How Can Life Coaching Help When Faced With Redundancy - Dissertation Example

?How Can Life Coaching Help When Faced With Redundancy? Introduction Redundancy, also sometimes referred to as being laid off, occurs when an employee has their employment at a company terminated, generally due to business reasons, such as insufficient profits or merging of departments. Commonly a group of employees are made redundant at the same time, rather than just a single individual, and it is rarely connected to the work ethic or performance of the individual. On some occasions, multiple employees need to be made redundant so the company will choose the employees whose jobs are the least important, for which there are other people doing the same jobs or the lowest performing employees to make redundant. The consequences of redundancy for the individual are more than just losing their job or career; instead it can also cause many emotional and psychological reactions. Redundancy often causes a feeling of rejection, as the employee was not good enough to be retained by the company. This feeling can be strong even if it is not legitimate, for example if the company had no choice in whether it reduced staff, and would have kept the employee if it was possible. In some cases redundancy can lead to depression for the individual, especially if the employee has difficulty finding a new job. The employee can begin to feel that their skills and abilities are useless, and that they are undesirable both as an employee and as a person. This can also result in anger in the individual, either at themselves, at the company or at people in their lives. Beyond the psychological, redundancy also has a large impact on the physical aspects of the employee’s life. Redundancy results in a large, unexpected change in the pattern of the individual’s day to day life, one that in many cases was not desirable. The individual is given a notice period in many cases, or is made redundant on full or reduced pay for a certain period of time. During this time there is pressure on the individual to find a new source of income. In addition, they may face difficulties at home, either financial or emotional, with family members often blaming individuals who have been made redundant. It is often a poor economy that causes companies to need to lay off workers, and if this is the case then it can make it difficult for the employees that were made redundant to find new jobs as the employment market is poor. Even if this is not the case, the process of finding a suitable new job is often difficult and takes a significant amount of time. The individual may have been happy in their job, be looking for specific requirements in a job, or belong to a field for which there are already a large number of unemployed. All of these factors can make finding a job especially difficult. While this is happening the individual is faced with reduced or no income, a daily schedule that is very different than what they are accustomed to, and increasing stress as they attempt to find new work. Throughout this time the support of friends and family is very important to give the individual hope that they will find something, confidence that they are worth hiring, and help in finding direction and focus. However, many times family or friends are not enough. This can because they are not experienced in the area, partially blame the individual for being made redundant or are busy with their own lives. Life coaching is a form of counselling that helps an individual to make decisions during critical times in their lives. People approach life coaching for a wide variety of reasons, some feel that they are not getting enough out of life; others are concerned about unhappy relationships, unproductive jobs or whether they are making the right decisions about their future. Life coaching can be especially useful when an individual finds themselves faced with too many options, and are not sure how to evaluate them. Sometimes life coaches are approached by individuals looking to significantly change their life and increase the meaning or the positive value that they derive from it. Life coaches look for impartial solutions that help the individual being coached to achieve their desired result with optimal time, money and energy expenditure . One professional definition of life coaching is that it is a collaborative and systematic process that is focused on finding solutions, where the coach aids the development, enhancement of life experience, work performance and learning of the individual being coached . Life coaching can be very useful for individuals who know they are facing redundancy, or individuals who have been made redundant. There are a number of different ways that life coaches can help, and the approach largely depends on the requirements of the individuals. In some cases individuals may require help determining how to look for jobs, or encouragement that they have worth in the job market and as an individual. Alternatively, some individuals see redundancy as a chance to start afresh, make new and different decisions, change parts of their life or look at going into a new field of work or into study. Whatever the desire is, there is a number of ways which life coaching can help in the case of redundancy. This essay details some of the principles of life coaching, how it can help individuals to make a new start and the use of cognitive-behaviour theory in life coaching. In addition it looks at the differences between life coaching and psychology as well as the importance of trust in the relationship between the life coach and the client. All of these principles are important in the role that life coaching plays for people who have been made redundant or are facing redundancy. Principles of Life Coaching Life coaches are individuals that are trained in ways of counselling individuals from a wide range of backgrounds with a wide range of problems. The aim of life coaching is not to provide answers to a specific problem or a specific situation, but rather to empower individuals to see solutions for themselves, to understand their inner identity, and to plot a course through their life with confidence. The coach acts as a catalyst for changes within the client, amplifying and bringing forth talents and abilities that are already there. One of the key components of this is conscious choice. Choosing the life you desire is as simple as making conscious choices in response to events. This is not our inherent nature; instead most react to what happens automatically without thought about the long term results of the action. Many life coaches use life lessons as ways of teaching clients methods of responding to stimuli or to situation. One of these lessons is to create an inner identity. This is based on the concept that the way you think about yourself defines the way you act, the way you approach situations and circumstances and your responses. Habitual patterns of thinking are the core components a belief system and your beliefs. Creating a personal identity and defining it is something that takes work, but it is something that allows individuals control over much more of their own emotions, the way they react and the decisions they make . Life coaches work with clients to help them obtain a realistic view of their situation and their goals, helping them with setting goals and working towards them as well as to see blockages and opportunities where they exist. They are often able to see things the client cannot as the client does not have an objective view of the situation, nor do they have the knowledge of how to approach what is happening. Clients do not always like what the life coach has to tell them, wanting something from the situation that is not possible, but life coaches are highly experienced at dealing with a wide range of situations, while the client is generally not . One commonly used method in life coaching is the SWOT method. This stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. The strength portion looks at the strengths of the individual, getting the individual to evaluate their own strengths. In respect to individuals who have been made redundant strengths would refer to the skills and talents that the individual could bring to a new job. The next part is to look at the weaknesses of the individual, this is important as weaknesses can become blockages later on, and they need to be understood and dealt with early on. In terms of redundancies, weaknesses would be factors that made them lose their job in the first place (if this is relevant), areas where they are not as strong in, factors that may make it difficult for them to get or maintain a job in the future, etc. Opportunities refers to parts of the clients life that can be taken advantage of, the life coach may often be able to help the client see these clearer than the client could on their own. Opportunities could come in the form of contacts from their old job, the chance to start in a new industry, and many others. Finally threats are things that may derail the plans that the client is beginning to make, once these are identified strategies for dealing with them can be put into place. Threats for people who have been made redundant could include finance running ut before they find a new job, or a high amount of expected bills . Looking for a New Beginning One approach that can be taken is to see redundancy as a new beginning. Instead of taking the redundancy as an insult and a painful time of seeking new employment, it can instead be grasped as a chance to make significant changes without disrupting working conditions. Working with a life coach can help prevent some of the psychological repercussions of redundancy such as low self-esteem, slow sense of self worth and the sense of rejection. Life coaches can work with individuals to build up their self confidence and help them to determine what the best next steps to take are. Another approach life coaches often take with individuals is to help them to set and to focus on goals. This can also help individuals that have problems with their temper, retaliating on friends and family with their anger and frustrations at their redundancy. There are a number of specific approaches that a life coach can take with individuals that are dealing with or facing redundancy. One of the most important parts is the focus on each individual client, determining plans and goes for them on a case-by-case basis, rather than using the same approaches and procedures for many different clients. Some of the specific ways a life coach can help include: exploring talents of the individual helping them to understand where their value lies, help guide the individual towards setting and following goals and help determine any obstacles the individual’s progress as well as helping them find ways around the obstacles. While these approaches appear simple, they are often difficult for an individual to see much less follow without the help of someone who is external to the situation. The advantage that the life coach has is that they are trained to look for both the problems and the solutions that face their client, and they are able to see the complete picture of what is going on in the clients situation, while they may be burdened and confused by emotion. A cognitive-behavioural approach One approach that is sometimes used by life coaches is the cognitive-behavioural approach. This is particularly effective for dealing with strong emotions or anxiety, by helping the individual dissociate the trigger from the emotional response. The response is referred to as automatic negative thoughts (ANTS), these occur without any conscious thought from the individual. An example of this is getting upset because your partner is late home, your mind automatically considering the worst possible situations such as whether they are hurt, whether they were involved in an accident. Even though the worries may be extremely unlikely, the anxiety often will not leave until after the partner has returned . To change the way that the individual responds to these situations life coaches look at teaching their client how to manage and dispute their thoughts. When they feel the anxiety begin to rise, clients are taught to look for evidence that the emotions are true. For example, if they are feeling worthless they need to look for specific evidence that they are worthless, while at the same time weighing up evidence of their worth, In addition the individual can look at friends in the same situation, would they consider their friend worthless in the same situation? This helps the client to put their emotions in perspective. In many cases, the way that an individual looks at a situation is self-defined. This means that emotional difficulties with a particular situation are connected to the way the individual defines the situation in their own mind. For example, if you assume that making a mistake is awful, then you will react very strongly to any mistakes you make, whereas if you consider a mistake to be a step in the road to progress, then your reaction will tend not to be nearly as strong. Changing the way that you think about those situations but self examining and disputing their thoughts the individual is then able to move forward with a more positive outlook. There are a number of different questions that life coaches teach their clients to ask during ANTS incidences, including: are the thoughts true? If so what are the worst consequences, and are they really that bad? What is the evidence for what I am thinking? Is there anything that is distorting the way I am thinking? In several months time would I still feel the same way about this? These questions help the individual to evaluate whether the thought is real or anxiety . Relationship between Coach and Client The relationship between the coach and the client is important, and it can often define the effectiveness of the life coaching in general. While a life coach will attempt to work with any client, like for a client and a psychologist, there are some occasions where the individual personalities are not compatible, and the relationship between the two individuals is strained. Ideally there needs to be a level of trust between the client and the life coach. The life coach often needs to ask a lot of difficult, personal questions of the client, and to get them to think of things that are difficult emotionally. This can be difficult if the client does not trust the life coach. Likewise, some of the suggestions that the life coach makes may seem ineffective to the client at first, however if the client has a level of trust in the life coach then they are more likely to try the suggestions. It is important when a client deals with their life coach that they are honest with them. Giving false or partial information limits the ability of the life coach to help and in some situations can lead to them giving incorrect or even harmful advice. Because of this it may take individuals some time before they find a life coach that they feel that they can trust, but it is better to take the time and be certain, rather than going through a life coach that the individual does not trust, and ending up providing the life coach with incorrect information. Sometimes simply having someone to talk to openly and honestly is sufficient to help clients overcome their barriers and work out how to move forward, in other cases the life coach needs to work with the client over a significant period of time. A Life Coach or a Psychologist When considering the type of counselling an individual needs it is important to understand the different between a life coach and a psychologist. A psychologist generally works with individuals who are having problems in some degree, such as anxiety or depression. While these problems may be present in clients that see a life coach, a psychologist tends to see patients with more serious manifestations of these conditions. The aim of a psychologist is to work with patients until they feel they are able to make progress in their lives, and this may often take long term work. Psychologists are involved with recommending medications for patients, so may be a better initial option for individuals who are suffering depression or extreme anxiety as a consequence of being made redundant. In contrast, a life coach deals with individuals who are ready to make a change or progress in their lives facilitating and guiding them through the process. In some cases a psychologist can act as a life coach, encouraging patients and helping them, but this is more short term than a life coach, and generally is more involved in getting the client back into regular society, being able to function and to work. As such it is important for an individual to choose the right type of counselling for their situation, as the wrong type involves significant costs in time and often finances for no or little productive result. Conclusion Being made redundant can be a traumatic time that is often unexpected, giving individuals little time to brace themselves for the impacts. It can have a drastic effect on an individual, changing the schedule of their everyday lives as well as making them vulnerable to feelings of depression and rejection. Life coaching is a counselling technique where the coach works with the client to help them work towards their desired goals. For individuals that have been made redundant life coaching can help to install confidence, help determine what the best course of action is as well help identify both opportunities and threats. The relationship between the client and the life coach is important, and honesty on the part of the client provides the best environment for the life coach to be of the most assistance. References DUNBER, A. 2009. Essential Life Coaching skills, Taylor and Francis. GRANT, A. M. 2003. The impact of life coaching on goal attainment, metacognition and mental health. Social Behavior and Personality: an international journal, 31, 253-263. NEENAN, M. & DRYDEN, W. 2002. Life coaching: A cognitive-behavioural approach, Routledge. PURDIE, J. 2010. Life Coaching For Dummies, For Dummies. WILLIAMS, P. & THOMAS, L. J. 2005. Total life coaching: 50+ life lessons, skills, and techniques to enhance your practice--and your life, WW Norton & Company.  Read More