NAVIGATE THE HALLWAY COMMUNITY & COACHING
FOR WOMEN LEADERS
Join a community of women leaders to begin creating career transitions and give yourself the time, space, and support to cultivate new career and work/life possibilities that matter to you!
You deserve to move through your work/life transition confidently and successfully with a supportive community.
Very few people talk about the time and process of closing one door and finding a new one to open. In part, because each person’s experience is very personal and in part because it is not the glamourous aspect of your change experience. While many of us imagine that change will happen like a thunderbolt, and sometimes it is initiated by one – divorce, outplacement, health challenges, natural disaster, mid-life, etc. – the actual process to close a door and to open a new one always takes more time and effort than we expect, anticipate or want.
“Whenever a door closes, another one opens… it is the time in the hallway that is the bitch.”
There are many good reasons why “seeing the next door clearly” is not easy or self-evident, no
matter how sure we are that we need a change.
When we become aware that a door is closing – through our choice or not –acknowledging the “letting go” of what was takes some time and energy. Often much of our identity (how we define ourselves/how others think of us) is attached to what is being left behind. Letting go of this self-definition before we have a clear new definition leaves us a liminal, unknown, and often exceptionally uncomfortable place.
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If we want/need to find a new door, create new possibilities – we have to think in new ways and try new approaches. As Einstein so clearly articulated, we can’t create new solutions with the thinking that got us to where we are today. Experimenting with new ways of thinking or looking for opportunities doesn’t feel familiar or easy. It takes more concentration, practice, and effort – because we don’t know how to do it and are doing it for the first time.
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Feeling “stuck” in the hallway – a very common experience for most people in transition from one doorway to the next - raises many fears about our innate value, our abilities to control our lives and destinies, and whether a new door will ever open.
Navigating these feelings requires courage, curiosity, and patience – trusting yourself and the abundance of the universe.
Feeling alone in the hallway – most of us “hide” our transition experiences because we feel vulnerable, which makes the journey through the hallway that much more challenging. Co-journeying with others gives each of us the chance to support other women and to be supported toward finding new doors to open.
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Based on spending a lot of time in the hallways with our clients, Kelley and I realized that making this process more conscious while providing concrete tools as well as mindset-shift experiences required to navigate the hallways more effectively, creatively and with less stress would be helpful to women beginning the journey at the close of professional, executive careers toward their What’s Next opportunities.