Coaching Case Study: Back to Work Environment

Coaching Case Study By Meng Hui Yap
(Career Coach, SINGAPORE)

About the coachee in this case study

Mu has recently joined this Electronics Manufacturing Company as a QC assistant for 3 months after stopping work for 12 years. Her work performance has been graded well by her boss due to her extreme attention to details during inspection and her positive hardworking attitude.  However she submitted her resignation to the company due to various reasons she felt unhappy with her current job, however her boss hopes she can continue working in the company.

What is the core problem or challenge you applied your coaching skills to?

After active listening with her, I could sense she is a very “feeling” person compare to a “thinking” person. She had not secured the next job and she had no plans after quitting. Her rationale was she has not been working for very long time and she finds the current working environment is too complicated for her compared to her last job. She is putting a lot of pressure on herself and she is afraid she cannot perform to the customer expectations. The other critical problem in her case was she did not have any goal or objective on what she wants and hope to achieve. And she as a “feeling” type of person, it was difficult for me to work out an objective from her as she has too much uncertainties within her.

What specific coaching skills or approach did you use in this case and explain your process in detail.

Since we are unable to establish the clear goal or objective, and in order to progress further, I proceed to using powerful question techniques on her decisions to leave and why she feels uncomfortable:

• Tell me more on what you are facing?
• How is this problem so important to you?
• By leaving this job, is that the correct way?
• Will this problem go away if you go to another company?
• How would you deal with the same problem in your previous company?

Throughout the process while Mu was expressing herself, I gave her words of encouragement that she actually did well in her role as QC assistant in the company. I went deeper in finding what actually motivated her to do well and how she can overcome her fear and the lack of confidence in her work. We went into the possibility of training, receiving support from her boss to develop her skills and looking into the courses provided by Workforce Singapore with WSQ accreditation.

What were the results of your process?

By exploring into more options with her and given appropriate encouragement from time to time, Mu slowly opened up herself and decided to give herself more time to get adjusted to the company. At the end of the coaching session I summarize together with her on her takeaways and devised a timeline for her to follow-up on her plan, to hold her accountable.