A person looking to make a job change will sometimes hire a career coach to make the process easier. After all, career coaches help work on what comes next. But career coaching isn’t just for individuals on the job hunt. It can also help companies with their organizational goals.
The benefits of career coaching are two-fold. It increases employee engagement and it helps employees achieve goals that will help them advance. It can also help them find a new path that fits their skills better.
These four tips—and some training giveaways—can help your staff successfully navigate their career path.
Craft a job path
The most critical thing employees need for career advancement is the knowledge of where they want to go and how to get there. To help staff members determine what the next step is, ask the following questions:
- What is going on in your career right now?
- What do you want to be different?
- What steps can you take to move in that direction?
Give them a planner (#103613-EX) to help with the process. They’ll find it easier to stay on task when they have a place to jot down goals, upcoming training or classes and timelines. Reward them for accomplishing goals and remind them it was worth the wait with a logo sand timer.
Build resilience
Setbacks are a part of life, whether it’s a day without a sale or a project that doesn’t meet expectations. This can result in harsh self-criticism that can damage employees’ confidence and job performance. Help staff build resilience by:
- Asking questions to better understand their concerns.
- Repeating back what you hear and help them see that their worst-case scenario fears won’t come true.
- Discussing ways to learn from the experience.
Conversations like this can be stressful. A building block stress reliever sends the message that communicating about problems can also be help build the future.
Become an influencer
Thirty-nine percent of coaching conversations with junior employees involve helping them influence people, build their networks and create desired results. A career coach can encourage employees to think from another person’s perspective and find new ways to build relationships.
Remind staff members to focus on teamwork with a puzzle stress reliever. Be sure to encourage active listening—truly listening to what another person says instead of just waiting to talk. This takes practice. Role playing activities can help them build this important skill.
Break out of a mental rut
When trying to solve difficult problems, employees can get stuck in a rut. Help get them unstuck by having them:
- State the problem.
- Determine the feelings involved.
- Identify their primary concern.
- Explain what they observe other people being frustrated about.
Using this information can help them find the root of the problem, which can lead to new solutions. Post-It® notes are an excellent training giveaway to brainstorm solutions, as ideas can easily be arranged and rearranged.
Get in the game
Are you looking to open a discussion about the benefits of a career coach? Start by looking at all the different ways one can help build a better business. These tips and training giveaway ideas can help your staff become better team players.
Top takeaways
- An employee has to know what they want from their career in order to take the right steps.
- Listening and understanding another person’s perspective are the keys to building relationships and influencing people.
- When stuck on a problem, finding the real root of the issue and addressing it can lead to creative solutions.