How Coaching Can Help New Graduates

Coaching

Group Coaching

The concepts of powerful questioning discussed in Chapter 7 are directly applicable to creating, strengthening and growing a group of young women who are biomedical and electrical engineers who need to become more assertive and confident in the workplace. Using the techniques of powerful questioning the coaching activities center on getting each member of the group to explain their journey to become an engineer, which reinforces their core strengths and helps them see values in themselves. Strong coaching programs contribute to organizational cultures that are agile in responding to changing employee needs yet stable enough to provide ongoing support to program participants (Wilson, 2011). Powerful questioning leads to greater disclosure between group members driving up trust and collaboration in the process (Cockerham, 2011).

Use Of Powerful Questioning

Many of the most brilliant young women graduating from top colleges and universities lack the assertiveness and self-confidence to fully engage in discussions and debates in the workplace. Instead, they often become introverted and focus on the intensive efforts required in entry-lev el engineering programs and neglect the opportunities to become more integrated and accepted into the broader corporate culture.

Through the use of powerful questioning, these engineers will have a chance to more fully gain the context of how they chose their professions in the first place, gain support for their unique strengths, and reduce the amount of anxiety and stress they feel when they speak up. In short, powerful questioning will reaffirm their value and infuse them with a stronger sense of self-worth and value while making their new careers less daunting. Over time powerful questioning leads to greater self-disclosure and shared goals that further galvanize a group together (Lloyd, 2005).

The group of young women engineers would also benefit from powerful questioning by providing insights into how they can build productive relationship with peers and superiors. This would provide the group members with greater insight into how they could contribute to projects and programs in their new jobs. Creating this level of trust and communication across the group would further infuse each coaching group participation with greater competency and proficiency in managing the transition into their professional careers.