Career development not organisational development

One of the things I love about career development is that our focus is on the person we walk alongside - and we have total acceptance of that person we accompany. This is the Rogerian approach of "unconditional positive regard" (Rogers, 1957, p. 96). Further, Rogerian theory suggests that our client is "in a state of incongruence". We - the practitioner - are "congruent" and we have that "unconditional positive regard for [our] client" (p. 96). Our "empathic understanding of the client's internal frame of reference" and our ability to let our client see our empathy and positive regard over the time of our assistance helps the customer to make change (Rogers, 1957, p. 96). But we have to accept the client totally as they are: without judgement, as we accompany them for a part of their journey. 

What the client decides to do is their business, not ours. Our job is not to judge, but to help the client see themselves and their potential choices. We can provide a reality check, but not rain on the client's parade. We may show we support the client's choices, show care, respect, and warmth (Rogers, 1957). We allow the client to see that we see them as their own selves, and "not in a possessive way" (Rogers, 1957, p. 98). The clients choices are not about us: they are about the client. 

One other aspect we need to keep firmly front and centre is that our focus is individual, not organisational. If we are working inside an organisation and seeing other staff members as clients, unless our organisation is very progressive, and understands career development, it is more likely that it will expect our loyalty to lie with the institution, not to the individual. Yet from a career development perspective, our job is to meet the needs of the individual. 

These Rogerian characteristics are important differences between career development and organisational development.

Sam

References:

Rogers, C. R. (1957). The necessary and sufficient conditions of therapeutic personality change. Journal of Consulting Psychology, 21(2), 95-103. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0045357