Career coaching : an insider's guide by Bench Marcia

Author:Bench, Marcia
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Vocational guidance, Career development, Career changes, Job hunting, Orientation professionnelle, Plan de carrière, Secondes carrières, Recherche d'emploi, Career changes, Career development, Job hunting, Vocational guidance
ISBN: 0974564729
Publisher: Palo Alto, Calif. : Davies-Black Pub.
Published: 2003-09-19T16:00:00+00:00

FOLLOW-UP QUESTION

(no shift occurs)

(usually Level 1)

Figure 11: Unpowerful Questioning

POWERFUL QUESTION 1

PAUSE; NEW AWARENESSSHARED

SHARING OF INSIGHT

INVITATION TO SHARE

FURTHER (from coach)

POWERFUL QUESTION 2:

INVITATION TO SHARE

NEW LEVEL (drilling down)

►

FURTHER (from coach)

I

SHARING OF INSIGHT;CLIENT SHIFT

Figure 12: Powerful Questioning

Communicating Clearly

Our coaching competencies include several approaches to clear anddirect communication: direct feedback, reframing and introducingother perspectives, clear objectives, appropriate and respectful lan-guage, and appropriate use of metaphor and analogy. Since we havediscussed several of these previously, we will address the last two ofthese aspects here.

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Using Appropriate and Respectful Language

In our increasingly diverse culture, we must choose language that isboth politically correct and culturally sensitive. This becomes evenmore important as many of us work across international borderswith clients in other countries.

Being politically correct means avoiding slang, stereotypes, collo-quialisms, and offensive terms including racial slurs, derogatory orprejudicial language, or language that implies or states disapproval oflife-style or sexual preferences. Being culturally sensitive refers to usingterms that are clear and understandable based on the person's cul-ture—for example, trunk in American English versus boot in BritishEnglish. Cultural sensitivity has more to do with being understood,both in language and in customs, than offending someone. In addi-tion, you need to avoid the following:

• Using absolutes (always, never, all, every)

• Generalizing—referring to the generic they or people and makinguntested assumptions about the world

• Referring to you or they when you mean yourself, as in, "When Xhappens, you feel like giving up"; point this out to clients whenthey do it

• Making broad "how it is" statements, as in, "That's just howengineers are," or, "It's the economy; there just aren't any jobsout there"

• Being inauthentic or hypocritical in any way (e.g., telling orencouraging the client to do something that you would not doyourself)

Use of Metaphor and Analogy

Questions using metaphors—visual or other images—to explainclients' issues or experiences can be a powerful way to access a moreholistic perspective on an issue than the more obvious question. Forexample, asking, "Do you feel like you're drifting at sea?" will be more

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CAREER COACHING

powerful for some clients than, "Are you confused?" (especially if theyare kinesthetic or highly visual in communication style). Analogyuses language creatively to draw parallels with clients' experiences.An example might be, "If the players in this situation were animals,what would they be?" or, "Is there any parallel between what you'reexperiencing and some event in nature? Describe it for me."

Coaching techniques using metaphor, analogy, and other imagescan also be used in a more suggestive way, as in the followingexamples:

• "Imagine you can rise above the situation in a helicopter and seethe entire landscape. What do you see? What else? What colors?How fast are things moving? What are the most important or vis-ible elements?"

• "Let's be a couple of miners, going deep into the earth to explorethese beliefs further together. What do you notice as the elevatordescends into the mine shaft? Where is the light coming from?Are there any creatures or other images that come to mind?What feelings do you feel? Let's go a bit deeper now, beginningto move toward the gold mine. The gold mine is where the answerto your dilemma lies.

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