Since the pandemic, changing jobs, even changing lives, creating a business, have become more and more frequent reasons for people who want me to accompany them. Sign of the times, I found several surveys on the subject including Economy and Society which reveals that “87% of French people could be encouraged to change jobs”. I have therefore adapted my support program for career development to these new objectives by drawing inspiration from the best innovation practices, which I share in my book “Savoir-Innover” and of which I give you some keys in this post .

1. Clarify professional and personal goals

In innovation as in coaching, the first step is to clarify the problem and define the objectives. What is the nature of the change? obligation to change profession because the employer pushes it or wish for a better life? a better pro-personal balance? Among 39-45 year old, it is quite often also for better pay. Dream of freedom through entrepreneurship and creating your start-up? These different objectives are now all complemented by a search for meaning.

We will therefore deal in parallel with the question of meaning and emotions, drawing on the emotional memory to find forgotten successes as many tracks often buried deep.

2. Release your flow and deep preferences

The second step is therefore to identify avenues for change. In addition to various creative solicitation methods, I use a preference-based career guidance tool, the Strong.

Rather than confining ourselves to a skills assessment, which will lead back to what we have learned to do, I prefer this assessment of preferences. It will make it possible to give examples of professions that people, with the same preferences, have been exercising with satisfaction for at least 5 years. It will also give indications on the fields of exercise of these professions, which is often more important than the profession itself, and than the technical skills that can be developed by training.

3. Deciding “without throwing the baby out with the bathwater”

Once these different paths have been determined, you have to choose. It is a question of studying “the pros and cons”, what will be gained and what will inevitably be lost at the same time, what is feasible, the consequences on personal life, the family.

The most difficult is when it comes to leaving the comfort of the wage labor to create a business. It is then a question of clearly distinguishing the dream and the entrepreneurial reality, often idealized, from the ability to manage risk without putting your whole family in danger.

Each case is unique, however at this stage the soft skills of perseverance and patient and meticulous construction are mandatory.

4. Create the Law of Attraction for Implementation

The uncertainty of the world, and the questions of people who are evolving their careers, increase the need for meaning. This vision of new life and meaning found in the first step will carry throughout the implementation period. Whether it’s a new salaried job by taking a step aside, changing jobs in the company, or changing company, or even by creating a start-up, the coachee will find from the coach the support and the energy to concretize his change of job and make it a step of accomplishment.