Coaching is an interactive process through which managers and supervisors aim to solve performance problems or

develop employee capabilities. The process relies on

collaboration and is based on three components: technical help, personal support, and individual challenge.

A mentor is a person who helps someone else experience personal growth through learning. Mentoring, then, is the offering of advice, information, or guidance by a person with useful experience, skills, or expertise for another individuals

personal and professional development.

 Mentoring constitutes a one-to-one informal and supportive partnership between a more experienced person and a new colleague. (Warwick University)

It is a process where one person (the mentor) offers help,

guidance, advice and support to facilitate learning or development of another person (the protg) or facilitates Capacity Building.

Coaching

Mentoring

Key Goals

To correct inappropriate behavior, improve performance, and impart skills that the employee needs to accept new responsibilities.

To support and guide personal growth of the protg.

Initiative for Mentoring The coach directs the learning and instruction. Volunteerism Though the subordinates agreement to accept coaching is essential, it is not necessarily voluntary. Focus Immediate problems and learning opportunities.

The mentored person is in charge of his or her learning. Both mentor and protg participate as volunteers.

Long-term personal career development.

Coaching

Mentoring

Roles

Heavy on telling with appropriate feedback.

Heavy on listening, providing a role model, and making suggestions and connections. Long-term.

Duration

Usually concentrates on shortterm needs. Administered intermittently on an as-needed basis. The coach is the coachees boss.

Relationship

The mentor is seldom the protg boss. Most experts insist that the mentor not be in the other persons chain of command.

The Need for Mentors to explore their own Philosophy of Mentoring by asking themselves a series of questions:

Why do I want to mentor others? In other words, whats in it for me? What is the protgs role in setting the tone of the relationship?

What do I expect from the protg in this relationships?

An Executive derives Power from 2 main sources during

competitive situations, i.e., from competence (technical skill,

education, experience, and management) and from confidence (interpersonal skills, personality, character, and spirit).

Confidence is best used in situations where you have close

contact with other people in direct supervision, face-to-face competition, or negotiation.

Executive coaches, in general, follow one of two approaches. The first, which we will call diagnosis and development, is the traditional approach. It has strong roots in psychology, is deeper in its method, but takes longer to deliver.

The other, called prescriptive, has more in common which the everyday coaching that managers give to their subordinates. It is faster and more direct. Each has its advantage.

Approach has four basic components: Diagnosis, Selfawareness, a Development Plan, and Plan Implementation.

Diagnosis. The consultant coach attempts to identify the executives

problem and its dimensions. This is done through direct observation, but also through indirect means, such as psychology personality assessment. In some cases, the coach will seek 360 degree feedback, a method that systematically collects information about the clients behavior and performance from people who interact with that person.

The goal is to determine what it is like working for or with the client,
and to identify strengths and weakness.

Self-awareness. Once an assessment has been made,

the coach meets the client often off site to share what he or she has learned, both good and bad. The executive is brought facetoface with his strengths and weaknesses.

The goal of this exercise is self-awareness on the part of the executive.

Development Plan. Once the executive has come to grips

with the problematic behavior or weakness bring addressed, the next typical step is to create a plan to deal with it.

Plan Implementation. The coach and executive work

together in this final phase. The coach observes at close range how the client deals with subordinates, peers, and customers. Afterward, they discuss progress and problems.

The prescriptive approach is the alternative to diagnosis and

development coaching.

Coaches who follow this method do not spend nearly as much

time on the lengthy and expensive diagnostic phase.

Instead, they shadow their clients and prescribe new ways of acting as they observe the executive in action.

 Be very clear about what coaching is and is not and be equally clear about when coaching is appropriate or not. Organizational roles are blurring but it is clear that an excellent

leader and motivator of others must also be a good coach.

Sometimes people need a therapist, a mentor or a teacher and think that a coach can fulfill those roles - these are not coaching relationships. Know when to manage and when to coach - a coach is not a thinking partner.

 Before coaching others or offering coaching to a team, have the experience of being coached yourself so you know what it means. Be compassionate about how difficult change is - it's really,

really difficult no matter how small or large the change.

When you can see what they "need", shine the light back on yourself and ask yourself how easy it would be to change that habit. Trust in your abilities to ask good questions - often the person you coach has experience and wisdom and just needs a conversation to have a breakthrough. Be open to being coached by people in your work unit - consult more. Listen more and longer and be willing to be surprised.

 Bring all of yourself to work - you free others to do the same.

Engage in real conversations and attend to the conversations not occurring - people long to have meaningful conversations instead of the sterile transactions and exchanges that are part of today's workplaces.

Management psychologist Don Grayson and consultant Kerry Larson have described Six Common Pitfalls that prevent coaches from reaping the full benefits of executive coaching.

They are:
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Failure to commit. Unrealistic expectations. Defensiveness. Playing a passive role Playing it safe Failing to involve others.

Mentoring involves a journey into the unknown and into unfamiliar ways of
being and doing; we may have to confront our fear of failure and, paradoxically, our fear of success; we may have to cast aside long held beliefs about who we are and what we are capable of.

Thus to create and then sustain change in the face of the many forces which may pull us back, a powerfully motivating context is necessary.

That context is Purpose.

Dr M H M Munro Turner.

Copyright 2006. Dr M H M Munro Turner.

The ultimate measure of a man is

not where he stands in moments

of comfort, but where he stands

at time of challenge and controversy.
- Martin Luther King Jr.

Competence on the other hand, can be used in situations where there is an organizational or geographical distance

between parties. A reputation for great

competence inspires awe in our associates and our competitors. When combined with appropriate confidence, competence is difficult to overcome even at a distance. But, between two executives of equal competence, the one with greater confidence will win.

If you try to defeat enemies with competence alone, you will fail in the tactics as often you succeed. If

you try to defeat your enemies

with confidence alone, they will eventually expose your weakness. Musashis Classics - Donald G. Krause

Linkage Incorporated (a consulting group) asked a number of companies to list the top leadership development challenges they expect to face in the years ahead. Following are some of the issues they identifies:

Globalization Improving productivity

Competitive pressures
Customer focus Rapid growth Focus on corporate vision Entrance into new markets Postmerger intergration Strategic partnerships