Coaching Case Study: Improve Coping Skills

Coaching Case Study By Ting Ting, Kat Chan
(Career Coach, SINGAPORE)

Who are the main players in this case study?

Mandy, mid 40s working as a temporary staff for several companies for about 1 year. She was unable to look for a full-time position and she was demotivated.

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

When I first met Mandy, she was very skeptic about our meeting. She has not attend any coaching session before and she does not understand what is coaching about. She was only interested to know if I can get her a job.

She was upset that she was not able to get a full-time job due to the followings:

• She felt that her age was one of the main reason. She mentioned that most companies only hire sweet and young staff and not someone like her.
• She was afraid of how people viewed her and dislike people judging her. Her friends and colleague had been telling and gave her loads of suggestions and comments. They always told her to change this and that. Hence, she felt very pressuring by their comments.
• Not confident to learn and cope with new skills. She was comfortable with her present skills that were administration and customer services skills. She felt that she is not able to learn fast and had problem with her memories.

What specific coaching skills or approach did or could you use in this case?

I gone through explaining to her about what is coaching –> that the coaching aim is to help her to establish what was important her and eventually to support her to achieve those goals.  During the first two meetings, she was not keen to share about her thoughts and she was not ready to open her feelings.I have invited her to do a simple personality test. Her result shown that she is an Extrovert, Sensor, Feeler and Judger (ESFJ). We discussed about her result and to understand where were her strengths.

I have used the following coaching skills with her

1. Mandy had an underlying belief, that she believed that becoming old means becoming useless. I walked through with Mandy to increase her self-awareness, this allowed to give her greater clarity of perception than normal.
2. I have used powerful questions our conversation. Through the questionings, I drawn out how she could have identified her strengths, uncovering herself, her identity, refining goals and choosing actions to move forward.

What were or are the expected results of your process?

Mandy now had a clearer decision about her career development. She had a better understanding how to submit a proper resume and how to handle interviews. I am glad that she also attended workshop like personal grooming and make-up course to improve herself.

She looked more confidential and I can see her smiling more.  She also shared with me that she was glad that she has gone through the coaching sessions and helped her to untie her troubled knots.