Ask-A-Career Coach: Gratitude As A Career Management Tool

jobsearchContributed by Caroline Ceniza-Levine of SixFigureStart™

Given the upcoming holidays, I thought about writing about holiday networking, job search during the holidays or perhaps office party etiquette. Here’s why gratitude works not just around the holiday table but for your career as well:

Gratitude puts you in a spirit of plenty – of having, instead of lacking. This leads to confidence, energy and a position of strength that is attractive to the people around you, whether it’s prospective employers or senior management looking for whom to tap for leadership.

Gratitude focuses you on what is working in your life. Similarly, for good career management and job search, you want to focus on what is working and repeat what works and expand this to other areas. You don’t want to spend all of your energy troubleshooting problems. Of course you need to pay attention and fix any strategies or behaviors that aren’t getting the results you desire. But more importantly focus on what works well and do more.

Gratitude provides the foundation from which you can take risks. Once you realize all the great things you have accomplished and the strengths that you do have, you have confidence, you have patterns to follow, and you have a base off of which you can try new things. You can afford to be bold – you’ve achieved so much already. In this way, gratitude coats you in Teflon, and problems roll off of you more easily. Try a gratitude journal for a few days or weeks if you can, and see the benefits of gratitude as a career management tool.

Caroline Ceniza-Levine is a career coach, writer, speaker, Gen Y expert and co-founder of SixFigureStart™, coaches jobseekers using a recruiter’s perspective of what employers really want and how the hiring process really works. Formerly in corporate HR and retained search, Caroline most recently headed University Relations for Time Inc and has also recruited for Accenture, Citibank, Disney ABC, and others. Caroline is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Professional Development at Columbia University, School of International and Public Affairs and a life coach

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  2. Suzanne Zemke
    Suzanne Zemke says:

    When we recognize and acknowledge how much we have intellectually, experientially, emotionally and spiritually, we are in a much better position to offer what we have to others. Giving – what a great way to establish and cultivate professional as well as personal relationships. What a great way to start a conversation! Let’s stop thinking of networking as taking and start thinking of it as giving. We each have so many gifts to give, what in the world are we waiting for? Thanks for this great prompt to shift our thinking, Caroline!