Confidentiality in career coaching

The GDPR has got us doing a lot of thinking and reviewing our approach to privacy. Like me, you’ve probably received multiple emails touting reviews of terms and conditions, privacy policies and sharing a more transparent approach to data collection.

As a relative newcomer to running my own business, I’ve relished the challenge to make the GDPR my gold standard in dealing with things such as the email lists or many free items on the website I make available to you.

Privacy has always been a big deal for The Salary Coach endeavour.

I deal with current and future CEOs who need discretion as they seek out my support for their next career move. I work with some of our most sensitive moments, such as salary, negotiation and assessing our workplace value. And of course, because work is such a large looming figure in our lives, I deal with aspirations and dreams. Many of these aspirations are heard by another person during my career coaching sessions and workshops.

Ensuring you feel safe, comfortable and that your privacy is respected is a huge part of making your journey with the Salary Coach a successful one. Here are some of the ways you can see that in action

It’s the basis for career coaching

Career coaching is a lot like mentoring. It’s a wonderful relationship built on mutual respect and a learning process for both parties. You and I will come together to create a plan that services your goals and ambitions. Delving into your career and your strengths and weaknesses is an intimate act where mutual respect must be assured.

In this world where coaches are incredibly visible about what they can and can’t do for you, something appears to be missing from the equation. If you make coaching all about you, you leave very little space for the person asking for the assistance.

Much of the standard features you would see on an entrepreneur’s website have a twist on the Salary Coach site. For example, your testimonials section is still present, and the case studies are available. Yet the information places a higher premium on privacy than prestige. Initials are used. Stock photos replace headshots. Company names, positions and identifying information are not included.

There’s no denying it would be advantageous to my new business if I were able to name names and present company logos. But it wouldn’t foster the trust I value so much in the relationships I build with clients. I ask people to share their financial situations, salaries, to critically analyse aspects of their work performance, to review aspects of personality and performance, and to be candid. I also coax change through providing self-reflection.

For you to share this level of self-examination with me, you must know that you are safe and respected. Your anonymity is preserved to allow this to happen.

Dealing with the top end of town

A great CEO doesn’t happen in isolation. It’s such a coveted position with an enormous level of responsibility. Your business acumen combines with mental fortitude, strong people skills and industry visibility to create a CEO. It’s a commanding role, one with little margin for error. And while we may be on the fast track to a CEO role, while we may have brilliant credentials and the right mix of attitude and aptitude, leaping to CEO for the first time is daunting.

Working with the future CEO on numerous occasions has taught me the special kind of sensitivity is needed towards the situation. In truth, part of the reason why I developed one-on-one career coaching sessions was to meet the needs of the future CEO.

What a future CEO needs is support yet discretion. Developing your skills in negotiation, presentation, interview techniques and more is much easier when dealing direct with your coach. It also gives you the opportunity to share in a safe, supportive and confidential environment. That allows you to work directly on what you need most.

Following the GDPR

The GDPR is the way of the future. We leave so much of who we are and what we do online, this data has immeasurable value to the search engine operators, social media platforms and companies that mine it.

Yet this uneasy relationship whereby we give freely one of the most valuable commodities in our daily lives, often unaware that we are doing so, has created issues. While we can argue that we willingly sign up to platforms, software and applications, most of us don’t understand the depth of information extracted and resold. Many of us simply don’t understand the value our search profiles, marketing habits and internet usage patterns have to commercial entities.

We have an inkling of understanding that our data can be misused in political situations. And we’ve all experienced that weird moment where we may have mentioned a product to a friend casually online, only to find ourselves followed by related advertising for days.

How far down the rabbit hole does it go?

The GDPR is holding interest for all kinds of businesses (this career coaching outfit included) as it sets a standard where disclosure and transparency are the cornerstones. Not only that, but you as the user of a service retain power over your engagement with a service.

For example, the GDPR means that citizens of the EU or anyone enjoying an extended holiday in the EU countries can ask for anonymity through pseudonymisation. You can also exercise what is called “the right to be forgotten”, which means if you leave a service or platform, your data is no longer available to that organisation.

Under the GDPR, your data cannot be used to create personas and profiles of your friends and work colleagues who may not use the same services, platforms and products. It also means you retain the ability to see what data a company has on you at any given time. And that a company cannot setup an application that is meant to quiz you on one element and take a whole lot more information about you without your knowledge through your profile on the platform hosting that app. Any information disclosed cannot be sold to a third party without your knowledge.

As someone that values privacy and understands how much we can learn about a person from the kind of data I deal in, I applaud this move. I shouldn’t be privy to your salary, employment records, demographic profile, self-reported career aspirations or what causes you to have imposter syndrome for any other reason than to help you. And that help should be the service you have signed up for- career coaching, group workshops and learning how to negotiate a salary and benefits.

Through creating the GDPR as a gold standard of data usage, I believe we can regain some of the trust that has been eroded in the online world. As business people and as individual internet users, this is great news as it ushers in a new era of open, collaborative business.

Your privacy is assured

At the Salary Coach, I believe in your right to privacy. I also believe in it as a valuable tool for building a strong, healthy relationship that allows for free exchange. Working together and sharing in a trust-based environment means you can maximise the benefits of our sessions. It allows you to make the most career coaching in the short and long term.