Five Things in my Handbag

Did you realise that what’s in our handbag reflects what stage of career journey you are at? Have a look at our light-hearted article to see where you fit....

Geraldine Gallacher, Managing Director in  Executive Coaching Consultancy has coached thousands of women through the different stages of their career and she together with her colleagues  have developed a 5 stage model to explain the female career journey. Geraldine wondered whether you could tell what stage of career you are at judging by the contents of your handbag. She said: "It was interesting interviewing the various women at the different stages and it would appear we are more alike than different!" 

                                           Stage One - defined by Exploring

Water Bottle - Constantly sipping water is the key to staying awake in lectures and with plenty of places to refill your bottle around Campus it feels good to be environmentally friendly!
The Economist Magazine – Always carrying the latest issue in the hope I’ll read it and stay reasonably informed!
Benefit rose tint – For speedy transformation of lips and cheeks in case of unscheduled socialising.
Campaigns Leaflet – Impossible not to pick these up around Campus but I like know what’s going on and check out events when I have free time.
iPhone – Cannot leave the flat without portable connection to social media!

Stage Two - defined by Building & Accelerating

What's in my handbag?

My book - currently reading ‘Gone Girl Gone’ by Gillian Flynn. Although I am meant to be of the Kindle generation, I still prefer an old fashioned book!
My heels(!) - I wear flats for most of the day and whip out my heels for meetings (please don’t judge me)
Paw Paw - an Australian version of Elizabeth Arden’s 8 hour cream. I can’t live without it!
BlackBerry - I am on call 24/7 so it must stay with me at all times so that my clients can get hold of me.
Business cards - I go to lots of networking events so I have to make sure I never run out

Stage Three - defined by Focusing & Balancing

What's in my handbag?

BlackBerry - always contactable and the flashing red light never stops.
Nelson's Teething Granules - always keep spare packets in all my bags!
Estee Lauder Lip Gloss - I don't have time to apply lipstick in the mirror (nor do I want to) but lip gloss adds a little something for meetings and helps makes me look like I've made a slight effort - even though it was applied whilst running for the train most times!
Notebook - a record of my notes, meetings and to do list; a must have.
Tissues - again, another must have. Especially with a 2 year old who is always catching colds and giving them to mummy.

Stage Four - defined by Tuning

What's in my handbag?

iPad and iPhone - what did I do pre- Apple?
Pair of flats - at 5'1" I still need heels to boost my confidence when presenting to clients
Numerous A4 files - very much a digital immigrant rather than native and so still lug these around!
Purse bulging with receipts- constant reminder of the expenses I have yet to get around to claiming
Gym class timetable- always "intending" to go to the gym if I get an unexpected cancellation.

Stage Five - defined by Re-energising

What's in my handbag?

Daily activity schedule for The Second Half Centre
Makeup Case by Anya Hindmarch - Blush, lipstick, foundation, concealer, eyeliner
2 pairs of glasses - Both Reading and long distance
The Week magazine
Diary
Two phones - Blackberry and Mobile and a mini ipad

- See more at: http://www.maternity-coaching.co.uk//newsarticle.htm?articleId=75&sthash.OyLBICvF.mjjo#! 

Wheel of Life

The wheel of life is an exercise which helps you to see where you are in each area of your life. The Wheel of Life is powerful because it gives you a visual picture of the way your life is currently, compared with the way you'd ideally like it to be. Let's start it!!!!

 

1.     Make a wheel of life as you can see it in the picture or email me and I will send you one (lifedevelopment@yahoo.co.uk)

2.      Write your Priorities

3.      Next, taking the centre of the wheel as 0 and the outer edge as 10, rank your level of satisfaction (or frustration etc) with each area out of 10 by drawing a straight or curved line to create a new outer edge. 10: everything is really great, 0: I am unhappy in this area

4.      This is your wheel of life!!!! If you are happy with what you see don't go further but if you want to improve some of the priorities read the next steps.

5.       In a paper write the area to work on and describe of what “10” would look like. (How do you imagine “10”?). Come up with at least 5 descriptions.

6.      Select one of the descriptors as your first goal for this chosen area of your life. (From this point is good to use the GROW model which you can find here or you can do the next steps).

7.      What actions will you/ can you take?

8.      Now as you have explored this write down 3 actions you will take towards a “10”.

9.      Pick up one of the three that you can do in the next 24-48 hours.    

Keep going until you are satisfied with all your areas/priorities in your life. Good Luck!!!!

Using GROW model to achieve goal setting for work and personal life

The GROW model is an incredibly simple, yet incredibly effective model for achieving your goals in life and work. The good thing is that it can be used by anyone without special training. Below I will show how you can use it and hopefully it will be helpful to you as much is for me.

 

GROW is an acronym for:

• Goal

Goal is your aim

Where you want to be.  Use one goal at time and be as specific as possible. To help you may ask yourself the below questions:

What do you want?

How will you know when you achieve it?

When do you want to achieve it by?

 

• Reality

Exploring the present reality

Reality is there you are now regarding your goal. Where are you now in relation to your goal? How far along are you towards achieving it?

What have you done specifically so far to achieve your goal?

What challenges have you met and how you overcome them?

What strengths do you have which may help?

 

• Option

Stretching beyond what you have tried or thought about before

Here you need to think as many options as possible to achieve your goal. There may be a single option, or there may be multiple options from which to choose. At the beginning it may be difficult to think many options but writing down all your options/ideas even if you think they are stupid or crazy, eventually it will help you to think good options to help you towards achieving your goals.

Questions to help you:

What could you do?

What else?

• Will/ Way forward

Gaining commitment from you towards taking action

This is the final stage where you need to decide which option is the best to achieve your goal. Also, you need to think about the barriers what may stop you from doing it and what can you do about it.
Question to think about:

Which options would be fastest/best/preferred?

What might stop me?

When will I take action?

This is where the action begins!!!!

GROW model is a powerful tool and many life coaches use it to coach their clients. I have been using it personally a year now and I can tell it's an amazing tool.

Good Luck with your goals!!!