Iris Finger

Career Coaching
(Individual to make changes at work)
 Q&A
Any other question before we start?

2
 Introduction: Career Coaching
• 70% of global population work
• 50% are looking for better job opportunities
• Reason:
• Financial
• Meaning
 Development: Career Coaching
• Developed since the 1970s
• Diverse inputs (many disciplines: psychology,
counseling, sociology, economics)
• Not good reputation because
• Narrow focus → develop skills for a job (but
neglect the needs of the individual
• Recruiters trying to find perfect person for
perfect job through some
inventories/tests
 Development: Career Coaching
• Risk again today due to IT apps / AI!
• Career coaching is unregulated
• No formal education exists
• Varying quality / approaches
• Many coaches are self-taught
• Efforts underway regarding
• Professional membership / accreditation /
registration
• Formalization of career coaching
 Theory: Career Coaching
• Career coaching is changing because job
environments are changing
• Today: job and whole-life success (not just job!)
• Today: increased mobility (not just one job in
one company!)
• Today: increased flexibility of location (not just
employment in birth country)
• Today: change in job duration (change of job
every 5 years and not one job for 40 years)
 Theory: Career Coaching
• Effect on career coaching → enriched the role
of coaches / makes the role more complex!
• 1st theories:
• Identify personality type (realistic, investigative,
artistic, social, enterprising, conventional) →
match these types to jobs / categories
• Ignores job satisfaction and changes!
 Theory: Career Coaching
• NOW theories: Re configuring career theories
• Coach to help coachee to create set of
principles (wants & needs for the job)
• Coach to help coachee to build a realistic
picture of themselves / working identify (what
they want / can do versus what they do not
want / prefer → Example: competitive
environment vs more social environment)
 Theory: Career Coaching
• Coach to help coachee to identify personality
preferences for the job (example: rewards,
job title, gaining status, career ladder,
company reputation, job content – what is
most important?
 Theory: Career Coaching
• NOW theory: Life stage theory
• Coach to help coachee during life-time → shifts
occur in working & life priorities over time
• Life Stage model
• Shows these changes
• Helps coaches to understand coachees
work life phases better (what was and
what will be)
• Combines: life phases with other factors
(labor market, personal capabilities)
 Theory: Career Coaching
• Life Stage:
• Birth to Growth: 0 – 14 years
• Exploration: 15 – 24 years
• Establishment: 25 – 44 years
• Maintenance: 45 – 64 years
• Decline/Disengagement: 65 +
Theory: Career Coaching
 Theory: Career Coaching
• Coachee has different priorities at different
stages in life
• Example:
• Student less in older age
• Leisure more in older age
• Affects job choices / job development / work
 Theory: Career Coaching
• At 35:
• Important: Student, worker, parents, spouse
• At 60:
• Important: Leisure, work, spouse
• → job implications
 Theory: Career Coaching
• Further note:
• There are many “midlife crisis”
• Any time, life phase changes → we have a
“midlife crisis” (example: change from
exploration to establishment → question life,
its purpose, our role in it)
• There is “quarter-life crisis, midlife crisis, three
quarter-life crisis”!!
 Theory: Career Coaching
• NOW theory: the importance of confidence
• Coach to help coachee to develop “career
identify”
• How do coachees see themselves in their
career environment includes:
• Interest
• Motivation
• Personality
• Value & beliefs
 Theory: Career Coaching
• Career identify:
• Above plus…
• How does the coachee learn from
experiences?
• Does the coachee have courage to take risks?
• Is the coachee able to change?
• Coach to help coachee to understand
him/herself better → effects career choice /
career development / career change
 Theory: Career Coaching
• NOW theory: Complexity and chance
• Job careers are a product of “unplanned
opportunities”
• Many careers are not planned
• Many careers are shaped by resources around
us (my father did it, the company is in the
neighborhood…)
• Coach to focus on coachee’s social
environment of opportunities (opportunity
structure)
 Theory: Career Coaching
• NOW theory: Adaptability and resilience
• In a changing world (mergers, acquisitions,
restructuring) →
• Difficult to maintain: motivation, handle stress
• Coach to help coachee to stay on top, to
continue learning and adjusting, positive and
be future focused, be self-reliant
• Coach to help coachee to learn from
experiences
 Practices: Career Coaching
• Pressured contracting
• Most coachee ask for help under time pressure
(need to make a decision to accept a new
job or not)
• Coaching needs time!
• Contract between coach and coachee needs to
be clear
• Trust between coach & coachee critical
 Practices: Career Coaching
• Chemistry and orientation
• Important decision (career), hence anxiety &
pressures
• Coach to advise coachee how to improve
necessary skills (e.g. interviewing skills, self-
marketing skills, managing politics…)
• Coach help coachee to learn & improve (coach
needs to understand how coachee learns!)
 Practices: Career Coaching
• Chemistry and orientation...
• Areas where coach can advise:
• Strategic resources: how to use networks? How
to develop important capabilities quickly?
• Authenticity: what is meaningfull to me? Where
am I going in life? How to achieve work/life
balance? What is my management style?
• Advice, planning: how do I create
opportunities? How do I perform well during
interviews? How do I negotiate my package?
 Practices: Career Coaching
• Chemistry and orientation...
• Transition: how do I develop confidence? How
do I cope with professional setbacks? How
do I deal with difficult managers?
•
 Practices: Career Coaching
• Informing theories:
• Various career coaching theories exist →
• 1. trait matching: coach is expert & matches
skills to job
• 2. life stage development: coach to help
coachee to understand the world and their
role/job in it
• 3. chaos theory: coach to help coachee to
break out of conventional role and take
advantage of new opportunity
 Practices: Career Coaching
• Informing theories:
• Various career coaching theories exist →
• 4. Opportunity: Coach to supply coachee with
new information (broaden horizont)
• 5. Career learning: Coach to teach / motivate
coachee to achieve reflection
 Practices: Career Coaching
• Career management:
• A career coach must help coachee to manage
the career
• Including: coach to help coachee with:
• To expand capabilities
• Be prepared for / be ready for work changes
• Be empowered to take action (confidence)
• To maintain wellbeing
 Practices: Career Coaching
• Who benefits?
• Coachee who know what they want – Benefit:
Partnership between coachee and coach –
coach can help coachee to make a transition
/ change; coach can help to develop work
skills
• Coachee with less awareness – Benefit: Coach
to be guide and educator; coach can help
with life purpose
 Discussion: Career Coaching
• How can a coachee develop self-confidence (in
holding a job, changing a job, developing a
job,quitting a job)?
• How to detect assumptions which a coachee
has about him/herself that is holding her/him
back in the job? What kind of assumptions
are holding us back?
• As a career coach, can “one” have one
method/approach of how to help a coachee?
 Discussion: Career Coaching
• Group work
• 10 minutes
• Spokesperson to present points/findings
 Feedback
Takeaway (what you have learnt)
Questions (still questions you have)
Thing you enjoyed
 Questions - Note
●
Understand & know:
●
Definition / meaning
●
Techniques / processes
●
Who benefits / who not
●
Advantages / disadvantages
●
&
●
Form an opinion
Questions – Note (homework for full
time students)
What is “Career Coaching”? What is the process?
If you were a “career coach” what techniques would you
use?
What are the plus and minuses (limitation) of this
appraoch?
In your own words: what is career management?
Do you like this coaching technique? Y/N & why/why not?
Please do your own research but also link your answer
back to the study materials in this presentation.
Discussion in Forum
 Thank you
End of Lecture:

33
Seminar

34
 Case Study: John
John worked for 4 years in a company
Then he completed an MBA
He started a new job
After a few months, a new CEO started
John did not get along
John left after 7 months
 Case Study: John
John took coaching sessions (6 x over 3 months)
Main concerns:
How is short employment seen by other future
potential employers
 Case Study: John
John had the following coaching goals:
Move from medium size company to a larger
company
Maintain director status
Improve handling of relationships with senior
managers
Want to become a successful MD or CEO
 Case Study: John
6 coaching sessions:
1. Closure
John was helped to let go of the old employer and
any negative feelings.
John also wrote his career progression so far
(after session 2: he wrote his future chapter)
 Case Study: John
6 coaching sessions:
2. Individual exploration
John identified who he was at work; what he was
best at; what meaningful work meant for him?
Various personality tests were used to do so!
(MBTI, 360 degree feedback)

John wrote his future career chapter

 Case Study: John
6 coaching sessions:
3. Review and external exploration
John reviewed strength and identified his fit as a
consultant.
John explored this opportunity.
 Case Study: John
6 coaching sessions:
4. Brand
John build his brand on linkedIn
John learnt to write cover letters, tailored CV etc
Feedback from the labor market: no job
opportunities for him due to limited experience
John set up own business
 Case Study: John
6 coaching sessions:
5. Interview skills
Interview skills were developed (mock interview)
Presentation skills were developed
John won a short term consultancy assignment
(this met all his requirements: financial and
work/life balance)
 Case Study: John
6 coaching sessions:
6. Transition
Coach helped John to become more confident
John became more confident with others / in his
relationships with others
 Case Study: John
6 coaching sessions:
More sessions ….
John developed his leadership style
John developed his affect/impact on others
 Case Study: John
6 coaching sessions:
Summary
Case study show importance of:
Individual reflection
Exploring the market
Being open for new opportunities
Building confidence
Building a brand
Note: John became a director of sales after two
years!
 Case Study: Questions
Any questions?
Helpful to demonstrate career coaching?
Realistic? Y/N & why?
 Question
What do you think about this technique / approach
to coaching?
Could you use it for “self-coaching”?
What are you main “take-away” points?

Take 5 minutes to reflect

Then discussion in Forum (all)
 Any final….
Comments
Questions
Opinions
Points?
 Thank you
End of Seminar:
See you next Thursday

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