Corporate Learning
Strategies
Daniel R. Tobin,
Ph.D.
Mentoring and Coaching
Copyright ©1998 Daniel R. Tobin
Having
a mentor and/or a coach can be very helpful to your career development in your
company. Many people confuse the two roles. In this article, we will talk about
the differences between the two roles, discuss how you can use a mentor and a
coach, and talk about your own role as a coach for your employees.
The
roles of mentor and coach differ in several ways. The mentor acts as your
counselor, providing advice on career paths, development opportunities, and an
overview of what it takes to become a leader in the company. Typically, the
mentor is a senior manager, at least two levels above you in the organization.
The mentor must have broader experience in the company and the ability to place
you into assignments that will help with your development. A critical element
in the mentoring relationship is a mutual respect between you and your mentor.
For
example, the publisher of one of my books told me that he had a mentor when he
first joined a large publishing company. "Once a month, I had lunch with
my mentor, a senior vice president in the company. I learned more about the
publishing industry and how the company really worked at those lunches than I
could have in years if I had to discover all of it myself."
The
coach is more of a tutor, observing your work and actions, providing comments
on execution, and teaching skills which may be lacking. Coaches can come from
many sources. A coach can be a colleague, a manager, or an employee, and
doesn't have to come from the same function or division in which you work. For
example, a coach may come from the company's personnel or training function.
Some senior executive hire an outside consultant to act as their coach. It is
critical in the coaching relationship for the coach to have opportunities to
observe your work and for you to respect the coach and be open to feedback.
Both
mentoring and coaching must be viewed as long-term relationships -- a
commitment of two years should be obtained before the relationship is
established. These two roles, whether performed by one person or two, are an
essential ingredient in your career development. No matter how much education
and training you receive, and no matter how excellent that instruction may be,
the incorporation of new skills and knowledge into your work takes time,
practice, and feedback. The mentor provides guidance and opportunities for
practice. The coach observes and critiques the performance and provides you
with an outside perspective on your skills.
Your Role as a Coach
As a manager, you should also be a coach for your employees. When you act as a
coach, you are giving your employees your time and attention and, more importantly,
you are helping them master their work and grow their own knowledge and skills.
You are also showing respect for their individual capabilities and providing
what I consider the most important motivation a person can have -- the
opportunity for self-development.
Coaching
is not telling your employees what to do or providing simple answers to their
questions. Coaching is helping your employees discover the answers themselves.
It is unlocking an employee's potential to maximize their own performance,
helping them to learn rather than teaching them. Coaching is must more
time-consuming than giving orders, but is also much more satisfying to both the
employee and the manager.
When
you hold a coaching session with an employee, you guide them through a thinking
process, helping them to discover the answers to their own questions, rather
than imposing a solution. The questions below are designed to guide you through
this process.
Coaching Questions
A. Questions Related to the Employee's Goals
1. What is the goal of this
discussion? What goal or activity are you working on? (For example, you may be
talking about a project the employee has undertaken or about the employee's
routine work, such as customer relations.)
2.
What do you want to accomplish, both short-term and long-term? (The length of
time will often affect what can be accomplished.)
3.
Are we talking about something you want to produce, or about how you work (an
end goal such as completing a product design or a performance goal such as improving
your writing skills)?
4.
If the goal positive, challenging, attainable, and measurable? (If none of
these criteria are met, you should question whether the goal is worthwhile.)
B. Is the Goal Realistic?
1. What is happening now related
to your goal? (Few goals are isolated from other people and plans within the
company, and it is important to be aware of what else is happening that will
affect your plans.)
2.
Who is involved and how do those people view your goal? (Most goals involve
other people, and you need to ensure that those people are aware of what you
are doing and support your efforts.)
3.
What have you done about this so far and what results did your actions produce?
(You need to know whether the situation you are discussing is about a future
plan or is trying to fix a problem that has already arisen.)
4.
What is happening, both inside and outside your group and the company, that will affect your goal? (No one works in
isolation, and you need to recognize that other programs and events, both
locally and in the larger world, may affect what you are doing.)
5.
What are the major constraints to finding a way to more forward? (You cannot
overcome barriers to your goal unless you recognize what they are and deal with
them.)
C. Questions On Options for
Action
1. What options do you have? (Getting the employee to consider alternative actions can not only help to broaden his perspective on the situation, it can also help you discover options that you may not have considered in the past.)
2.
What are the costs and benefit of each of those options? (This gets the
employee to think through each option in a larger context.)
3.
What if ...? (If the employee has not considered all
of the options you can think of, you can help to expand his thinking by raising
other possibilities in the form of "what if ..." questions.)
4.
Would you like another suggestion? (If the "what if" questions don't
help the employee to consider other options you would like him to consider, ask
if he would like another suggestion. It is important to ask the question in
this way, rather than imposing your own solution on the employee. Imposing a
solution does not help the employee learn. Of course, there are times when you
must impose a solution, such as when the employee's plan will be dangerous to
himself or others.)
D. Questioning the Employee's Will to Succeed
1. What are you going to do, and
when will you do it? (Get the employee to commit to a plan of action.)
2.
Will this meet your goal? (If not, why do it?)
3.
What obstacles do you expect to face, and how will you overcome them? (This is
also a reality test.)
4.
Who needs to know what you are doing, and what support do
you need? (Make certain the employee recognizes the other parties that need to
be involved or who will be affected by his work.)
5.
Rate yourself, on a scale of 1 to 10, on the likelihood of carrying out this
action. (If the rating is low, why bother continuing with the planning
exercise?)
These questions are meant to serve as a guide, not as a
fixed list that you must go through in every coaching situation. But using
questions such as these will provide surprisingly positive results, whether you
are using them with an employee, a peer, or your own manager. I have also used
this method very successfully with my teen-aged daughter to get her to consider
the thoroughness of her plans and the consequences of her actions.
Coaching
your employees will make you a better manager and a more valuable company
employee, and can only help you in your own career development.
Dan Tobin
welcomes your reactions to and comments on this article. To send him e-mail, click
here or send email to DanielTobin@att.net.