Coaching Resources for Faculty & Staff
In the Strommen Center, we use a career coaching model. As career services has changed over time and not everyone is familiar with this model, we’ve created this resource to help navigate those changes and provide a starting place for career conversations you might have with students.
Career counseling is another model that is often confused with career counseling. Career counseling focuses on deeper, 1:1 involvement with a client or student and often focuses on personal development concerns beyond career planning.
Coaching is more time-bound and focuses on goals and empowers the student to take action within that time to achieve said goals. Since students have a certain amount of time they are in college, coaching is better approach to tailor to the unique needs of each student in a shorter time frame.
This table states further what coaching looks like:
| Both career coaching and career counseling tend to: | Coaching encourages: |
| assist clients | beginning the coaching process with the future in mind |
| set solution-based goals | the need to focus on 1-2 goals |
| have care at the core | a defined timeline of service |
| gather information through questioning | action (by the student) |
| practice based on foundational theories | co-creating a relationship with the student |
| struggle with practitioner-client challenges | decision-making power by the student to set the agenda, define goals, and create action items |
| work with clients that desire change | |
| understand change occurs over time |
Heather Maietta’s guide Career Coaching: Fundamentals, Applications, and Future Directions lays out 8 principles that are adapted from Canfield and Chee’s Coaching for Breakthrough Success:
- The Coaching Spirit: Believing all students have potential and coaching brings out the best in your students, as students can thrive on challenges and flexibility.
- Relationship and Trust: Building a rapport with students builds trust, which increases the opportunity for open, honest dialogue, information sharing, and feeling safe in exploring possibilities.
- Asking Questions and Communicating Curiosity: Powerful questioning (see below) is the foundation for career coaching. Asking powerful questions can spark curiosity and empower students to discover future possibilities.
- Listening: Verbal and non-verbal listening is essential to hear what the student is saying, as well is staying nonjudgmental.
- Feedback and Awareness: Through this, career possibilities become visible and students can take action towards their goals.
- Suggestions and Simplifications: Summarizing and clarifying understanding helps both the student and the coach make sure they are ready to move on to next steps in the planning process.
- Goals and Action Plans: Establishing clear, realistic goals (see GROW below) will support the student in achieving their goals and feel empowered to take the lead on creating them (with support from the coach).
- Accountability and Accomplishments: Keep records of success and challenges to maintain momentum and acknowledge efforts.
We share these principles to clarify our model for working students to provide a foundation for those who might be looking for additional support (not an expectation that other faculty and staff outside the Strommen Center feel they must become career coaches!).
When a student has career questions, it might be difficult to know where to start answering. Sometimes, it’s better to come back with a question of your own for clarification and understanding. The questions below are open-ended and suggestions for ways to provoke curiosity, moments of dialogue, and opportunity for exploration.
- What would be the most helpful thing for you to take away from this session?
- What is one thing you will do immediately after our conversation today?
- What would you like to get out of today’s meeting?
- What are your desired goals? How will you know if you have achieved them? Why is what you desire to achieve important to you?
- What does success represent/look like to you?
- What would you try now if you knew you could not fail?
- When you have needed to make a change, what has worked for you in the past?
- What is currently standing in the way of you getting out of your current situation?
- What’s one change you could make right now that would give you more peace?
- What if plan A doesn’t work? How will you make plans B, C, D, etc.?
- What kinds of things do you need to learn in order to be successful in meeting your goals? What skills and knowledge do you already possess that will help you meet your goals?
- What kinds of activities have you naturally been drawn too?
- Describe for me what a good day is like for you.
- What personal characteristics are you most proud of?
- What fascinates you? What energizes you?
- What are 3-5 strengths you have?
- How do you see these qualities connecting to your classroom learning? To future work experiences?
- Who have you talked about your plans for the future with? What did you share with them?
- What have you done to develop a career plan? What resources do you need to create one?
- What type of personal or professional support do you have?
- Who can help hold you accountable for your growth?
- How can I help support you in your journey?
- Where might you be able to go on campus to receive additional support? Where might you go off-campus?
- What do you look for when you’re searching for possible roles?
- What do you need [from me] to be most successful in your job search?
- How would you like things to be different in your job search?
- How do you connect with people in your community or your industry?
- What would you need to be able to connect with people working in your field?
- Is there anything that’s still unclear to you?
- Do you have any questions I haven’t answered yet?
- How are you feeling? Is there anything you feel like is missing or that you’re unable to do?
Career Coaching: Fundamentals, Applications, and Future Directions by Heather Maietta
GROW is another method to help plan meetings with students, navigate obstacles with them, and encourage them to act with creativity to solve their problems.
The first column below describes the step of the GROW model (Goal, Reality, Obstacles/Options, Way Forward) and the second column outlines specific ideas and questions to use with the student.
| Goal: Discuss and set goals for session or coaching program | Clarity and Focus – What should the topic of today’s session be? – What goal(s) do you want to achieve in this session? – Why is this goal important to you now? – How will you know if you’ve achieved this goal? |
| Reality: Invite self-assessment of the topic and situation, clarify gray areas, check assumptions | Define current situation – What impact or effect does this have? – How do you know that this is accurate? – How often does this occur? – Are there other relevant factors? |
| Obstacles: Identify obstacle(s) (people, resources, environment) | Explore and understand obstacles – What prevents you from reaching your goal(s)? – What else gets in the way? – What personal changes will you have to make to achieve your goal? |
| Options: Invite suggestions from the student. Here the coach is only the scribe. | Brainstorm possibilities – What options are possible? – What are the pros and cons of each option? – If you could choose, which option would you select? |
| Way Forward: Get a commitment to act and devise a plan to move forward | Design an action plan and alternatives – What are your next steps? – What is the timeframe? – What could get in the way? – What support and resources will you need? – How and when can you get the support and resources? |
SMART goals use specific parameters (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Bound) to help students create goals that are achievable and can showcase notable progression. The following worksheet outlines specific questions students should ask themselves around each parameter when creating a goal and to reflect on how they know they are meeting that benchmark.