Welcome to the latest edition of the Career Refresh Digest.
This week on LinkedIn I wrote about something I hear often: “I’d like some help with my career, but I can’t justify spending that on myself right now.” You can read it here.
This issue looks at how to ask your employer to fund coaching. It also shares my response to some recent research on what Gen Z value at work, in case you missed it.
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WORTH KNOWING
Asking your employer to fund your coaching
Many of my clients have their coaching funded by their employer, usually from a professional development budget. Yet when someone tells me cost is what’s holding them back, quite often they haven’t asked.
If you’re thinking about asking, a few things help:
Your career clarity is useful to your manager. Coaching helps you get clear on your strengths and what you need to do your best work. That can help shape the role you’re in, and lead to more productive performance conversations.
You don’t need to know whether you’ll stay. This is the part people tend to get stuck on. Some clients come out of the programme clearer about why their current role works for them and what would make it work better. Some reshape their role. Some decide to move on. Whichever it is, your employer benefits, either from someone more engaged or from room to bring in someone who’s a better fit.
Be specific about what’s involved. My programme is six online sessions, over 6-12 weeks, and includes two online profiles of your strengths and interests, with reports. A clear request is easier to approve than a general one.
Know that the content stays confidential. Your employer pays the invoice, but what we discuss in sessions stays between us.
Ask early. Approval can take a while.
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WORTH THINKING ABOUT
What Gen Z value at work, and what mid-career clients find
Last month, Suzy Welch shared research at the Forbes Future of Work Summit showing that only 2% of Gen Z have the values hiring managers look for most. Gen Z put wellbeing, voice and agency at the top. Hiring managers rate achievement, scope and workcentrism, the desire to work for its own sake, more highly.
When my mid-career clients identify their core personal values, health and wellbeing, work-life balance, relationships, authenticity and autonomy are common themes, much like Gen Z’s. Achievement and workcentrism rarely make their final list.
So I wonder whether the gap is as generational as it looks. Gen Z may simply be saying earlier what many people discover mid-career.
My LinkedIn carousel sets out the research and my response. You can read it here.
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WORTH CONSIDERING
Starting coaching this year
If you’d like to start coaching before the end of the year, or you’re planning to ask your employer to fund it, book a free 15-minute call to talk through where you’re at and whether coaching would help.
Starting before Christmas works well, even if you only fit in one or two sessions. Time away from your usual routine is good thinking time, and some of my clients’ best insights have come over the break. We then pick up again in the new year.
After the call, I’ll send you information you can forward to your manager if needed.
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That's it from me for this fortnight. Have a good week.
– Lucy
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ABOUT THE CAREER REFRESH DIGEST
The Career Refresh Digest is a fortnightly newsletter for mid-career professionals who feel stuck or out of step with their work. Each issue shares practical insights and tools to help you reset direction, make clearer decisions, and reshape your work to better fit your life – drawing on recommendations, research, and insights from client work.