Counseling is an important responsibility of all leaders. Each of you have been counseled at some time in your careers and/or personal lives and many have already or soon will counsel. Unfortunately leaders reserve counseling for circumstances involving poor performance problems. This has led to a wide spread perception that counseling is negative. In this training you will learn how to counsel your subordinates in a manner that focuses on subordinate centered communication and subordinate development.
Exercise One (Brain Teaser) (page 3 of participants guide) serves as an icebreaker to help the participant’s prepare for learning.
We will have a getting acquainted exercise, allowing everyone in the class to introduce themselves and describe different locations of assignment and present unit of assignment. It will be made very clear during this portion of the class that there is no rank in the class room, and what happens in the classroom must stay in the classroom.
The major goal for this workshop is to ensure that employees learn how to not only conduct counseling sessions, but how to prepare for them as well. This will help people at all levels
Stimulate Recall of Prior Knowledge
Possible Response: It is challenging for a leader to act as both the evaluator and counselor for the subordinate. The best way to assume the role of helper verses evaluator during the counseling session is to be open and honest with the subordinate. There are several leader qualities that can assist the leader in assuming the role of helper.
Question: Why should the subordinate be active in the counseling session?