Coaching Case Study By Jia Ling Cheryl Ye
(Career Coach, SINGAPORE)
Client’s Background
Doris is a computer science graduate and has a Master Degree in Applied Finance. She has been working in the banking sector for 10 years. In her early days in the banking sector, she was mainly handling reports generation using Visual Basic Application. In recent years, she has moved on to do Risk Management.
Topic for discussion
Doris would like to find out if she should leave her current job and go into data analytics. Doris had attended a course on Data Analytics a few years ago.
Coaching Techniques
Powerful Questioning:
First, I started off by asking Doris to talk about her current job and the area in her job she has passion in. What are the prospectshe foresee in her current job.Next, I ask her to talk about the Data Analytic course that she has attended a few years ago and what she likes about the course.
Throughout the session, I allow Doris to talk with minimal interruption. After some questioning, Doris said that she is still passionate about her job. The reason why she wanted to go into data analytics was because data analytics and data visualization are the next ‘big’ thing in the market. She is always on the lookout for new skills to upgrade herself or even change sector so that she will not be replaced easily. The data analytics course that she attended was introductory and she does not have much knowledge about the subject.
I also asked Doris what are her strengths to help her be more self-aware of her strengths so that she can determine for herself if data analytics is the right area for her. She described her strength as Analytical and she likes to work with figures or data. In order to help her further determine if data analytics is the right goal for her. I asked Doris questions like what else does she think she should do to help determine if data analytics is for her. Doris replied that she would need to spend some time thinking about what she wants in her career, do more research online, attend courses and volunteer her service to be involved in projects that do data analytics. By being exposing to these areas, she feels that it will help her to make an informed choice.
Gratitude:
In wrapping up the session, I shared with Doris that she is blessed to have a supportive family and boss. Her boss is supportive of her to participate in projects that are outside her job scope.
Moving Ahead
At the end of the session, Doris felt that she has a clearer picture of what she wants to do. She plans to talk about what career plans and the research she has done in the next coaching session.
Conclusion
The coaching approach I have applied here are powerful questioning and active listening. By getting the coachee to talk about her aspiration and strength, I was hoping that the coachee would be self-aware of her strength and interest, to help her to make informed choices/decisions.