I work with Fortune 500 and above senior leaders through C-Suite mainly in Insurance, Healthcare, and Tech and what I find is that some of my clients tend to work in silos. I am literally working with a senior leader as we speak that matches this question spot on. During our job search/landing coaching sessions and preparation of her career branding documents, I discovered that she has a unique talent for creating processes and systems to get results by leveraging her natural strategic mindset. She only saw herself as "good with people" but I found her way of being good with people yielded business results. I coached her to reframe how she saw herself and develop a new mindset to see herself as a strategist that happens to use people and processes to get the type of business results she was able to achieve. She was blown away as she had never thought of herself as a strategist. Oftentimes, women leaders, use the "fluff" competencies to describe themselves. I work to help them see themselves as "intra-preneurs" within organizations so they understand they are there to help run a business and increase the bottom line - not just be friendly with people. The latter is just a bonus. Most of my clients leave with a new sense of themselves and even a framework they can "sell" to the highest bidder by way of salary negotiation. I coached the client on how to brand themselves as a strategist both on paper and verbally when interviewing. I even had her looking for more jobs that play to her strength as a strategist as those role pay more than what she was originally looking. She now has a new sense of who she really is and is looking for roles that align with her strength with the salary to go along with it.
A church clergy was enrolled in an MBA program and sought to pivot to product management. We worked on developing their value proposition based on their clergy-based persuasion, influence, and leadership skills, and their newly developed technical and business skills. The goal was to deliver a message of value-added and impact attributes in both individual and team-based situations. We used my Wheel, Hub & Spoke methodology to develop their value proposition agnostic to their prior career roles. This positioned them to the client, Amazon, in a manner different from typical MBA students, and enabled the company to judge them on their impact-potential versus prior roles and tasks. They were initially hired for an internship and transitioned to a full-time product management role.
I use the CliftonStrengths assessment to help clients identify, articulate, and intentionally utilize their strengths to be more effective in their career as well as personal life. The assessment is a trusted tool that has been honed over decades of research. My recent client is a lawyer who used to try to be good at everything and get frustrated often. Once he figured out his top 5 strengths using this assessment, he felt more calm and confident that he can lean in to his unique strengths, and manage his weaknesses rather than waste so much energy working on them just to improve them a little.
The best way to help a client leverage their strength in job search is by guiding them through identifying unique skills and talents to develop a resume and cover letter showcasing their strengths to that profile. An example that I would like to share is about my client, Freddy, who recently graduated and is struggling to find a door of opportunity. Due to a lack of professional experience, she was not feeling motivated. The approach I adopted for him is given below: Identifying Strengths: It's a major factor to consider when you're searching job and before you start applying for your desired profiles. It includes certain steps: Self assessment Analysing past experiences Feedback from others Take Help of Your Strength in the Job Search: It's another crucial factor for you to consider, that allows you to develop you're overall resume, network accordingly. It includes steps like: Well-planned resume & cover letter Networking & interview preparation Ongoing Support