We are going to define Interview Coaching as a structured process to achieve improvement in the way people work, through:
- The observation
- The use of specific techniques
- Through feedback interviews
Another definition of coaching explains it as a process of reflection and individualized training aimed at modifying behaviors and skills or solving gaps in order to better manage, seeking efficiency in performance.
In this process, there are two people: the coach (monitor) and the coachee (person with whom you work).
The word coach does not mean coach, trainer (who shows and works with demonstration and experience, and corrects, and reinforces); but it means teaching through observation and reflection with the person; that is to say, “To help people to bring out the best of themselves.” Perhaps the most appropriate simile is to compare the term coach with that of a sports coach.
Just as not all people can become a good boss, it is also difficult to become a good coach.
A good coach must share and believe the first two rules of coaching:
- Be deeply convinced that people can achieve everything they think they can achieve.
- Be constantly reinforcing that conviction in people.
A good coach must be able to:
Demonstrate skills for relationships with people in the following areas:
- Create a tune.
- Ask questions / get information.
- Give and receive “feed-back”.
- Persuade people, influence them, and encourage them.
- Help others to train and improve themselves.
- Think about practical criteria and handle situations creatively.
- Help others to consider higher levels of performance.
The process begins by defining the parameters that are fundamental for the development of their work and the situation in which that person is at this moment that is, defining where the person is now and where we want to take them.
Consensus identification of areas for improvement
- Explain the objective.
- Ask for the other person’s opinion.
- Express your own opinion.
- Preparation of the agreed improvement plan.
- Implementation of the action plan.
Let’s take a practical example, the departure of a coach with a medical salesperson, who has been found not to close sales properly.
If it is the first time you go out with him to do coaching, you have to explain what it consists of, how it is going to be done and what is intended, and the role of each of them; that is, EXPLAIN YOUR OBJECTIVE.
They must be told that the coach is not going to intervene in the interview, they are going to be an observer and then they are going to comment on the development of the interview and its results. With the intention, not to evaluate, but to identify the strengths of the interviews and the areas that could be improved and why; and between the two reach an agreement to modify behaviors and attitudes in the next interviews.
After the observation or the subject to be discussed, the opinion of the person must be requested:
- Using open questions.
- Get him to explain how it went; what would he highlight, what would he improve what else he could have done…
- Take notes (mental, written).
- Make him think about his performance and evaluate himself.
Now, express your own opinion:
How to do it?
- Starting with the positive things observed.
- Presenting a balanced feed-back.
- Focusing on the facts, not the people.
Explain:
- Your vision.
- The causes that have caused it.
- The future consequences that it could entail.
And then: ask him about our point of view.
What we must do is establish a consensual improvement plan.
How to do it?
Ask the coachee his opinion on the areas to improve and the action plan to develop.
Present our opinion as a coach.
Looking for:
– Possible improvements in performance.
– The benefits that you would obtain by applying the plan.
At this point, if the coach observes that the person must spend a little time rehearsing or improving a phrase, a question, etc.…; it is time to stop, and not do the next interview and role-play, seeking to improve weak areas.
Once our purpose has been achieved, we will then decide what to implement from the next interview with the next doctor.
And after this interview, start over again.
This process should be repeated throughout all the interviews observed throughout the work day.
Requirements for a coaching interview
The fundamental requirements for conducting a good coaching interview (feed-back interview or feedback) are the following:
- OBSERVATION OF THE FACTS: no particular interpretation or opinions.
- THE COMMENT MUST BE MADE ON THE WAY OF DOING and ON THE BEHAVIOR, not on the qualities of the person.
- PROMOTE FROM WITHIN THE PERSON TO DO MORE AND BETTER THINGS.
- GET THE PERSON TO REFLECT AND SAY HIMSELF WHAT THEY ARE GOING TO MODIFY FOR THE BETTER.
- GET THE PERSON’S CONVINCEMENT.
- ALWAYS HAVE A POSITIVE VISION OF THE OTHER PERSON.
Coaching Questions You Can Ask Yourself In A Job Interview
Coaching is not psychotherapy
Based on the personal experience of several decades facilitating processes with more than a million people, coaching not only works, but is sometimes the best alternative for those who seek to grow, focus, be more productive, reflect deeply on the meaning of life and their profession, and project a better future starting from the present state.
Although there is no mistaking it: coaching is not psychotherapy, and the coach who tells you that he can help you solve your psychological problems lacks professional ethics. Shoe rack to your shoes.
In my case, I work with many companies conducting stages of job interviews with coaching, as a complement to those carried out by the company’s teams. I can affirm that there is life beyond the “How do you see yourself in five years and ten?” or “What is your work weakness?”
Rather, the questions aim to know if you have developed certain soft skills and capacities that are currently highly valued in any environment: communication, empathy, and teamwork, contributions of value, creativity, innovation, energy, self-motivation and leadership qualities.
All this is connected with your emotional intelligence and is implemented in companies based on emotional innovation, which, timidly, many begin to practice step by step.
The top ten interview coaching questions in job interviews
Here is a series of ten questions that can touch you in a job interview, along with a brief explanatory environment so that you can reflect on your answers:
What is your life purpose? Purpose is what gives your existence meaning; It is transcendent and seeks to observe how your doing in the world projects a personal, unique legacy that bears your mark.
Why do you do what you do? This question points directly to trying to know the direction of your life; what inspires you, motivates you and how you connect it with something transcendent.
How do your beliefs limit you? We all come with chains of beliefs, which arise in early childhood. Conscious or not, there are beliefs that limit you as a young person or as an adult, because they do not make life work in the way you want. That is why they are called ‘limiting beliefs’, which, from so much strengthening and making them indisputable in your unconscious, possibly already are ‘paradigms’.
Are you a victim or protagonist? A classic of coaching is the distinction between these two aspects. What is being worked on here, specifically, is your attitude towards life and challenges.
How do you simplify your life? This concept is one of the ones I use the most to help people find a simpler formula in the daily labyrinth to clear everything that weighs on them (conflicts, problems, disorganization, bad relationships with others, and even their own mental entanglement), to begin to clarify the field of action. This way you will achieve greater personal effectiveness, at the same time that you will see solutions with much greater clarity.
What is our technique to play to win? This is tricky, since it is aimed at unveiling your player model within a team. For example, are you one of those who like to work with others, share, accompany and encourage others to develop their greatest potential? Or of the egocentric who only want personal success and their brilliance?
How do you manage your emotions? As emotions cannot be controlled, what remains is to manage them. Here the interviewers seek to know if you are reactive or proactive; and how you act under pressure. If they asked you this last question directly, the answer could come out automatically; instead by asking yourself with the formula ‘How…?’ the answer is enriched, since you inhabit it with its own meaning; sense that defines you by who you are in essence – not by your emotional reactions.
What are the mandates that direct your life? A mandate is a paradigm that you have been exercising since childhood, especially to satisfy others. The consultation seeks to know how dependent you are on the opinion of others, and how those external looks affect you.
What is your why? The ‘why’ is different from the ‘why’ in life? This question seeks to swim in deep waters within your being, to know what drives you, guides you and inspires you to live and be a better person, regardless of what you do. Appeal to personal values, and how these can be manifested in your work in the company.
Be more effective in your life. To finish this series of ten coaching questions, a very practical and concrete one: they inquire about productivity and your ability or inability to process information, connect the various points -as Steve Jobs said-, make brain synapses so that new ideas arise , and boost your performance. In a more subtle way, seek to know how you resignify the world in your brain and emotions; what are your predominant representational systems in your communication, and in what way does this help you – or limit – to participate with greater assertiveness in your work field.
In today’s world the areas in which coaching (professional training by a coach or coach) becomes a very effective tool are more and more numerous. Generally, companies turn to coaching to give joint job training sessions for staff. Coaching goals range from strengthening interpersonal relationships between staff and work teams, concentrating the vision and workforce in a specific direction, etc. In today’s dynamic world of work, however, coaching in the field of job search has become quite important.
A coach can carry out an analysis of the problematic aspects from a different perspective to evaluate attitudes, behavior, reactions, forms of expression, body language and behaviors, in order to suggest changes that improve our employment opportunities and advance in our career.
Now, a coach for a job interview reinforces and motivates you to get the best of you, highlight and sell your talents and strengths during an interview. Coaching for an interview will train you to present yourself and offer your best in an interview and express the points that you need to emphasize from your CV. An interview coach will help you improve your interpersonal skills in an interview to get the job you want, the coach will also help you be a better candidate who can impress and leave a lasting impression on your potential interviewer or employer, which will stand out from the other candidates. In this way, with the right coaching, you will strengthen and increase your potential by maximizing your hiring opportunities. If you decide to hire a coach for a job interview, you can learn among other things:
The coach will teach you so that before the interview:
- Be more aware of your strengths and areas that require improvement
- Prepare yourself to create a positive impact on your interviewer and/or potential employer
- Reinforce your answers to make a better impression
- Stand out from the other candidates
- Familiarize yourself with the interview process
- Relaxation techniques so that you can face the interview with a calm, relaxed spirit and with confidence in yourself
- Know what clothes to wear and tips on how to dress for the interview
- Increase your self-confidence and self-esteem
- Asking questions appropriately and better understanding the questions posed to you
- Be prepared to answer any type of question in the interview
- Increase your knowledge of what types of questions you will receive and how to answer them
- Be more motivated and inspired. Be more enthusiastic and pass it on
- Practice with a demo interview
With the help of coaching, during the interview you will achieve:
Be surer of yourself
- Offer Impressive Answers, While Being Honest
- Stay calm and in control
- Maintain adequate eye contact
- Express clearly and appropriately how the company will benefit from your experience
- Make a lasting impression that makes it easy for your interviewer to remember you and your abilities
- After the interview, the coach will guide you to:
- Write an effective thank you letter with great impact
- Feel satisfied with the interview and with yourself
- Make follow-up calls in a timely and appropriate manner
- Moving forward in your career whether or not you get the job
- Help you negotiate your salary, benefits, vacations, and other benefits
Above all, a job interview coach will prepare you for your next big job opportunity. This type of coaching will bring out the best of you in all aspects, personal (verbal and physical expression, etc.) and work (reaffirmation of your skills) necessary to ensure a place in the company that will interview you. If you have the opportunity and the desire to hire a coaching service for your next interview, do not hesitate to do so.
Coaching help you to prepare for job interviews?
1. Pay attention to what is really important
There are several interruptions that can hinder time management during an active job search plan. It is important that you reflect on what your professional goal is and what your strategy will be to approach it. Perhaps different difficulties arise along the way, or you experience days of demotivation, but this visualization of the goal reminds you of the meaning of your actions.
2. Body language and verbal communication
To prepare for a job interview it is important to have a complete overview of the most relevant aspects of this test. The focus of a coaching process is aimed at improving communication skills.
You’ll have the strength to learn new techniques. For example, apply storytelling to a job interview and create a story about an issue related to your professional life.
3. Be proactive in the job interview
One of the skills that companies value the most when interviewing a candidate is initiative. Through this behavior, the worker adopts the role of protagonist. There are circumstances and external agents that influence a selection process.
For example, the number of candidates applying for a position or the level of difficulty of the tests may vary. A coaching process can provide you with the learning you need to be proactive in a job interview, rather than reactive.
Proactive behavior improves the level of involvement and motivation during the active job search plan. The very experience of a coaching process, which is the expression of a personal commitment freely assumed by the client, highlights the importance of maintaining this position in the face of reality.
4. You invest time in yourself and in your professional project
During the active job search, if the candidate is constant in this process, invest time in writing the curriculum, searching for new offers, decision-making, training, reading, networking…
Well, the time you dedicate during a coaching process aimed at preparing job interviews, strengthens your personal growth and your professional development. This evolution, therefore, has a positive impact on the tasks already mentioned. This self-knowledge, for example, can give you the keys to deepen your strengths, your weaknesses, or your areas of improvement. Reflect on where you are at this moment, and where you would like to be at a potential level in a while when planning your professional future.
5. Personal branding in the job interview
You are not the only candidate looking for a job; however, you are unique as a person and as a professional. Although other colleagues have a similar training, no one has lived your story. At the beginning of this article, we commented that there are different interruptions that make time management difficult during an active job search plan. Some of these factors are internal: don’t take your time comparing yourself to others. That is, feed your personal brand, your dreams, your goals, your qualities, your talent, your values …
Conclusion
Today, many workers are focused on finding a job. Other people want to access a position that is more in line with their vocation. The job interview is one of the tests that are part of the selection process that a company carries out to hire the candidate who meets the necessary competencies for the performance of said position.
Although the interview is one of the tests with which an experienced professional may feel most familiar, there are other factors that should be considered. For example, it may happen that the person feels that this next test takes them out of their comfort zone if they have not shown up for an interview for a long time, having been working on the same project for several years.
It may also happen that the worker wants to focus his job search in a new sector. Perhaps you carry out numerous interviews before receiving the final call from that company that informs you that you have been hired. One of the keys to the success of a candidate in a selection process is his previous preparation.
Well, a coaching service can also be aimed at preparing for this type of test. Through your curriculum, you make a description of your professional career, your training, your skills, and your skills. In this document, you talk about yourself. For this reason, self-knowledge also helps you perfect your cover letter.
