Table of Contents
- Possesses business acumen
- Knows how organizations function
- Draws upon own business or management experience
- Builds rapport
- Builds trust
- Models effective communication
- Utilizes facilitation skills
- Possesses professional self-esteem
- Harnesses clinical intuition
- Sets expectations
- Sets boundaries
- Takes a history of the problem
- Provides follow-up
- Seeks, and gives, feedback
- Initiates outreach and proactivity
- Consumes research
Possesses business acumen
- Realize that any action or solution you produce for the manager will cost the company… in money or time
- Interview senior management
- Know how to speak with corporate directors
- Know the leaders' visions and the manager's execution goals
- Reframe problems into business issues
- Learn to think like a businessperson
- Be willing to be recalibrated by manager to business knowledge
Knows how organizations function
- Organizations are social constructs
- Develop knowledge of micro-cultures
- Understand how systems work; apply systems theory
- Ontological design
- Ontological Design recognizes the significance of conceptualizations at all levels of the system, from "design" and implementation through to its end use.
- How apparent or obvious is the organization's structure?
- How does the organization respond to failure or unexpected events?
- Does the culture or focus of the organization create blind spots?
- Understand how business processes work for this organization
- Elements of organizational awareness
- power; authority; organization's politics are real
- legacy & history of the organization
- management's values… what is considered costly?
- constructed reality
- EAP and EAPC must fit within the organization's model
- Know your value to the organization
- Develop political savvy and power within the organization, and be willing to use them
Draws upon own business or management experience
Builds Rapport
- Deemed the number one condition for future referrals and consultation requests
- Effective EAPCs "bridge" current feedback and coaching to previous consultations
- Also sustains the consulting relationship through "rough patches" or dead-end problems
- Match the style of thinking of the manager
- Demonstrates humility and humanness
- Brings self into the work (without compromising boundaries or dual-relationships)
- Sense of humor can reduce tension, engage manager
- Treat the manager with highest respect
- S/he is an expert in his/her area
- Have compassion for the manager's problem and situation
Builds trust
- Higher levels of trust are believed to prompt manager requests for consultation earlier in the life of a problem
- Go the extra mile
- Stick with the manager; partnership
- Maintain privacy of business information
- Especially important for external EAPs with multiple customers
Models effective communication
- Manage tone of voice to convey confidence and calmness
- Good listener—listen with "the third ear" for the problem behind the request
- Manager's vocabulary will reveal his/her attitude about the employee problem
Utilizes facilitation skills
- Move people in their ability to expand thoughts, feelings
Possesses professional self-esteem
- Challenges myths, denial, powerlessness, obsolete management methods
- Directive with guidance
- Confidence without cockiness
- Needs confidence & strength to sell what you're saying; managers can be rough on the EAPC
Harnesses clinical intuition
- EAPC tailors the education, interventions and solutions to the style of the manager
- Don't suggest things that manager cannot do
- Determines manager's readiness-for-change
Sets expectations
- Establishes roles of EAP, EAPC, the manager and the employee
- Clarifies that EAP is not to be used as discipline or punishment
- Further, that employee non-participation in EAP is not grounds for discipline
- EAPC contracts with manager
- Sets clear expectations
- Outlines roles of each party
- Seek acknowledgement that manager owns the problem, and the development and delivery of solutions
Sets boundaries
- Ability to move in, then move out, thus reducing dependency
- Avoids slipping into personal realm (for EAPC or manager)
Takes a history of the problem
- The history of attempted solutions also reveals manager's strengths and tolerance for employee management
Provides follow-up
- Reaches out to manager to determine progress, barriers, motivation
- Follow-up also…
- helps build rapport
- demonstrates concern
- models follow-through
- enhances manager's integration of skills
Seeks, and gives, feedback
- "Did we get that question answered?"
- Uses a Manager Satisfaction Survey
- Utilizes outcome measures
- Coaches manager about the importance of feedback
- What does effective feedback sound like?
- How can you frame your feedback so that it is usable by the audience?
- How does timing affect the usefulness of feedback?
Initiates outreach and proactivity
- Look for trends
- Anticipate needs
- Reach out to managers who could benefit from that knowledge or services
Consumes research
- Conducts own outcome studies
- Consumes research/writing in the EA field
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