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16 Strategies For Coaching Clients In Highly Technical Professions

Forbes Coaches Council

For career coaches, clients from highly technical professions—such as engineers and military veterans—can present unique challenges due to their specialized skills and backgrounds. These clients often have different strengths, experiences and perspectives than other professionals, and coaches may need to adapt their communication styles and approaches accordingly.

Below, 16 members of Forbes Coaches Council reflect on their experience working with clients from highly specialized fields. Their insights highlight the skills and strategies that coaches can focus on to leverage their clients’ technical knowledge, open them up to new ideas and prepare them for fresh opportunities.

1. Familiarize Yourself With The Unique Transition Challenges They Face

Coaching “regular” business professionals differs from coaching highly technical professionals and ex-military members. The latter group requires industry-specific expertise to understand their unique career transition challenges. Effective coaching in these specialized areas hinges on tailoring guidance to address technical skills, industry nuances and cultural adaptations. - Jay Garcia, Jay Garcia Group

2. Emphasize The Importance Of Soft Skills

It’s imperative that these clients understand that their narrow field, subject matter expertise and organizational experience (such as that gained in the military) are not the most important factors to highlight when interviewing for a new role. It’s their willingness to be humble, to be open to (and welcoming of) diverse perspectives from many different people, and to be adaptable that will get them the new job. - Gregg Ward, MCEC BCC, The Center for Respectful Leadership


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3. Focus On Helping Them Learn To Communicate

Different types of professionals have, in general, different personalities. Technical professionals can tend to be very detail-oriented and may not be the best at utilizing social skills or adequately conveying their experience in interviews. This induces a focus on coaching these individuals to adequately communicate and convey themselves. - Luke Feldmeier, Online Leadership Training - Career and Leadership Accelerator for Engineers

4. Tailor Your Coaching To An Analytical Mindset

Highly technical professionals, such as engineers or ex-military members, often thrive on structured problem-solving and logical frameworks. Tailoring coaching to their analytical mindset, emphasizing concrete goal-setting and leveraging their natural inclination for precision integrates their specialized skill sets into a solid and successful coaching approach. - Anna Yusim, MD, Yusim Psychiatry, Consulting & Executive Coaching

5. Help Them See Opportunities For Leadership

Over the course of my career, I have worked with many leaders in hierarchical sectors, including the military, law enforcement, academia and healthcare. In contrast to the tech sector, where leaders tend to be young and self-made, when working with those coming from inherently hierarchical fields, one’s first challenge as a coach is often convincing clients that leadership is a realistic aspiration. - Carol Geffner, CB Vision LLC.

6. Home In On Interview Prep

Interview preparation is a key component for any professional to secure a highly coveted position. One difference for those who have held highly specialized roles is the need to prepare for technical reviews as well as questions that both showcase their relevant expertise and the leadership and team behaviors that make a candidate a good fit for the organization’s culture and values. - Gina Riley, Gina Riley Consulting

7. Stay Focused On The Person Rather Than Their Industry

I advocate that we adapt to the individual, not the sector category that they are in. We therefore must first discover their point of view and contextualize our approach according to that. If we remember that “one size fits no one”—I can’t recall who coined that phrase—and focus on the human in our presence, we’ll serve them as best we can. - David Deane-Spread, Metattude

8. Develop Knowledge Of Their Industry

Coaching is a partnership focused on helping professionals achieve their goals, whether they are “regular” business professionals or highly technical. With that said, I’ve found that what can enhance every partnership is understanding the language and unique challenges and dynamics of a given category of professionals. Having this context can serve to accelerate the impact and reduce the length of the coaching engagement. - Elizabeth Semion, Elizabeth Semion & Associates

9. Ask Targeted Questions

I think you ask different questions. For example, when I have a client from a high-tech or other specific type of profession, I may want to ask such questions as, “Why do you want to differentiate yourself from your accomplished peers?” For people whose roles are not as specialized, I want to ask questions including, “How do you want to be perceived by your target market and your peers?” The answers guide the coaching. - John M. O’Connor, Career Pro Inc.

10. Guide Your Clients In Developing Leadership Skills

One significant difference may involve the emphasis on translating technical expertise into broader leadership skills. Coaching for “regular” business professionals may focus on general leadership competencies, while coaching for technical professionals specifically addresses adapting technical knowledge to decision making and developing softer skills for effective leadership in cross-functional teams. - Adaora Ayoade, EZ37 Solutions

11. Adapt Your Language Based On Your Client’s Background

I have worked with our special operators and veterans for years. The biggest difference is the language I use. I have found that my veterans enjoy a more direct conversation. They appreciate being called out directly and are willing to take action on next steps without much prompting. - Erica McCurdy, McCurdy Solutions Group LLC

12. Develop Your Approach Based On Your Client’s Position

The higher the position in business that my coaching process addresses, the more focus there is on the people who follow the leader I’m coaching. The lower the individuals are in the hierarchy, the more they tend to be focused on themselves. True leaders concentrate on cultivating more leaders among their followers, enabling them to reproduce the next generation of leaders. They work more on their “why.” - Dominik Szot, MIA

13. Remember, You’re A Coach, Not A Consultant

Coaching is focused on what’s valuable for the client to focus on, not the coach, so whether the client is in a leadership role or a highly technical position, there should not be a big difference. Consulting would require a different level of expertise, because the consultant is looked at as the expert. In coaching, the client is the expert, and the coach is a thought partner to support change, growth and development. - Bryan Powell, Executive Coaching Space

14. Help Your Client See A Broader Perspective

Highly technical individuals often require guidance to see beyond their narrow field of expertise to develop soft skills such as empathy, communication and leadership. Their coaches must understand technical jargon while challenging them to think holistically about how their work impacts customers, colleagues and company strategy. - Jonathan H. Westover, Ph.D., Human Capital Innovations

15. Prepare Your Client For A Different Work Culture

Career coaching for “regular” professionals often focuses on interpersonal skills, leadership and business acumen. However, for highly technical professionals such as engineers or ex-military personnel, the coaching may need a more tailored approach, incorporating highly specialized skill sets or transitioning from a structured military environment to a more flexible corporate culture. - Peter Boolkah, The Transition Guy

16. Hone Both Their Strengths And Their Potential

Guiding technical professionals, whether engineers or ex-military, is like sculpting a masterpiece from raw data. It involves chiseling the intricate details of their technical skill set while seamlessly integrating the artistry of leadership, crafting a career narrative as finely tuned as a bespoke sculpture in the vast gallery of professional success. - Alla Adam, Alla Adam Coaching

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