Competences required from a Career Coach

In a fast changing  professional world, career coaching remains about helping  individuals identify what they want and need from their career, then make decisions and take the needed actions to accomplish their career objectives in balance with the other parts of their lives.

Future trends we see impacting Career Coaching

• Organizations are less and less capable to provide meaning to individuals.
• Professional technical requirements change fast.
• Concentration of workload on a smaller amount of highly skilled individuals.
• Traditional employment replaced by different forms of work (outsourced consultants, temporary work, contract, freelance, etc)

The trends impact individuals in their professional sphere and beyond

• Individuals need to reinvent themselves professionally more often.
• Individuals need to build comprehensive further education strategy which, at least a part, will need to be self-financed.
• Increase of workplace malaise and severe distress at work.
• Individuals will need to sell their services to “employers/clients” on a more or less constant pace.
• Individuals will need to find alternative sources of sense making than work.

Competencies expected from a Career Coach are evolving and now require

• In-depth knowledge of relevant coaching tools and models used in coaching.
• Strong business acumen and up to date with economical/society changes impacting the working place.
• Knowledge about the professional requirements related to many roles and industries, paired with a good understanding of ways organizations function and their challenges.
• Awareness of education and training offers and trends.
• Mastering traditional and alternative approaches to job searching and recruiting.
• Mastering some approaches and methodology to support wellbeing and resilience at work.

Career coaching is a demanding form of coaching but the purpose it embraces, to participate in the generation of greater fulfilment in peoples’ professional life, is making coaches eager, motivated and passionate about it.