A Different Perspective
Coach Paul and I connected entirely by chance (we literally stumbled into each other at the gym) at a defining moment in my career.
At the time, I was an assistant leader of a team of 12 in a sales and service-based industry, applying for a recently-vacated, full-fledged team leader role. I was already doing the job I was applying for (and then some), and like many corporate managers, I was beginning to feel drained, burnt out, frustrated, and uncertain of my place in my company. My boss refused to promote me into the position despite me already serving as acting manager, and instead insisted on taking interviews from both internal and external applicants.
Paul helped me navigate this nerve-wracking interview and application process, as well as how to best lead my team in an acting manager role. Our coaching conversations were centered around how I could, would, and should best focus my time, effort, and energy at work, as well as around my mindset about the situation. During this process, we spent a lot of time unpacking and deconstructing my professional worldview and belief system, which helped me realize and recognize my unintentionally self-inhibiting (at best) and self-destructive (at worst) daily actions, behaviors, and self-talk. We identified things I was doing and saying to myself and others that were holding me back from where I wanted to be and what I could be, and came up with strategies for how to make helpful, immediate, decisive action(s,) as well as how NOT to procrastinate and/or neglect working on my other life and professional goals and projects in favor of just focusing on one potential "promotion" (i.e., moving me away from an "all-or-nothing" or "tunnel vision" mindset).
I did not get the promotion I was chasing — but when one door closes, another door opens. Paul then guided me through my NEXT interview process for the next available team leader position that opened up in my company, and even though another candidate was chosen instead, I entered that SECOND interview process cool, calm, collected, and CONFIDENT, knowing damn well what I was truly capable of and what I was bringing to the table, and in a very different and much more prepared and self-assured state when it came to handling interview questions, providing concrete examples of my job competency and excellence, and when negotiating compensation. I was turned down for the second time in six months, but I felt more prepared for the next opportunity than ever before.
Today, I am still waiting for another team leader position to present itself in my company. But while I wait, I now wait PREPARED and FOCUSED for and on the right things for me as a person and professional. Paul has helped me (and still helps me) to:
- Determine an order of importance for work affairs (i.e., organization and prioritization)
- Understand that my worth and value as a person and professional is INDEPENDENT of my superiors' views and opinions of me (something that I and many other professionals struggle with)
- Realize and remember that I have SKILLS, talents, and abilities that can and will translate over to different industries and fields
- Realize and remember WHAT brings me professional fulfillment, and that having "tunnel vision" on one particular potential role and/or promotion can actually put you further away from finding something that can and will bring you more, if not the MOST fulfillment
- Realize and remember that "work/life balance" is almost a myth — you work in your life and your life has work — the two can never truly be separated, so anything you feel, fear, experience, want, or need in one will almost always find its way to the other. It is important to have your ducks in a row on both sides in order to be an efficient and effective member of the workforce, and a helpful, healthy family member and friend (or in my case, even a husband and one day a father).
Coach Paul has completely transformed my outlook on work and life. I cannot recommend him highly enough, and I have even referred and recommended many of my own clients to connect with and work with him. He is a consummate professional, extremely insightful, and has an uncanny knack (as any great coach should have) at getting you to realize your own truths and to find answers that have been within you all along — truths and answers that you would have never been able to find and/or recognize without the right, neutral, 3rd-party perspective. Working with him has been one of my best life decisions!!!







