Peak Careers

Professional Development for Career Practitioners

career development

Interview: Professional Development through Action

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Another Peak-Careers Interview. Join me here where I interview three past-presidents of the National Career Development Association. Dr. Lisa Severy, Dr. Seth Hayden, and Dr. Lakeisha Mathews.

Today I ask:

  • What do you see as the benefits for being involved with a professional association?
  • What advice can you give to people new to the career development profession?

Interview with 3 past presidents of National Career Development Association.

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BIO’s

Dr. Lisa Severy has been a leader in career development, counseling, and higher education since 1996.  Lisa is an NCDA Certified career counselor and has worked with students and alumni at the University of Florida, University of Colorado Boulder, University of Phoenix and in private practice. Lisa earned her bachelor’s degree from Indiana University and has three graduate degrees, including a PhD in Counselor Education, from the University of Florida.  She was President of NCDA in 2013-2014 and served as the NCDA Rep to the ACA Governing Council from 2017-2023.

Dr. Seth Hayden is an associate professor of counseling, coordinator of the clinical mental health
program, and associate director of the online counseling program at Wake Forest University. Prior to
his role at Wake Forest University, he was the program director of career advising and counseling at
the Florida State University Career Center. He currently serves as a senior research associate in the
Florida State University Career Center Tech Center.

His research focuses on the connection between career development and mental health. In addition,
he examines the career and personal development needs of military service members, veterans, and
their families.

Dr. Hayden is a licensed clinical mental health counselor in North Carolina, a national certified counselor,
a certified clinical mental health counselor, and an approved clinical supervisor. He is also a co-editor
of the Journal of Military and Government Counseling and associate editor of The Career
Development Quarterly. He’s a co-author of two NCDA monographs, Group Career Counseling: Practice
and Principles, and Career Development for Transitioning Veterans. In addition, Dr. Hayden is a past
president of the Military and Government Counseling Association and the National Career
Development Association, both divisions of the American Counseling Association.

Lakeisha Mathews, Ed.D, is Director of the Career and Internship Center at the University of Baltimore and is also the owner of Right Resumes & Career Coaching, career development business focused on providing professional documents, career coaching and training for mid-level and mid-management professionals in a variety of industries.

Dr. Mathews holds several industry certifications including Certified Career Coach, Certified Resume Writer, Global and Career Development Facilitator, and Executive Career Coach among other designations. She holds an Ed.D. in Higher Education Leadership & Innovation from Wilmington University, a  M.S. in Human Resource Development from Towson University and a B.A. in Communication from the University of Maryland College Park.

Lakeisha is committed to the field of career development and in 2011, she was elected as president of the Maryland Career Development Association. In 2017 she was elected Trustee-at-Large for the National Career Development Association (NCDA) and formally served as the Trustee for Higher Education Career Counselors & Educators. She served as President of NCDA from 2022-2023 and traveled to Canada, Italy, Egypt, and Taiwan during her tenure to inspire career professionals around the world.

Of most importance is Lakeisha’s client-centered approach to career coaching. Hearing success stories continues to be the favorite part of her job as a Higher Education Administrator, Educator and Career Coach!

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Jim Peacock is the Principal at Peak-Careers Consulting and writes a weekly email for career practitioners. Peak-Careers offers discussion-based online seminars for career practitioners focused on meeting continuing education needs for CCSP, GCDF and BCC certified professionals as well as workshops for career practitioners and individual career coaching.

He is the author of A Field Guide for Career Practitioners: Helping Your Clients Create Their Next Move and the recipient of the 2020 Kenneth C. Hoyt Award from National Career Development Association.

Sign up to receive my TOP 10 TIPS WHEN WORKING WITH AN UNDECIDED PERSON. You will also receive the career practitioner’s weekly email on a variety of career topics, industry news, interesting events, and more. (Sign up)

 

Do you need a business coach?

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Where are you in your own career development?
Would you benefit from hiring a business coach?
I know I did.

business coach

As a career coach/practitioner, if you believe you provide value to your students/clients, is it time for you to hire a business coach to help you improve?

I was reluctant to hire a coach to help me with my private practice but after about 3 years of being full-time with Peak-Careers Consulting, my business was leveling off and I wasn’t growing as much as I wanted. Hiring a business coach was an investment I wasn’t sure I could afford. Or was it an investment I could NOT afford to NOT hire a business coach?

I already have an Advisory Board for Peak-Careers made up of six people who are familiar with career counseling and providing career services. It is made up of a diversity of people and views that I consult with regularly. But their expertise does not include running a small business and all the intricacies it takes to be successful.

 My arguments for hiring a business coach are true even if you are not in private practice. How will you improve your own career?

Just like what we can do helping students/clients, a business coach can “nudge”, support, and inspire us in our own career development.

Why I hired a business coach…

I needed someone who understood small businesses and could help me think differently. Someone to challenge me to grow and to guide me on a regular basis. But most importantly, to hold me accountable to the action steps we create in our meetings.

My “to do” list had items on there that kept being moved to the next week or month. I knew I should be doing them but it was my inaction that kept me from doing them. My business coach would give me things to work on and when we met again in two weeks, I really did my best to do them knowing she was going to ask.

How I hired a business coach…

The first thing I did was ask my network of private practitioners if they had used a business coach and if they found it valuable. Some had used a business coach, many others had not. Most found value hiring, some did not. The key is to find the right business coach for you and then to do the work.

After asking my network, I checked out a number of business coaches websites and eventually took three of them up on a complimentary 30-minute coaching session. I highly recommend taking them up on this 30-minute session to see if it is a good fit. Do you like their style? Do you feel a connection? Did you pick up any tidbits that help you move forward?

Eventually, I went with Mandy because I felt like her strength was working with businesses who have been in business about 3-5 years to help them move forward to that next level.

What my business coach has done for me…

My business coach does not know as much about career services as my Advisory Board but knows the struggles of a small business. She has helped me reframe my thinking about what it takes to run a business. Here are just a few things she has helped me with:

  • Focusing my time daily. I now use a “to do” list with only 3 things on it each day
  • Focusing my longer-term thinking by using a 3-month whiteboard wall calendar
  • Rethinking how I use my Advisory Board (not an easy conversation to have with your Board)
  • Discussing pay for virtual assistants
  • Changing my marketing message to appeal to my ideal clients
  • How to grow my e-mail list
  • How to grow my individual career coaching clients
  • And much more… including her being “cheerleader” of sorts pumping me up when I needed it and challenging when I needed it.

An outside perspective…

There are simply things as an individual in private practice that you want to discuss with someone and that someone is not always in your network. Even if you are not in private practice, having a business coach, or possibly a life coach, can help you move forward in your own career development. By hiring a business coach you are able to have the discussions on topics that may be uncomfortable having with your network.

People in the business world often will hire life coaches or executive coaches. But I came from higher education and the thought of hiring someone to coach me never crossed my mind. I encourage you to consider the question of “How will you grow in your profession?”  “Could a business coach be what you need to move forward in your own career?

If you are thinking about starting a coaching business or are struggling with yours, you may want to check out our 5-week, online seminar, Building Your Coaching Business.

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Jim Peacock is the Principal at Peak-Careers Consulting and writes a monthly newsletter for career practitioners. Peak-Careers offers discussion-based online seminars for career practitioners focused on meeting continuing education needs for CCSP, GCDF and BCC certified professionals as well as workshops for career practitioners and individual career coaching.

Sign up here to receive my  TOP 10 TIPS WHEN WORKING WITH AN UNDECIDED PERSON.  You can also receive the career practitioners newsletter which includes a variety of career topics, industry news, interesting events, and more. 

Peak Careers - Professional Development for Careers

“Turn over a lot of rocks” to find your next job. In other words, persistence.

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Turn over a lot of rocks

This is a follow up to a LinkedIn article I wrote recently that spoke to the fact that you need to “turn over a lot of rocks” to find that next job. In other words, be persistent. I gave 7 tips on how to do that in the article. If you are on LinkedIn, check it out here.

Today I want to talk about what that means a little bit more and I have 3 suggestions for making that happen. Mostly through my philosophy of embracing ‘intentional serendipity’.

So watch this short video and learn how you can
‘turn over a lot of rocks’ to find your next job.

 

Jim Peacock is the Principal at Peak-Careers Consulting and writes a weekly email for career practitioners. Peak-Careers offers discussion-based online seminars for career practitioners focused on meeting continuing education needs for CCSP, GCDF and BCC certified professionals as well as workshops for career practitioners and individual career coaching.

He is the author of A Field Guide for Career Practitioners: Helping Your Clients Create Their Next Move and The Adventure of Finding Me in New Zealand. He is also the recipient of the 2020 Kenneth C. Hoyt Award from the National Career Development Association and the Mid-Atlantic Career Counseling Association’s Professional Contribution’s Award in 2020.

Sign up here to receive my  TOP 10 TIPS WHEN WORKING WITH AN UNDECIDED PERSON.  You will also receive the career practitioner’s weekly email on a variety of career topics, industry news, interesting events, and more. 

Peak Careers - Professional Development for Careers

The Career Development Puzzle

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Career decision making is like a 1000 piece puzzle with a number of pieces missing and only a vague picture on the box to work from. Each person thinks they have a complete puzzle to put together, but our job as a career counselor / coach / advisor is to help our clients find as many of the outside pieces as possible to give them the framework and some direction.

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Too many people think career decision making is a linear process, but each person takes the puzzle pieces he / she can find and fits them together to begin to make a picture of themselves. As career practitioners we may use assessments to help fit pieces together, we may use open ended questions, we may use work or family history, but ultimately what we are doing is helping the clients / students find pieces that fit together.

[Read more…] about The Career Development Puzzle