Coaching nowadays is a buzzword, we hear in different places and contexts, often interchanged with mentoring. You can get coaching in many various topics: life, love, executive, development and career. But what makes coaching so powerful and effective tool to drive someone’s development? Find out more in this post.

What is coaching?

As mentioned before, coaching is often used as a synonym of mentoring, though there is quite a difference between the two. There are many definitions, but usually coaching is a process, where a coach – a supportive figure through conversations, exercises helps the recipient (or coachee) to achieve a specific goal. The coachee receive guidance and support to create those goals, the means to achieve them and to execute those plans. Though the coach is usually a more experienced and knowledgeable person in this relationship, usually they don’t provide knowledge transfer or benchmarking – those usually happen outside. Mentoring on the other hand heavily relies on the mentor’s knowledge and experience and its transfer to the learner; therefore it should not be considered as the same as coaching.

How coaching works?

Coaching is always a very personal matter, relies on a strong, supportive relationship between the coach and the client. Usually the starting point or the preposition of coaching is to identify the development area or need and to take steps to create a goal related to this and execute them. The coach and the coachee meets regularly and during the sessions they both have conversations and exercises to support the development. Similarly to a therapy session, the coach leads the conversation with questions and reflecting on the answers provided by the coachee. A coach never suggests or advises actions, rather guides, leads the client to the right approach. Each session requires preparations from the recipient, often via research, networking etc. Depending on the goals and premise of coaching, it may end with client’s ready to implement plan or until the goals are achieved.

Why coaching is important and good for your development?

There are many benefits of coaching, but I think the most important reason of its effectiveness is relying on the fact, that it is always individual, very personal and empowers the recipient to take actions. Without the trusting and supporting relationship, coaching does not work; as well as the “one size fits all” approach can not applied here. Coaching always relies on the actions and active participation of the recipient and the learning, development happens in an active way compared to if the person would receive a classical classroom training, which is more passive. Coaching also relies on effective communication skills; self-expression, self-reflection in an honest, non-judgmental, supportive environment. Learning and developing in an active way, relying on the actions and participation of the person – combined with the previously mentioned leaves a bigger impact and boosts motivation and confidence.

As we summarized, coaching is a very powerful and effective tool for development and it can be applied to many different fields of our lives and almost everyone can benefit from it. At SORUL we provide the opportunity for our clients to receive career and development coaching, no matter where you are in your career and what you would like to achieve, we are here to support you on your journey. Explore our offerings and contact us now!

If you open Glassdoor, you will see a big variety of responses and reviews about organizations in general and their selection processes. Recruitment can be a complex, resource demanding process and it is easy to fall into pitfalls while conducting the selection. In this post we collected the 5 most common mistakes teams can make while hiring.

5 Difficult application process

When recruitment processes are created or new software is purchased the focus is often on price, user-friendliness and modifiability. Sadly the very first step, how candidates are applying is often overlooked. Candidates need to be able to apply for your job posting easily, without running different hoops. If the application process is very complicated or even bugged, your potential new hire most likely will abandon it and will apply somewhere else. You also need to be considerate to the fact, that many candidates are applying nowadays via mobile devices and tablets – so your solution, system needs to cater that, too!

4 Lengthy process

I’m sure everyone can tell a few examples from the past, how long and how many steps their worst recruitment experience took. Many interview rounds, tests, references used in a troublesome very complicated way will bring down your candidate experience; if not leading for candidates to withdraw from it. When you design or review a recruitment process, try to focus on the essentials and if possible to tailor it the field. Don’t forget, IT professionals may need a different process then your key account managers; never mind the level of the future employee.

3 Communication (or the lack of it)

One of the biggest issues and complaints you can read online by candidates, that the correspondence between them and the hiring organizations either were slow or not existent at all. You need to make sure your candidate is continuously informed, aware about their status in the selection process and they have all the information they need. If you wait too long to make decisions (e.g. 2-3 weeks) without an email or a call, the candidate will consider it as a rejection and will move on. It is also important to keep in mind, the communication needs to be professional and appropriate.

2 No feedback

Can you think about the last time you have got a feedback after a rejection from a position you have been interviewed for? Probably you can think about one or two, but most likely you can not think about it in a way, like if it would happen often. Please put yourself into the shoes of your applicants. After putting all the efforts of the process – submitting an application, attending on interviews or even completing tests and tasks – all these efforts made for the end to receive a generic, automated e-mail saying “we are sorry, we decided to continue with others”. Candidates you interacted with during interviews need to receive a feedback when you reject them, so they can take that and develop themselves, so next time they could be more successful. Every feedback can be formulated in a respectful, meaningful way and providing feedback does not automatically cause law suits – unless you did something unlawful.

1 First impressions

As mentioned in the communications point, professionalism is very important. The candidate’s first experience with your organization is through the hiring process, even more importantly, probably your recruiter will provide that first experience. The behavior and communication by your hiring team will create that first impression and you need to make sure it is in a flattering, positive manner. Coach and educate your hiring managers on how to conduct interviews, what to ask, what not to ask and make sure your teams are following up with the candidates and provide them the best experience they can get. Remember, a candidate who you ended up not hiring today, while had a positive impression and experience about you might come back to be your next hire an another time.

+1 Not committing to interviews
There is more common mistake, which for sure won’t leave a positive impression and experience in candidates, is the situation, when you already invited them for an interview and then before it would take place you cancel it and notify the applicant, that you selected someone else. When you do this, the candidate may feel, that their time was wasted and you made a decision without giving them the chance to convince you, they would be the best. This also questions the legitimacy of your decision, meaning how do you know you picked someone “stronger”, if you haven’t even talked to them? As a golden rule, if you invited the candidate for an interview, you have to conduct that interview, it is that simple.

This list is hardly complete and could be continued with additional details and potential pitfalls. Creating and perfecting a recruitment process, which is effective and leaves positive impression on your candidates can be difficult. At SORUL we provide consultations to organizations in various HR topics, so they can achieve more and become better. Probably we could help yours, too! Contact us now.

Applying for a job always involves at some point to create and send in a resume. Writing a resume may seem an easy task, but in reality there are many pitfalls and mistakes one can make. In this post we collected and touch on the 5 most common ones.

#1 Format

Choosing the right format and design of the resume can fundamentally leave either a positive or a negative impression upon the first view. During my career I’ve seen thousands of resumes from a one paragraph “I just want a job” type until an extensive 45 page long application “thesis” which included copies of the school diplomas. There are also templates available on the internet, which can help, but when used incorrectly it can make things worse. Our recommendation is, that if you find a template you like, use it as an inspiration and make sure you create your resume on your own. It should include your contact details, career history, formal and informal qualifications and skills.

#2 Length

Connecting to the previous points, candidates often have hard time to find a balance between what is too little details versus too much information. If your resume is not detailed enough, you risk the chance for a call back as the reader won’t be sure, that you are match. On the other side, if you write a small thesis, you also risk the valuable information to be hidden and never to be seen. As a rule of thumb, make sure especially at the career history part that you provide enough information (preferably in bullet points) so the reader has an idea what you have done and with what skills. Research also shows that the resume should be maximum 2 pages long.

#3 Wording and Spelling

This one seems very obvious, but believe me; many forgets about it. The key here is professionalism. Make sure the language you use in your resume if formal, professional and appropriate for the industry and the profession. Avoid terms and expressions such as “small boss” or “the IT guy”. Make sure you check the final product, if there are no spell mistakes and grammatical errors. A CV with full of mistakes gives the impression, that you did not care or not attentive to the details.

#4 Personal information

Some candidates like to overshare about themselves and will provide personal information, which is not necessary or required for evaluating your fit to the position. Such information can be your date of birth, address, marital status or in extreme cases height, weight or family member’s information. All these are not necessary at all and in some cases it may even backfire at you. At the personal information section limit it to your contact details (tel. + email), your general location (country or city) and if applicable visa status.

#5 Unnecessary elements

I think this is the one many falls into, including in the resume elements, parts which are really not necessary for the purpose this document is being made for. Inspirational quotes and career goals may sound interesting to jazz up the resume, but in reality as it does not support to main goal; whether you are a match for the position; is a waste of effort. This also includes the hobbies part, include it only, if it does support in one way or the other your application for the specific role. If you want to personalize the CV a bit more, in the very begging you can add a summary of yourself in max 3-4 sentences. And please, don’t write on the top “CV”, “Resume” etc. – everyone knows what the document is.

+1 Creative Resumes

There are unconventional CV formats, very creative, well designed resumes; which definitely makes the candidate to be remembered; however this might not be the right format for you. In general for more creative positions, where during the process you will be evaluated on your creativity and original thinking this is a go-to format; but for the others this is not the case. I also need to add here, that adding logos, pictures etc. to “decorate” the content is also counterproductive.

We hope this list could help you already to create a CV, which will be compelling and standing out – but for the right reasons. At SORUL we can help you to evaluate and redesign your resume, which would fit your career goals and the next position better. In addition to this during our Application Consultation we can help you to set a strategy for your job seeking. Book us now!