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After two months in her new role, Mighty River Power credit manager Judith Houison, 54, was well out of her comfort zone and ready to resign.

It wasn't anything to do with the company or her staff - just the job. She had been promoted into it from another field by managers more confident than she was, and the longer she stayed put, the more that confidence ebbed.

"I didn't feel I was the right person for the role," she confesses. "I thought I had to know everything."

Unlike a lot of unhappy staff, Houison did confide in her boss - and through Mighty River's human resources department, career counselling was prescribed.

In her first, 90-minute meeting with TMP's Carol Elson, in May, Houison was asked about her expectations, her concerns, her 40-year work history. "Even my first job was important to her," she says.

Her answers were constantly probed and challenged and then, despite 40 years in the workplace, epiphany dawned. "The pattern was the expectations I put on myself.

"I was setting them too high. Carol asked the question: do you expect other people to know all the answers? No, not really."

But the work wasn't over. Via e-mail, Houison completed various questionnaires probing her values and preferences, and they weren't always easy.

"Sometimes you have to go into your soul to be absolutely honest," she says. "I felt really appreciative of having the opportunity, so I wasn't going to give flippant answers."

At her second meeting, two weeks later, the pair discussed her answers, "and it became obvious that the role I was in suited me".

Elson helped her to identify areas where skills needed a brush-up.

Following the second meeting, Houison was given planning to do. She's come out the other end not only with insights gained from looking backwards, but with a plan for the future.

"I'd never thought about a career path," she admits. "Everything that I've done I fell into without really planning it."

Now, she's more open to accepting help and admitting she hasn't got all the answers.

"The scary bit is if I had not spoken, I could have gone off, found something else, and I would not have stretched myself any further."