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Exploring career mentoring and coaching
Exploring career mentoring and coaching

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2 Planning my next move

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Figure 2 What next?

Now that you know what you want to do next, for example, find a mentor or coach or become a mentor or coach, you can start to set some goals that will help you to get there.

If you’ve decided that none of this is for you at this point, focus on developing your self-awareness as that will form a strong basis for any personal development you might undertake in the future.

Try to make the goals you come up with SMART:

S = Specific

M = Measurable

A = Agreed

R = Realistic

T = Time bound

In your Toolkit [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] , you’ll see a Goal Setting tool, which takes you through the SMART process and helps you to write down and plan your goals.

Here is one way of breaking down each goal. In Activity 2, you can come back and fill in the last three boxes (outcome, evaluation, next step) after you have completed your planned actions.

Scenario A
GoalTo find a mentor to help me progress at work

Current status:

  • a.Experience
  • b.Knowledge
  • c.Skills
  • a.I haven’t had a mentor before
  • b.I don’t know if my workplace offers any relevant schemes
  • c.I have started to develop my self-awareness but need more practice
Development/training/knowledge needed to reach my goalUnderstand the options that are open to me either at work or outside my organisation
Action plan

Research the options – internal and external:

  • Internal e.g. talk to staff with HR responsibilities – if nothing internal, what can they recommend?
  • External – investigate mentoring programmes offered by my professional body or association, or look online
OutcomeI found out that my employer does offer an in-house scheme so I put my name down and now have a mentor
EvaluationThe relationship is developing well and I have a clearer sense of how I might progress
Next stepTo put into practice some of the suggestions made by my mentor, by the end of the year
Scenario B
GoalTo train as an internal coach for my organisation

Current status:

  • a.Experience
  • b.Knowledge
  • c.Skills
  • a.I haven’t had coaching training but do informally support various colleagues
  • b.I don’t know if my workplace offers any training opportunities
  • c.I have the relevant skills and an interest in helping others find their potential
Development/training/knowledge needed to reach my goalI need to undertake some relevant training to consolidate my skills and build my confidence and credibility
Action plan

Explore coaching training options – internal and external:

Internal – talk to HR staff to see if they offer anything for internal coaches

External – look online

OutcomeMy employer does not offer training for internal coaches, but may consider funding my training externally – I am currently in discussion with my line manager and HR about possible options
EvaluationI am close to signing up for a course that will meet my needs, so I feel satisfied that I am on track
Next stepComplete the course and take on my first internal client by October next year

Activity 2 Achieving my goals

Timing: Allow about 30 minutes

Now it’s your turn! Use the template below to set your goals and work through your next steps. If your workplace has a template that is used to support performance review processes etc., use that if you prefer. You could also use the Goal Setting Tool in your Toolkit to make sure your goals are SMART.

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Goal
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Current status:

a) Experience

b) Knowledge

c) Skills

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Development/training/knowledge needed to reach my goal
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Action plan
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Outcome
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Evaluation
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Next step
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If you have identified more than one goal, prioritise your action plans. Are they sequential or can you do them all at once? Make sure you don’t take on too much alongside your day job – if you don’t achieve all your goals this can be a negative experience.

You should now have a set of SMART goals, and an action plan for achieving them.

In the next section, you’ll look at some of the useful resources available to help you in your next steps.