Career and Life Coaching for Nadira Dass

Click on the following link for your: Management Skills and Styles Assessment - Abridged (MANSSA-Ab) Click on the following link for your: Multidimensional Emotional Intelligence Quotient (MEIQ-R7)

Career Coaching Session #1: Tuesday 19 April 2016

- Nadira's E-mail address is nadira.dass@hadcoltd.com - Nadira is currently working at Hadco Limited as the Manager of Brokerage Division and the Logistics Department. - Nadira initially worked at Agrium which was very male-oriented, and it made her somewhat aggressive. - Then she worked at another company that was female-oriented, and it took her a while to adjust to this because she had to learn to be more sensitive and socially conscious. - She then left there to join Hadco, which was again male-oriented in the beginning. - She came from a difficult marriage with someone who had addictions. Nadira has been involved with the 12-step programmme for over 15 years. - Nadira likes challenges; she has her own Brokerage license. - In June 2015, she gave Hadco three months' notice but the person she trained to take over her position could not handle the stress. So the Directors of Hadco convinced her to stay, and she in turn asked to manage the Logistics Department, in addition to the Brokerage Division, which they agreed to. - Nadira did not want any extra compensation even though the Hadco Directors wanted to pay her more for the additional responsibility. - The three supervisors in Logistics Department seem to take offense at Nadira becoming their manager, when the announcement was officially made by John Hadad in February 2016. This has been Nadira's biggest challenge since taking over the Logistics Department. - She realizes that she might occasionally let her aggressive nature come out in the workplace. - She would ideally like to have ongoing Coaching i.e. someone to talk to outside of her current spouse. - I suggested that Nadira try taking her staff out to a restaurant for an appreciation dinner twice a year for example. This will give her an opportunity to express her appreciation for all the hard work that they do for her and the company in the logistics and brokerage departments. Nadira agreed to speak to John Hadad about this idea. - Nadira and I briefly review the results of her MANSSA and MEIQ assessments. Acknowledgements from Session #1: - I acknowledged Nadira for completing the MANSSA and MEIQ assessments - I also acknowledged her for coming to these Career and Life Coaching sessions to improve her overall performance at Hadco Limited. Takeaways from Session #1: - Nadira liked the process of doing the two assessments in order to develop more self-awareness around her strengths and limitations. Action Plan from Session #1: - Nadira agreed to review the MANSSA and MEIQ assessments in more detail. - She also agreed to pick three MANSSA limitations and three MEIQ limitations that she would like to work on over the coming year. - Nadira agreed to speak to John Hadad about the idea of taking her staff out to a restaurant for an appreciation dinner twice a year, for example. This will give her an opportunity to express her appreciation for all the hard work that they do for her and the company in the Logistics and Brokerage Departments. This should help to soften the stance of some of the supervisors in the Logistics Department whom she is having difficulty with at the moment. - The next Career Coaching session was scheduled for Tuesday 3 May 2016 at 1:00 PM.

Career Coaching Session #2: Tuesday 3 May 2016

- Nadira and I discussed her MANSSA and MEIQ assessments in more detail. - In particular, she chose the following limitations from each assessment to work on in the coming months: MEIQ limitations: #1 She struggled with recognizing emotions depicted on the test #3 Her impulse control needs improvement #2 She has difficulty adapting her social skills to the circumstances around her MANSSA limitations #1 Rewarding Performance #2 Adequate people skills #3 Sometimes utilizes transformational leadership techniques - Nadira also shared with me how the particular supervisor in the Logistics department who has given her the most resistance, recently organized a breakfast event for members of the department. He seemed to respond well to being complimented for the good job he had done, and I encouraged Nadira to provide him and other members of her team with more positive feedback instead of only letting them know when they have done something wrong. Acknowledgements from Session #2: - I acknowledged Nadira for picking three MANSSA and three MEIQ limitations to work on. - I also acknowledged her for giving one of her Logistics supervisors positive feedback after he organized the breakfast event. Takeaways from Session #2: - Nadira feels better about providing her staff with more positive feedback instead of only letting them know when they have done something wrong. Action Plan from Session #2: - Nadira agreed to provide members of her team with more positive feedback instead of only letting them know when they have done something wrong. -She also agreed to work on the following limitations from each assessment in the coming months: MEIQ limitations: #1 She struggled with recognizing emotions depicted on the test

Empathy. While you certainly can't fake empathy, you can increase your connection to other people by truly listening and trying to put yourself in their shoes.
Put empathy in action. Get involved in helping people in some way (i.e. volunteering); the closer you get to a situation, the more you will realize the difficulties others might be facing.
Remember that communication involves a lot more than what is just said. Our gestures, expressions and tone of voice send just as strong (or even stronger signals) than the words we choose, and can let us know how others are feeling (and lets other know how we are feeling).
Put yourself in the other person's shoes. Think about how your actions will affect others before you act. If you are unsure, ask! Not everyone thinks the same way you do. If your actions will have an effect on others, ask them if they are ok with the decision before you act.

#2 She has difficulty adapting her social skills to the circumstances around her

Put aside your own preoccupations. Consider what might be going through other people's minds in different situations. Ask yourself how you would feel in a similar situation - there are always several perspectives. Try to identify at least 2 or 3 different ways to look at it.
Understand that everyone has his or her bad days. Sure it can be hard to overlook it when someone snaps at you or is otherwise unpleasant, but remembering that nearly everyone is unpleasant sometimes when under stress (even you!) can help you learn to take things less personally.
Be aware of how others respond to you. Pay attention to how others are reacting, and what they are communicating to you. Putting in the extra effort to really listen and observe can teach you a lot about human interaction and emotions.
Don't fall victim to "The Fundamental Attribution Error". We as humans are forever trying to figure out the causes of other's actions. All too often, we attribute misfortunate behavior on the part of others to dispositional rather than situational factors. For instance, writing others off as jerks for snapping at you rather than looking for external causes such as being sick or having been fired that day. As a result, we are less forgiving than many situations call for. Try to understand that others are under just as much pressure and stress as you are and as a result, their behavior may not always represent who they are as people.

#3 Her impulse control needs improvement

Know Your Values: When you know what is important to you, you are able to make choices that lead you to happiness and success.
Know What You Want to Achieve: Ensure you have clearly defined goals. What is it that you want to achieve exactly? Having a clear understanding of what you want to achieve longer-term can help you make a choice in delaying gratification to help you reach your ultimate goal.
Create a Plan: When you understand your values and know what you want to achieve, creating a plan to help you get there can remind you of the choices you need to make along the way and reinforce the process of delaying gratification.
Prioritize: Being able to prioritize what is important to you and what you want to achieve helps you make the choice to delay gratification.
Reward Yourself: Delaying gratification can be hard-work. Depending on what you want to achieve, it may take weeks, months, years, and sometimes even decades. Breaking down your goals and rewarding yourself along the way can remind yourself that delaying gratification is leading you to where you want to go.

MANSSA limitations #1 Rewarding Performance

Feedback should be immediate and relative to the achievement. The greater the achievement, the larger the reward should be. It won't do to simply say thank you to an employee who single-handedly snagged a million-dollar deal, for instance. Some compensation is in order!
When offering negative feedback, be prepared to present some options and solutions. If you are suggesting major changes or telling your employee s/he needs to rectify a problem, s/he may feel at a loss as to how to proceed if you don't at least suggest some follow-up tasks. Agree on specific objectives, provide guidelines or timelines, and suggest steps to achieve them.
Show appreciation. Employers should be aware that on a day-to-day basis, all they need to do to keep an employee motivated is offer an emphatic "Thank you!" or "Good job!" when appropriate.

#2 Adequate people skills

Being able to relate to employees and make them feel comfortable with you is essential to establishing an open and honest working environment. The following tips will provide some guidelines on how a manager should treat employees.
Don’t be too busy for your employees. Even if you are busy, you need to make time to give feedback or help your employees. If they have to wait a long time to get what they need from you, start delegating more of your own work so that you have time for your managerial duties. Motivation will suffer if employees perceive that you are unavailable.
Strive to achieve a balance in your roles. Be a “gentle giant”. That is, be strict and professional, but at the same time, be aware of your employees’ feelings and welcome them when they need advice and help.
Don’t adopt a “one size fits all” approach to management. Have rules and treat employees fairly and equitably, but don’t be completely inflexible and uncompromising - your employees will only resent you.
Listen to your employees’ concerns. Make sure that you really understand what it is they want. Practice active listening – really listen to what employees are trying to say to you, and confirm with them that you are interpreting their messages correctly.
Open the lines of communication. Be open to suggestions - seek out feedback from your employees.
Be fair, and make sure that your employees are compensated appropriately. Employees who feel that they are not being treated as they should are more likely to become unsatisfied with the company, behave dishonestly, and have higher turnover rates.
Pay attention. Notice issues and intervene before they become too severe. For instance, you might observe that an employee is distracted. Taking him or her aside and asking what is wrong could uncover a personal difficulty, a lack of motivation, or other problems.
Don't be phony. There are a lot of great techniques for dealing with employees out there, but if they seem forced or rehearsed they won't work. Test them out and try to make them your own.
Maintain credibility. Don't promise things to your employees that you can't deliver. Act professional and don't compromise your role as manager.
Build relationships. While it may not be advisable to become best friends with your employees, you should develop a good professional relationship.
Make an effort. While you certainly can't fake empathy, you can increase your connection to other people by truly listening and trying to put yourself in their shoes.
Build meaningful relationships that teach you about human nature. By interacting with others on a regular basis, you can become more adept at identifying feelings in others.
If you're not sure how someone is feeling, ask for clarification (if it's appropriate). A simple, "How are you feeling?" or "Could you explain your perspective to me?" might do the trick.
Think globally. Put aside your own preoccupations to consider what might be going through other people's minds in different situations. Ask yourself how you would feel in a similar situation. In every circumstance, there are several perspectives. Try to identify at least 2 or 3 different ways to look at things.
Put empathy in action. Get involved in helping people in some way (i.e. volunteering); the closer you get to a situation, the more you will realize the difficulties others might be facing.

#3 Sometimes utilizes transformational leadership techniques

Use coaching to assist employees who are not performing work duties well. Discipline should be reserved for when an employee has an attitude problem or engages in improper conduct. A work performance issue is often a matter of poor skills, lack of knowledge, or other matters that stem from insufficient training. Coaching can also be used for succession training with promising employees, or as part of career development. Use coaching to bring employees up to where you want and need them to be.
Clearly set out the areas of the employee’s performance that needs to be worked on. Make sure that the employee knows that there is a performance problem and that s/he needs to improve. Ensure that s/he is willing to put in the effort to change the situation. Set clear, quantifiable, and verifiable objectives and evaluation criteria.
Offer positive incentives to improve, not negative consequences for lack of improvement. Don’t make firing ultimatums unless the employee’s performance is sub-standard and has been for a long time. Fear may be a good motivator in the short-term, but it certainly won’t create a positive atmosphere in the work place. Promise increased salary, bonuses, or career advancement if the individual lives up to the expectations set forth – and be sure to deliver as promised.
Clarify what good performance entails. Provide examples of work that fits your standards so that employees know what they need to strive for.
Provide all the resources employees need for improvement. Ensure access to information, educational resources, and support. In addition, make sure that employees have enough time to fulfill the task. Be available in case they have questions.
Let your employees find their own way. You will only de-motivate them and undermine their opinions if you step in when it isn’t necessary to do so. Offer guidance rather than telling them what to do.
Learn to relinquish some control. You can’t control every outcome, so learn to let your employees take over some of the responsibility. You will increase their self-efficacy if you give them some real-world experience.
Require that your employees develop their skills and abilities, and that they take on more duties. Don’t just encourage your employees to improve, require them to do so. If they have weak skill areas, have them take a mandatory seminar in order to improve. Make improvement a required part of the job description - just be sure to offer the resources that are necessary to improve.
Watch how you speak to your employees. Give suggestions, not orders. The minute you say “I want you to do X”, the employee may shut down. Ask rather than telling them to do things. They will appreciate your tone, even though the effect is essentially the same.

- The next Career Coaching session was scheduled for Tuesday 17 May 2016 at 1:00 PM.

Career Coaching Session #3:

- - - - Acknowledgements from Session #3: - Takeaways from Session #3: - Action Plan from Session #3: - - The next session was scheduled for...

Career Coaching Session #4:

- - - - Acknowledgements from Session #4: - Takeaways from Session #4: - Action Plan from Session #3: - - The next session was scheduled for...

Protected: Career and Life Coaching for 67k+yvYf