Coaching Case

According to a recent study, employee performance is directly linked to retention in the workplace (Park et al., 2019). However, many factors challenge the achievement of a higher performance index. Among them, cultural competence is critical, as many workplaces are culturally diverse, and all employees must synchronize to collaborate towards the achievement of organizational goals. That is why Anthony seeks to coach to perfect his cultural competence, as he has noted that his workplace is increasingly culturally diversified, unlike he has ever experienced. 

Planning

Anthony explains that he grew up and schooled in environments that were predominantly populated by whites. After graduation, he realized that most workplaces in the United States are culturally diverse. While he has tried relating and learning about other cultures, he recently got a dream job, where his department manager is Hispanic. He explains that the manager is “good,” but they have had misunderstandings twice a month. Anthony explains that there are cues in the manager’s communication, and some “inherent behaviors,” which he does not understand.

This coaching session’s goals are to assist Anthony in learning Hispanic cultural values within a month and develop interpersonal communication and its non-verbal cues and a close relationship with the manager to mitigate conflicts. As such, I look forward to assisting Anthony in learning the Hispanic cultural values, basic communication skills, and factors that foster an interpersonal relationship in the workplace.

Leaning the Hispanic culture and values will assist Anthony in understanding his boss’s “inherent behaviors” and non-verbal communication cues. This is part of increasing one’s score on cultural competence, which impacts employee’s performance in multicultural working environments (Wilson et al., 2013). We will spend one hour in two days a week for the first month to work on this goal. This must be done within one month, to equals the specificity and time-sensitivity of coaching goals (Cook, 2009).

Also, assisting Anthony in learning and effectively leveraging factors that affect interpersonal relationships will increase mutual understanding and warmth between Anthony and his boss. This is an attainable exercise, which will reduce anxiety and fear of Anthony’s boss. As the coaching should proceed within eight weeks, we shall work on this goal after the first one. This is strategically organized so that once Anthony has understood his boss’s cultural values, and his communication, they can thus improve an interpersonal relationship.

Anthony’s current reality is that he does not know much about Hispanic culture. He explains that he has come along in a fairly white-dominated environment. This is his first time having a much closer experience with a Hispanic. It is unusual to him since there are not many bosses in his discipline from minority cultures. Therefore, lack of cultural competence and the awkwardness of having a boss from a minority culture has cause conflicts on two occasions between Anthony and his boss. 

 I must uphold high standards of professionalism, and my objective will be to assist Anthony in achieving SMART goals. Therefore, I will be honest and sincere about cultural competence issues and demonstrate genuineness and legitimate zeal to improve Anthony’s cultural competence, as explained by (Cook, 2009). I will keep his promises, show respect to his choices and competencies, support and encourage his build of cultural competence, and challenge him through questioning and giving feedback, appropriate risk-taking strategies to meet his goals.

Some of the questions that will guide the first coaching exercise include:

Reflection of the Meeting with Anthony

Anthony met me at my office for the first session in the evening between 6 and 7 p.m. I scheduled him at this time to have fresh experiences from the workplace. In this session, I was diligent in utilizing skillful questioning and active listening. I explained that we would work on some SMART goals in eight weeks, where learning Hispanic cultural values was the primary focus. He informed me that the plan was okay, and he would do his best to attain cultural competence by learning the values of Hispanic culture and their non-verbal communication cues within one month and improve the interpersonal relationship with his boss.

As such, I inquired how he felt when talking to his boss and what they talked about. Anthony explained that he was most anxious not to misunderstand his boss. He explained that the boss teamed him with two other workmates to close a successful sale earlier on. Usually, this is done by one person in Anthony’s experience. He explained that while he did understand the boss directives, he did not quite understand how to involve the other team members.

Nevertheless, Anthony did not seek clarification, and the boss seemed not to care. According to Anthony, the boss is difficult to understand since “he is very relaxed, yet insists on professional performance.” I explained to him studies found that Hispanics value collaboration, collective orientation, relaxed with time, and tendency to interdependency (Lynch & Hanson, 1992). I requested him to identify these values and appreciate them as they are inherent. I also instructed him to seek clarifications the next day when they face a challenge with the boss’s instructions. Anthony agrees to all these.

Nothing went on wrong in this session, but there is room for improvement in the next sessions. I feel that the session was successful and laid a foundation for aching the goals of the coaching. I gained clarity of Anthony’s goal through the coaching, and his perception and feelings in the workplace and towards the boss. For instance, he is confused about the boss’s personality, and he is afraid of him. Next time, I will probe on the stereotypes that Anthony has regarding Hispanics and work with him to ensuring they do not affect his cultural competency. I will also make sure to explain further the values and applications of Hispanic cultural values.

Conclusion

This coaching exercise entails helping Anthony attain cultural competency by learning Hispanic cultural values, non-verbal communication, and forming a better interpersonal relationship with his boss. The preparation stage entails establishing goals for the coaching and questions to guide the coaching. It appears that Anthony does not understand the values of Hispanics, such as value collaboration, collective orientation, relaxed with time, and a tendency to interdependency. He will look out for such values and appreciate them, and ask clarifications where necessary.

References

Cook, S. (2009). Coaching for High Performance: How to Develop Exceptional Results Through Coaching. Norwood, Mass: IT Governance Publishing. Retrieved from EBSCO – eBook Collection.

Lynch & Hanson (1992). Developing cross-cultural competence. Baltimore: Paul Brookes, Inc.

Park, C., McQuaid, R., Lee, J., Kim, S., & Lee, I. (2019). The Impact of Job Retention on Continuous Growth of Engineering and Informational Technology SMEs in South Korea. Sustainability, 11(18), 5005. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11185005

Wilson, J., Ward, C., & Fischer, R. (2013). Beyond Culture Learning Theory. Journal Of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 44(6), 900-927. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022113492889