckland 13th January 2025
There will come a time when you will need to make a career move. This time may be in your control or out of your control. With an ever changing global trend of ‘resizing’ organisations are looking at the best way to operate. Like many things in life taking the time to anticipate and or plan your career move should be a priority for professionals as we kick off a new year.
Career Coaching at its core is about supporting a person who wants to work through a specific situation that effects positively or negatively in their careers. Put another way a career coach must be independent to the organisation to which you work for.
Having coached 1,0000s of professionals since 2016 it won’t surprise you that many of my career coaching clients work with me during times of change, could be seeking a new role, working on a specific competency that is bothering them, helping shape (but not write) a powerful CV, could be sharing feedback on how they present themselves during an important interview, could be partnering the professional to lay out a career plan (short, medium and or long term). Many if not all my clients who engage with me come with high hopes and nearly all get the results which they are seeking.
Like with any other form of coaching my approach is 1:1, confidential and forward focused. Having a trusted sounding board coach alongside you in your career is a real advantage and a service which continues to grow locally and internationally for my business Nick Roud Coaching. We have had the pleasure of being awarded a number of awards but under all that are the results my clients continue to gain when working with me.
So how do we look at today’s article, The Career Move and more importantly I ask you the question – what will you do?
No matter what level or stage you are in as a professional it’s your responsibility to ensure your career – current and or future is serving you. What I mean about that is not simply are you ‘happy’ all be it that is an important aspect of a working professional. Many clients sit with me here in my global head quarters (aka the 20ft shipping container) and share how unhappy they are in their current role and or that they are bored. Time is ticking so why not make some formed decisions.
Should you work with me a career coach?
Not if you are not coachable, nor if you don’t want to actually do something. That means you are open to feedback, able to take ownership and do the work we agree on, show up, be present, take control, look in the mirror. These are some of the behaviours that I look at when a potential client wants to work with me. If all our my coachable boxes are not ticked then we might agree that I am not the best coach for you.
The Career Move can and does happen at any time. Sometimes strategically plan, other times a change comes from out of the blue. Not having a plan is like driving a car a hundred miles an hour with no steering whee or controls! How can you possibly get safely to your destination? I see a lot of clients during the November – March period. Many want to sound things out. What might it be, what could it be, How might this opportunity play into……..Professionals who are real professionals have an intent and typically will not wait for things to happen, the smart ones that is – take control of the steering wheel and controls and drives forwards.
So let’s say you are called into a meeting room and informed that your role will be disestablished in a months time!
How are you going to handle that?
In 2024 thousands of roles were disestablished. We had during many months a number of professionals work with me as they went through unexpected change. Our Outplacement services helped many transition out of current environments with the tools, answers and confidence to step into new opportunities. I expect this service to continue to play an important part with both organisations and individuals as we move through 2025. If you need support with role change then do get in touch
Some questions to think about
- How do you make formed decisions?
- What impact will losing your job mean to you and your family?
- How long will you be able to pay the bills?
- Are you effective in your career?
- How would change affect you?
- What keeps you in your current role?
- Do you know your strengths and areas that need developing?
Like with many important aspects of our lives, our careers have a tremendous impact both positively and negatively. We have seen over the past couple of years a ruthless approach to right sizing of organisations, many have not handled change well and completely missed an opportunity of treating their people the right way.
An outstanding result from a recent client.
Sam (not her real name) was looking to take a step up and forwards in her career. She had been a loyal team player for about 5 years and felt the time was right to move into her first management role. There was not a role for her at the time but things were going to change over that year. She wanted to be ready for a potential move so she spoke with me, together we put together a proposal and she presented this to her organisation.
Her organisation decided to invest in her professional development and I was fortunate to work with Sam for 6 months in our 1:1 Emerging Leaders Coaching program.. This evidence based leadership coaching program supported Sam gain clarity and then lay a plan which her then boss would support her with. Over the first month she undertook a couple of my leadership assessments the RLA (how mature and or immature are you currently and what potential awaits) and the RLA360 a 360 degree leadership assessment which asks your key stakeholder how they perceive you currently across areas such as; communication, decision making, emotional leadership, strategic thinking etc. Once completed Sam pulled together how own leadership development plan which in partnership with her boss and myself worked on a few things which had been highlighted in the assessments. As we approached the end of our 6 month emerging leaders coaching work together a position within her organisation came up and we put together her up to date CV, got herself prepared for the panel interview and let go of worrying about what might be!
Over the course of a couple of weeks Sam attended 3 interviews the final one being a presentation on her leadership approach. She told me later that had she not done the leadership assessments she would have really struggled to articulate her core strengths and areas that she was developing. What came from a desire to make a career move ended in a professional fully aligned with her future potential, she confidentially went through a contestable interview process and was fortunate to be awarded the position. Her first management role – leading a team of 4. I caught up with Sam just before Christmas here in Auckland and she was beaming, she looked so proud, she was as I like to say doing what she should be doing. Her career move was well thought out, timely and enabled her to transition into a leadership role with the tools and confidence to do her best. I look forward to seeing how she evolves and where ultimately she may end up, look out world!!
A career move in my experience of coaching professionals for nearly a decade should be well thought out. It should be flexible enough to evolve and not to ridged that could allow you to miss out on opportunities.
Some other recent articles you may be interested in.
- The Career Move
- Unfiltered Leadership!
- When Good Leadership Meets Great
- 50 Thoughts As I Turn 50 by Nick Roud
- When Leadership Is Done Well.
Like all things we do most things come down to timing, a bit of luck and a lot of effort.
In 2025 you may be given opportunities to make a move – are you ready?
To discuss in confidence your career – reach out to me on +6421375630. I look forward to supporting you across 2025.
Nick x
Nick has been writing blogs and articles since 2016 and continues to cover topics relating to Careers, leadership and everything in between. Keen to find out more about his coaching services, podcasts, events networks etc then feel free to add your name to the other 31,600 subscribers. Many things only get shared to them and not on any other social media platform. Come and join in the fun.