The real estate agent had a strong year last year – despite the sagging housing market – but this year, something’s different for her.
She has trouble making the sale. The drive isn’t there anymore.
Then there’s the business executive who has been toiling in the same job for several years, with little hope of promotion on the horizon. Frustration and despair have set in.
Some local consultants say they hear similar stories all the time: Professionals who have plenty of potential but never quite seem to reach it, or they can’t maintain their peak performance. They’re stuck.
In these cases, some professional development can help, but not just the kind that leads to learning new work skills and cultivating new talents, the consultants say.
Karen Proffitt, a business coach and president of Pinnacle Performance LLC, in Portsmouth, said many professionals who feel they’re in a rut are actually their own worst enemy.
“Sometimes attitudes and behaviors get in the way of an individual’s ability to perform to their true potential,” Proffitt said.
How do you turn it around?
The most important step, according to Proffitt, is one that is very basic but still one that many never consciously take: Set some goals.
“What many people do is they don’t set goals, and that is the reason why people get frustrated,” she said. “They feel like they’re not getting where they need to be.”
Goal-setting can be the key to eliminating frustration with a job, and achieving a more positive attitude, consultants say.
“What we find is that it helps when a person understands where they’re going,” Proffitt said. “They can actually see the small benchmarks in terms of actually getting to a larger goal.”
“But if you don’t have a track to run on then you’re not measuring anything,” she continued. “You’re kind of floating around and you really don’t have a direction.”
It’s also crucial to write down those goals. “Studies have shown that when something is committed to writing, that you’re more likely to stick with trying to achieve it,” Proffitt added.
Proffitt recently conducted one-one-one coaching with a client who was a real estate agent whose career is suffering, in part, because of a lack of goals.
Last year, the agent was recognized as one of the best in the state, Proffitt said, but this year she’s finding it difficult to maintain that drive.
“She’s saying she doesn’t know if she can get that getup-and-go again,” Proffitt said. “If you don’t know what you’re striving for then, yes, it’s kind of hard to get there … She needs to take a look at what are the goals that are going to motivate you this year that are different from last year.”
Pavitra Ciavardone, owner of BreakThrough Concepts, a Providence-based business coaching firm, said many people don’t realize that it might be their own fears that are holding back their careers. Maybe there’s a fear of failure. Or possibly a fear of success, “which has its own set of perils for some people,” Ciavardone said.
She suggests that professionals develop a more in-depth self awareness. “Start with the relationship you have with yourself,” Ciavardone said. “People don’t even realize they’re sabotaging themselves.”
Ciavardone recalled one client – a middle-aged woman – who wanted to attempt a career as an artist, but never could reach that goal.
When they delved into why, the woman expressed fear that she was too old and wasn’t a good- enough artist, and that she wouldn’t make enough money.
Several years later, the client is enrolled in an arts school in New York and selling portrait paintings at $3,000 a piece.
The best laid plans are not effective if the planner doesn’t follow through, Ciavardone said. “The motivation has to come from the person,” she said. “It’s also about getting clear on why you want to reach a goal. Why is it important to you?”
Ciavardone said she finds it helpful to go through an exercise with clients in which she asks, “What would you do if you had no excuses?”
“I then walk the person five years down the road,” she said.
It helps people learn what they’re motivated to do and develop ways of reaching that goal, she said.
Proffitt advocates a similar activity. She calls it taking a “dream inventory.”
“That’s literally taking a look at where you want to be a year from now, 10 years from now, both personally and professionally,” she said.
Sometimes propelling a career forward comes down to having a positive attitude, the consultants say.
“We’re more inclined to look at the cup being half empty rather than half full,” Proffitt said. “We focus more on what’s going to go wrong than what we’re going to do right. But if you think you can do something, you’re more likely going to do it.”
One of her clients who worked for a large insurer was assigned a potentially overwhelming project. “She projected a really positive face to everybody else, but inside she was really scared to death,” Proffitt said.
Proffitt guided her through finding resources and other workers she could turn to for assistance. The client also broke the project into smaller chunks, setting shorter-range goals.
Proffitt asked her to think of experiences in the past – skills and abilities she displayed before – that she could draw from for the new project.
Soon the client’s attitude improved.
“Some people want to maintain the status quo and not trying to get better results,” Proffitt said. “But with a little bit of planning and a little bit of goal-setting, positive affirmations, they can drive themselves to do even better.” •
