The Hindu Business Line : Counselling in the corporate context

THERE is an increasing awareness of people issues — on the same level as financial, marketing, or manufacturing agenda — in the current commercial and industrial management situation. Counselling skills are considered crucial and imperative in the context of people management. They are simply a subset of interpersonal skills, and invaluable in a variety of business situations. In the traditional form of organisation, which is segmented by rank and role, the linkages are vertical. Employees may go up and down the ladder, but dare not dart across. Obviously, this situation is incongruous in a world, which is moving rapidly towards flexibility and fast responsiveness.

Some trailblazing companies have already transformed their pyramidal structures into a flat organisation to focus on their front-line staff. If such a radical shift in balance of power and authority must succeed, front-line employees need to be empowered and counselled, so that they may fulfill the revised parameters of performance expected of them.

People who are proximate to the task are likely to be more customer-sensitive, as they are closer to him. They will appreciate his needs and desires better and, hence, more easily translate his aspirations into actions, and his dreams into deeds. Therefore, the floodlight must be turned on the front-line staff, which is where the rubber hits the road, and where the bugle and the gunshot are music to the ears.

Counselling in the corporate context must address the basic issue of inspiring confidence and imparting competence to the people in the front of the business field (not dissimilar to a battlefield). It is necessary so that they will resolve the issues and problems then and there which, otherwise in the orthodox business bureaucracy, may travel all the way to the corner room in the top floor for an answer from the chief.

It is important that counselling is not confused with coaching, or mentoring. Coaching is an intensive form of personal development applied on a one-to-one basis, between the coach and the executive. The objective of coaching is to enable the executive to actualise his latent talents, and arrive at a fresh sense of his `self'. Coaching is not remedial as it is clearly focused on the future performance of the executive. It deals with new opportunities lying ahead. Whereas counselling is often concerned with an analysis of his past problems, the goal being to prevent recurrence of similar setbacks again.

Mentoring is more an advisory and career-oriented interaction, between an executive and a more senior person, either from the same organisation or the same profession. It is "an off-line help by one person to another, in making significant transitions in knowledge, work, or thinking."

Counselling may be defined as a process of interaction, which guides a person to come to terms with his own emotions and feelings. It helps him to gain a better understanding of what ought to be his values and aspirations in life. It enables him to rely on his personal resources to deal and cope with men and matters more effectively. The objective is to make people more self-reliant and -confident, more independent and in control of themselves. It is like a person looking at a mirror to confirm what he must do to improve his image.

In an ideal work environment, employees will recognise opportunities, deal with changes, resolve problems, prioritise agenda, and make decisions. The effectiveness of a manager is evaluated upon how well his employees are able to discharge their individual responsibilities. By applying the counselling technique, a manager may help his employees — when sought — without taking on their problems. The problem must remain with the employee, and so also, the responsibility for finding and implementing its solution.

Employees may sometimes bring their personal problems to their manager for his counsel, but the latter may feel reluctant to handle them, as they are not work-related. The manager may fight shy of intruding into the privacy of an employee. Whereas since such issues are likely to impact upon the effectiveness and productivity of the employee, and especially when they surface due to his own initiative, the manager has a responsibility to address those problems as well.

A common concern while dealing with people problems is how to handle emotional employees. Traditional business norms frown and flout at expression of emotions in the workplace. Repressed emotions, however, lead to blocks in creativity, productivity, and self-development. Managers who have an ability to overcome this constraint and deal with problems — emotion and all — will have the advantage of eliciting better cooperation from their employees.

Effective counselling depends upon the application of some basic skills. Listening is one such important skill: It is essential to understand in this context the concept of active listening. People tend to dismiss listening as a routine, humdrum, and receiving ritual; whereas active listening consists of a few component skills such as reading body language, observing the way things are being said, watching the tone/timbre/inflexion of voice, and the intensity of communication. Body language is far more significant than mere vocabulary.

When listening to an employee, it is important to maintain what is referred to in the counselling parlance as total physical presence, namely, direct eye contact, friendly facial expression, upright but relaxed body posture, and when required, taking notes of the core and crucial points in the dialogue. Taking notes, however, ought not to break the eye contact for too long. Perhaps, the manager may develop his own brand of shorthand, with experience.

When using the counselling technique with an employee, it is necessary to summarise the discussion at periodical intervals. Care must be taken to ensure that this does not become an interruption. Summarising is listing logically, chronologically, and concisely the main points covered and discussed till the point of time of delivering the summary. This will facilitate the employee to comprehend and obtain an overview of whatever has been spoken, and decide the future direction of the dialogue. Should an employee go blank, or miss his chain of thoughts, the summary will come to his rescue, help him to collect his wits and proceed further.

Questions can be used as an aid when counselling employees. When a manager asks an intelligent and pertinent question, besides clarifying the point for him, it will be a confirmation and reinforcement to the employee that the manager is alert and attentive. Whereas there are two risks involved in this procedure. Too many questions may create a misgiving that it is a context for cross-examination. Second, the initiative and spontaneity of the employee may be inadvertently wrested from him, and convert the conversational mode into an interrogative syndrome.

A major concern of counselling is to enable the employee to identify and modify any dysfunctional aspects in his mode of thinking and behaviour. In order to achieve this, the manager may sometimes need to challenge or confront the employee. Albeit the manager may want to do this only in the interest of the employee, and for the sake of improving his awareness and ability, yet he will do well to proceed slowly and cautiously in this area. He must not change abruptly or suddenly from an empathetic mode into a confrontational wavelength.

It is essential to establish a congenial climate and appropriate ambience, before commencing a counselling session. Equality in the contextual relationship, despite hierarchy, must be tangible and visible. The manager's posture, gestures, manners, voice inflexion, and language — all of them must send clear signals to the employee that he is on a friendly wicket. So also, the closing process must be smooth and comfortable. The employee has to be prepared for the shutdown; at least ten minutes before time runs out, he may be gently reminded that only so much more time is available. A verbal summary of the core and crux of the entire session, coming from the manager, may be a fitting finale to the occasion.

(The author is a freelance writer.)