Taking care of colleagues working abroad

Judith Barton, Director of Coaching & Mentoring

 When colleagues say they are working overseas it can seem exciting to those who are back at base or maybe delighted they aren’t travelling at all! Over the years we have discovered how much preparation is needed to ensure they will “hit the ground running”.
If at all possible on their first assignment abroad they will be supported by a named colleague who is based in the location or is experienced in working there. Prior to  travel we go through a cultural awareness session led by a colleague experienced in working in that location and with an understanding of cultural norms which set expectations about behaviour and working relationships so that the individual can avoid putting themselves in any awkward or difficult situations and can represent the business professionally and with confidence.
This session includes practical advice and information for colleagues, both in business situations and during personal time. Our top tips include:

1. Take a copy of any prescriptions for medicines which you are taking;
2. Ensure you have an adequate supply of prescribed medications with you, ensure you are up-to-date with any required or recommended vaccinations;
3. Take a photocopy of your passport with you and keep it with you at all times along with uploading it to the Cloud, whilst the original is kept in the hotel safe (unless the country requires you to keep the original with you as the equivalent to an identity card). When visiting a business, security will typically ask you to leave photo ID at reception, so best to leave a driving licence or gym membership than passport;
4. Information about the layout of the airport on arrival and procedures to follow, e.g. do you need to buy a visa on entry;
5. The country’s dress code – for example in the Middle East modest dress is a clear expectation everywhere except by hotel swimming pools or in hotel gyms. This applies to both men and women;
6. Behaviour in public and private. It’s best to follow or mirror the behaviour of local people. Again, using the Middle East as an example, never take the lead in shaking hands with a member of the opposite sex at business introductions or meetings, even if this would be expected or acceptable in the UK. Physical signs of affection between couples in public are unacceptable, even between married couples;
7. Be aware the behaviour which is legal in the UK can be totally unacceptable elsewhere;
8. Some drugs which are used (with or without prescription) in the UK may be unacceptable elsewhere – e.g. codeine or other morphine derivatives. Where behaviour is illegal in both the UK and the country of your assignment (e.g. possession or use of illegal drugs) penalties can be a great deal harsher in other countries than in the UK;
9. Colleagues must leave a copy of the photograph page of their passport in the office prior to travelling outside the UK on our behalf.

Prior to departure, checks are made with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) website which is a source of information about any specific risks associated with the country where the assignment is based. The website of the country itself will also provide relevant information. If there is any evidence of risk the assignment will be cancelled. Contact details for the relevant British Embassy or Consulate are also available on the FCO website. In the event of any risk developing once the assignment has commenced all colleagues are expected to follow the FCO guidance and leave the country or contact the British Embassy or Consulate as appropriate.
When colleagues return to the UK from an international assignment, they are expected to attend a debrief where any concerns can be discussed and support and guidance given as necessary. If any concerns arise which we had not identified, we will ensure that colleagues going on future assignments are alerted to the issues identified.
Our priority is that our colleagues keep safe, feel confident working in different cultures and have a positive and enhancing experience whilst working internationally – this benefits clients and colleagues alike. It also makes sound business sense to ensure that our international reputation is enhanced, that clients are not offended or embarrassed and that a professional and competent impression is left with all those who come into contact with members of our team, whether in a business or leisure setting.
Taking care of the basics ensures we are free to focus on delivering the work.
Safe and successful travels!

Next week I will be writing about keeping safe when working alone – which is equally relevant for colleagues working internationally and in the UK.

Judith M Barton,
MSc, BA, Chartered FCIPD, MCMI, MInstLM, MIoD, EMCC Member, Coach & Coach Supervisor
Director of Coaching & Mentoring

New Year Blog: Perfect time for coaching.

A new year brings with it thoughts of change, focus and commitment. Commit to doing that something – that something could be change job, lose weight, learn a language; complete that qualification!

Whatever it is, it shows that without commitment it wouldn’t have been achieved. History shows us people need help to move from transient solutions to achieve the holy grail of sustainable solutions.

As coaches we work with clients to achieve sustainability – it’s what we do. The first week of 2015 is a great opportunity to show the power of coaching, help people make their resolutions sustainable.

Remember:

1)People need help to identify change and to make change.

2)Weather isn’t an excuse – for me this is a metaphor. Clients who don’t commit to their actions    will not achieve. A coach should commit in their sessions.

3)Be prepared for the year ahead, life will throw up demands and challenges, some of which will be in your clients control. To achieve sustainability you will need to be flexible.

4)Don’t be blown off course. 2015 will offer many distractions especially with a general election.

5)Reward yourself, give yourself a treat for maintaining your focus and achieving SUSTAINABILITY.


Judith Barton

How to price coaching services

Judith Barton, Director of Coaching

I enjoy hearing the stories of how someone gets into coaching.  This is a new profession and there are many streams to enter the river.

Working as a coach with lots of professionals from the legal world, it is obvious this is happening there as well.

Professionals often study unrelated subjects, recognise law what they want to do and move on to a vocational course such as the law conversion course, then onto a training contract with a law firm.

The coaching profession attracts entrants with both experience and knowledge.   For me it is important to develop your understanding with a balance of academic rigour and practical application – for example through an ILM programme.

Others may choose to take an alternative route, such as an MBA and then decide to take a coaching course.

Whatever the route into coaching, identifying your value within the marketplace is something many coaches struggle with, whilst on the other side of the equation some coaches seem comfortable to let the market decide and go with the flow.

This is obviously a market decision but setting off in the business of coaching needs some careful internal thought and reflection.

Here are a few tips on beginning the conversation with yourself on how to price your coaching services:

1. Where are you as a coach? – not physically, but in terms of your mental and financial readiness?
2. Financials – what sort of basics do you need to cover in order to survive?
3. What sort of restrictions, if any, are you putting on your practice – and are these the right restrictions/parameters.  For example – location and type of service you wish to provide.
4. Values – what is it that you wish to achieve through coaching for yourself and your clients?
5. How sustainable is your approach? Will this business become a business or are you there to support a particular lifestyle choice?

These 5 key questions and much more will be discussed in the ‘How to Price Your Coaching services’ CPD course.  You can read more and book your place here:  http://www.britishschoolofcoaching.com/cdp-courses/pricing-coaching-services/

British Embassy Presentation for Dubai English Speaking School

Last week we were very proud to present Certificates to teachers from Dubai English Speaking School for completing the ILM Level 3 Award in Coaching. Very well done to everyone!

12 more teachers have just begun the qualification, as the school continue to develop a culture of coaching throughout the whole organisation.

What Does it Mean to be a Coach?

Martin Hill, British School of Coaching

My coaching supervisor, in highlighting further development opportunities, suggested a couple of avenues to consider. One of them was “What is required in ‘being’ a coach- rather than simply ‘doing’ coaching.”

This concept intrigued me and made me reflect on the skills and qualities that I think a good coach should possess. In no particular order, as this was a stream of consciousness thought process:

• Emotional Intelligence- Daniel Goleman (1998) “ Working with emotional intelligence”, New York: Bantam Books) outlines five main elements – Wikipedia summarises these as follows : “(i) “Self-awareness – the ability to know one's emotions, strengths, weaknesses, drives, values and goals and recognize their impact on others while using gut feelings to guide decisions. (ii)Self-regulation – involves controlling or redirecting one's disruptive emotions and impulses and adapting to changing circumstances. (iii) Social skill – managing relationships to move people in the desired direction (iv) Empathy - considering other people's feelings especially when making decisions and (v) Motivation - being driven to achieve for the sake of achievement.”  In my opinion “being” a coach means being aware of emotions in coaching conversations (both yours and your clients) and managing them.

• Curiosity- this is the element that I love – ensuring that I go into a coaching conversation in a “curious” state of mind, means that my questions and listening assist the client in achieving the goal set for the session. Resetting that state of curiosity prior to each session also serves to boost the energy levels I take into that session and assists in preventing unconscious transference from previous sessions. Curiosity is infectious and frequently serves to re-energise the client and achieve breakthroughs on issues that have become something of a blockage.

• Competence- one would hope that this would go without saying- but a search of any internet search engine will reveal hundreds and hundreds of hits re coaches- few of whom appear to have any coaching qualification. Competence means that the coach has a range of tools and models to use to assist the client in achieving their objectives – it also implies that the coach knows what they are doing – and more critically knows when those competencies are insufficient for the particular needs of a client- and ensure that they help the client in identifying someone who did have the necessary specialist skills.

• Challenge – this distinguishes coaching from a simple conversation and it is from challenge the client frequently gains the most useful and important learning. Challenge does not have to mean confrontation – it can occur in a variety of ways. For example for some the simple presence of another person can be a challenge; for others challenge can be made through silence or tone of voice; questioning and reflecting back the client’s own comments. One of the tools I use in reflecting on a coaching or supervision intervention is to assess whether there was any challenge. I also check this out with the client directly.

• Courage- not something that would immediately spring to mind perhaps, but this idea stems from reflections on my own coaching practice. It is not uncommon to find candidates embarking on coaching training, worrying about whether they will know what questions to ask; worrying if they are the “right” question etc. etc. Reflecting on my own coaching and supervision practice now, I am surprised to note how I often have the “sense” of something – and have the courage to follow up that feeling/sense. Obviously this has to be done consciously and carefully, but the courage of following one’s instincts has often uncovered the real heart of the client’s issue.  Courage also is involved in ensuring that as a coach one does the” right thing” – having the courage to decline work if it will impinge on your own ethics, values or beliefs or to ensure that it is the “right thing” for the client themselves.

• Integrity-  a key element of being a coach is to ensure that one operates ethically, professionally and with integrity. Maintenance of confidentiality is often an indicative benchmark of the level of a coach’s integrity.

 

• Open Minded-  this links in with curiosity perhaps, but although you may hear the same topics/issues cropping up it is crucial to keep an open mind as it will be a unique experience for each client . Keeping an open mind ensures that you also manage your own values and beliefs and are focused on the client’s objectives.

• Resilience- again, not one that may immediately spring to mind. As a coach you are often the guardian of the client’s declared goal or objective. It is not uncommon for obstacles or issues to crop up in the course of attaining that goal/objective. As the coach you must have the resilience to assist your client in navigating through the storm and steering them into the clear waters to reach the intended harbour.

To close, some short bullet points that are also spring to mind and which are self-explanatory:

• Commitment to excellence- both for self and for the client
• Commitment to reflective learning
• Continuing professional development
• Authenticity- Being Oneself
• Awareness of Own Values & Beliefs-Knowing Oneself

Those are my starters for ten – what are the ones that you would suggest?

Why Run a Coaching Practice?

Judith Barton, Director of Coaching, bsc

To me, running a coaching practice is similar to being in a legal or medical practice.  As a professional coach I am going on a journey with my clients enabling them to delve into their own resources so that they can develop a sense of their own potential and are supported to realise that potential through listening, questioning and challenging.  But in the end it is their own decision – as a coach it is not my place to provide guidance or advice but to draw out from clients their own understanding and enable them to make choices to develop their own careers and futures. 

 

Professional coaches are also practicing – practicing our skills, reviewing and reflecting on how each coaching session progressed and the interactions which took place.  Finally, a coach must create an accurate an accurate baseline. This sets out their strengths and areas for improvement and leads to a personal development plan to be actioned.  Once implemented, this plan is subject to review, reflection and further planning for improvement.  As part of this process, the coach must also recognise and celebrate their strengths and achievements. This leads me to four central tenets of running a coaching practice – which are: self-review supported by supervision, maintaining their skills base; keeping up to date with research and thinking about coaching practice; and ensuring that purchasers of coaching understand the concept of ‘coaching practice’. 

1: Self review supported by supervision is critical.  To be effective, review of practice should be carried out soon after each session is completed.  You will need to find your own balance between being to close to the interaction to be objective; and too far to be able to remember key points.  Self-review on its own however carries risks – that you will become overly self-critical or insufficiently self-aware.  In order to ensure some degree of distance and to avoid getting too drawn into feeling that you have to sort everything out on your own, the input of a supportive, challenging and knowledgeable coaching supervisor is an equally critical element of self-development.  You should choose a supervisor who understands your approach to coaching who is willing and able to be both supportive and challenging to question your assumptions and self-evaluation and provide a platform for continuous improvement of your practice. 

2: Coaches need to Coach – this may sound obvious but coaching is not something you can do once or twice a year whilst maintaining professional standards of competence. I feel that I need to be practicing my coaching skills at least twice per month. Coaching a number of people who have different issues to resolve, different learning styles and different interpersonal skills ensures that I can maintain a variety of coaching skills and the ability to deploy these skills in working with a range in types of client 

3: Keeping up with new thinking in coaching.   As a professional coach I can only provide a ‘state of the art’ coaching experience for clients if I spend time on a regular basis reading, evaluating and, where appropriate, working out how to use new techniques in my coaching practice.  I regularly read a number of journals – Coaching At Work, Edge, Management Today, Harvard Business Review – which keeping me up-to-date with not only coaching theory and practice but also management thinking.  As well as providing some coaching articles, the latter keep me up to date with the issues which may be facing my clients in their professional roles. In addition, I attend relevant conferences and CPD events.  For example, Association for Coaching conferences and Institute of Leadership and Management events can provide useful insights into developing my coaching practice and ensuring that my practice is evidence-based and leading edge. 

4: Purchasers of Coaching need to understand the concept of practice.  For those who purchase coaching, for themselves or members of their leadership or management teams, it is critical that they appreciate and seek out coaches who undertake regular supervision; who maintain their coaching practice, at the appropriate level of seniority, and who can demonstrate that they are up-to-date with the latest thinking and practical skills.  Purchasers have an in-depth understanding of what they are purchasing and what they hope to achieve for both individuals and the organisation.  I will be further sharing my thoughts on ‘Selecting the Right Coach’ in future blogs.

Judith Barton

Director of Coaching

British School of Coaching

"As we come up to our 19^th year, I wanted to share my experiences and thoughts on the practical, the essential and the humorous aspects of my coaching career so far.  I have learnt so much from the coaching successes, challenges and recognition of limitations along the way, as well as from coaching in what I call the ‘cultural cocktail’ of the Middle East."

Judith is currently delivering the ILM Level 7 Certificate in Executive Coaching and Mentoring as well as leading the British School of Coaching Practice.  Read more about this and the other courses BSC are running here.