Pinpointing transformative stages in your career can give you a fresh perspective in assessing your future
When I was asked to write about a transformative time in my career, my initial reaction was, how on earth would I narrow it down to just one?
The first transformative incident of my career was when I was 16 and had an argument with my mother, who came home from work to find I’d done nothing all day while I was on school holiday. Next day, I went out and got a job (in the Civil Service) and told her that I was leaving school.
Another moment came many years, several jobs and two children later and will probably give away my age because it involves blatant sex discrimination of a kind that has been against the law for many decades. I was working as a technical administrator on a major engineering project when my manager decided it was time to promote me. His manager was horrified and explained that he could not allow this as I would have to travel and that I might miss the last train home and he would not be able to sleep nights for worrying about me!
The outcome of this was that I applied for the next internal vacancy, became company training officer, and moved through the largely administrative task of maximising training grants, into training forklift truck drivers and teaching power press operators why they shouldn’t short-circuit the safety devices. From this I moved to management training. It was pretty transformative in its own right as the training manager got us to video ourselves, watch and reflect in a group (which is common enough now but was ground-breaking then).
By doing this, I transformed into someone who helps other people to develop themselves, realising that my previous varied experiences in different jobs and organisations had all provided valuable insight into the circumstances of those I was training.
The next major transformation came when I was introduced to transactional analysis (TA). On this occasion, I shifted in personal as well as professional terms.
I became so intrigued by the potency of an approach that only took 10 minutes of the coffee break to explain, but which could help someone understand issues that had troubled them for years, that I became internationally qualified as a TA trainer and supervisor. I did this with a focus on developmental rather than therapeutic application of TA; spent time as president of both the European and international TA associations; travelled the world learning and teaching TA; and founded an Institute of Developmental TA.
Becoming a transactional analyst meant that I became far more effective at helping others to develop themselves. Becoming a TA trainer and supervisor meant that I also became someone who helps other professionals who help others to develop themselves. Rather like multi-level marketing, it meant my sphere of influence got much wider – so my need to become aware of, and filter out the potential impact of my own issues, became paramount.
Part way through my TA training, I also made the shift into freelance working. This seemed like a major transformation at the time although as I look back, I realise that it was not that surprising. Previous employers would say that I was pretty hard to manage and behaved like a freelance anyway.
I also became a licensed NLP trainer. This added considerably to my competence at enabling others to change themselves. NLP combined with TA makes an extremely potent combination. However, the transformational impact of learning NLP was more personal – I cured myself of my fear of spiders.
I am currently transforming again. There is a TA theory that says we re-work our identity over a three-year period within every 19 years, although some of us re-work it back each time to what it was before. I’m approaching the end of one of those periods and have been replacing direct professional activities with indirect ones such as writing. Having been working full-time for over 45 years (apart from a few weeks to give birth), it’s been fascinating to discover how easily I can shift into a sort of ‘earth-mother’ mode and leave the emails for another day.
Julie Hay is the President of the European Mentoring & Coaching Council