Who’s on Your Career Board? Build the Support System for Career Change

Hello and welcome to courage. Loading. I'm your host, Alicia Noble, leadership coach and career transition strategist. And I help women navigate the messy middle of career transitions because real change isn't just about what you do next, it's who you're becoming in the process, the identities you're shedding, the beliefs you rewriting, and the courage it takes to lead yourself through it all. I believe every story of change begins with a single moment of courage. And this is where I help you find yours. So let's dive in. There's a reason the most successful transitions I've seen were never solo journeys. Not because those women couldn't do it alone, but because they were wise enough not to. Whether you are looking to change careers, Finding yourself in the middle of a transition or simply wanting to reinvent how you show up, you might be thinking that you have to go at it alone, but a successful transition is not a solo sport. Yes, you have to do the internal work. You need the vision, the plan, the self-awareness to know who you are, who you want to become in the process and what you're moving towards. That is all yours to do, but asking others to help and support you? That is not a sign that you're not ready. It's a sign that you are serious. Support is a strategy, not a weakness. Every transition I've experienced or witnessed, either in my own life or in the lives of the women I work with, has been partly shaped by the people around them. Not in a. Someone handed me my career on a plate way, but in a. The right person asked the right question at exactly the right moment, and something shifted. So today we're going to explore who is in your corner. And do they know what you need from them. Think about how a business navigates significant strategic change. It doesn't rely on whoever happens to be around. It builds the room deliberately. People with the right experience, the right perspective, the right investment in where the organization is going. Yet most of us never applied the same intentionality to our own careers. We accumulate support systems rather than designing them. A career transition is one of the most significant strategic changes you will ever make, so it deserves the same deliberate action. I reflected on this when I came across a 2022 two systemic review published in Frontiers in Psychology, a team of researchers analysed eighty studies on social support and women's career transitions. And what they found validated exactly this idea. Four types of support show up consistently in successful transitions emotional appraisal, informational and instrumental. So I thought, what if I took these four types of support and overlaid them into specific roles of people we need during a transition? Think of them as the C-suite of your personal board. So who do you need on your board? I've put these into four key roles. These may differ depending on where you are in your transition. You may want to add more, but give each person a clear job spec, know what you need from them and how they will help you move forward. So here we go. First up we have the Chief Courage officer. This is your emotional support. This person gives you the space to feel the wobble without having to be fine. This is the person who holds the weight of the transition with you. Instead of rushing you to do things and to always be positive, you may ask them, I'm scared of being more visible in this next step. Can I just say it out loud with you and not have you trying to fix it yet? You know you need this person when you're doing all the right things on paper, but in private you panic and you just need somewhere safe where you can say what you feel out loud so that the silence stops feeling heavier than the transition itself. Because deep down, you know that you're capable of doing it. You just need that someone that will help you stretch safely and comfortably, one step at a time. Next up, we have the Chief truth officer. This is our appraisal support. This is the person who holds up the mirror. A clean mirror, not a cheerleader or a critic. Someone who reflects back to you, where you're playing small and where you genuinely ready for more. You may want to ask them, what do you see me wanting to do? But I keep talking myself out of it. You know you need this person when you keep talking yourself out of opportunities before you've even put your hand up. You see other people doing it and you're thinking, I know I can. I really want to, but then you back out at the last minute. This is the person that will help you see what you're hiding from. That will reflect back to you in an honest and constructive way. That helps to give you the momentum to move forward. Then we have our chief intelligence officer. This is our informational support. This person gives you an unfiltered inside view of the world where you want to move to. They may tell you how things work, what the unwritten rules are, what good looks like from the inside. You may want to ask them something like, If I'm serious about moving into the space, what do I need to do? What do I need to understand? How does it all work? You know, you need this person when you feel like you're hitting walls that you didn't see coming. When everything feels like a blocker and you know you're working hard, you think you're doing the right things, but they're just not quite getting you where you want to be. And then finally, we have our chief opportunity officer. This is our instrumental support. This person gives you practical movement. They make the introductions. The referrals. They make sure that your name is spoken in the rooms that you haven't made it into yet. You may ask them something like, based on what I'm looking for, who should I be talking to? Are you able to introduce me? You know, you need this person when you're doing everything right and you still feel invisible. Like the right people simply don't know you exist yet. So let's see how we can put this into practice. I want you to write down the names of between four and eight people who currently shape how you think about your career. Think about the people who you go to for support family, friends, mentors, colleagues, or managers. People you're working with now or who you've worked with before. Now, for each name, ask yourself three questions. One what seat does this person occupy on my board? Are they my chief courage, truth, Intelligence or opportunity officer and is the support they're offering me. Actually, what I need right now too, is this person invested in who I am becoming or who I have always been. Because the person who loves the old version of you isn't always the same person as the one who will support you into becoming the version that you're building. Three. Do they have a clear job spec of what I need from them? Do they actually know what I need right now? Have I explicitly asked them for the support that I need in this chapter? Once you've done this, take a step back and look at the whole picture. Look at it with curiosity, not judgment. Are there any gaps? Don't just look at empty seats. Look at seats that are being filled by people that you love. People who want the best for you. But they may be advising the person of you from two years ago, rather than the version that you're looking to become. Also, think about where you might have the right person in the room, but maybe you've never shared with them exactly what you need from them right now. Sometimes the gap isn't the person, it's the conversation that you've never had. The support people give you can only be effective if they know what it is you need from them. And finally, think about those people who you may need to move to your shadow board, the people who are very important to you, the people who are your cheerleaders and they support you, but they might not be strategically the right people to advise you at this point in your career. That doesn't mean they can't be part of the journey. That just means that they may not always get a seat at the main board. Remember, you get to decide who advises you on this transition. This is about building a board of directors that will help you achieve a successful transition. So what am I leaving you with this week? Just one thing. Do an audit of your board of directors. Write down the names assigned the goals. Look at the gaps. Then identify the one role that's missing for you right now. Not all four. The one that matters most in where you are in your transition today. Reach out to a person that could fill that role. You don't have to formally tell them that they're on your board. You just need to reach out and tell them where you are and ask for what you need. That's it. And don't forget that your career is only one part of your life, and it's always important to look at all the aspects and how they fit together and how they can support each other, even if one part is more important than the others right now. So if you do have any challenges on all of the other priorities in your life, why not take My Brave Life audit? It's a coaching tool that will help you assess all the different areas of your life right now. And I'll put the link in the show notes. If something in today's episode landed for you, or if there's someone who needs to hear this. Share this with someone who's in the middle of a transition. Pass it on. You could be someone's chief courage officer today. And if you're ready to stop navigating this alone, there's a link in the show notes to book a discovery call if you'd like to work with me. This is courage. Loading. I'm Alicia Noble, and remember, every story of change begins with a single moment of courage. So what's yours going to be?