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Adopting solution-focused views and tools © 2004, Coert Visser & Kirsten Dierolf As coaches and career counselors, we have developed a way of career counseling we have found to be more realistic, more effective, and more fun. One inspiration is the work of INSEAD professor Herminia Ibarra, whose findings on career development collide well with our own experiences and preferences. Another very important inspiration has been the solution-focused approach, an approach to consultancy we have been using for several years now and which was originally developed by therapists Insoo Kim Berg and Steve de Shazer and their co-workers. We have experienced that this approach is highly applicable in career guidance, too, which was recently confirmed by a thesis written by Barbara Steiner (2004). In this article, we would like to explain how. We hope this will provide you with some useful new views and tools. This article is built up around four statements. 1. Careers are voyages of discovery It ...

© 2004, Coert Visser & Gwenda Schlundt Bodien Sandra is Edward’s manager, and she finds him difficult to manage. Edward is usually overly critical and seems to care more for his clients than for the company for which he works or his manager’s goals. Sandra genuinely tries her best to see things from Edward’s perspective and to take his wishes into account, but with little effect. Now the company has a new policy, which means concentrating on the core activities and as a consequence certain services will no longer be delivered. Edward explodes, saying: `I will not carry out this stupid decision! My client is very pleased with the service and I will continue to offer it! ` Sandra feels very angry and does not know how to respond. What has solution-focused thinking got to offer to managers? It is very useful in coaching and consultancy but also managers can benefit from it. The Four Step Method helps managers to manage successfully. The Four Step Method is the most compact way in whic...

© 2002, Coert Visser & Gwenda Schlundt Bodien John is a 35-year-old project manager who was offered external coaching. John performed generally well but was said to communicate rather bluntly. The goal of the coaching was to help John improve his communication skills, to communicate more tactful and aware. John and his coach tried to find situations in which john had already done this. Together, they explored these situations and identified which behaviors of John helped to make his communication more effective. Doing this they identified some things that worked really well (taking some time before responding, asking other peoples help, etc.). In the following few weeks John started to apply these solutions consciously. It worked fine. John even applied his new skills in applying for a new job within his organization. He got the job. Nowadays many managers and employees are assiduously looking for ways to lessen their problems or to increase their work pleasure. The market for exte...