I was recently asked to write an article for the Australian Career Practitioner, the national magazine for the Career Development Association of Australia.
They were interested in methods of career coaching currently practiced in the UK.
Here’s the article in full below.
Contemporary Career Coaching
Contemporary Career Coaching is a way of describing the approach I use having been influenced by my coaching and counselling training with NLP and Contemporary Psychotherapy organisations in the U.K.
The word “con-tempo-rary” means literally “with time” or “moving in time”. And “Career” can be described as a person’s progress or general course of action through life. A contemporary approach therefore looks to respect the evolving processes of a client’s unique life journey. It will explore the full ‘timeline’ of the client – past influences and decisions; current conditions and desires; and future plans and goals.
In applying this approach I will often use a model developed by Robert Dilts called Logical Levels. Although being the subject of some debate within the NLP community, it is nevertheless a useful tool for providing a structured map of the client’s history, current considerations, and motivations for the future.
The Logical Levels model gives the coach a framework for working with the client to gather and organise information that influences their decisions and behaviours (often unconsciously). It helps to raise the client’s awareness of these influences so that they can be reviewed as part of the coaching process.
The model suggests that who we are is influenced by our understanding of what we value the most, and the beliefs we have about ourselves and others. These factors, coupled with our skills and experience, affect our interactions, behaviours and level of satisfaction.
When each level is aligned we are acting and behaving congruently, and ‘being true to ourselves’. If any of the levels are misaligned, we may feel unfulfilled or uncomfortable in some way.
Therefore, when making decisions about our career, it helps to consider all of our ‘levels’. It encourages a personalised, authentic assessment rather than one being based on learned responses and perceived expectations of others and society in general. Making changes at the lower levels without first considering the upper levels may also soon lead to a lack of satisfaction with the results.
I will generally introduce the model to the client at the beginning of the career coaching process. With the use of a flipchart we’ll start to explore and record the client’s personal views of themselves against each of the levels.
We’ll start with their values. (The reasons WHY we do things). What qualities are important to them now? Perhaps being creative? Having freedom? Working ethically? How might these affect their future? Values change over time, and what a client is doing now might no longer be honouring their current values. Ideally we’ll look at identifying and ranking the client’s current top 5 values. These then become a reference for later decisions.
Next will be beliefs. What does the client believe about themselves? Which beliefs might be holding them back or affecting their confidence? When were the beliefs first decided upon and why? This is an opportunity for the coach to explore and even challenge old beliefs that are no longer helpful, with positive beliefs being reinforced.
Logical Levels image
(Source: Google images).
We’ll then acknowledge and record all of the client’s skills, resources and experience that they have acquired so far. (HOW we do things). This empowers the client to recognise the many ways that these can be applied to future options and decisions.
The final stage will be for the client to consider career options and conditions that honour their values, beliefs, skills and preferred way of working. (WHAT we do and WHERE we do it). Here I’ll support the client in identifying solutions that match these criteria and our understanding of the marketplace. We’ll then put together a route map and action plan for the client to take away.
This approach aims to align all of these factors so that they are mutually supportive, enabling the client to make informed decisions about career choice, progression of goals and positioning for the future.
They can do this with clarity and confidence, and with beliefs and perceptions which have been reviewed and validated through personal exploration and analysis. They are then more likely to feel motivated and satisfied by the next steps in their journey.
Alan Hills
www.contemporarycoaching.co.uk
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