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When I showed my new logo to some friends, the following discussion took place: "The bird in your logo has a pot belly." "It's a goose. That's the way they look." "A goose? Why don't you choose something,like an eagle, that soars?" "My clients need to take flight before they can soar." The Goose Story A few years ago, as I was in the midst of my latest career transition, an image came to me of a wild goose trying to take off from the water. When a goose takes off, its whole body gets into the effort. The goose flaps its wings hard to get lift and uses its legs to run across the surface of the water, adding momentum. I was feeling like a goose that couldn't quite take off. There was a lot of flapping and running going on, but not much lift. I was feeling stuck. This time, I was struggling to take flight in my own career. After almost 25 years of working as a counsellor, specializing in career work, I had spent the previous few years working mostly as a writer and trainer in the career development field. These endeavours brought me a number of successes, and they satisfied an important part of who I am, but something was missing. It didn't take me long to identify the missing piece, the close interactions with people that I had enjoyed so much as a counsellor. So I began to reframe my business, shifting a lot of my effort back to counselling, while adding leadership coach training and experience to my repertoire. The coach training was a great complement to my counselling background, providing new skills, perspectives and experience that were very much in line with what I had been doing for years. The problem was that I was stuck in my transition. I was spending more time and energy in learning and adding qualifications than I was in generating business. I was really starting all over, identifying my ideal clientele and creating a new client base. It was taking me a long time and costing me both energy and money. I was getting discouraged. It was a classic "physician heal thyself" situation, and I knew it. I had to practise what I was preaching as a career counsellor/coach. I had to find my own focus and direction, and I did. In essence, the process boils down to the following key ingredients: Knowing yourself, especially your strengths and what habitually gets in your way; Being clear about what is important, in your life and at work; Making decisions based upon what you know intellectually (in your head), emotionally (in your heart), and spiritually (in your gut); and Acting on what is important to you; being true to yourself. The most satisfying careers are those that have a strong connection to people's identity and values, to what they love to do, to what is meaningful in their lives, and to what is really important to them. People are most effective and productive when they are being true to themselves. As a career and leadership coach, then, my key objective is to help clients align what they do, in all aspects of their careers, with who they are. In this way, they can take flight themselves. So, every time you see that goose, think about taking flight. Then all the flapping and running will be worth it. Enjoy the flight! - Lee Wallace,