Reading
The Motivation Myth
The Motivation Myth
The Motivation Myth
The Motivation Myth is one of the best books I've ever read on what motivation really is and how it plays a role in changing your life. A great primer before you begin to address your professional goals.
Designing Your Life
The Motivation Myth
The Motivation Myth
Designing Your Life provides a five step method to getting what you want out of life, using Design Thinking. A huge influence in my personal learning and coaching.
"For most people, passion comes after they try something, discover they like it, and develop mastery – not before. Passion is the result of good life design, not the cause."
The First 90 Days
The Motivation Myth
The First 90 Days
The First 90 Days is a practical guide once you find your path and your next project, role, or assignment. With a thoughtful approach to ensuring success in your next play, you will avoid the mistakes of
The Culture Map
Getting Things Done
The First 90 Days
The Culture Map is a wonderfully insightful book that helps you understand different business cultures across eight scales of cultural behaviors:
Communicating: low-context vs. high-context
Evaluating: direct negative
feedback vs. indirect negative feedback
Persuading: principles-first vs. applications-first
Leading: egalitarian vs. hierarchical
Deciding: consensual vs. top-down
Trusting: task-based vs. relationship-based
Disagreeing: confrontational vs. avoids confrontation
Scheduling: linear-time vs. flexible time
Ikigai
Getting Things Done
Getting Things Done
Ikigai is "a Japanese concept that means "a reason for being," which is usually used to indicate the source of value in one's life or the things that make one's life worthwhile.
This book is a fantastic read to help you understand the intersection of four questions:
What do you love to do?
What are you good at?
What can you be paid for?
What does the world need?
Getting Things Done
Getting Things Done
Getting Things Done
Getting Things Done. Sounds super self-explanatory, doesn't it?
While putting a system of workflows into practice takes some time, this book provides a really helpful foundation upon which to figure out what you need to get done and how you plan to do it.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
I'm glad to hear your curiosity is piqued and that you want to learn more. Below is a list of commonly asked questions. If you don't get your answer here, email me at aaron@coachingaf.com and I'll be happy to get back to you.
How can I benefit from coaching?
The answer depends on where you are in your career and what unresolved questions you have. If you can't answer some of these questions below, then coaching might be for you.
Early Career Professionals
-How do I take my knowledge and ambition and apply it to all of the options I'm considering?
-How do I plan my next steps to find a career I love?
-I'm not enjoying my current job - where do I need to be, and how do I get there?
Mid-Career Professionals
-How do I build my career on my existing successes or stop and start anew?
-What are the topics for which I am consistently recognized as doing great work?
-How do I manage teams or myself better?
Senior Executives, Business Leaders, and Entrepreneurs
-How do I lead teams in complex organizations or my own business?
-Am I genuinely self-aware of how people perceive me?
-What drives me on a daily basis?
-What will this awareness help me do with teams, customers, or others?
What do I get from these coaching sessions?
Everyone's journey is going to be different. Some coachees arrive with a clear idea of what they want and simply lack the how to get there. Others don't know why they should pursue something or have not found the end destination. My coachees gain clarity on what's important to them or new ways of looking at information, which I call "wrinkles in the brain."
There are also tangible things you'll take away, including a wide variety of tools that are designed to identify different ideas, including but not limited to:
- Wheel of Life activity: How are you doing in all facets of your life? What needs to change?
- Personal Values List: What actually matters to you? How are any of the activities in your life (work, hobbies, family, friends, health, etc.) aligned to what you value?
- Lifetime Activity Map: An exercise designed to identify patterns in your life/working history. The kinds of places you thrive in, the kinds of people you love to work with, activities that deeply frustrate you, etc.
- Target Company/Role List: How do you identify what kinds of organizations (corporate, nonprofit, academic, government, small business, or sole proprietorship) and roles are the best fit for you? And why?
What do *you* know about coaching, career changes, and finding one's dream job?
This is a fantastic question. I've been the beneficiary of three amazing executive coaches in my professional life.
- The first helped me calm my hyperactive brain and fast-talking self.
- The second helped me conclude that HR, Recruiting, and Talent Management were passions of mine.
- And the third enabled me to move from consulting to the HR technology world.
And through all of those hard conversations and tough questions, they never told me what to do. They helped me discover what was locked away inside my head and heart all along. Coaching is not about someone else telling you what to do - it's all about you pushing all the self-imposed obstacles and barriers aside to find clarity.
I've interviewed for and accepted job offers at LinkedIn, Deloitte Consulting, Slalom Consulting, Credit Suisse, Merrill Lynch, and SAP SuccessFactors, with offers from other companies as well. I understand the power of networks and how to distinguish oneself in making your candidacy known to employers.
For a story on how career clarity helped me find my then-dream job at LinkedIn, see my post on LinkedIn from 2017.
What kind of commitment do I need to make?
Well obviously that's up to you. A trial session lets coachees understand how coaching with me works. If you decide you want to proceed, I ask for a minimum commitment of 12 sessions (six months at two sessions per month). This is because lasting change is hard and requires a combination of time and effort. We will work to build up your awareness, competencies to make change, and knowledge - and this process is best served with a program of thoughtful sessions.
Who do you work with and what do you work on?
Early Career
Middle Career
Middle Career
People with less than ten years of experience are usually one or more of the following: Individual contributors, first-time managers, pre-graduate school, or recent graduates, who have held one or many jobs.
For these individuals, typical coaching topics include:
-Finding the right career path
-MBA/Masters/Grad School considerations and applications -Understanding job search strategy and tactics (i.e., applications, interviewing, networking, resume, and offer negotiation)
Middle Career
Middle Career
Middle Career
People with 10-20 years of experience are often senior individual contributors, managers, or managers of managers, and can be either established in their careers or looking to make a shift.
As a result, much of our coaching is focused on:
-Aligning what you value most to the jobs, companies, and industry that have what you value
-Work-Life Balance (i.e. family, career growth, school, etc.)
-Feedback and perceptions from direct reports, bosses, customers, and other stakeholders
Later Career
Middle Career
Later Career
These are individuals who are senior executives (C-level), entrepreneurs or have more than 20 years of experience. This group often faces challenges of running an organization or being a key leadership team member.
Most of our coaching work is often centered on:
-Work-life balance
-Life coaching around what matters most
-Processing feedback from customers, direct reports, the market, etc.
-Thinking through personnel questions (hiring, firing, mentoring, coaching, etc.)
But what does the AF mean?
"AF" is an expression used (often by millennials) to mean "very" or "really" and stands for "as f*ck."
Example: "That party was fun AF." Or really really fun.
For you non-Millennials, if that explanation is too much, then AF simply stands for my initials (Aaron Fung).