Coaching people to help them develop their career is one of the most common reasons for a leader or manager to coach staff in their organisation. Helping a colleague to develop further and to fulfil their ambitions and aspirations is certainly one of the most rewarding aspects of any coaching relationship. Much of what we have covered in earlier chapters will be useful when coaching for career development; however, the following ideas will add value and help you to focus on career issues.
Your role will be to help and support your coachee to think about their career so far, and to assist them with the planning process for their future career development. As with any coaching relationship, career development coaching involves commitment on both sides. It is also worthwhile recognising that coaching for career development does not always mean promotion, but can mean increasing breadth and depth of your coachee’s skills and capabilities so that they are better prepared for any possible career opportunities when they present themselves.
Making career decisions are among some of the most important decisions an individual will ever have to make, so your role as a coach in this context will be to help people to:
A career development coaching relationship will probably involve you in a longer-term process than some of the other scenarios we have discussed. Of course this is up to the people involved, but we believe that in order to get the best out of this type of relationship be prepared for a relationship that might last for several months, even years.
During your sessions you should cover some or all of the following:
These questionnaires can provide you with a wealth of information and will add to the quality of any career development discussion. They can help a person to raise their self-awareness and to explore aspects of their career and skills in more depth.
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