my year in review & looking ahead
Like just about everyone else, I was thrilled to say goodbye to 2020, for obvious reasons.
In acknowledging the good with the bad, 2020 wasn’t entirely awful for me, and professionally it was actually a strong year for me, surprisingly. My coaching work really helped keep me going during some dark days. It feels really good to look back and recognize that last year I helped over 50 individuals in various stages of career transitions between my individual and group coaching, more than any other year since starting my business seven years ago!
My clients truly inspire me, including these folks who made big, bold moves last year:
The single mom who got her first full time, professional job in over a decade. She just started this month and it’s 8:30-3pm and remote three days a week, which is great for getting her family adjusted to the transition.
The attorney I helped prep for an interview with the governor of his state for a prized Superior Court judgeship…and he got it!
The media professional who took the bold move to quit her stable, but unfulfilling job in NYC to move to her dream city and build a brand new life and career for herself. She just started a new job that she’s thrilled about, and is able to work remotely from her new location.
The communications professional who transitioned from a safe, comfortable role at a large pharma corporation to completely mix things up and become an executive speechwriter at one of the largest, most successful social media companies in the world.
These folks (while they are all incredible people) really didn’t do anything mind blowing or magical. It’s all about:
1) believing you can make a change
2) figuring out what support you need throughout the journey in order to make it a reality, and
3) not giving up
It starts with noticing and paying attention to your thoughts, feelings and desires.
I’ve been sensing a change starting to emerge within my own career over the past year. I had an incredible opportunity to work as a recruiter for a tech startup over the past few months. It had been years since I’d felt what it was like to be part of a team environment, and I absolutely loved it! And my perspective as a recruiter has really been helpful to my coaching clients. I don’t plan to make it a full time career anytime soon, but I’d love to keep contracting on the side and help connect motivated individuals with great, fulfilling jobs.
I’m know that I’m lucky to be able to test out different jobs and experiment. I also know that right now many people are not in a position to make a bold career move because they’re in survival mode, just trying to get through the Covid crisis with their families intact. In fact, here’s a scary statistic, women are leaving the workforce at four times the rate as men. In September 2020 alone, 865,000 women left the U.S. workforce, compared to 216,000 men. And one in four women are considering either leaving the workforce or reducing their work hours.
According to McKinsey’s Women in the Workplace 2020 study,
“This is the first time we’ve seen signs of women leaving the workforce at higher rates than men…. If these women feel forced to leave the workforce, we’ll end up with far fewer women in leadership—and far fewer women on track to be future leaders. All the progress we’ve seen over the past five years would be erased.”
I can’t allow this to happen on my watch. Why do women continue to have to choose between wanting a satisfying career and being able to care for our families? How can companies do a better job at supporting working parents and not force so many women to leave the workforce? I have come to realize that I need to be working with organizations to help them better support and retain their working moms.
In that vein, I am so excited to announce a new partnership with Sasha McDowell and Epicycle Group to help support working parents on a larger scale. Sasha and I share a common passion for supporting working mothers, stemming from our personal experiences as moms in the workforce (she on the non-profit side, and me on the corporate side). We both felt called to bring our work to organizations, offering programs such as women’s leadership and parental leave coaching.
In 2021, we’ll be rolling out group coaching and workshops that support working parents and assist companies in retaining their high-performing talent (that means you!). Our programs will help working moms who are stressed by trying to balance their careers with childcare and remote learning. We’ll share strategies for work-life balance, offer new tools to achieve essential tasks, and ultimately improve your health, satisfaction, and relationships.
Please help us better understand the needs of working moms by taking our survey.
It’s a quick 5 minutes, and will really help inform us as we develop our programs. We will raffle off two coaching sessions among survey participants as a thank you.
In addition to my new partnership with Epicycle Group, The Career Launchpad, my partnership with the fabulous Amy McGlinn, is stronger than ever. We continue to expanding on The Career Launchpad, our success group for job seekers, by adding quarterly vision board workshops, free networking events and an alumni Facebook group.
I’m also in talks with Laura Berman Fortgang, the founder of Now What?® Coaching about a potential business relationship, which would seriously be a dream come true for me! Last year I earned “ambassador” status as a Now What?® facilitator, one of only three coaches to hold this distinction. I am excited to see what the future holds and I’ll be sure to keep you all posted with my progress.
Let’s make this year count and make up for 2020!
What are your big plans for yourself this year? Let me know if I can help you in your journey.