Coaching and Mentoring for Leadership and Management - Assignment Example

Coaching and Mentoring for Leadership and Management Introduction In the recent times, most of the organisations put more emphasis upon training the individuals so that the goals of the organisation can be attained. Coaching can be defined as a method of guided individual discovery that often leads to action planning, goal setting as well as responsibility for goal attainment, experiential learning and skill development and supported risk taking as well as experimentation (National College for School Leadership, 2010). Mentoring is recognised to be an active, reciprocal association within a working environment comprising those individual who tend to be more experienced in a particular field along with relatively less knowledgeable individuals who do not have much knowledge in the similar field (National College for School Leadership, 2010). The main task of a manager is to get results through people as well as other resources. Since most of the industries are becoming more reliant upon knowledge as well as service, people as well as their skill and performance are a top managerial concern. Companies possess greater interest in the capabilities of their employees that they endeavour to develop by means of formal and on-the-job training and progressive job assignments. They further expect managers as well as supervisors to develop employee capacity by means of coaching and mentoring. The main objective of the report is to identify whether or not the adoption of coaching and mentoring system can be utilised in order to train the staffs required to occupy the highly skilled positions that organisations might find it increasingly difficult to fill in the near future. The report will further attempt at offering numerous definitions regarding what coaching and mentoring are and how they must be utilised as part of the organisations knowledge management system. The costs as well as benefits associated to the organisation in introducing such systems will also be highlighted. Furthermore, the report’s objective will be to outline how organisations can deliver high quality coaching and mentoring to the employees and the key performance indicators that organisations can utilise to judge the ongoing success of such a system. Various Definition of Coaching and Mentoring Coaching and mentoring can be identified as development methods as per one-to-one discussions so that the skills, knowledge and work performance of the individual can be improved (CIPD, 2012). Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) views mentoring as a development of abilities as well as potentials in the role to be played by an individual rather than developing their performance and skills. It can be comprehended as specific learning along with development interference that can be utilised in a wide way however in a specific situation such as sponsorship, development and induction. It states that mentoring needs to be examined and delivered by way of qualified mentors and needs to be overseen by the human resource department. It is often confused with coaching by most of the people in an organisation. However, it must be perceived as two distinct activities (The University of Sheffield, 2009). Mentoring can be identified as a procedure that comprises distinct forms of environments as well as relationships, initiating between formal as well as informal. In case of formal approach, efficiency is created within a structured programme which tends to be utilised within the business environment. On the other hand, informal mentoring may consist of less structured relationships. Irrespective of the form of approach, it is quite significant to consider mentoring as a procedure since it reflects the ongoing features of associations, irrespective of the environment (Nash, 2003). Numerous authors have defined coaching and mentoring in numerous ways. Coaching can be defined as the technique of aiding the performance, learning as well as development of another person by one person. Mentoring can be defined as an encouraging type of employee training which is believed by the experts that it must be self-governing in comparison to other training activities. Mentoring is found to occur outside the traditional top-down employee-manager association. It is to be remembered that the mentee needs to be someone who possess little experience or no experience of work or the form of work that they are going to be performing in general (Biz for Schools, 2010). Coaching as well as mentoring are recognised to be approaches by the management and are generally initiated to generate a collection of talents to cultivate staffs as well as deliver results. It is to be remembered that excellent coach will also mentor and a good mentor can coach too, as adequate to the situation and the association. Both the terms can be utilised in any organisation where performance or motivation level needs to be raised (Serrat, 2009). Mentoring has been defined as assistance which is off-line by its nature and is offered to the person for the purpose of making certain changes in terms of knowledge, efforts or philosophies (Garvey & et. al., 2008). Coaching is an inner organisational procedure and it is generally associated with the improvement of the performance instead of specifically learning and development (Garvey & et. al., 2008). Coaching is considered as “inter-organisation practice” in which the job of a coach is to improve individual performance that ultimately benefits the organisation (Khakwani & et. al., 2012). Mentoring is a method in which a skilled person proceeds as a mentor and thus offers support, assistance and guidance to less qualified person as mentee and focuses upon career growth of the individual (Khakwani & et. al., 2012). There are noteworthy differences between coaching and mentoring. One of the significant differences between both of them is that coaching is a deliberate, confidential and one-to-one association where an individual is guided by someone who has adequate knowledge and who is experienced and trained in coaching methods thus assisting him/her to learn and release their potential. On the other hand, mentoring is a voluntary, confidential as well as one-to-one association where more experienced person essentially senior persons tend to offer their assistance. Coaching might be practiced outside the purview of line management structure by making use of the talented coaches. These coaches may be within or outside the organisation. It is also observed that the line managers of the company can implement a coaching approach as part of the management and leadership style. Unlike coaching, mentoring tends to be practiced outside the line management structure. It can be either within or outside an organisation. It can be either medium, long-term or may be ongoing relationships. In case of coaching, the main attention is essentially upon specific developments and in case of mentoring the main attention is upon career and personal development and thus main focus is upon creating the mentee professionally. Relationship in case of coaching has a specific duration and it tends to be more formal in characteristics where meetings are scheduled on a regular basis. On the other hand, in case of mentoring, relationships tend to be quite informal and meeting is conducted as and when the mentee requires advice, guidance as well as support. In case of coaching, agenda is agreed and centered upon attainment of precise and time bound goals, while on the other hand in case of mentoring it is the clients who set the agenda and the mentor offers assistance generally to prepare them for future goals (Brefi Group Ltd, 2011). Advantages of Coaching and Mentoring The main advantage of coaching and mentoring for the organisations is that they are learning relationships permitting people to take charge of their own creations. They also enable people to discharge their capabilities and thus enhance their performance. It is effective coaching as well as mentoring that can possess a favourable influence upon the organisation. At the individual level the significant benefits that can be attained by means of coaching and mentoring are that it endorses personal development that assists the individuals in enhancing the performance. The learning curve tends to be shortened and it further leads to creation of personal leadership skills. It is via mentoring and coaching an individual gains the capability to administer change in an effective way. The individuals tend to experience high job contentment, motivation and thus feel valued in an organisation. There is high confidence created among the individuals and thus high self-awareness is generated. At the organisational level, the main advantages of executing coaching as well as mentoring is that it leads to high personal efficiency as well as leadership skills. It assists in aligning the performance of the individual with team as well as organisational objective. Coaching and Mentoring As Organisation' Knowledge Management It can be noted that by mentoring and coaching the employees are capable of gaining new knowledge as well as skills in order to enhance the performance of the job. The value of knowledge management is well known. If the companies can instigate a system of knowledge transfer as well as re-use, they can easily minimise costs, risks as well as rework and thus assist in attaining success. For the purpose of attaining this objective, it becomes significant to make use of the mentors whom the companies can trust and who can assist in understanding how to implement knowledge management system. Mentors can assist in reducing costs as well as risks (Knoco Ltd, 2012). . The core abilities of an organisation comprise critical skills related to employees, norms and values as well as management systems. The core capabilities may be dispersed either formally or explicitly. Nonetheless, the knowledge with rich implicit areas tends to be transferred informally through socialisation as well as internalisation. By transfer mechanism such as mentoring and coaching the organisations are capable of influencing their knowledge, generally its inherent knowledge, in order to develop core capabilities (Swap & et. al., 2001) Coaching as a part of knowledge management system refers to active and combined procedure that takes place between the subject matter experts as well as the learner who has been recognised to attain critical knowledge as required by the organisation. There are numerous advantages to the individuals as well as organisations when the companies make use of coaching as a way of knowledge transfer. One of the significant advantages is that critical knowledge is generally shifted to others in a setting that endorses sharing of critical incidents. Knowledge needs to be applied and talents need to be sharpened while the expert tends to be available (Carla Carter & Associates, Inc, 2002). Costs and Benefits Associated With Mentoring and Coaching It is quite complex to demonstrate the advantages of mentoring program since both formal as well as informal mentoring can be experienced quite differently. There might be alteration in the role of the mentor significantly. Literatures list many benefits of mentoring to the mentees. Career advancement is generally recognised as one of the main benefits that a mentee can avail because of being mentored. An essential part related to any mentoring association is related to learning of new talents and thus becoming knowledgeable enough in the role that the individual is performing. There are other advantages as well of mentoring programmes. It has been noted that the performance as well as output ratings of mentee tends to be higher in comparison to non-mentees (Ehrich, 1999). Literatures also note many benefits that a mentor receives from mentoring programme. The mentors tend to gain pleasure via sharing their experiences as well as insights with the mentee. The other significant fulfilling features in playing the role of the mentor comprises on creation of close relationship with the mentees; logic of being realised professionally; and a sense of being required. There are numerous advantages of formal mentoring programs to the organisations. They are escalated output, enhanced recruitment efforts, motivation related to senior people, improvement of the services that are offered by the organisations as well as enhancement of strategic and succession planning. The organisations receive escalated commitment from the team members as well because of good mentoring. Cost-effectiveness has been identified as one of the main advantages of mentoring (Ehrich, 1999). The researchers view potential challenges of formal mentoring programme. The first problem is associated with the execution of a mentoring program when there tends to be little scope for growth within the organisation. The other issue is related to the risk of permitting a mentoring program to proceed when commitment to the organisational program tends to be quite less. Most of the researchers have demonstrated their concerns regarding organisations that have faced difficulties in attempting to integrate prevailing ongoing training or human resource programs with new mentoring programs. The administration of mentoring programme tends to be quite expensive which is disadvantageous for mentoring programme (Ehrich, 1999). In case of external coaching team of coaches are created within the organisation. This team of coaches are individuals who possess other jobs often among human resources and at times in leadership positions. They take added accountability related to coaching one or more executives. Internal coaching tends to be less expensive in comparison to the external coaching. It is worthy of mentioning that internal coaches are beneficial the most in an organisational since they comprehend the issues along with the internal dynamics well. They are well aware of the context in which the executives operate such as his or her pressures and scopes. The coach possessing leadership experience in any organisation might find it quite easier and convenient to attain respect of the executive and thus develop rapport. On the other hand, it is generally noted that the internal coaches do not possess adequate coaching as well as feedback experience in comparison to the external coaches. They do not get many opportunities to implement and to administer their coaching skills. They may as well lack cross-organisational views that would permit them to understand the behaviour of the executive in the organisational context. They may view the task of coaching as less significant in comparison to other tasks they need to perform and have less time for coaching. Since internal coaches do not possess adequate professional training, internal coaches may depict signs of depressions. Even if the executive has certain authority over the internal coach, the coach may be less inclined to face serious issues. When the coach tends to be at the lowest level of the hierarchy, in such cases, the executive does not consider the suggestions offered by the coach. Since the internal coach has many responsibilities and allegiances in the organisation, in such circumstances the executive may not have much confidence that the problems that were communicated in the coaching meetings will remain completely confidential (Hallam, n.d.). The costs associated with fully executed coaching culture can be high which might comprise fees of external coaches, training costs associated with internal coaches and continuing fixed costs, lost taxable time while individual coaching is conducted, training costs related to finance professionals who want to mentor in their management and client roles, escalated time in making use of coaching as a learning tool (ACCA Global, 2006). Delivering High Quality Coaching and Mentoring There are numerous roles that the coaches and the mentors are supposed to perform. The main goal is to develop the person who is supposed to be coached and mentored. This may be attained by means of stimulating self confidence, recognition of adequate topics for coaching and mentoring and thus creating planned tasks as part of job knowledge. Coaching and mentoring are not all about telling someone what to do and how to do certain tasks. Most of the times, it generally involves administrating what is being done and advising on how to do it in a better way. For the purpose of delivering high quality coaching and mentoring, it is quite significant for the coaches and the mentors to be patient, disconnected, sympathetic, interested, self-aware, perceptive and attentive. They must possess adequate knowledge, trustworthiness, experience and power. Coaches and mentors require numerous core talents such as the capability to create rapport, to focus upon the content and the process, to be an open minded individual, ability of summarising and reflecting, making limiting assumptions and beliefs. They must also be capable of giving and receiving feedback (CIMA Global, 2008). It is often believed that a company putting emphasis upon the welfare of its people at all the levels in an organisation might succeed in its business attempts. It is because of the output and quality work performance of the employees the companies are capable of attaining its goals easily. It is because of this fact; most of the companies are capable of enhancing their people by employee enhancement programs. The two most significant organisational activities are coaching as well as mentoring which are driven towards personal as well as professional growth. It is worthy of noticing that these programs are not provisional, although they can be situational. After a company has decided to execute coaching and mentoring programs for the employees, there is requirement of adequate planning and preparation for the purpose of creating effective coaching and mentoring sessions. It becomes s significant aspect for the companies to meet numerous considerations and requirements such as design of coaching and mentoring procedure, making choice of the best tools and techniques, choosing of coaching and mentoring styles, guidelines as well as rules and regulations, choice of mentors and coaches and gradually creating coaching and mentoring best practices. Even the best mentoring and coaching programme might not be effective if it is not acknowledged by the wider team. There is a risk that both the mentoring as well as coaching will be viewed as management ploys and not as a procedure to support the capabilities of the individuals. It is also significant to organise training for the mentors and coaches so that they can instil required knowledge and skills for conducting mentoring and coaching programme. The training programme needs to take into consideration few essential criteria. It must focus upon administrating association in the workplace and must also cover communication and behavior motivation, personal development, one-to-one mentoring/coaching arrangements, one-to-one mentoring/coaching activities, planning mentoring/ coaching objectives and mentoring/ coaching techniques (CIMA Global, 2008). Apart from the above mentioned strategies for delivering good quality coaching and mentoring, it is significant for the coach and the mentor to focus upon setting directions since the team will depend upon the coaches and the mentors in order to clarify its mission. The coach must also have adequate skills for organising. The mentor and coach tend to focus upon bringing the right people together and thus offering them with relevant information that the team requires every time. The coach and the mentor need to act as a facilitator and thus generate an ambience thereby supporting people to share varied viewpoints without any fear of criticism. It is also significant for the coaches and the mentors to teach the team members the skill that is required to work in a group in a collaborative way. Most of the time, it is viewed that rumours might take place when mentoring someone of the opposite sex. It becomes difficult to stop rumours from taking place in an organisation. Gossips are spread because most of the people may not be comfortable with the special attention that mentee receives. This might have an impact upon the quality of the services that the mentor and the coach tend to offer to the team members in an organisation. Therefore, it is quite significant for the mentor and the coach to sense such jealousy on part of other team members. The mentee must also be alerted not to exacerbate the context by exhibiting the relation with the mentor or the coach (Stone, 1999). The mentors as well as the coaches are required to focus upon generation of new ideas and identifying distinct ways through which work can be done. They must also have the capability to view things from distinct perspectives. It is worthy of mentioning that the mentor and the coach need to demonstrate their interest in locating connections, patterns and problem solving (Radcliffe, 2010). Key Performance Indicators for Measuring Success of Mentoring and Coaching The key performance indicators that can be utilised by the organisation in order to attain success are that a coach needs to remember the fact that he/she will be self-determining of the line manager and thus may be either internal or external to the organisation. It is also significant for the organisation to consider the fact that the coach and the mentor are required to be trained and accredited enough in coaching and mentoring methodologies. The organisation needs to remember the fact that coaching and mentoring programme is created essentially for the purpose of stimulating the performance in the work environment so that it becomes easier to attain the goals of the individuals and key performance indicators as well. The organisations must also consider the fact that the coach will be capable of helping the individuals to situate goals, reflect upon their own strengths as well as weaknesses, identify their options and thus create policies through which they can move forward. Individuals take accountability of their own performance improvement (ACCA Global, 2006). In order to attain success, it is significant for the organisation to utilise coaching model strategies when it is viewed by the managers that the performance attitude of the employee aligns with high performing employees. For judging the success of mentoring and coaching programme companies can produce a situation whereby the mentees and the coaches are made to replicate the activities that they were taught during the mentoring and coaching programme. Success of mentoring programme can be identified if the employees are successfully capable of performing the tasks that they are asked to do in an effective way. High productivity and increased revenues can assist the organisation in detecting how effective such systems had been in attaining the goals. The coaching and the mentoring outcomes need to be associated with the success of the business. It is significant to create a competency model with strategic coaching and mentoring objectives and plans and to evaluate them in and around the coaching behavior. The coaching culture attitude and behaviour need to be recognised and rewarded and thus it is crucial to demonstrate role models and the favourable outcomes that have been generated by these new behaviours. The organisation must also coordinate coaching as well as other people-management processes (Anderson & et. al., n.d.). There are several organisations in the present times that embrace the concept related to coaching culture while there are organisations as well which stick to old command and control way of doing things. It cannot be denied that most business success stories are essentially built upon the basis of bullying and fear. Jack Welch is regarded as business guru, however he proudly publicised his system at General Electric. At this company, each year their managers were supposed to rate their staffs for efficiency and the bottom 10 percent would be fired. He noticed the fact that the managers would go as far as to place the names of the dead workers on the lists in order to avoid having loyal, effective as well as hardworking team members lose their livelihood (Wilson, 2011). It is also significant to gauge the performance of the teams after every successive month and set ground rules for communicating (Carr & et. al., 2005). Performance management cycle initiates with the manager setting clear goals, ground rules and expectations. The performance of the individual is monitored and reconsidered and thus encouraged the creation of development plans, thereby offering rewards and recognition. Coaching, mentoring and feedback sits at the heart of the performance management (Cook, 2009). Conclusion and Recommendations Coaching and mentoring are quite significant for any organisation. Most of the organisations make use of coaching and mentoring programmes in order to enhance the performance of the individuals working in an organisation and thus to attain the objectives of the organisation. In the present times, the business environment is featured by several conditions that drive the organisations towards the coaching culture. These drivers comprise requirement for knowledge management; the alterations that have occurred in the psychological contract and the expectation of the people regarding the work; ever increasing competition; along with rising appreciation in bigger companies that they require to plan for succession and thus create their own leaders (Caplan, 2003). In order to develop coaching culture in an organisation it is significant to comprehend principles of coaching culture in the workplace. The first principle is related to responsibility which states the fact that goals can be attained in numerous ways. However, the most effective is the one that is chosen by the person who needs to accomplish it. If an individual is permitted to develop his/her own pathways in alignment with their personal styles of learning and performance, it will be easier for him/her to attain better results. Self belief is the second principle of coaching culture. Self belief can be generated through two ways. One of them is through recognition obtained by others and the other is by means of stimulating the confidence through learning by practice. To remain error-free is the third principle. It has been indicated by the researchers that human beings tend to learn by committing mistakes. Therefore, it is crucial for the management to consider risk and error as part of their learning procedure. If any of the components is missing then the culture tends to struggle. The external coaching consultants or the organisations can make use of numerous success factors in order to create coaching culture. It is quite significant to link the culture of the organisation with the business strategy. Furthermore, it is to be remembered that the initiative is linked to the strategies of the business and thus has a basic results for the culture of an organisation requires a sponsor in an organisation to play the role of champion. The coaching modules need to be coordinated into the leadership programme and evaluation strategies needs to be created. Furthermore, coaching can be initiated at the top and thus quality criteria as well as standard for selection need to be set. After that, coach pool is created and thus integrated communication plan is created. This success factors can assist the organisation at attaining the objectives in a proper way (Coaching Network, 2012). References Anderson, M. C. & et. al., No Date. Creating Coaching Cultures: What Business Leaders Expect and Strategies to Get There. Growth of Coaching Expected to Continue. 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