Using Life-Skills Coaching Techniques to Empower Your Callers

1. What’s Your Game Plan: Kristin Ankrom, LSW kankrom@ohiopps.org 740-687-0501 Using Life-Skills Coaching Techniques to Empower Your Callers Francesca Kranzberg, CIRS Francie.kranzberg@shalomdc.org 301-348-7313

2. Topics Covered • Empowerment Theory • Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs • Roles & Strategies of an I&R/A Specialist • Definition of Coaching & Why Coaching is an Appropriate technique for an I&R/A Specialist • Various Coaching Theories and Approaches • Setting Goals and The Goal Planner • Helping Your Client Become More Self-Confident

3. Empowerment Theory Empowerment – “process by which individuals gain power, access to resources and control over their own lives. In doing so they gain the ability to achieve their highest personal goals” (Robbins, Chatterjee, & Canda, 1998, p.91).

4. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Self-actualization (personal growth and fulfillment) Esteem (achievement, status, responsibility, reputation) Belongingness & Love (family, affection, relationships, work group, etc.) Safety (protection, security, order, law, etc.) Biological and Physiological (air, food, water, shelter, etc.)

5. Roles & Strategies Resource Consultant – Links callers to resources to enhance self-esteem and problem solving skills. Enables the caller to gain independence and control over their lives The Sensitizer helps/allows the caller to recognize and identify their own strengths and the strengths of others As a Teacher you are the manager of the learning process aimed at helping the caller find solutions. Educate the community and other professionals about barriers that families encounter. Cooperator – Caller is the one who is self-determining in achieving self-efficacy and empowerment. Connecting empowered person to others who share common histories, issues, and barriers.

6. Empower v. Enable EMPOWER Educate Provide resources Advocate Promote personal responsibility Consistency Listen Validate feelings Believe in change Expressing empathy ENABLE Owning the customer’s problem Getting caught up in the “cycle of excuses” Ignoring the problem Not allowing for personal growth Not addressing barriers/concerns Expressing sympathy Failure to recognize personal responsibility and goal attainment

7. Coaching is… A teaching or training process in which an individual gets support while learning to achieve a specific personal or professional result or goal. • Sometimes called Life Coaching or Personal Coaching, coaching aims to draw out a person's potential rather than impose aims and knowledge from outside. • Coaching develops rather than imposes. • Coaching reflects rather than directs.

8. Coaching should be… • A way to facilitate change by enabling people, rather than training them. • Reactive and flexible. • Without preconceived assumptions • Empathy is central to the coaching process. • Good personal coaching seeks to help the other person's understanding of himself or herself.

9. Why should we coach our callers? • Coaching is about getting the very best out of someone and enabling them to make decisions that will improve their life.

10. Why coaching is appropriate in I&R/A • Most coaching is conducted on the telephone. Many coaches never actually meet their clients. For several reasons coaching is just as effective over the telephone as it is face-to-face.

11. Why coaching is appropriate in I&R/A In coaching, listening is more important than talking. Through listening, people can: • overcome their fears • be offered complete objectivity • be given undivided attention and unparalleled support. • Listening to the client leads to the intuitive questioning that allows the client to explore what is going on for themselves.

12. Why coaching is appropriate in I&R/A • Coaching is a two-way process. While listening is crucial, so is being able to interpret and reflect back. • Coaches are able to communicate feeling and meaning, as well as content. • Good coaching uses communication not to give the client the answers, but to help the clients find their answers for themselves

13. Why coaching is appropriate in I&R/A • A coach's ability to build rapport with people is vital. • The coach's only focus is the client. • When a coach supports a person in this way it quite naturally accelerates the rapport-building process. • Coaches motivate and inspire people. • People who feel ready to help others are normally able to motivate and inspire. • When someone receives attention and personal investment from a coach towards their well-being and development, this is in itself very motivational and inspirational.

14. Why coaching is appropriate in I&R/A • Coaches must be flexible because people's needs are different • Circumstances and timings are unpredictable, so coaching relationships do not follow a single set formula. • Remembering that everyone is different and has different needs is an essential part of being a coach. Ultimately, everyone is human - so coaches take human emotions and feelings into account. • Like I&R/A, coaching is client-led • emotions have to be tapped into from the very beginning of the coaching process. • The flexibility to react to people's differences, and the curiosity and interest to understand fundamental issues in people's lives, are crucial in coaching.

15. Why coaching is appropriate in I&R/A • To Summarize… • Listening is more important than talking • What motivates people must be understood • Everyone is capable of achieving more • A person's past is no indication of their future • People's beliefs about what is possible for themselves are their only limits

16. Why coaching is appropriate in I&R/A And… • A coach must always provide full support • Coaches don't provide the answers • Coaching does not include criticizing people • All coaching is completely confidential • Some people's needs cannot be met by coaching , and coaches recognize clients with these needs

17. Control Theory Many factors effect successful coaching, including: • Motivation • Cultural differences • Goals • Feedback. Control Theory focuses on the last two: goals and feedback.

18. Control Theory • The basic premise of control theory is that people attempt to control the state of some variable by regulating their own behavior. • We often say that something or someone made us feel a certain way. And yet, as we watch people react so differently to the same event, we see with our own eyes that people choose how they feel.

19. The DELTA Approach • DELTA coaching is an acronym that consists of five main elements • (D) Determining cultural values • (E) Employing typical coaching techniques • (L) Looking and listening for motivational needs and deficiencies • (T) Tailoring coaching techniques to motivational needs and cultural values, and • (A) Assessing the effectiveness of these.

20. Determining Cultural Values: Hofstede'scultural dimensions theory Cultural Dimensions Theory is a systematic way to assess and differentiate national cultures in relation to organizational culture. It is a comprehensive model which argues that people differ on the extent to which they endorse six dimensions of values • power (equality versus inequality, known as the Power-Distance Index, or PDI) • collectivism (versus individualism) • uncertainty avoidance (versus tolerance) • masculinity (versus femininity) • temporal orientation, and • indulgence (versus restraint).

21. Determining Cultural Values: Hofstede'scultural dimensions theory 1. Power (equality versus inequality) • Power distance index (PDI): Power distance is the extent to which the less powerful members of organizations and institutions (like the family) accept and expect that power is distributed unequally. • The power distance index Hofstede defines does not reflect an objective difference in power distribution, but rather the way people perceive power differences. 2. Collectivism vs. Individualism • The degree to which individuals are integrated into groups. • In individualistic societies, the stress is put on personal achievements and individual rights. • In collectivist societies, individuals act predominantly as members of a life-long and cohesive group or organization

22. Determining Cultural Values: Hofstede'scultural dimensions theory • Uncertainty avoidance index (UAI) reflects the extent to which members of a society attempt to cope with anxiety by minimizing uncertainty. • High uncertainty avoidance cultures try to minimize change by implementing rules, laws and regulations. • In contrast, low uncertainty avoidance cultures tend to be more pragmatic, they are more tolerant of change. 4. Masculinity (MAS), vs. femininity is the distribution of emotional roles between the genders. • Masculine cultures’ values are competitiveness, assertiveness, materialism, ambition and power, whereas feminine cultures place more value on relationships and quality of life. In masculine cultures, the differences between gender roles are more dramatic and less fluid than in feminine cultures.

23. Determining Cultural Values: Hofstede'scultural dimensions theory 5. Temporal Orientation (or Long term orientation vs. short term orientation) • Long term oriented societies attach more importance to the future. Values are oriented towards rewards, including persistence, saving and capacity for adaptation. • In short term oriented societies, values are related to the past and the present, including steadiness, respect for tradition, preservation of one’s face, reciprocation and fulfilling social obligations. 6. Indulgence vs. Restraint • Indulgence in a society allows relatively free gratification of basic and natural human drives related to enjoying life and having fun.  • A restrained society suppresses gratification of needs and regulates it by means of strict social norms.

24. Employing Typical Coaching Techniques Employing typical coaching techniques can be broken down into four main elements: • a one-on-one relationship, • monitoring the coachee’s performance and other work-relevant behaviors, • setting goals based on the behaviors monitored, and • providing feedback throughout the relationship. Feedback and feedback interventions are one of the most common and well-known coaching techniques.

25. DELTA • Looking and listening for motivational needs and deficiencies. • All motivational theories, strategies, and techniques use feedback and goal setting • Tailoring Coaching Techniques • the coach must be able to deal with differences and adjust their coaching strategies to maximize motivation of clients. • Assessing the effectiveness • Individuals are not motivated by the same thing, thus exploring different means of motivating and assessing how well they work a necessary step.

26. The Goal Plan A plan makes things happen. • To achieve a goal or a vision you must plan how to make it happen. • You cannot 'do' a goal or a vision. Instead you must do the things that enable it - usually several things, in several steps. • A good plan identifies causes and effects in achievable stages.

27. The Goal Plan: Aim • Having a clear aim begins to define the plan. • Plans can be structured in different ways, taking into account individual preference and the various planning tools and methods which exist. Detailed people prefer detailed plans. Intuitive people prefer broader more flexible plans.

28. The Goal Plan: Cause Factors Identify - clearly and measurably - the factors (what needs to happen) which would directly cause the aim to be achieved. These are the Casual Factors. • If necessary suggest your caller research this - it does no good to guess or ignore an unavoidable aspect. • Attach objective measures or parameters or standards as necessary • Attach timings– how long will a particular act take? • Then ask and identify: What must exist or be achieved for the causal factors to happen?

29. The Goal Plan: Enabling Factors • Identify what needs to happen - clearly and measurably – in order for the causal factors to happen or exist. • It is natural for causal factors to depend on a number of enabling factors. • If necessary again research this. • Write these factors down and clearly define them, again so that even a stranger could understand them. • Attach measures and timings. • Then identify if there are any enabling factors which need to happen before this level of enabling factors. • If so, add a fourth level and complete the enabling factors accordingly. • When you have completed your plan, you can then start to work through the levels - from the bottom to the top.

30. Goals: In a Nutshell Causal and enabling factors come in all shapes and sizes. Research those that pertain to you. • Success is mostly based on understanding what is required before setting out to achieve. For example, enabling factors can include: • resources • tools • knowledge • experience • qualifications • reputation

31. Goals: In a Nutshell Success is mostly based on understanding what is required before setting out to achieve. For example, enabling factors can include: • contacts • style • skills • decisions and commitments • re-direction, re-allocation and prioritization • attitude and outlook • encouragement and support

32. Goals: In a Nutshell Still more enabling factors can include: • time and space • maturity and wisdom • energy and enthusiasm • determination and persistence • money and other assets • mistakes and disasters - yes, mistakes and disasters can be very useful enablers, so it helps to see them in this way

33. Assertiveness and Self-confidence How can you help your client become more Assertive and Self-Confident? Encourage him/her to: • Know the facts situation and have a “cheat sheet” • Anticipate other people's behavior and prepare responses. • Prepare and use good open questions. • Re-condition and practice new reactions to aggression (role-play different scenarios) • Feel sympathy for bullies - they actually need it.

34. Questions?