Counseling

Counseling has a powerful, long-term impact on people and the effectiveness of the
organization. Counseling is talking with a person in a way that helps that person solve a
problem or helps to create conditions that will cause the person to improve his behavior. It
involves thinking, implementing, knowing human nature, timing, sincerity, compassion,
and kindness. It involves much more that simply telling someone what to do about a
problem.

Leaders must demonstrate the following qualities in order to counsel effectively.

 Respect for employees. This quality includes the belief that individuals are
responsible for their own actions and ideas. It includes an awareness of a
persons individuality though unique values, attributes, and skills. As you attempt
to develop people through counseling, you must refrain from projecting you own
values onto them.

 Self- Awareness. This quality is an understanding of yourself as a leader. The

more you are aware of your own values, needs, and biases, the less likely you
will be to project your feelings onto your employees.

 Credibility. This quality is achieved through both honesty and consistency

between the leaders statements and actions. Credible leaders are straightforward
with their subordinates and behave in such a manner that subordinates respect
and trust their words.

 Empathy: This quality entails understanding a subordinates situation. Empathetic

leaders will be better able to help subordinates identify the situation and develop
a plan to improve the situation.

The reason for counseling is to help employees develop in order to achieve organizational or
individual goals. At times, the counseling is directed by policy, and at other times, leaders
should choose to counsel to develop employees. Regardless of the nature of the counseling,
leaders should demonstrate the qualities of an effective counselor (respect, self-awareness,
credibility, and empathy) and employ the skills of communication.

While the reason for counseling is to develop subordinates, leaders often categorize
counseling based on the topic of the session. Major categories include performance
counseling, problem counseling, and individual growth counseling. While these categories
help leaders to organize and focus counseling sessions, they must not be viewed as separate
and distinct types of counseling. For example a counseling session which focuses on
resolving a problem may also have a great impact on improving job performance, and a
counseling session focused on performance may also include a discussion of opportunities
for growth. Regardless of the topic of the counseling session, you should follow the same
basic format to prepare for and conduct counseling.

Steps for counseling:

Identify the problem. Ensure you really know the problem - the Japanese use a practice called
the Five Why's. They ask "why" five times when confronted with a problem. By the time the
fifth why is answered, they believe they have found the ultimate cause of the problem.

Analyze the forces influencing the behavior. Determine which of these forces you have control
over and which of the forces the worker has control over. Determine if the force has to be
modified, eliminated, or enforced.

Plan, coordinate, and organize the session. Determine the best time to conduct the session
so that you will not be interrupted or forced to end too early.

Conduct the session using sincerity, compassion, and kindness. This does not mean you
cannot be firm or in control. Your reputation is on the line...the problem must be solved so that
you department can continue with its mission. Likewise, you must hear the person out.

During the session, determine what the worker believes causes the counterproductive
behavior and what will be required to change it. Also determine if your initial analysis is
correct.
Try to maintain a sense of timing of when to use directive or nondirective counseling (see
below).

Using all the facts, make a decision and/or a plan of action to correct the problem. If more
counseling is needed, make a firm time and date for the next session

After the session and throughout a sufficient time period evaluate the worker's progress to
ensure the problem has been solved.

There are two type of counseling - directive and nondirective. In directive counseling, the
counselor identifies the problem and tells the counselee what to do about it. Nondirective
counseling means the counselee identifies the problem and determines the solution with the
help of the counselor. The counselor has to determine which of the two, or some appropriate
combination, to give for each situation. For example, "Put out that cigarette now, this is a
nonsmoking area," is a form of directive counseling. "So the reason you are not effective is
that you were up late last night. What are you going to do to ensure that this does not effect
your performance again?" is a form of nondirective counseling.

Hints for counseling sessions:

Let the person know that the behavior is undesirable and not the person.

Let the person know that the leader cares about him as a person but expects more from him.

Do not punish employees who are unable to perform a task. Punish those who are able to
perform the task but are unwilling or unmotivated to succeed. Punish in private soon after the
undesirable behavior. Do not humiliate a person in front of others. Ensure that the employee
understands exactly what behavior led to the punishment. Do not hold a grudge after
punishing. When a punishment is over...it is over.

Performance Appraisals

The performance appraisal is one of the most powerful motivational tools available to a
leader. It has three main objectives:

To measure performance fairly and objectively against job requirements. This allows effective
workers to be rewarded for their efforts and ineffective workers to be put on the line for poor
performance.

To increase performance by identifying specific development goals. "If you don't know where
you are going, any road will take you there", Lewis Carroll in Alice's Adventure in Wonderland
(1865). The appraisal allows the worker to target specific areas for job growth...it should be a
time to plan for better performance on the job.

To develop career goals so that the worker may keep pace with the requirements of a fast
paced organization. More and more, every job in an organization becomes more demanding
with new requirements. Just because a worker is performing effectively in her job now, does
not mean she will be able to perform effectively in the future. She must be allowed to grow
with the job and the organization.

A worker should not walk blindly into a performance appraisal. Past counseling sessions,
feedback, and one-on-ones should give her a pretty clear understanding of what to expect
from the appraisal. If you blind-side her, you have not done your job as a leader. Helping your
people to grow is not a once or twice yearly duty, but a daily duty.

The appraisal should be a joint effort. No one knows the job better than the person performing
it. By turning the appraisal into a real discussion, the leader could learn some insightful
information which could help boost performance in the future. Before the meeting, have the
worker complete her own self-appraisal. Although you might think they will take advantage of
this by giving themselves unearned high marks, studies have shown that most workers are
harder on themselves than the leader would have been.

Basic Communication in Teaching

Introduction

Although the thought of speaking before an audience fills many with feelings of dread, a
public speaking opportunity, if well-planned and practiced, can be a memorable and
pleasurable event for both the speaker and the audience. The purpose of communication is to
transmit a message about our experiences or perceptions and to express our point of view
about those experiences and perceptions. A speaker attempts to aid the audience in
understanding the meaning of the message through the use of verbal and nonverbal
communication. Language and words are symbolic they represent ideas and things and are
the verbal tools the speaker uses to convey the true message the meaning of the words to the
audience. The speaker also uses nonverbal tools attitude, actions, and appearance to share
the meaning with the audience. An inspired presentation leaves the audience imbued with a
real understanding of the meaning of the speaker's message, not merely superficial
comprehension of the words used.

The Fundamentals of Communication

Communication is a complex process, but a communication system is often categorized

into six main components. The six components and their public speaking analogs are:

 Transmitter:Speaker
 Channels:Senses: speech, hearing, seeing, etc.
 Message:Speaker's topic
 Receiver:Audience
 Noise:Internal and external factors that affect message reception by audience: e.g.,
daydreaming, traffic noise, etc.
 Feedback:Audience reaction

Of the six components listed, the speaker has immediate control over only three: self, the
methods of communication chosen (visual, auditory, etc.), and the message itself. The
speaker can influence, but not control, the last three components: the audience, distractions,
and audience response. It is the speaker's role to focus attention on the audience to enhance
the probability of the receipt of the message. This is done by selecting the type of
communication pertinent to the message, establishing a point-of-view, and communicating its
meaning to the audience.

To be effective, the speaker must consciously choose not only the subject matter of the
presentation, but the personal impression being made and the rhetorical tools being used.
The speaker must assess his or her audience and decide how best to reach them both
verbally and nonverbally.

Rhetorical Choices

TALK THE TALK: VERBAL COMMUNICATION

Although in this section, verbal communication has been split into two major categories,
persuasive and informative, in truth, all presentations have a persuasive aspect. A
presentation involves motivating listeners to accept a new idea, alter an existing opinion, or
act on a given premise (Rafe, 1990). This is true whether the presentation is describing a
recent scientific advance or a political agenda. Therefore, in both persuasive and informative
speech, the speaker is asking the audience to do something whether it be accepting a
scientific fact or addressing a social issue.

Persuasive Speech

''Persuasion is a communicative process of altering the beliefs, attitudes,

intentions, or behavior of another by the conscious and unconscious use of
words and nonverbal messages.'' (Ilardo, 1981)

Persuasive speech is used to influence both individuals and groups to accept a particular
position or belief. Persuasive speech requires a clear understanding of the audience and an
intense listener focus. According to Flack and Rasberry (1982), using the problem-solution
organizational pattern (See Section II, B. 2.a: Using an Organizational Pattern), the speaker
must take the audience through five stages of understanding in a persuasive speech: 1)
awareness of the problem, 2) understanding the problem, 3) understanding the proposed
solution, 4) visualization of the effects of the proposed solution, and 5) understanding how
they, the audience, must act. The awareness stage of the persuasive speech is an
introduction to the nature of the problem or situation. Audience understanding of the problem
requires a concise problem statement from the speaker's point of view. It is important at this
stage to show the relevancy of the problem to the audience: how the problem can or is
affecting the audience. The speaker then describes the proposed solution or solutions to the
problem and guides the audience into imagining how the proposed solution will be beneficial
to them. Finally, the speaker enlists the audience's aid in implementing the proposed solution
by indicating what actions, individually and collectively, must be taken.