4 Qualities for Effective Counselor. Guide for Performance Counseling, Problem Counseling, and Individual Growth Counseling
Monday, November 9th, 2009
Leaders must demonstrate the following qualities in order to counsel effectively:
Respect for employees. This quality includes the belief that individuals are responsible for their own actions and ideas. It also includes an awareness of a person’s individuality in terms of unique values, attributes, and skills.
Self-awareness. This quality is an understanding of you as a leader. The more you are aware of your own values, needs, and biases, the less likely you will be to project your feelings onto your employees.
Credibility. This quality is achieved through both honesty and consistency between your statements and actions. Credible leaders are straightforward with their people and behave in such a manner that their people respect and trust their words.
Empathy. This quality entails understanding an employer’s situation. Empathetic leaders will be better able to help people identify the situation and develop a plan to improve the situation.
The purpose of counseling is to help employees develop in order to achieve organizational or individual goals. At times, the counseling is directed by policy and, at other times, you, as a leader, should choose to counsel to develop employees. Regardless of the nature of the counseling, you should demonstrate the qualities of an effective counselor (respect, self-awareness, credibility, and empathy) and employ the skills of communication. While the purpose of counseling is to develop their people, leaders often categorize counseling based on the topic of the session. The main counseling categories include performance counseling, problem counseling, and individual growth counseling. While these categories can help organize and focus counseling sessions, they must not be viewed as separate and distinct types of counseling. For example, a counseling session that focuses on resolving a problem may also have a great impact on improving job performance, and a counseling session focused on performance may also include a discussion of opportunities for growth. Regardless of the topic of the counseling session, you should follow the same basic format to prepare for, and conduct, counseling.
