with Demetria Pappas and Lisa Iadicicco

Demetria and Lisa will present their program to identify International Protocol and Corporate Etiquette. This service will impress on the attending audience a confident knowledge that they will be able to increase civility and educate their own clients. They will understand the importance on working with others in a global economy, both domestically and internationally.

Participants will learn the following:

• The new Three R's
• The benefits of etiquette and protocol intelligence
• Mastering the first meeting
• Negotiating to win
• First impressions are lasting
• Recognize the importance of rank and corporate position
• Business card protocol
• Business customs and terminology

Currently Emmett Baxendell is a Performance Consultant on the Leadership and Career Development Team at Highmark Inc. in Pittsburgh. He has primary responsibilities for career, leadership, and transition coaching while also providing classroom training for managers. Emmett's coaching practice at Highmark has provided him with the opportunity to serve more than 200 clients with 800 hours of coaching in the past two years.

With over 30 years of experience providing instruction, training, counseling, and public speaking in a variety of settings, Emmett's past experience includes pastoral work as interim pastor for troubled congregations; Bible instructor and Spiritual Life coordinator for a private school; Director of Education and Training at Goodwill Industries of Southwestern Pennsylvania; Technical Assistant for the Workforce Education Research Center at Penn State; and Program Coordinator for the Pennsylvania Workforce Improvement Network.

Emmett holds undergraduate degrees from Covenant College and Geneva College and has a Master of Divinity degree from Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Pittsburgh. His certifications include that of a Global Career Development Facilitator Instructor (GCDFI) and Leadership and Talent Management Coach (CLTMC).

As the owner of Next Moving Coaching, Emmett uses his experience and knowledge of workforce development, leadership, management, and the human condition to provide coaching, training, consultation, and career development services to a select group of individuals and organizations.

Learn more about Emmett and his practice at www.nextmovecoaching.com or contact him directly at 412-303-7207 or emmett@nextmovecoaching.com.

PCA Membership Networking Calls with Freddie Cecchini
4th Wednesday of every month
For more information contact Freddie at 724-334-5884 or coach@creatingsoul.com.

Seeking Volunteer Coaches
The PCA is currently looking for volunteer coaches to participate in the Latino Service Project - and outreach program for the Pittsburgh Latino community. Coaching sessions are conducted in English although there is also a need for Spanish speaking coaches. For more information contact Susan English at smenglishedd@yahoo.com or call 412-931-0769.

By Emmett Baxendell

Here is a technique you can adopt and refine for use with your clients. It has the advantage of being adaptable and applicable to a variety of situations and client needs.

As I work with clients on their career development or on the next move they want to make in their careers, the subject of skills always comes up. What I have noted about the vast majority of these individuals is that they usually have difficulty in naming and describing their skills. When asked if they can tell me what their skills are, the initial reaction of some is hesitation and then an attempt to name a few things like, "organized," "good listener," "making presentations" or "self starter." Others will tell me the things they can do - tasks they do well. A few can't think of things to say.

When a client has difficulty telling me about his or her skills, I know that we have an area that must be addressed in order for them to accomplish their goals. Without a clear idea of what your skills are, how to discuss them, and to what degree you have them you will have difficulty in writing your resume, creating an "elevator speech" and developing an idea of what your personal brand is so that you can market yourself and speak to the value you can bring to an organization. You will also have difficulty analyzing and determining if a job posting description is a good fit for you.

When I find that a client has difficulty telling me about his or her skills, I will usually take him/her through an exercise I call "the laundry exercise." The goal of the exercise is simple, get the client thinking in terms of the skills it takes to perform a task and then to get them to begin to think of those skills as transferable and usable for a variety of tasks in a wide range of positions. The exercise goes like this.

First, I ask them what kinds of skills it takes to do laundry. The usual reply is "not very many" or "none." Then I ask the client to describe how they do laundry and I simply listen to him/her describe the chore. (This can also work with any other common or ordinary household task, the more common the better, but the coach needs to be very familiar with the task so they can ask the appropriate questions regarding the task.)

As the client begins to describe the chore, it will become evident whether or not he/she is detail-oriented. Since the task is fairly common, they are able to lay out the tasks that the chore consists of. Most people will not go into a lot of detail about how they accomplish the chore. They will usually hit the major steps and may say, "I make three piles, whites, darks, colors; I put the clothes in, put the soap in and turn the machine on; then I throw them in the dryer." Sometimes the description is a little more involved; sometimes it stops there.

They reason people don't go into detail about the chore is that it is so common, done so often, or so little importance is ascribed to it they tend to skip over activities and steps they think are too common to mention. They anticipate that "you already know that" or the tasks are of too little importance to mention.

After the client has completed their description of the chore, I will begin to closely question them on the process and the steps they say they perform. I may ask, "How do you decide what clothes go into what pile? Do you use any other criteria for sorting, like fabric type? Then, depending on the answer, I'll drill a little deeper and ask, "How do you determine the fabric types?" The answer usually given involves reading the tag. Then I continue ask for more detail and ask them "Do you ever pay attention to the little symbols on the clothing tags?" Are all the loads the same size or are they sometimes different? How do you determine if the pile is too large to fit in one load?" Then I press on and ask them "What kind of detergent do you use, liquid or powder? Do you use the same amount in every load or do you sometimes use less or more. After each bit of new information I uncover concerning his/ her laundry process, I'll look at them and say "Hmm, you didn't tell me that."

By questioning the client closely and in detail about each of the steps, they will usually begin to see that this chore is made up of many steps that he/she performs but overlooks when asked to describe it. During the questioning, clients will sometimes smile and acknowledge what they think is the point of the exercise; others will need to have the goal of the exercise pointed out.

At this point in the exercise I will assist the client to see the parallel between the exercise and how they may have described to me what is involved in performing their jobs. Usually the client has not gone into as much detail as he/she should have because he/she does not see the complexity of, value in, or skills it takes to perform the tasks they do each day. But this is only the first part of the exercise.

In the second part of the exercise, as I debrief what they have and have not told me, I ask them to identify the actual skill or skills it takes to perform the steps that go in to making up the task. For example, I'll ask "Tell me what skills you used in sorting the laundry?" If a client can name a few skills, I'll move the exercise ahead and ask them to name the skills for another of the tasks involved in the chore. At this point I find that most individuals have difficulty in identifying the skills that are used in performing the steps involved in the task. If an individual cannot identify the skills used or misidentifies the skills I'll offer up some of the answers to help redirect or prompt his/her thinking. We'll work back through the exercise and consider each task and identify the skills used at each step.

Most individuals are surprised to learn that critical thinking, decision making, prioritization, organization, reading, interpreting signs and symbols, several types of math skills not to mention color discrimination, hand eye coordination, and motor skills are all part of doing the laundry. They are also surprised and pleased to learn just how many skills they have. After discussing the skill set of the individual I'll continue the discussion by asking them in what other tasks might they be using the same skills. This leads to discussion about the transferable skills they have and how they can use that knowledge to his/her benefit.

There are two benefits derived from this exercise. First, the individual now has a new way of thinking about the tasks that s/he performs each day and the skills s/he possesses that enable him/her to do those tasks. Second, the individual gains confidence that s/he has skills that can be transferred into a new position.

As a follow up assignment, I'll have clients return to work and write down each task they perform and then attempt to identify the skills involved in each of those tasks. As they begin to think in terms of skills and not just tasks, they begin to gain a greater awareness of their abilities and what they have to offer an employer. This new insight helps them to develop confidence in themselves while enabling and empowering them to create resumes that are more than just a listing of job responsibilities, cover letters that tell what they have to offer, interview skills that help them create their value proposition, and brand building concepts that enable them to set themselves apart from those they are in competition with for jobs.

Skills identification, knowing what skills you posses, and then to what degree you possess them can make the difference to the career coaching client that helps to move them to the next level in their career and in life.

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