All good things do not have to come to an end, but when they do, you should be prepared.
In part one of the Yes, You Need a Career Coach series, Marsha Haygood, Women of Power career coach and founder of StepWise Associates LLC, shared why every professional woman should invest in a career coach, the best career advice for black women, and the steps to finding one no matter where you are in your career. In part two, we covered how women can best manage their relationship with a coach. In the third part of the series, Haygood told women to ask for what you want. For the fourth part we shared how to yield the best return on investing in yourself. Now that you have that information, here are some ways that you can gracefully move forward with your coach for the final part of the series.
Exit Coaching
Coach-to-client relationships can take place over the course of years, or they can be seasonal, depending where you are professionally.
No matter how long the tenure of the relationship is, when you decided to do exit coaching, you want to make sure that you have all the tools you need to thrive in your career after making the important investment.
“By the time women realize they no longer [need] a coach, they should have formed enough authentic relationships that they can tap into resources as they need them,” says Haygood.
Career coaches aren’t inexpensive. Therefore, it is critical to make the most of your time and build an authentic relationship with them so that they feel compelled to help you when they are on your payroll and when they no longer are.
“I have clients who don’t hire me as a coach long-term but sometimes they just want to call me to check in…so we’ll have a check-in session. And, that’s based on the relationship. I’m someone who contacts people just to see how they’re doing,” says Haygood.
Strive for success
If you ask Haygood what she wants for women once they’ve been coached, she will tell you, “I want all my sisters to be like me!” While coaching is solely about the woman who is being coached, it is an added bonus when your coach is invested in seeing you win.
And in order to win, “You have to develop strategy. So I help my client’s strategy around whatever goals they’re trying to obtain. I talk about being intentional and how to happen to life instead of it happening to you,” says Haygood. “I want my clients to be as happy and successful as I’ve been.”
Throughout the course of coaching, professionals like Haygood help women to bring out their best selves. And, sometimes that is all women need to excel.
Good coaches not only will help you unlock your full potential, but they will help you identify others who can help you build when they are no longer working with you. “I’m helping people identify people that they already know that might be helpful to them. That happens a lot. I’ve heard many of my clients say that I’ve helped them to identify their sponsor or I’ve helped them build a better relationship with their mentor and it’s because they’re being strategic,” says Haygood.
Finish stronger than how you started
Haygood encourages women to revisit the initial goals they set out to accomplish as they conclude their time with a coach. That will help them to measure how far they have come and be intentional about where they want to be personally and professionally. So, in the words of Haygood, remember to set your goals and D.A.R.E.: Dream, Act, Review, and Excel.
As you seek to develop professionally and explore investing in a career coach, here are some additional tips and words of wisdom from Haygood:
- “If you’re too busy being busy, you haven’t let yourself open to something new.”
- “You have to get out there.”
- “Go to organizations and functions without your girlfriend. Go by yourself; someone is going to talk to you or go start a conversation with them.”
- “Let people know you’re alive, interested, and interesting.”
If you want more career development advice from Marsha Haygood, join us next week at the Women of Power Summit where she will be hosting a coaching workshop.