Coaching Case Study By Pow Chen NG
(Career Coach, SINGAPORE)
Frederic is an experience financial personnel for considerable number of years in the financial sector. He was recently restructured due to the changes in business direction and role designed. He was out of job since July and is actively looking for job currently.Having sent numerous application, he managed to secure a few interviews and has attended some of these interviews, pending hiring outcome. He was the sole breadwinner of the family.
In our initial discovery session, I set the agenda using the coaching agreement, ie, outlining specific coaching interaction, about the process & relationship and having mutual respect and trust in the process. All information shared will be kept confidential. This is to ensure the demonstration of personal integrity, honesty and sincerity for Frederic.
I leverages on coaching model of GROW, ie:
Goals – identifying goals to be achieved by the end of the session, which is to be able to better prepare for the job interview so that he can secure an employment and continue with the financial means of supporting the family.
Reality – check with understand where he is now, the journey undertakes to achieve the goals through exploration of solutions along the way, ie, he is looking for an employment now and the plan that he has
Options – various options available, I will assist in this discovery process and discuss about it, ie, being the sole breadwinner, and allowing him to discover options that he can explore
Will – with a clarity of what he wants to do; Frederic is clear of the way forward to achieve the goals with specific actions steps, and commit to the best actions forward.
I had Frederic to complete the strength finder and his top two are Arranger and Discipline which are Executing behaviors likely for finance personnel.
The following coaching skills were observed:
Creating trust
We meet at a venue which is quiet and conducive for the career discussion at e2i career centre. I started by introducing myself, my background so that Frederic can know me better, sharing a little on my hobby just to be a little informal and to have Frederic feels relax. Contents of our conversationwill be kept confidential. Encourage him to share freely so that I can get to know the situation better and explore on avenues that we can for discussion.
Coaching Presence
I put away my mobile device and have Frederic to do the same so that we can concentrate fully on the discussion, having a spontaneous discussion and keep the discussion, open, flexible and confident of Frederic with me.
Active Listening
I kept my eye-contact with Frederic, nodding in acknowledgement his sharing in according with the agenda that Frederic has for the session, or acknowledge by saying ‘ I see what you mean’, ‘OK’, ‘go-on- tell me more’, paraphrasing some contents back when necessary to Frederic to ensure clarity and understanding of the contents.
Powerful questioning
I asked Frederic to tell me about the interview process that he has been through, and how he compare each one of them, what are some of the key similarities and differences, and which arethe areas that he could emphasize more. I went on to explore with him on scenarios where he felt more confident and vice versa, and the possible reasons behind it, what conclusions he could draw from within, what are some of the pitfalls that he can watch out for, what are some of the key skills the position require and what are his plans of actions if he has missing key skills, how can he be better prepared for upcoming interview with the job description as reference.
Wheel of Life
Besides the above, I work with Frederic on wheel of life, what are his focus areas now. Plot it, on his current standing, where he will like to be and the action plans to get there, using SMART objectives. I will follow-up with him on the action plan, to track his progress and any adjustments to be made along the way, balancing his pace towards achieving the goals and celebrate success here and there, where applicable to drive his morale &motivation.
Underlying Beliefs
Through the sharing, Frederic unveil one of his underlying belief that he should provide support for the family and this has been in the family culture. He has been a little stress over it although his wife has expressed her willingness to go look for an employment. I encourage Frederic to think about some other options around this and he mentioned about getting a part-time job as accountant, which is able to pay him and he gets to be active being in a financial position during the transition period. I share with him some of the agency and recruiter contacts, e2i, jobsbank which he can explore on opportunities. I share with Frederic the importance of network and he added that he can spend some time doing community work, volunteering and probably get to know more people, which he might get to know potential opportunity out there through referral, which is an option that Frederic is going to explore.
Frederic agrees that I have met his agenda for the session. He will work on the wheel of life actions and work options shared earlier (part time opportunity & volunteering work) and will continue with the coaching journey.
If I can do the above differently, I would probably look for career success video and share with the client and you tube examples on success interview scenarios to have my client to have a reference to how he can better prepare for interview.
The important 3 areas that I have learned through this coaching session are:
- We need to practice active listening. Through active learning, we will be focus on what the client’s issues are. This helps us to explore on powerful questions that we can ask to help the client discover options that he could have missed and a possible avenue out for the client.
- Setting the scenarios right and building the initial trust with the client’s right from the initial discovery session. This enable the client to feel comfortable to share, unveiling insights and the intervention questioning will then be more effective
- On underlying belief, by uncovering the underlying beliefs, you bring lights to the client and he can see lights at the end of the tunnel, likely increasing his confidence in carrying out the next step, overcoming a hurdle which has been hindering the individual from success.