A few weeks ago, I wrote an email about the energetic rookies in my office.

And how once or twice a month I’ll get a message from one of these young guns, asking if I fancy a coffee and a croissant so they can pick my brains about my job, working life and my experience of burning out.

In that email I asked the question:

Do I give safe, conventional answers with my Tom the Banker hat on?  Or do I put my Coach Tom hat on and guide these rookies towards their own answers?

As it happens, this scenario played out again a few days ago.

A recent recruit came armed to the teeth with some great questions and we had a fun, interesting conversation all about work and career progression.

As we were wrapping up, the rookie threw one last question my way:

“Do you have any advice for me Tom?”

Ah! 

Another Tom the Banker v Coach Tom moment.

When I heard this question, here's what went through my mind:

Advice for what?

See, I think there’s an assumption in the world of work that everyone in every team and in every position wants to move to a new team, get a promotion or get a pay rise.  And once that’s done, they want to keep doing that again and again.

In fact, it’s not even an assumption. 

It’s like a hidden unspoken truth which runs through every conversation, shapes every decision, filters every expectation and colours every interaction in the office.

But when you step outside the bubble, I don’t think this is what everyone wants.

So what advice did I give this hungry, up-and-coming new recruit?

I simply said this:

What do you want from work?  What are you shooting for?

Clearly if you want to become CEO, you'll need a different strategy compared to someone who wants flexibility or stability in their career.

So if you’re asking for advice, it helps to have a sense of what you’re aiming for, even if that sense isn’t fully clear yet.  Otherwise it’s like setting your sat nav to a destination someone else has told you to visit.

Of course, there will be some adjustments along the way.  Getting going helps us figure out where to go.

But when I look back at my own working life, it’s amazing how often I set my sat nav based on where everyone else was heading and not where I wanted to go.

So “what do you want?” might sound like a simple question.  

But it’s the question that sets everything else in motion.

Incidentally, “what do you want?" is one of the first questions I ask new coaching clients.

But in a funny sort of way, what you want doesn't matter to me.  What matters is you knowing what you want, then helping you to get it.

Ultimately, that’s coaching in a nutshell.

If you have some bold aspirations or you'd like more clarity figuring out what your aspirations are, all the info about my coaching is here:

https://waitinglist.followingfulfilment.com