Wellness Newsletter

Career Counseling

How Do You Finance Your Future by Fuelling Your Career Dreams? Ask the Career Professional

We’re quick to ask professionals to help us with our finances, fix and maintain our cars, keep tabs on our physical health, monitor and fix our teeth, and generally keep us out of trouble. The list of professionals available today is never-ending!

These professionals are here to help guide us, represent, and coach us. But ask yourself, who can you call on who can actually help you fund all your financial and workplace fulfillment needs?

Enter the Career Professional.

When you think about it, you spend more of your time working and trying to further your careers than anything else. A small investment of focused time now with a Career Professional can pay big dividends in the long term.

When’s the last time you invested in your career? What’s it worth to you to have a career check up? Most people would love to be in work that fits well with their skills, interests, and personalities, enabling them to feel fulfilled and responsibly paid.

Have you thought about your personal happiness? Have you thought about your growth? Do you know when it’s time to leave your job? Do you know how to find a job you love?

It’s a fact that people who conduct their job search independently usually take longer and experience more frustration finding a job that pays less and does not fit as well with their personal goals - than those who use the services of a Career Professional.

So, why use a Career Professional? First, they can save you money by helping you find you a job at least three to four weeks sooner than you would on your own. Plus, they can help make you money by helping you position yourself to successfully negotiate a higher pay. And that type of financial edge can add up when you consider its impact over an average thirty year career.

We don’t mind investing in the services of many different kinds of professionals that keep us healthy and stable. Much of what professionals do is preventative, and we’ve come to rely on their expertise. We can be either proactive or reactive, and with each of the aforementioned helpers we tend to be proactive. Seeing your financial planner when you’re broke is too late.

So what is a professional? There are various definitions, but here are two that capture the essence: “Professionals normally have a code of ethics, take the trouble to keep their knowledge and expertise up-to-date and are paid to provide benefits to their clients”, and “Professional work requires the consistent exercise of discretion in order to research, analyze, interpret, develop, and apply various criteria to non-routine and non-mechanical processes”.

The Career Professional who is a member of the Association of Career Professionals International (ACP International) truly fits the definition of a professional. Members of this organization abide by a code of ethics, are committed to keeping their knowledge and expertise current, and certainly help us analyze and develop the direction of our work lives.

There is nothing mysterious about Career Professionals or what they do. They act as our agent, advisor, planner, coach and mentor. They represent the catalysts in our lives that enable us to move on with our careers and find new opportunities. They help us fuel our dreams that fund our future. Whether you use them as a sounding board, or as a partner in finding your particular career solution, think of their services as you would those of any other professional.

Take control of your life. Have a check up with your Career Professional once a year. Many of them have global contacts and global expertise and can help you navigate the tributaries of life.

Choosing the right professional advisor for you is critically important. The wrong choice can result in a significant cost in time, money, and missed opportunities, whether you’re choosing a doctor, dentist, lawyer, financial planner or a Career Professional.

So how do you know when you’ve made the right choice?

Keep in mind a few things: The Association of Career Professionals (ACP International) is a global organization with members in over 30 countries who provide lifelong career related service. Plus, ACP International offers training and professional certification and their members are bound by a defined set of ethical standards.

Get the very best out of your work life. Get in touch with a Career Professional to schedule your “career checkup” today.

Career Coaching & Consulting ~ Our Consultants

Alexandra Gellman

Transition Services

Post Survivor Support

Team Building

Managing Stress

Services For Emplyers

1. Transition Services

• Rebuilding self confidence
• Learning from the dismissal process
• Helping individuals achieve their life and career goals
• Helping downsized employees re-enter the work force
• Handling personal finances and creating a sense of security about the future

Exploring career planning issues and options:

• Career change
• Retirement planning
• Self employment

2. Post Survivor Support

• Post dismissal coaching for remaining employees
• Working towards prevention of productivity slippage
• Employees feel more cared for
• Communication and co-operation will improve among survivors
• Staff will regain a sense of motivation and positive morale

3. Team Building

• Examining lines of communication
• Clarification of job descriptions and mandate
• Building co-operation
• Training team leaders

4. Managing Stress

• Dealing with life challenges and transitions
• Overcoming burnout and exhaustion
• Balancing family and work responsibilities
• Healthier habits to bring greater productivity and peace of mind
• Psychological Screening Inventory instrument
• Establishing healthy and realistic boundaries
• Building a realistic plan and seeing it through

CREDENTIALS

Alexandra is a member of the Association of Career Professionals International.

• Registered Behavioral Coach from the Behavioral Coaching Institute
• Career Management Courses and Psychometric courses from the Adler School of Psychology
• Doctor of Homeopathic Medicine and Accredited Iridologist
• B.A. from the University of Toronto in Humanities

She is qualified to administer: Vocational instruments, Personality instruments, Cognitive instruments, and Academic Performance instruments including:

• Wonderlic Basic Skills Test
• Wonderlic Personnel Test
• Canadian Work Preferences Inventory
• Self Directed Search – Occupation Finder
• 16 PF Personality Factors Instrument
• Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
• Sleep Disorder instrument
• Psychological Screening Inventory
• Occupational Stress Inventory

ALEXANDRA’S EXPERIENCE

With over ten years experience as a Doctor of Homeopathy and a Registered Behavioral Coach, Alexandra has a lifetime steeped in helping people handle challenges.

Alexandra has an additional ten years experience in the hospitality industry in direct sales and sales management positions, coaching her sales team to achieve corporate goals and personal growth.

She is President of the corporate consulting company Guru & Associates Wellness Inc., which offers companies’ innovative wellness presentations, on site coaching, and individualized services.

She has just released her third book Passageways to Your Soul.

David L. Gellman

Executive Coaching

Career and Retirement Planning

Internal Corporate Communications

Corporate Strategic Financial Planning

Services for Employers

1. Executive Coaching

• Gaining the recognition you deserve
• Strengthening relationships and alliances
• Developing promotional plans
• Managing upwards
• Creating actionable plans
• Dealing with challenges
• Optimizing work-life balance
• Reducing stress

2. Career and Retirement Planning

• Assessing career change options
• Developing long term career plans
• Preparing for retirement
• Stabilizing personal finances
• Pursuing previously unrealizable dreams

3. Internal Corporate Communications

• Examining lines of communication
• Clarification of job descriptions and mandate
• Building co-operation
• Dealing with difficult employees
• Creating team productivity and commitment
• Succession Planning

4. Corporate Strategic Financial Planning

• Financial planning and strategic goal setting
• Establishing a mission and values of the firm
• Establishing benchmarking and performance monitoring
• Creating a corporate focus
• Ensuring staff are working towards the same goals
• Adapting to changes in the business environment
• Creating a framework for decision making

CREDENTIALS

David is a member of the Association of Career Professionals International, and the Canadian Institue of Chartered Accountants.

• Registered Behavioral Coach from the Behavioral Coaching Institute
• Qualified in the administration of the Myers Briggs Type Indicator Psychometric tool
• Master Negotiations Program
• David is a Chartered Accountant and Certified Public Accountant

DAVID’S EXPERIENCE

David blends his business, consulting, financial and teaching abilities when advising corporations and individuals on financial and life situations for positive outcomes.

David helps people navigate their life path including preparation for retirement.

David offers career counseling that combines financial strategic planning with wellness, spirituality, and emotional fulfillment.

Donald M. Smith

Transition (Outplacement) Consulting

Preparation for Staff Reduction

Improving Employee Capability

Coaching Services

Services for Employers

1. Transition/Outplacement

• Support for management in planning downsizing strategy
• Training for management in positive dismissal practices
• On-site support for management in handling the exit interview
• Crisis intervention support for the employee(s) who leaves
• Career planning and work search services in individual or workshop format

2. Coaching:

• Optimize the employee’s learning, productivity, deliverables, development and harmony with the organization, thus contributing to retention policy as well as employee fulfillment

3. Improving employment relationships

• Manager-employee misalignment or misunderstandings
• Poor fit between the employee’s strengths and organizational needs
• Human Rights Code Infractions or issues with productivity, mental health, morale, family, personal or relationship difficulties

4. Work - Life balance issues

• Employee exhaustion or potential burnout, hence loss of valuable human capital
• Risk of the employee neglecting partner, parent, children or self
• Optimizing employee productivity through high morale and development

Services for Individuals

1. Finding a new Job ???

Career planning and visioning
Resumé development
Job search strategy and references
Hidden Job Market and networking
Interview preparation
Assessing and negotiating job offers

2. Considering Self-Employment ???

Assess the wisdom, advantages and risks of going independent
Consulting, project or contract work
Develop brochures, business plan, marketing materials and market research.
Start a business? Buy into a partnership? Franchise? Assess investment risk tolerance

3. Career Change ???

Assess whether to continue in same line of work or make a change
Identify the sectors that could be most satisfying - private sector, government, public agencies or not-for-profit organizations

CREDENTIALS

Don is Canada's first earned Career Management Fellow (CMF)

• He is a member of the Association of Career Professionals International and the Ontario Association of Consultants, Counsellors, Psychometrists and Psychotherapists
• He holds a B.A. in Industrial Management, a Certificate in Psychiatric Services and a Masters degree in Social Work (MSW)
• He is qualified to administer the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI - Step 1 and 2), the Birkman First Look and the Strong Interest Inventory

DON’S EXPERIENCE

For over 20 years Don consulted with Murray Axmith & Associaties, one of Canada's highest quality career management and re-employment consulting firms.

While with the Addiction Research Foundation (now the Centre for Mental Health and Addictions), Don served as Chair of the President's Task Force on Employee Assistance Programs. As executive with the ARF, he directed teams of community consultants, physicians and EAP consultants in the head office and in Western Ontario.

At Scarborough Centenary Hospital, he provided clinical intervention and directed all Mental Health services staff, budget and programs.

As Director of the East London Family Service Unit, in England, he led scores of employees and volunteers, reporting to the Board of Directors.

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