“Many Managers would agree that the
effectiveness of their organization would
be at least doubled if they would discover
how to tap the unrealized potential present
in their human resources”
-McGregor
Definition of Coaching
• Coaching is a method of directing, instructing and
training a person or group of people, with the aim to
achieve some goal or develop specific skills. There are
many ways to coach, types of coaching and methods to
coaching. Direction may include motivational speaking
and training may include seminars, workshops, and
supervised practice.
Qualities of a Good Coach
Specific Skills
Listening, Analyzing
and Ability of Problem solving
Coach
Interest and Belief
in People
Influencing Skills
Coaching Yields Results
• Coaching is a series of one-on-one confidential meetings focused
on achieving the client’s goal. This goal could be:
• fine tuning a skill
• accelerating learning
• solving a problem
• developing peak performance
• strategic planning
• creating change or growing with change
• working through something you are stuck on
• identifying and gaining clarity on your goals
Clients who have worked with a Coach and reached their goals,
continue to use a Coach whenever they want to work on new goal.
Differences between Coaching &
Mentoring?• Coaching
• Generally follows the format of individual guidance that is focused
on job performance and aimed at one person alone. The coach
specificially advises the person on how to tackle and perform a
particular task, they provide constructive feedback and delegate
further similiar tasks, setting goals or higher-level tasks for the
individual to complete. The coach in most instances will be an
immediate supervisior or manager who will have overall resonsibility
for the department's overall performance. Coaching is about having
a positive relationship where the coachee respects, trusts and
identifies with the coach.
• Mentoring
• Generally follows the format of generalised advice and guidance of
career development. Mentoring is about developing a relationship
between a more senior and experienced mentor and an
inexperienced mentee to guide and develop the mentee's
knowledge and career progression. The mentor generally will be
someone who is not your immediate supervisior/manager or within
your organisation can allow the luxury of talking to an independent
impartial confidante who is not your manager, they will have the
ability to listen to your issues, afford you the opportunity to vent
unrestrictedly and support and assist you in achieving your goals.
Differences between Coaching &
Mentoring?
Benefits of Coaching
• The benefits of coaching is that the individual will be able to improve
their work performance and skill set by receiving one-on-one training
to develop career prospects.
• The majority of coaching is generally delivered within an organization
by an immediate supervisor or manager. However, many organizations
these days employ professional external coaches to come into their
organization to provide this service. Coaches should be willing to
listen, observe and support the coacher’s ability, knowledge and
resourcefulness.
• External coaches are trained to deliver specific individual coaching
sessions to meet the individual needs, following the methods of setting
clear standards, goals, use of learning, feedback and evaluation.
Disadvantages of Coaching
• There are no inherent disadvantages in the process of coaching.
However, poor handling and integration of these tools in an
organization can create problems. For instance, offering coaching
session without a thorough analysis of the current and required
skills can result in a coaching session that fails to address the skill
development areas. As a result, the organization ends up investing
its resources into a failed attempt at coaching. In addition, the
inability to recognize the obstacles to coaching can hinder its
effectiveness for the organization.
Illustrative examples of how
business uses mentoring
- Business A has projected growth in their business with a concurrent need for
more employees. They are finding it harder and harder to find workers with the
right skills. Strategies that Company A is using is passing on responsibilities to
other employees, functioning with fewer employees, ignoring business
opportunities, hiring temporary help and improving salaries and the work
environment They have also adopted a tactic of hiring people with potential and
training them into the jobs they need filling. This has all helped but projecting
into the future Company A sees that fewer employees with the right skills is not a
temporary condition. They also see that the need to increase training will only
rise in the future. They have adopted informal training but need something else
to fill in the gaps and find that mentoring is a great way to train as well as make
both the participants benefits in the process. Company A is finding that
employees are getting up to speed faster than ever before and discovering
mentoring couldn't have happened at a better time.
Conclusion
• The bottom line is that there is no one particular method of coaching
is applicable for all contexts. The management needs to understand
the requirements of the employees, the possible issues that they
can face in delivering coaching sessions and the objectives they aim
to achieve. This information can facilitate the management in
developing a coaching program that is well-suited to the needs of
the employees and support the organization in attaining its
objectives. Coaching only become disadvantageous when the
management is unable to align the objectives, expected outcome,
the coaching needs of the employees and the situational
requirements.