Susan Britton explains how university career services are adopting inquiry-based coaching instead of traditional advising. Coaching asks open-ended questions to help students find their own answers, rather than giving advice about resumes and interviews. This shift reduces staff burden, increases student ownership, and uncovers deeper issues that lead to lasting change.
We have seen the popularity of bringing coaching and blending it with what was traditionally career coaching. And so over the years, what we've seen is more and more schools coming to us for that training. And for those of us who are very strongly supportive of the, the pure coaching, the coaching with a capital C, we're so happy to see more and more schools bring this because we know the impact it has on the students, but also what impact it has on the staff. They realize they don't have to do all the work. They don't have to give the students all the answers. When you step back and start getting curious and know that you don't have to have all the answers, it takes a lot of pressure off. The students take more ownership of the actions that they come away with, and they realize they're part— it really is a partnership. It's not you're going to sit in front of our desk and we're going to do everything for you. Their students are showing up differently in their appointments and they're showing up differently at recruiting events because of the way they're coaching them. What's the difference between coaching and advising? And they are very different. You know, from a coaching, advising perspective, especially in the universities, we are trained as career coaches to work with them on your resume and on your mock interviews and on your LinkedIn profiles. And we do give advice. Here's what you need to do in these areas. However, coaching is very different. Coaching is not about giving advice. It's the opposite. You're there to inquire, to get curious, ask questions so that you can uncover— you know, the philosophy for us is that our students, students in the university, have the answers already. So if we're inquiring and being curious with them, they can uncover the answers themselves. If you're just giving them the answer, it's just a very transactional conversation. When you're getting curious and asking them questions about what's really going on for them and what are the challenges they are facing, it allows the student to get honest and be real in a way that maybe they didn't realize they could be otherwise. And when you can open that level of conversation, you can get to the real meat of what might be in the way. It might not be that one action. It might be the 3 things underneath that they uncovered that you really then go to work on.
Susan’s ICF Educator Award | The Heart Behind the Impact Katy Montgomery, PCC
