7 STEPS TO GREATER PROFESSIONAL IMPACT
These 7 steps outline the journey to greater professional impact. In essence, as overwhelming and immovable as your situation may seem, you will need to look deeper within while also seeing beyond your current circumstances to truly move forward in the ways you desire. After 20 years of coaching hundreds of clients, I know that you can’t always control your external circumstances, but you can choose to change your internal narrative and embrace your power to lead from a place of service.
One step to creating powerful impact is recognizing the ways in which change is initiated from within. Your past and current stories are treasure troves for learning and setting the stage for exploration – but getting stuck in the story is debilitating.
Clients reach out to me because they are ready to be intentional about activating change. They want to take their profession to a new level of impact through leadership in their areas of expertise and interest, yet they find themselves at the edge of their comfort zone. They are competent while simultaneously feeling paralyzed, and they know they are holding themselves back.
The key steps to maximizing your greatest impact may not be as action-oriented as you think and more of an internal consideration. In working with me, clients increase their ability to inspire and lead others, know their strengths and core values, have more of a voice, initiate new projects, launch programs, manage additional responsibilities, make career transitions, and/or become more anchored right where they are. To do this, you can imagine how they must first review their thinking and gain clarity and courage to shape their external circumstances. Even something as routine as having that next dreaded conversation from a place of creating a win-win is preceded by an internal shift.
Once you move past steps 1-2, the remaining 5 steps will unfold during the coaching process, and they will ignite passion, fuel actions, and scale impact.
1. READY FOR CHANGE
My clients are entrepreneurs running consultancies, executives in philanthropies and nonprofits, and innovators and creatives. The commonality is that they thrive on moving the needle toward positive outcomes for our society through their work. They hold back, because they feel stuck and daunted by the real and imagined challenges that will come. Sometimes, they know they want change but can’t articulate their vision. There’s a realization that support and outside perspective is needed to create their desired shifts. The potential to have greater impact compels them to make use of their gained competence, leverage their platform, and take their professional power to the next level.
2. BEGIN COACHING JOURNEY
This is where trepidation is mixed with excitement. There’s hope combined with uncertainty. Coaching is an investment in yourself. My clients know they want to close the gap between where they are versus where they imagine themselves. Envisioning that possibility is exciting. Yet, it’s easy to question whether the financial and time commitments will be worth it. A client weighing the pros and cons may fear their own ability to actually create the change they are still unclear about. Will this work for me? Will I do the work?
What you can’t know in advance is how the coaching journey will specifically help you achieve your goals. Better communication with your team or clients, ability to create stability for yourself and others, a desire to influence and be a thought partner, implementing projects, doubling your results this year, and other markers of success – start with internal clarity and embodying new perspectives and tools through coaching. As these goals are consistently achieved, my clients are changed in ways they couldn’t imagine. They are no longer hindered by the comments of others, and they stop aiming to be liked by all. They shift from being a perfectionist to focusing on excellence. They know their own domains of leadership and lead authentically with their values. They engage their network and ask for what they need and want from others. They communicate with the other in mind and can build trust and honest dialog in their relationships. These inner shifts are priceless, last a lifetime, and affect all areas of their professional and personal lives.
3. GAIN SELF-AWARENESS
The fun begins when we set the foundation and establish goals for our work, and my clients start to implement their vision. In this process, they become present to where they’re getting stuck. With the support of coaching, my clients quickly become self-aware and reckon with the fact that the obstacles between where they are and where they want to be are old response patterns, and what they imagine to be true is often made up. My clients are surprised to learn that their misaligned beliefs and perspectives are what’s causing resistance and limiting their own possibilities.
4. REALIZE CHANGE STARTS WITHIN
When people embark on a coaching journey, they don’t realize how much their circumstances and results are shaped from the inside out. Your mindset, beliefs, approach, responses, core values, and clarity are what influence every outcome.Coaching conversations create internal shifts that add up over time, and once those shifts happen, everything starts to change in the direction you want it to go.
Each coaching call creates a shift, and over time, the circumstances seem to change magically. The real magic is my clients’ commitment to showing up.
5. BE OF SERVICE
As my clients successfully navigate their coaching journey, they shift their focus from themselves to being of service. When you realize it’s all about the service you provide and the problems you help solve for others, your world will change. Regardless of your profession, if you’re not creating, doing, or solving something that benefits another person or group, you cannot have the needed impact at scale.
Working with me, you’ll realize that hesitation is internal. When you understand that your resources, funding, income, and everyone’s abundance comes through people; you’ll learn that your network is key. When you make it about your stakeholders, clients, and your movement, you’ll passionately engage like never before.
6. EMBRACE YOUR POWER
The coaching journey can change your life. You will set goals and strategize, fully knowing your ability to live with uncertainty. You’ll get comfortable being uncomfortable. You’ll be bold and daring as you step outside of your comfort zone. My clients improve their ability to consistently plan, build, nurture, and support teams; use their platform; and know what they are capable of making happen even in the unknown of it all. You always have the potential to embrace more of your power and naturally maximize your impact.
7. INSPIRE, LEAD, AND SCALE YOUR IMPACT
Impact-driven leaders want to inspire, lead, and scale their ability to affect change. My clients want their work to align with a positive mission and their lives to be meaningful. They are conscious of the ripple effect of all the good they do and messes they make. Impact-focused leaders become very intentional about their conversations and ability to be of service, and their strategies and actions follow naturally and accordingly.
What also follows is gratitude and celebration for yourself, your team, your projects, and all that you’ve created personally and professionally.
Click the banner below to book an appointment or send me an email.
