Counseling Skills

Performance Counseling

Counseling has been described by the Institute of Personnel and

Development (IPD) as: ‘Any activity in the workplace where one individual
uses a set of skills and techniques to help another individual to take
responsibility for oneself and to manage their own decision-making whether
it is work related or personal’.

Counseling is central to the management and development of people. All

managers engage in some activity which could be termed as counseling as
part of their normal working life. It is therefore a natural component of
management – an everyday activity which can arise from immediate
feedback.

One of your important aims as a manager is to get individuals to accept

much of the responsibility for their own self-development. What people seek
out for themselves, with some guidance as necessary, is likely to make a
greater impact than anything handed out to them by their managers or by a
trainer. Managers have to make clear their expectations of what individuals
have to achieve. It is also necessary to ensure that they have the necessary
training and guidance to enable them to meet your expectations. There will
also be occasions when you have to spell out how you expect the job or task
to be done. But you will make no progress in developing the skills and
abilities of your staff if you only tell them how to do things or how they
should solve their work problems. Your job is to do as much as you can to
help them to help themselves, because that is the best way for them to
learn.

Counseling is a concentrated form of interpersonal

communication. In a counseling program the interchange of
idea between the parties involved (manager and his
subordinate) is directed towards a problem or a need that
requires in-depth attention. As such, during a performance
counseling session, the primary focus, of course, would be on
performance review and improvement.

In this context, performance counseling may serve at least four

basic functions:
 Corrective or remedial: It may identify conditions, attitudes or
behavior patterns that precipitate problems and give advanced set of
actions that result in improved performance.
 Therapeutic: It may diagnose personal or organizational ills and
prescribe and apply medicine to the wounds so that some form of
normality is restored.
 Informational: It may serve the purpose of conveying information and
exchange ideas to prevail problems than diagnose those already in
existence.

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 Developmental: Help individuals to more fully utilize their capabilities
and to more completely achieve their own potential and higher level of
efficiency.

Performance Counseling, when given to an employee, helps him to:

 assess his existing capabilities
 establish goals for future development
 determine if the goals he has in mind are realistically compatible with his
existing abilities and his aptitude
 develop and to work out a plan of action through which realistic
development can occur.

The personal value of these advantages is obvious, but they may also be
translated into organizational advantages. Performance Counseling may
reduce absenteeism, turnover, lack of cooperation patterns and may
otherwise result in an improvement for the organization.

As a counselor you should not content yourself with giving advice (which
can promptly be brushed off); instead, try to help the subordinate develop
realistic attitudes and worthwhile goals that he can successfully achieve
through confident decisions. One must be supportive, suggestive, leading
the individual to the threshold of his own self-insight. The counselor must
help establish the climate of confidence.

Performance Counseling – Objectives

 Overall development of employees to have better adjustment with their
work environment
 Making employees aware of their potential, strengths and weaknesses.
 Establish better superior-subordinate relationship - a relation of mutual
trust and openness - to increase effectiveness in the organization.
 Help the counselee to reflect on his behavioral pattern by providing
feedback.
 Assist the counselee to improve his personal and interpersonal skills.
 Help him see his goals in the organization and make an action plan to
achieve those goals.
 Help him prepare alternative action plan to improve his performance and
behavior.
 Provide genuine concern about his personal or organizational problems
and thereby create an atmosphere of trust and openness where he can
discuss freely.
 Assist him in increasing his understanding of the organization values and
objectives, to have better adjustment, job satisfaction and a sense of
belonging to the organization.
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The various outputs (expectations) of Performance Counseling are as

follows:

From the Organization’s point of view:

a) To create a professional but warm climate between supervisor and
subordinate and consequently throughout the managerial structure.
b) To create an openness and empathy in managers, so that timely action
may be taken to prevent frustrations and conflicts to build up
unnecessarily.
c) To initiate target-setting exercise as part of the appraisal system.

From the Appraisee’s point of view:

a) To derive satisfaction from being heard and understood by his
immediate supervisor.
b) To get an opportunity to clarify the expectations of superiors.
c) To be able to “grow professionally”, so that the subordinate can give
and receive feedback without feeling threatened.

From the Appraiser’s point of view:

a) To develop better understanding of subordinate’s individuality and
approach to work.
b) To be able to clarify expectations.
c) To create a climate in which he might openly share his views on the
appraisee’s performance, strengths and remediable shortcoming.

Approaches to Performance Counseling

 Tell and Sell Approach - in which appraisers seek first to let appraisees
know how they are doing, then gain their acceptance of the evaluation
and finally get them to follow a plan outlined for their improvement. The
problem with this method is that considerable skill is required to get
people to accept criticism delivered in this way and to change in the
required manner. There are occasions when people have to be told what
to do.

 Tell and Listen Approach in which the evaluation is communicated to

the appraisees who is then allowed to respond to it. Instead of appraisers
dominating the discussion they sit back and become non-directive
counselors during the second part of the meeting. Appraisees are
encouraged to think things out for themselves and to decide on what

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 Counseling Skills
needs to be done. The assumption is made that they are more likely to
change in these circumstances than if they had been told what to do. An
advantage of this approach is that appraisers can profit more from the
discussion by receiving feedback from appraisees on how improvements
can be achieved with regard to management, work methods, the
provision of resources, dealing with problems outside the control of
appraisees and job assignments. However, this method also requires skill
on the part of appraisers in listening, reflecting feelings and
summarizing opinions.

 Problem-Solving Approach this requires appraisers to start by

encouraging the appraisee to identify problem areas and then exchange
ideas about solutions. An appraisee therefore plays an active part in
reviewing problem areas and in deciding what should be done about
them. The evaluation of performance emerges from this discussion
rather than being imposed on an appraisee. In this approach the
emphasis is less on what went right or wrong with performance in the
past and more on ensuring that steps are taken to improve performance
in the future. This method motivates original thinking and provides the
intrinsic motivation that can be derived from the work itself and the
process of overcoming work problems. Job satisfaction can be improved
by reorganizing or enriching the job, by changing the appraisees’
perception of their role and by increasing the appraisers’ ability to
provide guidance and help in the form it is needed.

Types of Performance Counseling

While there are many approaches to counseling, the two most discussed
styles differ distinctly. They are known as the directive and non-directive
approaches.

Directive Performance Counseling

Directive Counseling is a structured interaction, controlled and propelled

by the counselor. If the purpose of counseling is corrective or remedial in
nature, the counselor pointedly asks (or tells) the counselee the course of
action to be taken for improvement. If counseling session is for
developmental purposes, the counselor leads (again through asking or
telling) the counselee into what his goals are or should be and helps to
determine what skill requirements will be necessary for each of those goals.
If counseling purpose is therapeutic, the counselor guides in the diagnosis
of weaknesses and the prescription of solutions. If the purpose is to provide
information to the counselee or to gather information from him,
straightforward communication results with little superfluous material
included.

Directive performance counseling may include a large amount of advice

giving, admonishment, exhortation (motivational pep talks on how and why
the counselee should improve or change his behavior), explanation and
reassurance (the giving of encouragement).

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Non-directive Performance Counseling

Non-directive counseling is counselee-centered. When this technique is
used, the counselor plays a supportive role. The counselor is present
primarily to listen and to help the counselee verbalize his thoughts. The
counselee is encouraged to lead the interaction so that it will fit his needs
and will represent his ideas. The counselor adopts the philosophy that the
counselee is responsible for himself, is capable of solving his own problems,
wants to be understood, is an important human being, and has feelings that
deserve to be respected.

In the pure form of non-directive counseling, the counselor does not

diagnose the employee’s problems or offer solutions to the employee’s
problems. The counselor does not give advice. In his role as a supportive
listener, he reflects the counselee’s thoughts back to him, attempts to
increase his perspective and helps him to explore thoughts he may not have
considered previously.

How to conduct a non-directive counseling session? Heckmann and

Huneryagen, have given the following suggestions:

 Be prepared
 Put the counselee at ease
 Establish rapport
 Don’t argue or admonish
 Don’t display authority
 Listen carefully
 Don’t advise
 Help clarify positive courses of action

When to Counsel
Counseling is required when a problem arises. This is the common
assumption associated with it. But this is not always true. Employee can be
counseled in two different situations:

I) Reactive Counseling
 The basic aim is to help the employee tackle the problem situation.
 It is done in response to a problem faced by an employee or when
the employee himself is a problem.
 Some employees have the ability to learn out of such counseling to
develop themselves personally along with solving a problem.

II Proactive Counseling
 Basic aim is to help employee work out an action plan in order to
develop his strengths.
 Counseling is aimed at helping the employee realize his strengths,
potentialities and areas (knowledge, skills, attitudes etc.) needing
improvements.

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Who can counsel
Any one who is interested in the development and who has enough
knowledge about the employee can counsel him.
Manager or supervisors are in a better position to counsel their employee in
an organization.

Whom to counsel
When making an assessment as to who might be in need of counseling, there
are certain indicators, which may assist in deciding whom to counsel.

An individual behaves in a different manner when he is under severe stress.

This change in behavior brings out some clues by which the organization
can decide as to whom to counsel. Some typical behavioral patterns are
listed below:
 Increased irritability
 Loss of concentration
 Withdrawal from social interaction

 Poor Time keeping

 Increased absence
 Failure to meet performance targets
 Inability to make decisions
 Inability to respond to motivation
 Lack of energy and enthusiasm
 Display of anxiety and tension

Ethics in Counseling

Successful counseling demands a skilled, empathic and trustworthy

counselor to guide and support the client through the change process.
Counselors, who violate their client’s trust, are insensitive to client’s needs
and values, use their power exploitatively or experiment with counseling
interventions for which they have no training or experience are acting
unethically. In each of these situations, the counselor is not making the best
interests of client the highest priority and is instead serving some other
purpose – usually self-interest. Whenever this happens, the counselor’s
behavior is defined as unethical.

Counselors have two broad ethical obligations: to be loyal to the institution

that employs them and to promote the good reputation of the counseling
profession.

Ethical Principles: Five ethical principles are fundamental to counseling

ethics: respect to autonomy, beneficence (doing good), nonmaleficence
(avoiding harm), justice (or fairness) and fidelity (or promise keeping).
Ethics’ codes inform professionals as to what behaviors are ethical or
unethical; ethical principles explain why behaviors have been so labeled.
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Summary: A counselor is in a position of power and trust and has a duty to

be respectful of that special status. Counselors who act irresponsibly cause
real harm to their clients, their employers and the reputation of the
profession. The most fundamental ethical imperative is to act in the best
interests of the client and avoid actions that risk harm to him or her. The
responsibility for ethical behavior rests with the individual practitioner.

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