Job (mis)Fit: Person A was quite unhappy in her current role in technology that she took one year ago.  She was not inspired by the role nor did the role tap into her strengths and passion.  The new role she desired was a major change in career track, going from technology into community impact work.  She approached me about where to start and if it was even possible.  My mentoring and advising included strategically identifying the key stakeholders (with my organizational awareness) for network conversations.  Once she talked to the head of the organization and a couple more senior stakeholders, I helped with writing her business case proposal and interview process to obtain a stretch assignment.  Then it was time to convince the current manager to do the stretch role and I guided her to prepare for the conversation leveraging the talent development themes in play at that time.  After 3 months the current manager wanted to revoke the support for the stretch role.   So, I helped A convince stakeholders to get the stretch role converted to a full-time role and secure it.  This involved preparing and presenting the value she added to the organization, key accomplishments, and the roadmap of what she would achieve in the coming year.  The foundation hired A in about 6 weeks’ timeframe into full time role.  A got 3 promotions since this move, got international working experience, changed organizations 2 times, and is thriving.  I helped A to play to her strengths, how to navigate the organization, confident communication and influencing skills.

Confidence issues: Person E was not able to bring his best self and full potential to work because of feeling inadequate, and insecure or second-guessing himself all the time.  E assumed that his team did not respect him.  This impacted E’s leadership and management abilities.  E had almost two decades of career success by this time.  I partnered with E to work through understanding and articulating value E brings to table, being self-ware of strengths and opportunities.  We worked on the root causes for feeling insecure and realized that those were a product of previous job experiences.  I helped E to invite people into conversations instead of calling them out.  E started to feel more confident leading and managing the team, focusing on their development.  It took a few months, but this resulted in E leading from within, authentically, and creating a high-performing team.