Research about the situation of expatriates, over the last 2 decades, has shown that the dissatisfaction of the accompanying spouse is often the main cause of the failure of an expat assignment - which is very costly for the company that employs the expat, and for the expatriates themselves in term of career advancement.
One of the key issues for this kind of problems of the accompanying spouse is that, nowadays, a vast majority of the "trailing wives" are used to lead a very busy life with have their own job, or even a challenging career of their own, and they are not satisfied any more with being "only" a stay-at-home mother and care-giver. On the other hand, pursuing their personal career in a foreign country, and language, and first of all finding the appropriate job (while juggling all the expatriation and integration hurdles at the same time for themselves, their spouse and their children) can be extremely daunting.
Nowadays, more often than not, the expatriate or diplomat that is sent abroad is a woman. Thus, an unprecedented phenomenon has appeared in the last years: the male accompanying spouse or "trailing husband".
A new phenomenon: the trailing husband
If the wife is the accompanying spouse and doesn't work, it is considered as normal anywhere in the world - but this is not true for a husband who follows his wife and doesn't work.
The solution: A brand-new, customized coaching group specifically for the accompanying spouses of expatriates or diplomats
The goal of the coaching group for the "trailing spouses" (female or male) of expatriates or diplomats is to provide support and information in the following areas:
- Generally speaking, coaching is a way to discuss current challenges and obstacles, to provide support and infrastructures for change, to allow shifts to take place, and to provide a sounding board for new ideas.
- The coaching group is an open discussion group (with teleconferences PLUS a closed online discussion forum) where the "trailing spouses" can express their frustrations and difficulties. They also receive support and new ideas, not only from the coach, but also from the other participants.
- They receive support and information if they want to find an appropriate job locally. Quite often, they are not aware of the intercultural differences, for example in the ways to present a résumé or a cover letter, or how job interviews take place in their new culture. If they are in a new place, they don't even know where to search and how.
- In some cases, working free-lance or as a "tele-commuter" is the best option. In the group, we discuss the possibilities to leverage the Internet and the NTIC (New Technologies of Information and Communication) to do so. We also discuss how to market yourself as an independant professional or solopreneur.
- If they can't find an suitable job in the new location, the goal of the coaching group is to support them in order to find a meaningful long-term occupation, like going back to college, starting new virtual studies through long-distance learning, or starting a fund-raising or humanitarian project.
- Instead of being left by themselves to face their challenges, the coachees are also accountable for the strategies and action plans that they devised for themselves, which in turn creates momentum and allows them to achieve new goals more easily. Like individual coaching, group coaching makes the participants accountable for what they intend to do, after clear, realistic and time-bound goals have been set. This is usually a major factor that allows at the same time for quick results and long-term, sustainable success.
- Like every expatriate, they live in environments that are often difficult to understand or master, while being cut away from their networks of friends, colleagues, associates and acquaintances. This is particularly true for those who don't master the local language well. Networking and mastering emotional and cultural intelligence are important skills in order to be successful as an expat or expat spouses (making friends) and in order to find a job or other meaningful occupations. We deal with networking techniques this in the group. Simultaneously, the networking that takes place between the members of the group is usually very nurturing and supportive.
- We also deal with techniques that help them learn the new language most quickly and efficiently, according to the learning styles of the participants.
- Group coaching on a telephone bridge, with a closed discussion board between the virtual meetings, is the most cost-effective way to bring together a group of people with common interests and challenges - even if they are scattered all over the world!
Group coaching outline
- The coach takes care that the group provides a creative, open, secure and interactive environment.
- Each participant benefits from the advantages of coaching at a fraction of the cost of individual coaching.
- Each member can experience being coached (by the coach and others) and also coaching others
- On top of that, he/she benefits also from the encouragements, synergies, networking opportunities, resources and creative ideas from the other group participants.
- Pascale Cotton has been a professional coach for expatriate executives, diplomats, the spouses of expats or diplomats, and international or mobile entrepreneurs, since 2002.
- Before that, she has been a translator, conference interpreter, entrepreneur - and expat - since the age of 24.
- She studied a total of 8 languages, including Japanese, translation, linguistics, political science, economics and literature at the best universities of 5 European countries up to PhD level.
- After her training as a Master Practitioner in NLP, she has been trained as a coach at Coachville, USA, the biggest coach training institute in the world.
- She coaches her clients on five continents in English, French or German.
- She combines the American optimistic, success- and results-oriented approach to coaching with the more challenging and questioning European mindset.
The group size is limited to 10 participants only in order to achieve extraordinary success.
The program includes:
- Three 60' group coaching calls per month, maximum 10 participants .
- Assessments, questionnaires, documents, recommended readings and resources are privided, as appropriate, during the coaching program
- Email exchange with the coach between sessions (up to 2 emails/week)
- Closed forum for an unlimited exchange between the participants
- Closed vault where the coach and the participants put written or audio documents at the disposal of the participants
- Unlimited access to the recordings of the coaching sessions
The goal of coaching is not to provide quick fixes but to provide and maintain long-term results. For this reason, and although the participants can cancel their participation any time with a 1 month notice, they are expected to invest time and efforts into the coaching program for at least six months.
New participants can be admitted to the group every month until it reaches 10 participants. After that, new groups can be created.
The payment takes place in advance through Paypal, until the end of one month, for the coaching of the following month. Visa, MasterCard and American Express are accepted.
Costs: 87 € (approx. 113 US$) per month, everything included (see above. The payment takes place with the Paypal button below. It is a recurrent monthly payment until you cancel.
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