At a career crossroads?
LEAP! offers a combination of science-based insights and practical tools to help you gain clarity on where to go next in your career, as well as how to overcome the barriers that are stopping you get there.
Hybrid Executive Coach Steph Tranter, offers an approach in this book that merges the worlds of corporate coaching and personal therapy to help you to take a leap into a role, company, or way of working that is more aligned to your natural strengths and personal values.
LEAP is combination of a book and a workbook that contains a compilation of the most effective tools, techniques and processes that Steph has used with her coaching clients over the last 12 years.
At a career crossroads?
LEAP! offers a combination of science-based insights and practical tools to help you gain clarity on where to go next in your career, as well as how to overcome the barriers that are stopping you get there.
Hybrid Executive Coach Steph Tranter, offers an approach in this book that merges the worlds of corporate coaching and personal therapy to help you to take a leap into a role, company, or way of working that is more aligned to your natural strengths and personal values.
LEAP is combination of a book and a workbook that contains a compilation of the most effective tools, techniques and processes that Steph has used with her coaching clients over the last 12 years.
I've learned that making a 'LIVING' is not the same as 'making A LIFE' - Maya Angelou - Writer, Poet & Activist
HOW DID YOU GET TO BE IN THE JOB YOU'RE IN?
When clients come to me because they're at a crossroads in their career and feeling stuck, I ask them how they got to be in the job or career they are in.
The answer I usually get is:
â âIâm not really sure, I just sort of fell into this career.â
This seems to be a common theme with the clients I coach, and whilst some of us get lucky and fall into roles and careers that we love, most of us donât get that lucky. Yet we allow ourselves to continue to be swept along the path we've fallen onto, when in the privacy of our own hearts, we know this isnât where we want to be.
The problem is we donât know where we do want to be.
We just know itâs not here. Thereâs also a feeling that to make a change now would be an UNECESSARY LEAP into the unknown. It would risk everything youâve worked so hard to get, and for what? Just a pipe dream? Or something you might not be that good at anyway?
So, you feel stuck. You know you want things to change, but for some reason you're not making the change.
WHY YOU FEEL STUCK
The clients I work with tell me they feel stuck or donât take the leap they want to take, because of one of three reasons:
1. They donât really know what they want
2. They don't think they can get what they want
3. They don't know where to start or canât think clearly
However, from my experience of working with these clients, those are not the real reasons!
THE REAL REASONS PEOPLE GET STUCK:
1. They underestimate the power of their NATURAL STRENGTHS and the unique value they already offer
2. They've not spent PRODUCTIVE THINKING time working out what they want and whatâs important to them
3. Their emotions (fear and worry mainly) are clouding their thinking and judgement.
HOW DO I KNOW THESE ARE THE REAL REASONS?
Because once these reasons are addressed, I see more people getting unstuck. I see it becoming easier for them to do something tangible towards making a change. After tackling these issues with my clients, they then develop the clarity and confidence to take their leaps!
WHAT DO I MEAN BY 'PRODUCTIVE THINKING'?
We often believe that we have been seriously considering the leap we want to take, making plans, and rationally discounting ideas. When in fact all we've been doing is pondering over a few repetitive thoughts in our head, or sharing some vague ideas with a friend. Thatâs not productive thinking.
Productive thinking is about prioritising dedicated and focused time to doing some practical exploration and investigation into who you are, what you really want, and how you could make it all happen.
HOW CAN THIS BOOK HELP?
This book is organised into chapters that will help you to do that productive thinking, and address each of the real reasons that are keeping your feet firmly stuck on the ground right now.
Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 will help you to identify what makes you unique and the value you already add just by being who you already are.
Chapter 3 will help you to do some productive thinking about what you want, why you want those things and what's important to you.
Chapter 4 will help you to identify and overcome any fears you have that are stopping you from taking the leap you want to take.
Chapter 5 will help you to create a practical plan that will fit into your life so that you are able to stick to it, as well as enjoy it.
BACKGROUND TO MY PROCESS AND TOOLS
I describe myself as a Hybrid Executive Coach because my approach merges the worlds of coaching and therapy. I blend the practical, future-focused, goal-based approach of corporate coaching, with the more in depth, person-centred approach of therapy. I believe coaching someone around their career can only be effective if you look at the whole person, not just them at work. So you will find a blend of this approach throughout the book.
With the exception of Strengthscope, all of the tools in this book are either my own creation, or existing tools that I've adapted to make them simpler or more practical.
There are 12 tools for you to complete, and space is provided for you to work through these tools directly within the book. If however you would prefer to use a separate copy of the tool, then please contact me. My details can be found on p.132.
âI aim to make working with me and working through this book to feel like you are simply working with a skilled friend.
But you know YOU better than I do. I'm just going to ask some questions and give you some structure and tools to help facilitate, organise, clarify and at times challenge your thoughts and feelings. So as you work through the exercises trust in your own judgement. As I said, you know you better than anyone else does!
HOW THIS APPROACH CAN WORK
Amy was feeling stuck. She had enjoyed working in the same organisation for 10 years, progressing into management for 5 of those years. But when I met Amy, she had become disillusioned with her job and the organisation. She lacked energy and motivation, and suffered from anxiety brought on by work.
But she had no idea what to do about it, or what she could do about it. She'd lost confidence in who she was, what she was able to do, and even in her own ability to know and decide what she wanted. She confessed that all she really wanted was for me to give her the answers and tell her what to do.
But of course I wasn't going to do that. I worked with Amy for 6 sessions over 6 months, taking her through many of the tools and approaches in this book. This resulted in Amy uncovering and sometimes rediscovering who she was, what she wanted and what was important to her.
By the end of the coaching she no longer felt stuck, anxious, and lost. She now understood, and more importantly, valued her strengths and natural qualities, which gave her an increased sense of self-belief. She was also clearer on the sort of job she wanted to do, and company she wanted to work for.
So much so that just before our last session, she did something that she previously would not have had the confidence or clarity to do. She applied for a job in a company that was more aligned to her passions and values, and to her amazement was offered it.
This is what Amy said about the coaching:
"When I met Steph, I wasnât necessarily in the best headspace, I had already tried a previous form of coaching which wasnât the right fit for me, and so I wasnât 100% sold on this working.
I went into the sessions hoping to be given the majority of answers to fix my problems (I know coaching doesnât work this way) but at the time this is what I thought I needed.
Stephâs coaching methods felt like taking a full breath again, it gave me the space and confidence to not only explore how I was feeling at the time, and what I wanted to do in my career, but also where I wanted to work and how important that is as well.
The tools and tasks helped me to understand myself better, finding a positive outlet for my emotions and pausing when I felt overwhelmed.
Whilst the process wasnât easy, Steph didnât just give me the answers like I wanted, she helped me to work through everything myself with nudging and support from her in a relaxed and friendly environment."
Chapter 2 â Who am I? And why donât I already know?
We are all born with immense NATURAL TALENTS, but too few people discover what they are, and even fewer develop them properly. Sir Ken Robinson - Author, Speaker & Government Advisor
WHO ARE YOU? WHAT ARE YOUR NATURAL TALENTS?
When you talk about wanting to know who you are, what I suspect you mean is that you want to know what makes you unique. Whatâs special or different about you? What does it mean to be you?
This can often hit us out of the blue one morning when we wake up and think:
"What am I doing with my life?
How did I end up here? Why am I so unhappy?
Why do I feel so trapped, constrained, confused?
Why am I stuck?
What happened?"
Iâll tell you what happened.
â
HOW DID YOU END UP HERE?
I appreciate this may not be true for everyone, but for many of us we were once carefree, creative, curious children, with the desire to explore, to create, and to express our ideas. Life was full of wonder, fun, intrigue and excitement. We explored the world without the worry of being judged, or rejected, or the pressure of having to pay the mortgage.
But then life got in the way. We had to get a sensible bill paying career. We had to keep up with our peers. We had to grow up!
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NO WONDER WE LOSE SIGHT OF WHO WE ARE
From our early teenage years onwards, we progressively lose sight of who we are, what our natural strengths are, and what we love to do. We get hijacked by our hormones in our teens, and begin to worry more about fitting in than following our dreams. We get either catastrophic career advice, or no advice when weâre choosing key subjects to study or paths to follow, and so end up going down the âsensibleâ route, rather than the route we truly want.
Yet despite our teenage years being a really confusing and turbulent time for us, itâs at these times we are asked to make some big decisions about what we want to do with our lives.
I mean, who on earth designed it this way?
âI knowâ, they said,
"letâs wait until children get to that stage in their lives when they constantly get hijacked by confusing emotions, struggling with what life is about and how to fit in. When they are full of internal conflicts of who they are and how to cope with life.
Then, when these teenagers are at their most vulnerable and fragile, letâs ask them to make some really big decisions that will affect the rest of their lives.
Weâll ask them âwhat do you want to do with your life?â
Then we'll offer up a really limited list of subjects to choose from, and too bad if theyâre not interested in them, or that good at them.
We'll push these kids away from what they really want, because we wonât even put that on the table, we wonât offer it up as an option. Not because weâre mean, just because weâre constrained by our own rules, and didnât even know it was an option."
WHAT WE NEEDED WASN'T OFFERED AT SCHOOL
Where on the syllabus at school were the subjects on how to find out what your natural strengths are, or what you really love to do, or what makes you uniquely you?
Why were Maths, Science and English given more space on the curriculum than Sports, Music and Art? Why was there such a limited set of subjects to choose from and learn about?
I guess what I'm saying here is that itâs really no wonder that we end up so far away from who we are and what we love to do.
So maybe don't beat yourself up so much about how you have ended up stuck in the 'sensible life'. You were hardly set up to succeed. I donât mean that people deliberately made you take a path they knew would ultimately make you unhappy. I just donât think many of us were given the right skills, knowledge or support needed to set us up to succeed in a career and life completely aligned to who we are and what we love to do.
THE BIGGEST PROBLEM WITH THIS STORY
The biggest problem with this story is that we become good at being sensible.
A solid career, nice house, decent salary. We strive and strive, blind-sided by our striving, until that day we wake up and realise weâre just not happy. There must be more to life than this!
And a quiet, but persistent voice in your head keeps whispering â
......thereâs more to me than this.
What's more, being successful at 'being sensible' has made it feel even harder to take a leap into being who you truly are, as well as a leap into a life you really want to live.
THIS WHOLE STORY WAS CERTAINLY TRUE FOR ME
I was never really sure what I wanted to do with my life, and by my late teens started to really struggle with the whole point to it all. I didnât want to just grow up, go to work, earn money, get married, buy a house, have a family, retire⌠and then die. I also didnât want to wait until I retired and was at my least mentally and physically fit to finally start doing what I loved.
Iâm not saying that the path of working hard and earning money to raise a family isnât meaningful, it just wasnât for me.
I wanted a purpose and a meaning, but had no idea what it takes to have a meaningful life, or how to make the best decisions to get there. The routes mapped out and offered up to me just werenât right.
I wasnât one of those people lucky enough to be totally certain on what I wanted to do, and I didnât stand out as having any particular skill in any one thing. I've later realised that I didn't stand out in any one thing, because the thing I stand out in, wasn't given as an option at school.
So almost by default, I got caught up in following the sensible route and ended up turning my part-time Saturday job on the checkouts at Tesco (that helped fund my way through university studying a subject I really enjoyed) into a full-time management training scheme.
Eleven years later, I found I had continued to live my life by default rather than by design. I was still at Tesco having progressed through the ranks and achieved a bill paying, yet on the whole, unfulfilling career. I had lost sight of who I was, and was the furthest away I had ever been from knowing, let alone doing, what I love to do.
My sensible, secure, and safe life was also keeping me too busy and too tired to do anything about it.
LIFTING THE VEIL OF THE SENSIBLE LIFE
That wonderfully curious, creative and unique individual, full of ideas, and an interest in expressing and exploring those ideas, is still within you.
They are just hidden under the veil of your 'sensible' life.
You may have lost your way, but you can find it again.
You can get clarity on what you want.
You can get the confidence to be yourself and do what you love.
You can get that curiosity and creativity back in your life.
From the safety, security and certainty of your current life, you can take that LEAP into what right now feels like an unsafe, insecure, uncertain place youâve been educated out of believing to be possible.
I know you can do it, because I did it! And so too have many of my coaching clients. All of whom started out with low confidence, minimal resources and no clue as to where to begin (that describes where I was too). In this book, I'm going to show you what my clients and I did to help us to take our LEAPs!
LEAP! How to be more you and find a career you love is part journal, part coaching session, and part inspiration, all backed by science, that can help someone with an unsatisfying life find a way to a life more fulfilling.
What I really enjoyed about this book is how author Steph Tranter not only backs up her advice with science, but utilizes her book to actually help folks think about what they want and take steps to achieving them via prompts and mini assignments. She's broken the book down into digestible chapters that contain graphics and quotes that make the book feel more like a conversation than a workbook. Granted, if readers truly want to take Tranter's advice to heart, they definitely should heed her advice and take the time and effort to truly think deeply about what they want so they can take active steps towards them.
Interspersed between chapters are quotes form Tranter's real life clientele, which hinged on bragging to me; I understand how the author would need to qualify their advice with testimonials but at a certain point it just felt like the author was patting herself on the back instead of focusing on the readers' own issues and perspective.
For anyone feeling stuck in an unsatisfying career or life, LEAP! How to be more you and find a career you love, offers sage and sound advice and actionable steps to truly help readers take steps to making real change. Steph Tranter's book is short, to the point and focuses on helping people first and foremost. Tranter's experience in helping numerous clients gives her the qualifications to dole out wisdom and advice that could actually work. I give this book 3 out of 5 stars, recommend for people who are looking for ways to change their lives for the better.