Expat Coaching – What's in it and how can it help?
Coaching for expatriates is a passion from MOVES consulting's point of view.
It is important to us to help people become more satisfied with their lives and to get tools to initiate a liberating change of perspective. From our experience, we already know that with consulting and coaching crises could have been averted by seconded key personnel.
An international career always means uprooting. It's great when the company approaches a key person to send them abroad, but the burden of the changed environment and confrontation with a different culture cannot be underestimated.
An example from our everyday life:
An employee has been sent from Vienna to Brisbane, or to a small suburb of Brisbane.
The mobility management process was completed quickly - working papers, visas and so on were procured without any problems, and the wife also accompanied the key worker to Australia.
Three days after their arrival, an argument broke out between the couple, in the course of which the wife took her bag and left the shared accommodation. The husband thought nothing of it at first; but when his wife did not return to the accommodation that evening, and the day after, he turned to the police. He conveyed to the emergency services that he and his wife were strangers here, had no local knowledge, and feared the worst. The police searched the area, but the wife was not found.
Three days later, the husband received a phone call from her: she informed him that she had left him and traveled back to Vienna.
Probably a mild outcome compared to the feared alternative. However, accompanying coaching for the wife could have completely prevented this life-changing crisis.
In the course of such coaching, we find out whether the specialist in question is mentally capable of gaining a foothold in a foreign country and coping with another culture. There are certain test options to clarify whether someone is actually suitable for posting abroad. Even if there is the will to send and the interest in the adventure, it can sometimes not be recommended for a professional in terms of personality.
Coaching is very much about being proactive – you can see in advance which tools the expat and the family in question need to overcome their personal, inner obstacles.
Most companies neglect such proactive upfront coaching in their relocation package. Often the employee on posting does not even know that he or his family could take advantage of such coaching and that the employer would bear the costs. Not infrequently, expatriates have to book and pay for the expat coaching themselves.
In personnel development, there are tools that indicate a suitability for work culture, i.e. clarify whether the key employee is technically suitable for the secondment. The socio-cultural aspect, however, is completely different; and also depends on whether the family travels. The partners of the expats not only have to build up a circle of friends and leisure activities in the foreign country, but also a professional perspective. The accompanying persons are usually unemployed if they follow their partner into the posting.
It is not uncommon for crises to arise due to loneliness and lack of prospects in the families of expats.
Our coaching should reveal possible conflict situations and points of friction in advance, and provide tools for dealing with them. It is not psychological counseling or analysis, but situation analysis and practical support: the theoretical always goes hand in hand with the practical. The focus is on social networking outside the workplace – we have contacts all over the world that we can pass on to make it easier for the expats sent to arrive on site.
We take great care to offer our coaching in several languages: our coaches speak German, English, Spanish, Portuguese and French.
For me, founder and managing director Kornelia Epping, the new start in a foreign country was the hardest time of my life – despite growing up all over Europe due to my parents' profession. I know exactly how the expats who seek our advice are doing and how we can best support them.
Click here for information and contact details for Expat Coaching