Career Coaching, at 2.5 years from Covid Pandemic Dawn
Perspective shifts for Coaches, Employees and Employers
by Cristina Burca (Romania)
The Career Coaching market is growing at an accelerated pace, two and a half years from the start of the corona virus pandemic. Largely due to the ‘great resignation’ and ‘the great reshuffle’ trends, the profession itself has a clearer path and identity, states iCN’s guest interviewed for this edition, Mihai Zant, Executive Coach, International Trainer and Managing Partner in HUMANISTIC, Co-founder of CareerShift and Coaching after School.
‘We are seeing leaders having to be more coaching oriented, to have difficult career conversations and integrate personal lives in the discussion, as employees seek meaning, contribution, freedom, impact.’ – Mihai ZANT
The topics we cover:
- How is the Career Coaching market in the current times, as a result of the corona virus pandemic?
- Are Employees more prone to work with a coach to make the right move in their career?
- How can a Career Coach help? Which would be the steps taken to support the Coachee?
- On the other side, what could the Employers seek more, for employee attraction and retention?
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Q1: How is the Career Coaching market in the current times, as a result of the corona virus pandemic, from your observation over the last two years and a half?
Mihai Zant: In my view, the whole coaching market is growing. We can see it by the number of coaches getting certified, the growing number of schools being created and even the ICF (International Coaching Federation) changing the certification methodologies to integrate this growth as 2020 & 2021 meant long queues in coaching applications.
If we refer specifically to the #career #coaching market, it has even a more accelerated growth pace. I am seeing that session demands and we are seeing it throughout our community at Career Shift. This happens due to the ‘great resignation’ and ‘the great reshuffle’ trends. Due to the pandemic, while working from home, the work relationships went loose. With an increase in mental health issues, from generalised fatigue to anxiety, burnout and depression, without being aware, a lot of employees got slowly isolated. Being remote, not using cameras on calls and concentrating only on getting more work done, with little emotional connection, we have seen resignation intentions growing to over 50%.
Also, there was a major shift in the way we work. The pressure for meaningful work, #workfromeverywhere and more remote/hybrid working has mounted. We are seeing leaders having to be more coaching oriented, to have difficult career conversations and integrate personal lives in the discussion. Therefore, we have seen an increased demand for our International Career Coaching Certification from both internal and external purposes.
Moreover, the clients are already educated to ask for #career #coaching. Unlike general coaching, this is a well-established niche, where clients perceive a clear need and know what to expect. There is less of a need to explain what coaching is and what may be some examples of deliverables or success measurements. We like to be pragmatic and this line of work suits us perfectly.
Q2: How is career coaching seen? Are Employees more prone to work with a coach to make the right move in their career?
Mihai Zant: Career Coaching now has a clearer path and identity as an established niche. Although the main expectation is for advice on the next ‘suitable’ career and mentoring or counselling, the discussion can easily shift towards a purer form of coaching.
Career Coaching is seen as a more professionalised form of coaching. And this is true to be so! As a career coach, you should also be able to guide more directly, participate in providing potential options, salary levels, jobs’ naming etc. This is not to direct, but to expand awareness on what’s possible and this is a valid expectation. A career coach should better understand what are some market expectations, how a great CV looks like, what are some salary levels.
Source: iCN Issue 39 (Career Coaching); pages 26-29
About Cristina Burcă
Cristina Burcă, iCN Contributor since 2014. Her activity as Communication and Online Personal Branding Consultantfor Entrepreneurs can be found at https://balanced-communicator.com.
