Appreciative Inquiry - Advising

One of the most significant and visible achievements of Appreciative Inquiry has been in the field of education. Appreciative Advising is a technique that is derived from Appreciative Inquiry that helps Educational Advisors, and Career Counsellors prepare themselves in suggesting a suitable career to the candidates who approach them for higher education.

Six Phases of Appreciative Advising

Appreciative Advising follows six distinct phases −

• Disarm − Focus on the first impression and know the importance of a safe and a welcoming scenario for students.

• Discover − Make use of questions that are positive and open-ended in nature. Try to find out what the students love to do, their passions and their strengths. Listen carefully to each and every answer before jumping into the next question.

• Dream − Help the students create a vision of what they wish to become and provide them assistance to portray a clearer picture of their career goals and their life.

• Design − Assist students in coming up with well-defined, incremental, and achievable goals.

• Deliver − The students need to follow their plans from the previous phases. The role of the advisor is to help the students when they come across a hurdle, to have faith in them at every step, and to refine and update their dreams.

• Don’t Settle − Another significant role of the advisor is to challenge the students to improvise the students’ internals and to increase their self-expectations.

The Disarm Phase of Appreciative Advising

In this phase, the focus is on creating and getting a first impression and knowing the importance of creating a safe and a welcoming scenario for students so that their trust can be gained.

Important Behaviors of an Advisor

• Suitably personalizing the office
• Seeing students at the door
• Welcoming the student
• Self-introduction

Immediacy Features

Immediacy is defined as the mental and physical bond between two or more communicators (to be specific, between a professor and his students). People get attracted towards the people they like, prefer and value. On the other hand, they tend to walk away from the people and things they don’t prefer or evaluate negatively.

Non-Verbal Attributes of a Good Advisor

Verbal Attributes of a Good Advisor

The Discover Phase of Appreciative Advising

In this stage, the instructors should try and make use of questions that are positive and openended in nature. For example, they should try to find out what the students love to do, what their passions are and what their biggest strengths are. Carefully listen to each and every answer before jumping onto the next question.

Important Behaviors of an Advisor

• Ask open-ended, positive questions to identify the stories of the students.

• Pointing out when the students took initiatives and appreciating them

• Give affirmative and positive feedback to the students by saying phrases such as; "it’s impressive", "you did well", etc.

Questions asked by a good Advisor

• Whom do you think to be the most important role models in your life? Why so?
• Mention a point in time when you positively impacted somebody else’s life.
• Share some events from your life that have made you the person you are?
• What are the things you have accomplished in life that you are proud of?
• What are the qualities that you wish to inherit from your role models?
• What are your achievements that you are proud of, and why?

The Dream Phase of Appreciative Advising

In this phase, the counsellors and advisors help the students to create a vision of what they wish to become and provide them assistance to portray a clearer picture of their career goals and their lives.

Important Behaviors of a good Advisor

• Intently listen to each and every statement.
• Motivate students to be open to numerous possibilities and opportunities.
• Remind students that there can be many right answers to a certain question.
• Connect information formulated during Discovery phase and dreams shared.

Questions asked by a good Advisor

• What would be your ideal job if education, salary and time were irrelevant?
• When you used to be 10 years of age, what did you aim to become?
• What changed when you grew up? What is your objective now?

The Design Phase of Appreciative Advising

In this phase an advisor is needed to assist students in coming up with well-defined, incremental, and achievable goals. The advisor steps back here and lets the students decide the necessary steps for development of an Action Plan. The advisor works on setting goals and sub-goals together, set a realistic timeline to achieve these goals, and make responsibilities and deadlines clear to all.

Important Behaviors of a good Advisor

• Provide a clear understanding of the technical understandable language.
• Have faith on your guts: trust your subconscious experiences.
• Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each option.
• Discuss all the consequences of each and every option.
• Make sure you do your homework on each option.
• Stay away from using confusing acronyms.
• Share various options with the students.
• Inform before making every decision.
• Let the students make the decision.

The Deliver Phase of Appreciative Advising

In this phase, the students need to follow their plans from the previous phases. The role of the advisor is to help the students when they come across a hurdle, to have faith in them at every step, and to refine and update their dreams.

Important Behaviors of a good Advisor

• Do thorough reviews of your students’ responsibilities and liabilities.
• Review your achievements and accomplishments during the session.
• Make the students respect the deadlines that you have established together.
• Keep yourself available for the students during their problems and concerns.
• Rejuvenate your confidence so that the students stay motivated to set goals.

Questions asked by a good Advisor

• In what way and at what time will you report me about the progress?
• What measures will you take if you run out of roadblocks?

End of the Conversation

At the end of the conversation, the advisor may end the conversation by asking a few questions in the line of offering any last minute help, such as asking them if they have something to say, or some area that they should have been asked questions on. If no one asks any question, then conclude the conversation cordially but thanking them for the program and recurring your offer for help if they need any assistance.

The Don’t Settle Phase of Appreciative Advising

Another significant role of the advisor is to challenge the students to improvise the students’ internals and to increase their self-expectations. A god advisor always challenges the students to actively raise their levels of expectations from themselves. Hence, he should support the students at all times and expect high results from your students.

Questions asked by a good Advisor

• You have done well so far but in which area, you could have improvised?
• What would be raising the bars of you own internal expectations mean?
• What will you do if you were challenged to be the best?