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If you are at a crossroads in your career, if you are struggling with building a great team, if you are wondering whether to pursue that new job or even about going out on your own, you may want to consider partnering with a coach. A professional coach works with clients to overcome both internal and external obstacles to success. Leaders at all levels of their career can benefit from coaching for a variety of reasons.

So how can a professional coach help? Working with a coach can provide:

Clarity. A coach will work with you to define your strengths and your career goals. A coach will ask you the questions that will bring out your passions so you can establish your priorities. Together you can talk through ideas so you can determine whether they are worthwhile to pursue.

Planning. Together with your coach you will determine the best approach to reaching your career goals. Ultimately the game plan will be yours to develop and yours to pursue, but your coach will be there to guide you toward your goals.

Confidence. Too often we are our own worst enemy. We psyche ourselves out. We get stuck on the what ifs. Your coach will work with you to set aside those inner criticisms and gain the confidence to face your challenges. Your coach will support you while you work to maximize your true potential.

Accountability. Your coach will not hold you accountable, but by working with a coach you will hold yourself accountable to the items discussed in your coaching sessions. You will be so much more likely to achieve your long term goals if you hold yourself accountable to each step in the process.

A coach is similar to a personal fitness trainer. A personal trainer pushes clients like you to achieve the highest level of physical performance. The benefit of a trainer is that he or she will push you harder than you would on your own and will not let you give up on yourself. You are likely to achieve your fitness goals faster with the help of a personal trainer.

A professional coach focuses on helping you achieve a career that builds on your strengths. A coach will challenge you, support you, encourage you and guide you towards achieving your professional goals. Is it time for you to consider coaching?

Most of us have the same resume. It consists of a list of jobs we have held in the past with a few bullet points telling the reader about the responsibilities for each role. While this has been standard practice for creating a resume, it does not necessarily show us in the best light.

Think about this for a moment. Does your resume highlight your strengths or your experiences?

Showing a potential employer your strengths is a great way to compete in today's labor market. This will also help to ensure that you are leveraging those strengths in your next role or position, which in turn, gives you continued motivation for success.

Take a look at your resume for a moment. Does it say, anywhere, where you are naturally talented? For example, let's say that you work in a strategic environment and your best asset is being able to see the big picture and create vision. Does your resume reflect that?

A Customer Service Manager might love helping to solve problems for other people. A school teacher might feel strongest when empowering the future generation. The chef might feel her best when she creates a unique combination of flavors. The salesperson might feel the most satisfaction not just for generating a sale, but for making a seamless match between a buyer and the right product for that buyer's needs. These are all examples of strengths which should be included on a resume. This is what a future employer wants to know about you before meeting with you in person. This is also how to differentiate yourself from the rest of the pack.

Do not wait until you go to a personal interview to reveal your strengths. In today's competitive market, you may not get to the interview if your resume is not generating a compelling story to the perspective employer.

Here are some things to consider. Which tasks in your current or previous roles have made you feel the most excited and energized? Which tasks felt like the most fun? Which ones did you look forward to tackling? Why did they make you feel this way? The likelihood is that these tasks allowed you to play to your strengths, those activities which you have power and passion around. They probably made you feel challenged in the way that you prefer to be challenged, so in turn, they felt effortless. Your resume should reflect these strengths.

Now it is time to go take another look at your resume. How can you modify it to ensure that your strengths are really coming through? Employers do not just want to know what you have already done. They want to know what you can do for them now and into the future. So make sure that you are sharing your strengths with potential employers. Both of you will benefit.

Your life is busy, whether you are a soccer mom, a non-profit volunteer, a homeroom parent, a business owner or all of the above. You may be busy doing good things and you may be good at the things you are doing. But are you satisfied?

Is there a little voice inside telling you that there must be something more to life?

You see, busy is not directly related to satisfied. There may come a time, perhaps it is when your current job has started to bore you to tears, when your kids are heading into school full time or when you hear that nagging voice inside you that you realize that busy is not enough for you anymore.

The underlying reason for that realization is that just because you are busy, it does not mean that you are utilizing your strengths. When we go through life not using our strengths, we tend to feel lower levels of satisfaction, even if we are doing good things and good at the things we are doing.

The term strength refers to a combination of your natural talents, your skill sets and your aptitudes toward specific areas. It also refers to your passions; those items which excite and motivate you.

You may find that you absolutely love being the homeroom mom because it is the perfect combination of organizing class activities and socializing with the other parents. On the other hand, you may find that you dread the responsibilities of homeroom mom and wonder why on earth you ever volunteered for such a thankless job in the first place. These same feelings can happen whether you are homeroom mom or heading up a new project at work, depending upon whether the situation plays to your strengths. There is no right or wrong when it comes to what makes us feel satisfied since we all have a unique set of strengths.

So what can we do to utilize our strengths?

First, we need to get to know our strengths. We need to truly pinpoint what it is that propels us to higher levels of achievement and satisfaction. This can be done using online assessment tools, personal observations and in-depth discussion with a coach or consultant. The second step is to identify untapped opportunities in your life where you can use your strengths. Perhaps it is by volunteering for a task force or by starting a new business venture. Lastly, you can utilize your strengths by seizing the opportunities that will transform your life from one of simply being busy to one of feeling accomplished and satisfied!

For years as women we've been conditioned both in our personal and professional lives to identify our weaknesses and to focus on how we can improve them.  However, research indicates, that we really only show incremental improvement in those areas over time.  It is our areas of strength where we have the most opportunity to grow and develop.  To grow, we need to first understand and identify our strengths.  Strengths are more than just something we're good at.  After all we're all good at something, but do we really enjoy doing it?  For example, in my family I am usually the one who is called upon to organize events.  Vacations, holiday gatherings, etc., I am typically the one who sets them up, tells everyone what to bring and what time to be there.  I am good at this task, no doubt.  Most people that know me would say that organizing is a strength of mine.  That said I don't consider it one of my strengths because I really don't enjoy doing it.  Often when I am through with the task, I feel exhausted and not excited about doing it again. 

Once you are clear on the definition of a strength, you need to spend some focused time trying to figure out your individual strengths.  Some of our strengths will just jump out at us.  We know right away that it is a strength of ours because of the power and passion we experience when doing it.  Others may take a little more time and reflection to identify.