Attended the Maine Career Development Association workshop in November 2018 on the Brain-Based Career Development model. It was a very informative workshop by @Imants Jaunarajs and @Erika Kirk Peyton from Ohio University. I was so interested that I ordered their monograph from NACE.org when I got home. (Order your own copy)
Big takeaways from the workshop and this monograph are:
1. Brain can only handle 4 pieces of information in the prefontal cortex, two is best. This means we need to work hard to focus on 1 major task at a time. Most of us have many more thoughts going on at once.
2. Remember our students/clients are coming with lots of things on their mind and we need to help them focus. Don’t overload them with lots of tasks. Narrow the issues down to 3 or 4 and then focus on 1 at a time. Even if it means more meetings.
3. Keep the focus on the student/client “what would you like to accomplish today?”
4. Set clear expectations for the time you have with them. (again don’t overload them; your role; checkin about halfway;)
5. Help them find their solutions with your coaching. Goal is for you to talk 20% of time.
6. Assign action steps that can be accomplished in 2-5 days.
The book includes 3 pages of great coaching questions that keeps the ownership with the client as well as case studies demonstrating how the coaching session looks, and their 4-quadrant form they use. All very helpful.
This theory supports so much of what I already do…nice to know my intuition was correct and actually based on theory 🙂
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