The document outlines a comprehensive guide on counseling skills, focusing on aiding employees through various personal and professional challenges. It emphasizes the importance of self-direction, the collaborative nature of problem-solving, and the necessity of tailored, realistic solutions. Additionally, it provides practical steps for effective counseling, including follow-through and evaluation of one's counseling skills.

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Moving On
Counselling Skills
MTL Course Topics
COUNSELLING SKILLS
Moving On

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Counselling Skills
MTL Course Topics
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Counselling Skills
MTL Course Topics
ARE YOU READY?
OK, LET’S START!

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Counselling Skills
MTL Course Topics
INTRODUCTION
Not every session of counselling will produce solutions to
people problems. Some employees may be doing well
simply to be confronted with important issues that are
blocking them. Others may need further guidance or
specialist help. Others still may be able to see the benefits in
the choices ahead of them. Whatever kind of solution a
counselling offers, whether an answer or the answer, it
should at best lead to employee commitment to action and
at least sow the seeds for future change.

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Counselling Skills
MTL Course Topics
SOLUTIONS
At one level, the outcome of a counselling session should be
a commitment to solve a problem. At this stage, it is likely
only to be an idea, a suggestion, a possibility. But it is
nevertheless a step towards moving on.
1. For the habitual latecomer, it is a decision to rise earlier.
2. For the poor performer, it is a willingness to be coached.
3. For the bereaved employee, it is a plan to talk to a
support group.
4. For the colleagues who can't get on, it is a commitment
to see their relationship in a different light and to both
make changes.
Ideally, solutions arise naturally out of the process of
counselling. People see their problems and also see what
needs to be done. Occasionally, however, solutions need to
be imposed.

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Counselling Skills
MTL Course Topics
LONGER-LASTING CHANGE
In life there are never any final answers or end solutions,
only a willingness to move on. The aim of counselling is not
to provide all the solutions people are looking for. Instead,
counselling, through showing people how strong they can
be, shows the importance of...
1. self-direction
2. living with constant change
3. being in a process not in an end state
4. being complex individuals
5. being open to experience
6. acceptance of others
7. trust of self.
The true aim of counselling is not to make people
dependent on counselling, but to make them dependent on
themselves and the important others in their lives.

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Counselling Skills
MTL Course Topics
CO-OPERATIVE LIVING
Counselling outcomes exist on three different levels.
At one level, the outcome of counselling is the resolution of
an irksome problem that gets in the way of workplace
performance. At another level, the outcome re-affirms the
ability people have to cope with their own problems in their
own ways. At a further level, the counselling process
reminds us that co-operative living and working is the way
that leads to healthy personal and interpersonal growth.
"Every man works better when he has companions working
in the same line and yielding to the stimulus of suggestion,
comparison, emulation. Great things have of course been
done by solitary workers; but they have usually been done
with double the pains they would have cost if they had been
produced in more genial circumstances." (Henry James)

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Counselling Skills
MTL Course Topics
REFERRALS
Referrals are outside solutions to people problems. An
agreed referral of a problem to a third party is a solution,
albeit a half-way one.
Referrals can be made in any of three directions:
1. to outside specialists who may be able to offer more
detailed and expert support.
2. up the line to senior managers if more authority or power
is needed behind a decision.
3. to internal specialists such as a medical department or
Personnel department or the organisation's own
counsellors.
The decision to refer should not be taken lightly or hastily. If
someone is passed on to outsiders, there needs to be a link
maintained between the referred organisation and the
employing organisations.

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Counselling Skills
MTL Course Topics
SPECIALIST HELP
The following people are those who may need specialist
guidance. As manager, your counselling skills are unlikely to
provide them with the help they need:
1. those with long-term problems going back many years
2. those with problems that have no obvious cause
3. those who are silent or lack feelings
4. those who refuse to change
5. those who minimize the effects of their problem, eg
heavy drinkers, social drug-users
6. those who become dependent on counselling
7. those who show little or no ability to relate to others
8. those who run away from difficulties rather than face
them
9. those who display bizarre thoughts and behaviour
10. those who blame others for their problems
11. those who become aggressive.

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MTL Course Topics
POWER SOLUTIONS
Not every solution that is suggested at the outcome of a
counselling session may be an acceptable one. It may suit
you as representative of the organisation but not suit them,
eg a change of job, a change of hours, a change of location.
On the other hand, a solution that they propose may not be
acceptable to you, eg a break from work of a few weeks; a
change from full-time to part-time work; being moved away
from someone they don't get on with.
To work, solutions need to satisfy a number of criteria.
The mnemonic POWER provides us with five such criteria.
They are:
P - practical
O - owned
W - win-win
E - executable now
R - realistic

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MTL Course Topics
PRACTICAL SOLUTIONS
Often the solutions to work-based people problems don't
work in practice. Other people block them; they set
precedents that are dangerous; they smack of favouritism
which others won't allow.
The solutions to people problems need to be practical and
workable. This means running a check through such
questions as...
1. Does it sound as if it can work?
2. Has it been tried before?
3. What happened in other cases?
4. What are the possible pitfalls?
5. It if needs the support of others, will they play ball?
6. Do we have the means, the time, the will?
7. What could go wrong?

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Counselling Skills
MTL Course Topics
OWNED SOLUTIONS
One simple test for an effective solution to a counselling
problem is to check whether the employee really owns the
problem. This means the manager having as little to do as
possible at the end of the counselling.
Managers who counsel can check the extent of employee
ownership with "You" questions:
1. What will be your first move?
2. How would you see things developing from there?
3. What do you need me to do?
4. And "me-you" questions:
5. What do you want from me?
6. What can i do different to help you?
7. What would you like my role to be?

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Counselling Skills
MTL Course Topics
YOU HAVE TO WANT TO
When people get the chance to move forward with all the
help and support they have been offered, some still
hesitate.
They may fear change, having become used to living with a
limiting problem. They may lack the confidence that they
can really do it. They may simply convince themselves after
the counselling that the risks are too great and that they
would rather stay as they are.
Trevor Bentley is a teacher, facilitator and counsellor. In his
training workshops he often displays a sign that says:
"If you can talk, you can sing.
If you can walk, you can dance.
Anyone can juggle and ride a unicycle including you.
But you have to want to."

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Counselling Skills
MTL Course Topics
WIN-WIN SOLUTIONS
The best solutions to people problems are always win-win:
the organisation achieves what it wants and the employee
achieves what they want. Solutions that are imposed on
people by the manager may work for a short time but rarely
last. Similarly, action taken by employees without the
support of managers is not likely to succeed.
There is a range of options of what is possible:
1. the manager solves the problem and imposes a solution
2. the manager proposes a solution and the employee
agrees
3. the manager fixes limits within which the employee can
find an acceptable solution
4. the employee finds a solution which the manager
approves
5. the employee finds a solution which the manager
supports
6. the employee finds a solution for themselves.

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Counselling Skills
MTL Course Topics
EXECUTABLE NOW
Solutions to people problems are always more likely to work
if, when they are agreed, some form of action can be started
at once. This means putting the solution into effect as soon
after the counselling as possible. Doing this means that
there is less chance of cold feet and inaction once the
counselling session has been forgotten. It also provides a
reason for a further progress check between manager and
employee in the near future.
1. For the habitual latecomer, it means being on time from
now on.
2. For the poor performer, it means having some targets
over the next few days that are reasonably achievable.
3. For the bereaved employee, it means making an
appointment with a support group now.
4. For the colleagues who don't get on, it means fixing a
date and time to sit down and discuss things.

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Counselling Skills
MTL Course Topics
REALISTIC SOLUTIONS
There is an intuitive art to making decisions as part of
solving people problems. The art is to pitch the solution just
right.
1. Don't set targets that are too low or too high. People
will get bored by the low aims and give up when they
can't reach the high aims. Make them realistic.
2. Don't make plans that are too detailed or too imprecise.
Detailed plans give people little room to manoeuvre;
imprecise plans leave them confused. Make them
realistic.
3. Don't set time-frames that are too near or too distant.
Make them realistic.
4. Don't set outcomes that are beyond a person's ability or
beyond their motivation, because then they can't reach
them and won't want to. Make them realistic.

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Counselling Skills
MTL Course Topics
THE FOLLOW-THROUGH
The final acts of the counselling session, once plans for
change have been made, is to organise the follow-through.
This involves:
1. reviewing your contract that you made at the start of
the counselling and asking: "Have we achieved what we
set out to achieve?"
2. closing the counselling by checking that the employee is
happy
3. agreeing the employee's plans, targets and time-scales
4. fixing review sessions
5. making plans for further supportive action
6. informing everyone who needs to know about any
changes that you've agreed
7. considering how the relationship has changed
8. evaluating your own performance.

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Counselling Skills
MTL Course Topics
EVALUATING YOUR SKILLS
It is a valuable habit to review your own performance after
each counselling session with the aim of improving your
skills. You can do this alone but it is far more beneficial to do
it with a supervisor, mentor or supportive friend.
Some of the questions to routinely ask yourself are:
1. Were the arrangements well-organised?
2. Did we have a clear purpose?
3. Did the session go as planned?
4. Did we achieve a satisfactory outcome?
5. Did I create the right climate?
6. Has the session enhanced the relationship?
7. How has it helped my management skills?
And remember that helping people sort out their lives is
one of the most difficult and humbling tasks that any of us
can ever be called on to do.

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Counselling Skills
MTL Course Topics
THE HELPER AS HEALER
Counselling is first and foremost a helping process. It is
unlikely to work if it is ever seen as anything else. When we
help others, we not only do a service to the person and by
implication to the organisation, we also perform a function
of simple humanity, from one human being to another.
"Spacetime view of health and disease tells us that a vital
part of the goal of every therapist, educator and spiritual
friend is to help the sick person, (and we are all somewhat
diseased), towards a re-ordering of his world view. We must
help him to realize that he is a process in spacetime, not an
isolated entity who is fragmented from the world of the
healthy and adrift in flowing time, moving slowly towards
extermination. To the extent that we accomplish this task,
we are a healer." (Larry Dossey)

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Counselling Skills
MTL Course Topics
THAT’S
IT!
WELL DONE!

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Counselling Skills
MTL Course Topics
THANK YOU
This has been a Slide Topic from Manage Train Learn