Episode 45 Why now is the right time to take a leap in your leadership career

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Welcome to Unstuck and Unstoppable,

the podcast for ambitious female

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leaders who want to create more impact,

income, and influence in their careers.

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feel connected to their passion

and purpose, but without

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selling out or burning out.

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I'm Sarah Archer, a leadership coach

and career strategist, helping women

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like you thrive in leadership roles

while staying true to your values.

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I'm the founder of CareerTree

Coaching and have over 15 years of

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coaching experience and significant HR

leadership experience to share with you.

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I know as a female leader it can

be hard to find time to focus

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on your career aspirations.

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The day job can be all consuming.

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Plus, no matter how senior you are,

there are always going to be times

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when you feel stuck, when you have

self doubt, or feel like an imposter.

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And that's where unstuck

and unstoppable comes in.

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Each week I'll be sharing practical

strategies, insightful interviews and

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inspiring stories to help you boost

your confidence, lead with purpose

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and achieve sustainable success.

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If you're ready to stop playing

small and unlock the incredible

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potential you have within you and feel

unstoppable, you're in the right place.

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Let's get started.

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Welcome to episode 45.

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I'm really pleased you're

here with me today.

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Now, if you're a regular listener to

Unstuck and Unstoppable, you probably

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will have noticed that occasionally

my dog, Phoebe, is barking in the

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background, and no matter what I do, I

can't seem to edit it out well in this

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episode, you'll definitely hear Phoebe

barking too, so apologies in advance.

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It just shows how live

it is when I'm recording.

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Now, today we're talking about why

now is the right time for you to take

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a leap in your leadership career.

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There is still a significant amount of

time left in: 2025

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year that you either start the process of

making a move or you actually make a move.

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. I wanted to talk about this because

it often comes up with clients that

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I'm working with about when is the

right time to make that next move.

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When we're contemplating a change of

some sort or a move in our careers,

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we can invent lots of reasons why

it's not the right time to act now.

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But we know deep down in reality, there is

no perfect time to take these decisions.

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And what we're doing is putting

off that decision to go.

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But what we know is that.

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It can take around six months to

find your next leadership role.

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So taking charge of your career now,

making some decisions about what

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you want, doing that foundational

work will mean that you'll be well

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positioned for when the right role.

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Appears or you find the right thing

that you want to move to because

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it's not about making any move.

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It's about making the right move for you.

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And having that agency by knowing 2025 is

the year I'm going to make that change.

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It's going to set you up for being

more successful in achieving.

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But I know there are some legitimate

things that hold us back from

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making those moves from the

clients that I've worked with.

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I see this all the time, and those

things can be mindset, confidence issues.

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They can also be practical things around.

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The job search piece.

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Sometimes it can be around confidence.

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If that next role is going to mean maybe

doing more strategy, that can make you

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feel, gosh, am I that visionary person?

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Can I do that strategic piece?

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If it's about having more influence

impact, it could be worried about, oh

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gosh, I'm gonna have to start again

and build those relationships that

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enable me to have that influence.

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I know I can do it in my

current role, but can I do it?

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In a different setting.

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Those kind of confidence

bubbles can kick in.

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Sometimes it can be fear of starting

a new role and having to establish

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yourself, maybe feeling like you might

have to prove yourself in some way.

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It can feel quite daunting.

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Sometimes you can be

worried about burnout.

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If I take on a bigger role,

am I gonna be able to cope,

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to navigate that successfully?

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Or it could be around, that

not being completely clear

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about what it is you want.

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And I see that a lot with clients, what is

the right thing for me next in my career?

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And that can sometimes feel paralyzing

because maybe there's too much

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choice or you just really don't

know what is going to excite you.

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Then the practical things around.

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Time for job search.

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We know job searching can sometimes

feel like a full-time job in itself.

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So you might be feeling, how am I gonna

fit job searching into my life right now?

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And then , some of the things within

job search, so writing cv sorting

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out the LinkedIn profile, doing the

whole networking piece can feel quite

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daunting and quite blocking as well.

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The number of people I've worked

with who the whole CV thing just

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feels like it's too much to try and.

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Get all of my experience crafted

into a CV that sells me and creates

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impact in terms of my applications.

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All of those things

legitimately can hold you back.

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Plus you might feel loyalty to your

organization, to your team, to your boss.

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I can't leave them right now.

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There's too much going on.

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But ultimately it is about doing the

right thing for you in your career.

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, It's worth acknowledging that these

feelings are really valid, that they're

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really common, and that actually having

them means that you can understand some of

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the challenges for yourself and put things

in place to navigate those challenges

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rather than letting them paralyze you.

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Why now?

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Why am I saying now is a good time?

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As I said earlier, there is no right time.

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You've got to decide at some point I'm

gonna make this move, so why not now?

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But the caveat to that is you

need to do the scanning for your

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industry, for your market to really

understand what is going on there.

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Is it buoyant?

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Is it contracting?

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Are there redundancies

throughout the industry?

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Understanding is it going

to be the right time for me?

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It doesn't mean if you feel that

the industry isn't great at the

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moment, it doesn't mean you can't

do this preparatory work for when

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it is going to be the right time.

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It's also, being realistic about

what's possible in the industry.

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But what I would say to you is that.

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You don't want to have regrets.

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You don't want to be sitting in the

same position in a year, 18 months,

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two years, five years thinking, gosh,

I wish: 2025

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You just don't want those regrets.

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And also I would say is that the

world needs authentic leadership

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and if you are an intentional,

compassionate, collaborative leader,

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then you know that is needed.

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There is demand for that

because it delivers hyper.

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Performance, it delivers results.

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And if you are in a job now where

maybe you're a bit bored or you're

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not stretched, or you're not

enjoying it, then you're not gonna

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be expressing that leadership style

and you're going to be depriving the

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world of your kind of leadership.

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Having confidence that your leadership

style is in demand and that you can

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make a difference in that next role.

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And have more impact and more influence.

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The job market typically tends to

be more buoyant in those months,

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and we can harness that energy

to put into our job search.

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Plus why now you might

recognize that you have a cycle.

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There's a pattern to your jobs.

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Mine was, I, tend to move every

five to seven years in jobs.

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Yours might be less than that might be two

to three years, but you might recognize

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that you're coming to the end of your

cycle with your current organization.

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And if that's the case, then now

is a good time to be thinking about

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getting ready to make that move.

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What I'm gonna talk you through now

are six steps to help you do that

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preparatory work to get ready to move.

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, I've been a coach now.

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I was counting up, I've been a coach

for over 20 years now, which is crazy.

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And before that, I had 12 years.

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In senior leadership roles.

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So these steps are based on my experiences

as a leader myself, but also working

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with my clients in terms of what you

need to be thinking about to make a

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good move, the one that's right for you.

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The first step is to press pause

and not take any action apart

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from to do some reflection.

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Because the clarity piece

is really important.

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And so to reflect on what it is you really

want for that next role, what are the

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elements of that next role that you want?

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And are you aligning your why?

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So why you do what you do

and your values to that role.

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Is there something missing

in your current role that you

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want to have in the next role?

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So really understanding what you want.

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Doing that inner work about, what is

right for you, what are the elements

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that stretch you, excites you, et

cetera, and thinking about aligning

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it with your why and your values.

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Step two is thinking about

what kind of leap excites you?

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Because we want to feel

excited by what we do.

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We want to feel excited by our job.

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And so thinking about is

it something different?

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Actually, am I really talking about.

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Making a change in my career, some

kind of career change because I'm

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ready to do something different.

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I've done everything I want to in

my current career, and I certainly

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felt like that with my HR career.

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I've done everything I wanted

to do and I knew that I wanted

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to do something different.

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So that could be one option

if your leap it could be about

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doing something more senior.

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Are you ready for that head of

role director, role C-suite role

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leading an organization role?

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Is it about stepping up into that

next level role or is it about the

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same, but having more challenge

or a different kind of challenge?

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Maybe you don't want to move up

maybe you're happy at the level

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that you are, but you want to

do something more within that.

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And that could be around

change of organization.

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It could be about staying in your

current organization, but having more

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challenge, more opportunity particularly

if you are in the C-Suite role.

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It might not be around moving up.

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It might be around change of dynamic in

the organization or type of organization.

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So that's step two.

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Step three is thinking about what have

you learned about yourself from your

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previous job searching experiences

or when you've changed roles before.

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What have you learned?

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So again, doing a reflective piece.

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Because understanding what works

best for you will help you decide

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where to focus your energy.

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If you know you've typically found

your jobs through your network.

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Or typically from working with a

recruiter that you've had a really

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good relationship with, then that

will give you information about where

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you want to channel your energy.

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'cause remember we said job searching

can feel quite a big commitment

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in terms of time and head space.

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It doesn't mean that you should

only put your eggs in one basket.

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You do still want to be looking at the

other five elements of job searching,

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but it's about where you want to put

your energy to generate most success.

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And what you can start doing now

to lay foundations around that.

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The other part of that understanding

what you've learned about

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yourself with job searching is

to think about what do you dread?

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What are the parts of job searching

that you really don't like?

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Please don't say all of it.

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There are gonna be elements

that , you find more difficult, and

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I have worked with clients who have

found the whole interview part of

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job searching really challenging.

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And even though they're very confident in

their roles, they're used to delivering

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presentations, you're talking about

themselves and what they do, they find

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the whole interview setting not a setting

that they feel they can perform in.

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So it's understanding.

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What are the areas that are your

weakness that you can then put things

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in place to manage more successfully?

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Step four is then thinking

about what makes you stand out.

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What is your personal leadership brand?

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How can you use your emotional

intelligence, your cultural

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intelligence to help you stand out

so that you have a very coherent.

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brand message that you're communicating

through all aspects of your job search

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and your visibility that will help

position you for that next role.

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Part of that is also thinking about

where you are on the leadership journey.

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So are you still very much

operational deliverer where you

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are really great at delivering high

performance and excellent results?

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You want to move into that more

influential role where you are influencing

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others to deliver that high performance

and those results, because that's

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gonna be an identity shift for you.

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And you're gonna have to think

about that in your job search.

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Or if you are already in that

, influencing role that is it gonna

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be about different stakeholders.

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Bigger teams that you're gonna have

to influence and motivate and thinking

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about how you're gonna communicate

that as part of your personal branding.

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Step five then is thinking

about type of organization.

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That can be quite granular in terms

of, what organizations or industries

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excite you, who's on your top five

list of employers to work for.

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But it's also thinking about

organizational, maturity as well,

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because different leadership styles,

different leadership types are needed for

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different challenges in the organization.

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You've got startup scale up mature

turnaround growth, so thinking about

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what you most enjoy as a leader

will also help you think about the

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type of leadership challenge that's

going to be a good match for you.

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If you know you're somebody who likes

to come in and turn around failing

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teams, failing departments, failing

organizations, and get them high

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performing, then if you are applying

for a job that's in a very mature,

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stable organization that doesn't

require any kind of turnaround, it

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might not be a great fit for you.

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It is definitely thinking about what

your style is and also what kind of

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organizational challenge or maturity

is going to work best for you.

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And then our final step, step six,

is thinking about what do you need?

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What do you need to be at your

best during the job search phase.

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And that might be around

specific help around the

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practical parts of job searching.

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It might be practical help at home

to give you space to think about.

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And do the job search piece.

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It could be around exposure, experience,

or knowledge you want to get more

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of in your current role to help

position you for those other roles.

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But it's also, thinking about.

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What do I need?

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Because you don't have to go.

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It's the loan.

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There's lots of great resources

out there that could support you.

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As a coach, I work with lots of people

around the whole career advancement piece.

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So there's lots of support

you can get from professional.

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Mentors, coaches, et

cetera to help you on this.

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So don't feel like

you've gotta do it alone.

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Make it easy.

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Delegate where you can, and

put into place things that are

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gonna support you to do it well.

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To recap on the six steps.

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So step one is press, pause and

reflect about what you really want and

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connect with your why and your values.

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Step two is think about what

kind of leap excites you.

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Step three is think about what

you've learned about the job

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search process previously.

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And how you can use that to

focus your time and energy.

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Step four is thinking about

what makes you stand out.

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Step five is what type of organization

is going to be right for you?

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What type of leadership is

going to be right for you?

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And step six is thinking

about what do you need?

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I hope you feel inspired to think

: 2025

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I am gonna make that leap, that

change, that move this year.

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And get the leadership role that you

really want that's going to excite you and

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stretch you, challenge you, motivate you.

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And of course, if you want any

help at all on this journey,

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then please do get in touch.

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We can have an initial discussion just

to talk about what you need and how

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coaching can give you that support

to fast track your leadership, job,

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search, and get the right role for you.

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Thank you so much for listening

to this episode of the Unstuck

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and Unstoppable podcast.

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I have lots of free resources you

can access on my website, ww.career

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tree coaching.co

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uk, and I'll also put

links in the show notes.

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If you found this episode

helpful, then please subscribe

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so you don't miss the next one.

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And please do share it with a

friend and leave me a review

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and I will personally thank you.

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Remember, you're capable of more

than you know, shine brightly.

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Lead boldly and unlock the

extraordinary potential within you.

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Be unstoppable.