Supercharge Your Career:
How we help our clients to achieve their professional goals
As the UK and other countries start lifting the restrictions that were introduced to deal with the Covid pandemic now is a good time for people to take stock of their career. Many are already doing so. The main questions they are asking are: Am I happy with the job I am doing? Is it what I want to do? Am I satisfied with the financial and emotional rewards it gives me? Will I be happy doing it in the future? Would I be happier pursuing a different career path?
Oxana Bristowe's career coaching services can help you answer such questions and help you fulfill your potential. No two clients needs are identical so the coaching is delivered on a bespoke basis in accordance with a client's specific needs. I provide the coaching with my colleague Alexandra Kirienko. We provide it online but for clients who prefer face-to-face sessions we are happy to provide it in person where this is feasible.
Alexandra and I are based in London. We are multilingual - I speak English, Russian and Ukrainian and Alexandra speaks English, Russian, German, French and Chinese. This has enabled us to develop an international client base: we have clients in the UK, France, Belgium, Sweden, Ukraine, Russia, China, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Mongolia.
For us coaching is not a just a job but a passion. We have worked with over 100 clients and have a 100% success rate. You can read recommendations and client reviews on our LinkedIn profiles.
Clients
The focus of our coaching services is on meeting our clients' needs. This means that we make every effort to make sure that the coaching we provide is relevant to the stage in their career a client has reached, the challenges the stage presents and the likely challenges they will face in the foreseeable future. This approach ensures that our clients get the results they are looking for from coaching.
The groups we help and the main challenges they face are:
Young Professionals - graduates, postgraduates, 1st or 2nd job career stage (age group early to late 20s). Main challenges: finding a first job, choosing the right career path, improving job-search skills, developing networking skills
Mid-career Professionals - functional specialists who have 10-15 years professional experience in one or several companies (age group early to late 30s). Main challenges: career development, personal and professional growth, relationship with bosses, decisions about promotion within current company or seeking new opportunities, personal branding, taking on leadership responsibilities, job-search skills; networking
Senior Managers - functional or corporate leaders with 20+ years of experience (age group early 40s to early 50s). Main challenges - career development, personal branding, developing, articulating and communicating personal purpose, options for new challenges that broaden experience and skills, networking, re-positioning profile, job-search skills; networking
Career Transition - moving from full time corporate career to a portfolio career (age group mid 50s+). Main challenges - getting clarity on what areas to focus on, shifting from executive to advisor/non-executive director mind-set, developing and communicating personal branding, networking, strategies for landing paid and pro bono opportunities.
Challenges
To give you a better feel for the wide range of challenges we have helped our clients overcome, the following list sets out some of the things people have told us in their own words about the challenges they have faced in their careers:
I feel stuck
I feel that my career has no focus
I feel that I am capable of achieving a lot and want to know the best way to get there
I want to be better at communicating my value to my employer
I want to feel excited, satisfied and full of energy in my job
The frustration with my career appearing to stall makes me feel dissatisfied
I am frustrated that I do not have excess to decision-making people
I am transitioning from a full-time high pressure corporate executive role to a portfolio career and would like some help on how to re-position/re-brand myself
I have been on a sidetrack for too long and want to take control of my career and life
I cannot stand the lack of progress I am making at work and feel that if this situation continues the future will be even more difficult
I want to have clarity on the steps I need to take to obtain a high reward leadership role as soon as possible
I want to explore my career options as I do not like where I am and where my career is heading
This list of challenges is by no means exhaustive, but those that I have listed are widely encountered. Most of us - Alexandra and myself included - have encountered at least some of them during our career journey. Our personal experiences in overcoming challenges give an added edge to our coaching techniques.
Outcomes sought by our clients
The outcomes people seek from coaching are varied. The following list sets out some of the things our clients have told us in their own words about the outcomes they are looking for:
Improve my executive presence/gravitas and enable me to clearly exhibit my leadership qualities
Diversify my professional activities – such as helping me find opportunities as an advisor or Board member outside my company
Help me set up a clear action plan to achieve my long term career goals
Consider options for my career I would not have considered before
Learn techniques/skills that will help me take control of my career development/progression now and in the future
Help me set new career gaols
Help me develop a focused and motivated transition plan
I want to develop the confidence to approach and communicate with senior business leaders
I want to improve my ability to influence senior business leaders to support my plans
Help me develop personal branding skills to help me “sell myself”
Develop networking skills, make myself visible and attractive
Learn skills to market myself
To become inspired by learning the professional techniques that other people have used to achieve career success
I want to be able to tell a story about myself and my career
Polish my professional image and presentation
I want to improve how I communicate with people and increase my success rate in interviews, networking, emailing, etc
I want to improve my application strategy and better present my strengths in job applications
I need help with managing my mental health during the job-search process
Encourage me
Help me improve my visibility and profile on LinkedIn and other social media platforms
We hope that these outcomes will resonate with you. They have certainly resonated with our own career experiences. In doing so, they have helped us to really understand our clients' needs and to deliver the outcomes they seek.
Our coaching services
We offer 3, 6 and 12 month long coaching packages. They are based on my extensive experience as a recruiter in the executive search sector in London, my Master's Degree in Business Administration, the training I undertook to become a certified life coach, and my broad interest in subjects relating to human success and happiness. Some of our coaching techniques are ones we have used successfully in our own personal development.
Before coaching begins, we make every effort to help our clients deal with various emotional and behavioural issues they may experience during the coaching process. This enables us to establish a personal bond with our clients.
For all age groups, we offer support with our New Job Superstar coaching programme. It's designed to assist clients make the most impact and achieve rapid success when taking on a new role with an existing employer or a new employer. Our research has shown that taking on such a role is one of the challenging stages for people. Indeed, 50% of senior appointments fail. This often causes much distress for a new appointee and can be very costly for an employer.
All our programmes are based on our 3C philosophy in achieving career success - Clarity, Confidence and Communication.
Clarity: What you want to achieve and what specifically you offer. This entails understanding your goals and what the destination is that you want to reach. It also entails understanding yourself: e.g. what you like and dislike, what you are good at or want to be good at.
Confidence: Self-belief, self-worth, self-image, self-trust. If you want to achieve better results than those you are currently experiencing, you will need confidence to stand out and take actions necessary to get you where you want to be. If you lack confidence you will find it difficult to convince others to believe in you.
Communication: Once you know what you want, have strong self-belief and confidence in your abilities, the next step is to create a clear strategy that will enable you to communicate effectively with other people in order to achieve your goals. It entails deciding which people you need to communicate with to achieve your goals and how to improve your connections with them. These people are your strategic connections. Having an effective CV, and having strong profile in social media - including LinkedIn, play an important part in enhancing your presence.
What our clients have said about our coaching services
Feedback from our clients helps us to refine our methodologies so that our coaching services stay relevant, impactful and transformational. It also gives Alexandra and myself much joy and happiness to know that we are helping people transform their careers and live a happier and more successful life.
Here are some of the comments we have received from our clients on how investing in our coaching services has helped them achieve the results they were looking for. The extracts are from our feedback forms.
Example 1:
What were the key benefits? Please specify at least 3
Gave me a better understating of what a career is - that it is not linear
Stopped feeling like a failure in comparison to my father
That if you go looking for success it will come to you
How important networking is
To believe in myself and that I should be bold
Consequently what practical changes have you implemented? Please specify at least 3
Been considerably bolder!
Networking in a far more extensive and organized way
Looking to push my career in different ways
Have a clear goal in what I want to achieve in the next year and the next 30 years
What is your number one take away?
I now have a goal and I know how to achieve it
Example 2:
What were the key benefits? Please specify at least 3
The first one was to put my career transition in perspective i.e. I gradually stopped viewing it as a self-imposed assignment on which I had to deliver (with all that this entails in terms of sacrifice, lack of focus on personal satisfaction and long-term sustainability of the results), and saw it more as one aspect of giving myself new spaces, options and permissions in my life.
The second was that it helped me to live through 2020 with a great deal more serenity than I would have otherwise been able to feel; the paradox is that just as I felt ready to get out into a wider world of opportunities and seek out a new path for myself, the entire world shut down with Covid-19; and even more paradoxical (for me) is that I saw this as an opportunity for me to take the time to build other aspects of my life: a new home, commitment to friendships and causes I value, changing family relationships…
The third benefit is a long-term one. A year later, all of those thoughts, feelings and processes are still developing for me; this was no short-term glow of comfort, it was the beginning of a real transformation. I feel that I am embarking on new journeys and I am looking forward to whatever comes next. After 40 years of life characterized by fear (of not being enough, of not achieving) and escape choices (from situations I could no longer handle), confidence and optimism are valuable gifts.
What is your number one take away?
I’m going to be fine. Life is about much more than I previously let myself enjoy.
Example 3:
What were the key benefits? Please specify at least 3
Reflecting on past roles and environment helped me realise that the role I have is not right for me
Exploring my core values and what is important to me
Being able to articulate what I am looking for in a potential new role
Consequently what practical changes have you implemented? Please specify at least 3
Accepted a new role with an organisation that will challenge me professionally as well as provide a culture that excites me
Reading material on corporate culture to understand better the role I can play in influencing this
Promoted the benefit of coaching to people in my network
What is your number one take away?
Don’t search for jobs, search within yourself
Going forward
I hope this information has given you a good understanding of our coaching services. Please visit us on our website www.oxanabristowe.com to find out more about our services.
If you think you might benefit from speaking to us, we offer a 30 min free-of-charge Career Review Strategy Session which you can book by emailing us with Request for CRESS call at contact@oxanabristowe.com.
We would be more than happy to work with you now or in the future.