Is Your Career Path Clearly Marked?

It seems almost Dickensian now, says Jan Campbell Young, the very idea that someone might work in the same field, probably for the same employer, from the day their schooling ended until receipt at age 65 of the gold watch or chiming coach clock. But that’s how it stayed for most people until comparatively recent times. Career expectations today though are profoundly different.

Early education has expanded into lifelong learning; and we expect a working life to comprise not one, but a series of separate career experiences. So what would have certainly struck earlier generations as a depressing prospect of employment insecurity has evolved for today’s professionals into a workable, if volatile reality. It has also made the markers along a person’s career path matter more. For although in a few sectors, rigid work grades still serve as the corridors to career progress, for most of us the increasing complexity and ever-faster rate of change out there is giving the individual much more say.

That’s why qualification and serious accreditation are now so important. Alan Rogers – who himself led serial careers in newspaper journalism and radio and TV programme planning before taking on the running of Management Futures – notes: ‘Five, six years ago only a trickle of clients would use the word “accreditation”. Now it’s a flood. It’s a corporate assumption, routinely featuring even in tendering advertisements. It matters all right’.

For if employers are to understand the shape of a person’s career experience, development and direction, whether for promotion or a new appointment, they are going to need some step-by-step career markers along the way – markers whose integrity they can trust. Which in turn explains why people’s portfolios and CVs increasingly include clear proofs of each progression with certificates or evidence of attendance in skills workshops, seminars and courses.

How important it is then, in a coaching industry where until recently just about any coach could set up in business unquestioned, that a high quality approval system should emerge and help impose order on the free-for-all (though not so ‘free’ for so many careers blighted by indifferent advice).

A healthier dynamic

So now an individual’s development can be driven by the addition of new skills and backed by trusted accreditation. Management Futures’ own diploma course is an evolving response to this need. We offer the Institute of Leadership & Management (ILM) coaching and mentoring qualifications for Level 5, probably the first SE England company to become an ILM accredited UK Centre; we subscribe too to the European Mentoring & Coaching Council (EMCC) which will soon carry its own ‘kitemark’-style validation – portable qualifications indeed.

Three years in, and our evolving diploma course has already served 100 professionals and is among the first to achieve a real balance between practical hands-on experience, training in technique and the essential theoretical framework. Of those attending our five-day Intensive Skills Coaching programme, 90% sign up for the full diploma programme. They come from all sectors and all career stages, reflecting the general pattern of consultancy work with individuals and organisations of our Management Futures team.

Local councils’ standards, for instance, are being dramatically professionalised. MF associate Hilary Briggs is working with Harrow Council on an in-house leadership programme for first line managers which is tailored to local government demands while meeting rigorous ILM Level-3 standards. Those who complete their modules within the 12–24 month timeframe gain a Certificate in Leadership.

Accreditation is important to in-house trainers too. The Royal Marines Commando Training Centre found civilian coaching skills helped train their trainers so well that their previous 50% recruit retention rate now meets target. Trainer colleagues from the Army, Navy and Air Force have taken notice and the MOD now awaits confirmation of ILM Level-4 coaching diploma accreditation. Senior MOD leaders have also seen the value of our coaching skills training and some may decide to go on to diploma stage. Trust the military to grasp the connection between achievement and recognition!

At senior management level ILM Level-5, candidates use leadership mentoring and executive coaching either for in-house leadership promotion or perhaps to move into consultancy. Coaching Futures diploma graduate Robert Hutchison is an example of how personal advancement can directly benefit an organisation. His role as Director of Organisational Development for Lifescan Scotland is a cross-cultural one: the US parent company’s style was ‘directive’ and the newly acquired Scottish company’s more ‘entrepreneurial’. He had some culture blending to achieve and saw coaching as ‘a powerful tool to add to my skills set’. Among the tools he gained were ‘listening, caring, playing to strengths, and courage’, all essential to his top level coaching assignment.

So, if your career target goes somewhat beyond a chiming coach clock, line up your next career path marker, starting now.

Mark this number

For practical guidance along your career path, for fuller information on the Diploma in Leadership Mentoring & Executive Coaching, or on our general support services for coaches, call 020 7242 4030.