 |
||||
Executive Coach Dr. Mary Stewart-Pellegrini How to Really Find a Balance in the Workplace 
If a village can raise a child, can a career coach nurture your career? Dr. Mary Stewart-Pellegrini, an executive coach and the founder of Stewart Management Group, Chicago, believes it is possible to have both a rich work life and personal life. But sometimes even the best seasoned professionals need help. More people miss work because of stress and anxiety than any other nonfatal injury, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As a veteran coach, Stewart-Pellegrini intimately understands the mental and physical effects workplace frustration and a lack of personal life can have on employees. People work best in environments that honor and respect them as human beings and contributors to the health of the organization, she says. These beliefs shape her sessions, which help everyone from ill-prepared executives to beleaguered managers refocus their careers. Here, she shares her insights: On the importance of having a trustworthy confidant: “I think our mental and spiritual health depends on it. People are so isolated at the senior level, it’s much more difficult to know who to trust. The higher you go up in corporate America, the smaller your circle becomes because of competition.” On workplace trends: 
“Coaching seems to be the flavor of the month; everyone seems to want to have one. Coaching should not take the place of effective management because the role of the manager is to coach employees into effective performers. Many times people are promoted because they are technically brilliant but have never managed anybody. So, promotion becomes the means whereby they are rewarded. One of my concerns is that coaching, the process of it, should not replace the responsibility of managers learning how to manage people effectively.” On the impact of ineffective managers: “It certainly does create more stress when the manager does not understand how to effectively manage their people; there is a gap. You have a person in place who is not fulfilling their function, and it falls down to the people below the manager or above the manager to help do their job. It has been my experience that people complain less about the money and more about the opportunity if they work for people who manage them well, and there is a chance for upward mobility and growth.” On the effects of workplace hostility: “People get sick. They take time off from work more than [usual]. People get stressed. They tire easily. They feel like they are in a sweatshop. It drains your energy, and people feel like they are always moving at light speed.” On what to expect as you reach the mid-career point: “Younger and mid-career people going back to work need to be clear about why they are there and what their intention is. The clearer you are, besides going to work and making some money, the more you can focus on the path that will get you there. Mid-career, it is important to know if you met your benchmark. “As you really mature, people begin to look and ask, ‘Is this really what I wanted to do?’ Later, sometimes people have a tendency to give up [on their career dreams]. But in my coaching work we encourage them to look at this as an opportunity for a new beginning.” On older employees in the workplace: “We still have age discrimination, and the assumption that as people get older they are not valuable workers is just not true. I think they need to continue training, try new experiences, stay healthy, advocate for their growth and development, and take some incremental risks. “Especially for people in the C-level of their career, paradigms are changing and standard retiring models are not working for everybody, and that requires coming out your comfort zone and taking some risks … and sometimes people need to be taught how to do that.” On the use of visualization techniques as a motivational tool: “Take someone you really admire as a model for yourself (hopefully a good model – or we will have to talk about why you chose that model for yourself) and the best of that person’s characteristics are what you emulate. “One of my earlier models was Barbara Jordan; she was well-spoken, direct, extremely well-educated, compassionate, and she was an African-American female. And subsequent to that, there are other people that I use as models, when I think about fashion I think about Audrey Hepburn and her style, when I think about grace, I think about what is gracious for me. “People who, by virtue of your observation of their behavior and how you see them really consult to you. So Audrey may tell you ‘You really do not want to wear those shoes with that dress’ or Barbara Jordan may be saying ‘The way you are speaking is not as diplomatic as you want to be.’ If you can see that person, you can see yourself being that person or see some of those characteristics in yourself.” |
||||
|
||||
