Photograph iStock
I love this Oscar Wilde quote, and find myself sharing it with more and more of the people I coach. Deep down, everyone is looking for authenticity. I first realised how important this topic is when coaching a lawyer – let’s call her Amanda. She came to me with a common issue – work-life balance. She was stressed from deadlines, and tricks that worked before – breaking tasks into chunks, better prioritising, more delegation – no longer cut the ice. She felt utterly demotivated. But why? After all, she was wealthy and well-regarded in her field.
As I often do when coaching people who are unhappy at work (almost 50 per cent of us, reveals research by the London School of Business and Finance), I asked what she’d wanted to do as a teenager. ‘Be a TV reporter, but my parents persuaded me to study law. They wanted the best for me.’ Then, she asked, ‘But who decides what is “best”?’ Who indeed? My mission was to help her unearth a career that would bring deep joy, not just a temporary buzz.