Counseling

For everything you wanted to know on building leadership and management, refer Shyam Bhatawdekar’s website: http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com/

(Refer our High Quality Management Encyclopedia “Management Universe” at: http://management-universe.blogspot.com/)

Counseling: Introduction

It will be a good idea to refer some related topics that are normally confused with counseling. Refer URLs: http://training-function.blogspot.com/ (Training and Development), http://coaching-skill.blogspot.com/ (Coaching), http://mentor-mentorship.blogspot.com/ (Mentoring)

Counseling is interviewing the person being counselled and helping to solve his problems through human approach of sharing and guidance.
Counseling is sitting down in private setting for an open discussion with an employee. Sometimes it is to pay a sincere compliment, sometimes it is to solve a problem that is hurting productivity/effectiveness, sometimes it is because an employee violated your discipline line and you need to talk about improvement in his behavior.
It is communicating one to one, in private. It is interviewing- it's a two way dialogue and not one way sermonizing or advising.
It is encouraging the other person to to talk about himself so that the problem and it's reasons emerge clearly and solutions can be worked out.
One of the most important counseling skills is being a good listener.
In an organization, counseling can be done by the team leader, supervisor or manager or one can seek the expertise and assistance of an in-house or external professional counselor.

Situations that Call for Counseling in an Organization

Given below is a partial indicative list of situations that call for counseling from a superior to his subordinate:

When an employee violates your standards.
When an employee is consistently late or absent.
When an employee’s productivity is down.
When one employee behaves in such a way that productivity of others is negatively affected.
When two employees have a conflict that is becoming public and it is affecting the work.
When you want to compliment an individual.
When you want to delegate a new task.

Given below is a partial indicative list of situations which do not call for counseling:

When you disagree with an employee’s life style
When you are upset.
When you dislike the personality of an employee.

Preparation for the Counseling Interview

Choose an appropriate, quiet and private location.
Make sure that you are not disturbed during the counseling session.
Take care that you have allowed sufficient time to the the person you are counseling and that he is not being rushed into it.

Objectives of the Interview

Counselor should help the person being counselled to:

Tell his story.
Look out for new perspectives.
Clarify the issues.
Identify areas for change.
Set goals.
Develop action plan.
Review progress.

Counselor should provide full support during the interview and also after the interview to carry out the action plan and to review the progress.

Counseling Skills

Listen carefully.
Demonstrate empathy.
Do not make judgments.
Understand emotions/feelings behind the story of the person being counselled.
Question with care.
Ask open ended questions.
Reflect back, summarize and paraphrase so that the understanding is correct and complete.
Use appropriate body language.
Do not show superiority or patronage.

Techniques of Counseling (Based on Rogers, Carkheff and Patterson's model)

Structure
Listen (active and empathic)
Be silent (when required)
Respond
Reflect
Question
Interpret

Limitations/Constraints in Counseling

Person being counselled may not have trust in his counselor (normally, his superior) or the organization.
Suspicion over the level of confidentiality.
Organization's constraints on using it's resources, time and efforts.
Lack of skills of the counselor.

Benefits of Counseling

Helps the person being counselled to understand himself.
Allows the individual to help himself.
Assists in understand the situations more objectively.
Facilitates to look at the situations with a new perspective.
Develops positive outlook.
Motivates to search for alternate solutions to problems.
Helps in superior decision making.
Prepares the person to cope with the situation and the related stresses.

For More Guidance, Assistance, Training and Consultation

Contact: prodcons@prodcons.com

Also refer: (Prodcons Group) http://prodcons-group.blogspot.com/
(Training Programs by Prodcons Group) http://training-development-function.blogspot.com/
(Productivity Consultants) http://productivity-consultants.blogspot.com/

Other Topics of Interest

Counseling

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Counseling at Workplace

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