It’s really hard to take an honest look at yourself by yourself without having a sounding board or someone to talk you through what you’re feeling or what you’re thinking. It’s very easy to analyze and judge other people, but it’s almost impossible to do it for yourself. It’s almost an essential component for career advancement.

If you’re at a certain position or phase in your career, and you’re happy with what you’re doing, and you know exactly what you’re going after, then great. Maybe you don’t necessarily need coaching that much. But anyone who’s experiencing any doubt or knows that they could be doing more, or is wondering what direction to take next would greatly benefit from having that sounding board, that companion in this kind of growth.

I think anyone who is at a point in their career or their life where they’re questioning what direction to go in, or trying to change directions or may not feel that they’re using their skills to the best of their ability, and wondering where they fit in, how they can do more and do better, would be a perfect candidate to come in and work with K Street Coaching and realize what is it they do, what they’re good at and what it is that they shouldn’t necessarily be wasting their energy on. Those are valuable lessons.

What does the ‘before’ and ‘after’ look like? For me the ‘before’ was, “I’ve got a bunch of experience, but I’m not really sure how it all ties together; what my narrative is, what my story is, how to tell it.” Now I feel a lot more confident, whether it’s going to job interviews or explaining to colleagues or to friends or to potential employers or to clients, “What is it that I do? What am I about? How can I help them? What is it that I bring that’s unique? How is my background unique? How are my skills unique?” as opposed to “I just kinda did a bunch of things that are cool, but I don’t know how all this ties together or what this means.”

One of the biggest takeaways for me was just actually thinking critically about what it is that I know and what it is that I can provide analysis on, and reassessing my not just skill set but my actual database of knowledge, and contextualizing it in the current environment. “What does what I know mean and how can I use it?”

That was helpful and it’s something that in day-to-day life you don’t really get to do. You don’t get to reflect as much as you’d like — or sometimes ever — on what it is that you’ve accomplished or the knowledge that you’ve accumulated and how you are using it and what you can do with it for the next phase of your career or your life, to help others. I think that was a really valuable lesson for me.

Coaching has helped me be more mindful of the work that I do, recognizing what skills I’m applying in my work, and how I’m using my strengths on a day-to-day basis, actually employing those strengths to be better at my job, realizing that I bring something to the table that is unique. That’s been a confidence booster.

My husband has noticed there’s more relish in my work, that I’m actually enjoying what I’m doing and working on things I enjoy. I pick out projects to work on that are a good fit. My coworkers, too, recognize that I bring certain strengths to the team and acknowledge them and put me to work on relationship-building and on the kind of assignments where I’m actually able to bring my best self to the project. They recognize that and use my skills accordingly, which is gratifying.