Career Coachings Top 10!

After being in this careermy fifthfor 16 years and having now worked with almost 6,500 clients globally, I have run the gamut of client challenges. My clients range in their ages from 18 (out of high school, choosing a career path) to 65+ (retired, not knowing what to do). The range of their profession also is equally varied: From high-tech executives to physicians to those in show business and music industries. Their needs for coaching include changing careers in a downturn to dealing with a PIP (Performance Improvement Plan).

Each client is unique in the challenge they face, and so is what they bring to the session. Although a prospect comes with an initial concern around one most obvious and urgent aspect of their career or about one thing that they think is holding them back, as we navigate through what is really going on, the intervention tends to expand to many other aspects of their needs they did not quite appreciate that they had.

What do I mean by this?

For example, one recent prospect came to me because she felt blindsided when she was suddenly put on a performance improvement plan (PIP). After we went through the intake process and got started with peeling the onion, it soon became apparent that despite her solid performance, hard work, and going above and beyond, she had a serious communication problem managing upwards, and her boss was a jerk to boot.

So, the immediate coaching involved dealing with how to manage the PIP, but soon it expanded to improving her communication and to dealing with a bad boss. Although she ended up having to leave that jobalmost all PIPs end up that wayshe was much better prepared to deal with such situations in the future and got back on track to improve her communication skills in her next job. She also learned how to spot a bad boss early and how to deal with it in a forthright manner, something she thought she could never be able to do.

Also, over the years many of my clients have stayed with me as they grew in their career and have shifting needs to get them unstuck at different waypoints in their career, especially as they move up. For example, what a person needs in their career to transition from an individual contributor to a first-level manager is very different from what a C-level executive needs to claim the CEO role in that or another company. So, the same client with a need to learn how to deal with a back-stabbing colleague today often ends up coming back to learn about how to navigate through a C-level promotion in a few years down the road.

My Own Audit: This blog is about an audit of my own practice and how the different coaching interventions rank as I look back since I started doing this 16 years ago. I keep track of the clients coaching needs as we start and progress through the process, starting with the initial Client Intake Questionnaire. In many cases a prospect misdiagnoses their problem when they fill out the CIQ, but during the first meeting it becomes clear that to solve the problem for which they came to me the original problem needs to be reframed and a different approach than what the client had originally in mind needs to be considered. Below is a ranked listing of clients coaching needs stemming from the problems they face at work. I have codified the categories of needs they have based on the most dominant theme of their need at any particular time during an ongoing coaching relationship. I see this as a flowing river that changes itself as it flows to its end point. Just as the river moves forward she carries all that she earned and learned in the past and grows, so does a client as they navigate their career through myriad challenges they face.

So, below is a ranked listing of why clients come to me with the frequency with which they do, for the issue they are facing. The number in (#) shows the frequency of the underlying cause (not what they think their need is). All these numbers can be considered as based on 100 interventions, but they will not all total to 100, since a client will have multiple needs at the same time. Yet another way to state the same is to recognize that I deal with coaching focused on relationships issues (60) three times as many as I deal with clients with coaching needs to pursue their next promotion (20). Of course, this list is not exhaustive. I have merely listed the top ten in this blog. I may write yet another blog about what some of the other interesting interventions are at a later date.

1.Relationships (60): This aspect of their needs has to do with how they develop and manage their relationships with everyone within their ecosystem, especially their boss and others who matter in making their interactions work for them. Most clients blame others for relationships that have gone off-track, without realizing that they could have proactively managed them better early on to not make them a major factor in their career success. Although damaged relationships are more difficult to mend clients are still able to take them on by shifting how they see this working for them as a win-win. Knowing and understanding the driving factors for Emotional Intelligence (EQ) are a good foundation for strong relationships.
2.Bad boss (45): Studies and surveys for the past 75 years have shown that nearly 80% of the bosses are dysfunctional, incompetent, or provide poor leadership to their employees. This has not changed despite how high this number is and how long this has been going on. Bad bosses come in all flavors, shapes, and forms, so the best strategy is not to go looking for another boss or run away from your current boss in search of a better oneremember your odds of finding a bad or worse boss are 5:1but to learn how to deal with them with specific strategies. There is not perfect solution for this, but you can make this work for you if you know what to do and what NOT to do with such bosses.
3.Communication (40): There is high correlation between #1 and this factor. Most relationship sour because of both parties fail to understand how to communicate better. Being able to engage in a dialog that is healthy, productive, and mutually beneficial is an art and most people do not take this on as a skill that they must develop to succeed in their career and life. Having crucial conversations is an important aspect of any relationship. In fact, there is a book with this very title that deals with it and it is worth reading.
4.Lack of challenge (45): This complaint comes from clients that take on their role as is given to them and when they fail to explore what else they could do if they applied lateral thinking (instead of linear thinking) to their job. Recently, one of my clients was transferred to a department that deals with Supply Chain (a $18B/Yr. function) that provides all the incoming material and services to her company. She could have done well by supporting the needs of the various functions by providing the technology solutions each functional area needed. But, when we looked at the whole picture we quickly uncovered an opportunity to save nearly $2B/Yr. by doing things differently. So, instead of merely providing the technology solutions my clients is now also doubling as a management consultant to reframe her role and to show the impact of her leadership. Now, that is a juicy challenge!
5.No recognition (35): This is a common complaint from clients who are diligent workers and who focus on doing what they are told. Even when they go above and beyond they often assume that good work will get noticed and wait for someone in management to pat on their back. When this does not happen, they get frustrated and complain about someone else hijacking the credit for their work. In majority of the cases if the client learns how to showcase their work and protect their contributions by doing things differently recognition comes their way. Here, #1 Relationship and #3 Communication are contributing factors.
6.Work-life balance (30): This is a frequent complaint, especially from those working in start-ups and in growing companies. This complaint also comes with clients from companies that are aggressively cutting back because of the market conditions and automation. Here, too, knowing how to communicate this without jeopardizing your job (#3) and building a trusting relationship with your boss (#1) help. Yet another set of factors to consider is to eliminate useless work, streamline routine work, and to delegate (or outsource) work that others can do. Learning how to say No is a part of this calculus.
7.Promotion (20): Most clients wait until their Annual Performance Review (APR) to learn their fate and come back disappointed when that promotion does not materialize, despite their stellar performance. The right time to set yourself for that promotion is a year ahead, when you are planning for your performance plan for the next year. Show your boss what you are going to deliver and extract a promise of a promotion if all those deliverables come to pass. Send your boss an email confirming what she said at the beginning of this discussion and re-send that email a month before the next years APR cycle starts. It may not always work the first time, but it can work much better the next.
8.No career path (20): This complaint often stems from clients who often do what they are told (order takers). Every job has much richer underlying tasks that can be done if you dig a little deeper and view that job from a business or from a customers perspective. See example in #4 above, how the same job was completely redefined by reframing what needed to be done. Once you identify new opportunities and get your management to support you, you are on a different career path. If that does not pay you rewards, showcase your leadership on your rsum and get yourself anotherbetterjob on the strength of that rsum bullet.
9.Performance problemsPIP (15): Most PIP issues are driven by mismanaged expectations. This touches upon #1 Relationships, #3 Communication, and sometimes #2 Bad boss. So, although almost any PIP will end up in a termination use that learning to get to the root-cause of your problems and work on them before you start your next job somewhere else.
10.Salary issues (15): Similar to #7 Promotion above the Salary issues must be addressed during the planning stages for the next years. At this time you must show your value to your manager, set up a plan to deliver a solid performance with monetized value to your boss, and then get an agreement to how that adjustment should be made at the next APR. Arguing about a few percentage points at the review time is a lost cause as that decision was already made and formalized way before you walked into that meeting. Here, again, #1 Relationship and #3 Communication are the factors to be mindful of.

So, there you have it. Although this list is not exhaustive of all that I do in my coaching practice you have a good view of what I do when coaching most of my clients who come to me for guidance.

Good luck!

About Author

Dilip has distinguished himself as LinkedIn’s #1 career coach from among a global pool of over 1,000 peers ever since LinkedIn started ranking them professionally (LinkedIn selected 23 categories of professionals for this ranking and published this ranking from 2006 until 2012). Having worked with over 6,000 clients from all walks of professions and having worked with nearly the entire spectrum of age groups—from high-school graduates about to enter college to those in their 70s, not knowing what to do with their retirement—Dilip has developed a unique approach to bringing meaning to their professional and personal lives. Dilip’s professional success lies in his ability to codify what he has learned in his own varied life (he has changed careers four times and is currently in his fifth) and from those of his clients, and to apply the essence of that learning to each coaching situation. After getting his B.Tech. (Honors) from IIT-Bombay and Master’s in electrical engineering(MSEE) from Stanford University, Dilip worked at various organizations, starting as an individual contributor and then progressing to head an engineering organization of a division of a high-tech company, with $2B in sales, in California’s Silicon Valley. His current interest in coaching resulted from his career experiences spanning nearly four decades, at four very diverse organizations–and industries, including a major conglomerate in India, and from what it takes to re-invent oneself time and again, especially after a lay-off and with constraints that are beyond your control. During the 45-plus years since his graduation, Dilip has reinvented himself time and again to explore new career horizons. When he left the corporate world, as head of engineering of a technology company, he started his own technology consulting business, helping high-tech and biotech companies streamline their product development processes. Dilip’s third career was working as a marketing consultant helping Fortune-500 companies dramatically improve their sales, based on a novel concept. It is during this work that Dilip realized that the greatest challenge most corporations face is available leadership resources and effectiveness; too many followers looking up to rudderless leadership. Dilip then decided to work with corporations helping them understand the leadership process and how to increase leadership effectiveness at every level. Soon afterwards, when the job-market tanked in Silicon Valley in 2001, Dilip changed his career track yet again and decided to work initially with many high-tech refugees, who wanted expert guidance in their reinvention and reemployment. Quickly, Dilip expanded his practice to help professionals from all walks of life. Now in his fifth career, Dilip works with professionals in the Silicon Valley and around the world helping with reinvention to get their dream jobs or vocations. As a career counselor and life coach, Dilip’s focus has been career transitions for professionals at all levels and engaging them in a purposeful pursuit. Working with them, he has developed many groundbreaking approaches to career transition that are now published in five books, his weekly blogs, and hundreds of articles. He has worked with those looking for a change in their careers–re-invention–and jobs at levels ranging from CEOs to hospital orderlies. He has developed numerous seminars and workshops to complement his individual coaching for helping others with making career and life transitions. Dilip’s central theme in his practice is to help clients discover their latent genius and then build a value proposition around it to articulate a strong verbal brand. Throughout this journey, Dilip has come up with many groundbreaking practices such as an Inductive Résumé and the Genius Extraction Tool. Dilip owns two patents, has two publications in the Harvard Business Review and has led a CEO roundtable for Chief Executive on Customer Loyalty. Both Amazon and B&N list numerous reviews on his five books. Dilip is also listed in Who’s Who, has appeared several times on CNN Headline News/Comcast Local Edition, as well as in the San Francisco Chronicle in its career columns. Dilip is a contributing writer to several publications. Dilip is a sought-after speaker at public and private forums on jobs, careers, leadership challenges, and how to be an effective leader.

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