Counseling

Commandant’s Department Summer Training 14 July 2015

Counseling

• Counseling is the process used by leaders to review with a subordinate the subordinate’s demonstrated performance and potential

• Three major categories:– Event– Performance– Professional growth

Event Counseling

• Involves a specific event or situation– Can precede an event such as a promotion board– Can follow events such as noteworthy duty

performance, a problem with performance or mission accomplishment, or a personal issue

Event Counseling

• Citadel examples– A counseling

generated by a SPOT report

– Mandatory counseling after an alcohol incident

– CPFT failure counselings before Ring Weekend and graduation

Performance Counseling

• Used to conduct a review of a subordinate’s duty performance over a certain period

• Communicates standards and is an opportunity for leaders to establish and clarify the expected values, attributes, and competencies

Performance Counseling

• Citadel examples– When a cadet has

accumulated 75% or 100% of his semester or annual demerit allowance (CC Form 98)

Professional Growth Counseling

• Includes planning for the accomplishment of individual and professional goals

• Leader and subordinate conduct a review to identify and discuss the subordinate’s strengths and weaknesses and to create an individual development plan that builds upon those strengths and compensates for (or eliminates) weaknesses

• May include developing a “pathway to success” with short- and long-term goals and objectives

Professional Growth Counseling

• Citadel examples– Annual counseling using CC Form 112

“TAC”

• Teach• Advise• Coach

Teach

• Teaching is “giving the desired information in an understandable manner”

• Training is “perfecting performance through repetition”– CTM Chapter 4

Advise• “To offer suggestions

about the best course of action to someone”– OED

• “Coaching” also involves discussing courses of action and developing an action plan– ADRP 6-22

• “Mentoring” also involves providing advice and counsel– ADRP 6-22

Coaching

• Refers to the function of helping someone through a set of tasks or with general qualities

• Relies primarily on teaching and guiding to bring out and enhance the capabilities already present– Those being coached may or may not

have appreciated their potential– The coach helps them understand their

current level of performance and guides them how to reach the next level of knowledge and skill

Coaching• An important aspect of coaching is identifying and

planning for short- and long-term goals• The coach and the person being coached discuss

strengths, weaknesses, and courses of action to sustain or improve

Guidelines for Coaches• Focus goals– Identify the purpose of each coaching session– Articulate mutual expectations– Communicate the individual and developmental

tasks for the session

Guidelines for Coaches• Clarify the leader’s self-awareness– Define strengths and developmental needs– Agree on focus areas to improve

Guidelines for Coaches• Uncover potential– The coach facilitates self-awareness of the individual’s

potential and developmental needs by guiding the discussion with questions

– The coach actively listens to how the individual perceives potential and encourages a free flow of ideas

– The coach assesses the individual’s readiness to change and incorporates this into the session

Guidelines for Coaches• Eliminate developmental barriers– Identify developmental needs– Identify those areas that may hinder self-development– Determine how to overcome barriers to development– Determine how to implement an effective plan to improve

overall performance– Help the individual identify potential sources of support

for implementing an action plan

Guidelines for Coaches

• Follow-up– Provide feedback concerning the effectiveness of the

assessment, the usefulness of the information they received, and progress

– Provide frequent informal feedback as well as formal counseling to regularly inspire and improve subordinates

Mentorship

• The voluntary developmental relationship that exists between a person of greater experience and a person of lesser experience that is characterized by mutual trust and respect

• Mentoring focuses primarily on developing a more experienced leader for the future

Characteristics of Mentorship

• Takes place when the mentor provides a less experienced leader with advice and counsel over time

• Affects personal development (maturity and interpersonal and communication skills) as well as professional development (technical, tactical, and career path knowledge)

• The strength of the relationship relies on mutual trust and respect

“The Complete TAC”

• So in the final analysis, it appears a TAC must learn to “become all things to all people so that by all possible means he might save some.”– In some circumstances a TAC will teach. At other times she will

train.– Sometimes advise. Sometimes counsel.– Sometimes coach. Sometimes mentor.

• The thing to remember is that all those verbs represent the “task.” The task is important only as it relates to the “purpose,” and the purpose of every mission-essential task a TAC does should somehow relate to the development of principled leaders.