Implementing Coaching and Mentoring 5ICM

Understanding and implementing coaching and mentoring is a unit that requires the learners to understand the coaching and mentoring strategies that promote employee learning and development. The leaners get to understand the coaching and mentoring practices within the organisation, which are meant to provide opportunities for the learners to develop their skills. The unit is meant to help learners understand the differences between coaching and mentoring concepts. The unit helps the learners understand the coach and coachee concepts, as well as the mentor and mentee concepts. Learning the unit helps the students gain awareness on the most significant issues that should be considered in implementing the coaching and mentoring activities. By completing the course, learners will have gained knowledge and expertise that help them develop a coaching and mentoring culture in their places of work to enhance personal development and promote improved organisational performance.

Differentiating between coaching and mentoring

CIPD defines coaching as an approach used to develop the skills and goals that enhance development of personal skills and attributes aiming the coachee. Coaching is meant to improve interaction of the employees and improve their confidence. Coaching is done for a period of time, and it focuses on improving the development of the individuals going through the learning process. Coaching seeks to meet both personal goals and development, as well as improve performance of the organisation. Coaches should be well trained to ensure that they deliver coaching practices to the employees in the best possible ways.

Mentoring on the other hand is described as the relationship established between the mentor and mentee, with the mentor being an experienced person who has the skills, knowledge, expertise needed to create an impact on the other people. It is an approach that enhances development of a long term relationship between the two parties, and this relationship helps the mentee gain knowledge that would help him/her deal with the challenging issues that they face in the line of their work. Mentoring allows mentors to prepare the mentees for future responsibilities, and clearly make them prepared to handle more tasks and responsibilities in their careers. People who have good mentors end up succeeding them to become mentors, and this makes them become more prepared for leadership positions.

Creating a coaching and mentoring culture

Students taking the unit should learn the significance of developing a coaching culture. The coaching and mentoring practitioners should be keen to ensure that they understand the business strategy, and in this case work towards making sure that the strategies support the coaching and mentorship programmes that are meant to improve the practice in the workplace. The line managers may take the responsibility of acting as coaches, and this should be done as a day-to-day activity, where the managers work towards ensuring that they develop a coaching relationship with the employees.

The development of a coaching and mentoring culture in the workplace is the basis to which organisations get to create a positive environment that supports learning for all employees. The line managers have to take responsibility in ensuring that they understand the appropriate time when coaching and mentorship interventions have to be delivered to the employees. The programmes developed to support the practices should be appropriate, credible, and reliable to supporting the relationships established between the coaches and coachee, and between the mentors and mentees.

Stages in coaching and mentoring process

The learners have to understand the coaching process, which is slightly different from the mentoring process. The coaching process follows four main steps, the first one being preparation, where the first meeting between the coach and coachee is done, and each of the party gets to understand their roles and responsibilities in the learning process. Contracting is the second stage, where an agreement is formed between the parties, and the third stage is coaching process. The fourth and final step is evaluation of what has been learnt and achieved from the coaching practice.

The mentoring process has five main steps, and the first step is building rapport between the mentor and mentee. The second step is setting the direction to which the mentorship approach should follow, and the third step is the main mentorship program, where the mentor guides the mentee to understand how they can enhance their personal development. The fourth step is winding down, where mentorship program comes to an end. Learners should however understand that the mentorship program results to the development of personal relationship between the mentor and mentee, where learning continues in a less formal setting.

Learning objectives

By the end of the unit, learners should;

• Differentiate between the coaching and mentoring concepts used to promote learning within organisations
• Be able to critically identify the range of models used in coaching and mentoring
• Demonstrate good understanding of the coaching strategies and mentoring strategies that organisations should take into consideration to implement learning
• Learn how to implement coaching and mentoring services
• Understand the benefits of coaching and mentorship to the coach and coachee and to the mentor and mentee.

The course is available for persons studying HR and L&D. this is important to the professionals as it helps in the development of knowledge and skills meant to promote their professionalism in the HR field.

The assessment for the implementing coaching and mentoring unit has been divided by tow. Students are expected to complete assessment 5ICM part A, which is between 1650 words, and 5ICM part B which is also 1950 words. In these assignments, learners are expected to demonstrate evidence of research using concepts and models GROW and OSKAR among others in coaching and mentoring. References have to be provided, and they should all be acknowledged using Harvard referencing format.

Winding up;

Implementing coaching and mentoring unit is the basis to which the students get to learn the basics of coaching and mentorship programmes and their significance to promoting learning in the organisation. HR and L&D professionals take this course in order to understand the different concepts, and their benefits to the coach, coachee, mentor, and mentee. The unit helps learners gain the knowledge on how to deliver the coaching programmes, and also understand the significance of developing a coaching culture.

5ICM Coaching and Mentoring

Mentoring is to identify a specific potential of a person and help in its development. In mentoring, the mentee sets his/her own goals. The mentor helps by giving honest opinions based on intrinsic observations to help the mentee develop insights on his/her potential. These insights help the mentee to understand their own experiences. The mentee is the one who gives the feedback on the progress. They can be long-term, and the goals may change along the way. Clutterbuck defines it as a situation where an experienced person passes down his wealth of knowledge on how a task is performed and how to survive in the commercial world. (Clutterback 2004) Mentors are generally seen as those who give political and personal advice and open doors for opportunities. They are generally  role models (Rivera 2014)

Coaching mainly deal with performance improvement on a specific area or skill. The coach usually suggests the goal and the coached works towards achieving it. The feedback is typically extrinsic in that the coach is the one who gives the feedback on the progress. Coaching is usually short-term in nature as they are performance-based, and it is difficult to change the goals. Clutterbuck describes it as a short-term intervention aimed at developing a particular competence. (Clutterbuck 2004)

Mentoring and coaching are very similar terms usually used together. Some of the similarities highlighted by Clutterbuck includes:

• They both require experience from the helper. A coach or a mentor should be experienced enough to enable the mentee, or the coached to trust him.
• Mentoring and Coaching ars both based on goals. These are goals set for or by the learner. Without the goals, they won’t be anything to motivate mentoring or coaching
• They both help in the attainment of personal goals by encouraging commitment to action and development. (Bozer, G et al. 2015).
• They both deal with the personal growth ambitions of the learner.
• Both help in the exploration of needs, skills, desires, and motivation to help a person have long-lasting change.
• They both deal with the learner’s wishes in that method used to incorporate the learner’s transitions.

Different models can be used to perform mentoring and coaching. GROW model. The goal is an acronym for Goal, current Reality, Options, and Will.  Goals need to be set. It is done by letting the mentee or the coach set the desired goals and outcomes at the end of the coaching period. The second step is to identify the current reality, where the mentee stands in terms of skills and competencies. Then the options part is where all the available ways of improving skills and competencies are considered. She should also help by working hard towards achieving the desired goals. The next step is to identify the will. At this stage, the mentor identifies all the obstacles that hinder the achievement of the set goals and develop a strategy to overcome those obstacles. The mentee is then given a task with the obstacles in mind. The mentor observes the will and the drive of the mentee towards overcoming the obstacles—the mentor chip in where necessary to help in skills development. (Hal.R., & Jaugietis. Z. 2011).

From the above model, it is evident that mentoring and coaching are interrelated and similar. The model above can be used to mentor and coach a person. The main aim is to achieve the set goals.Though mentoring is more or less similar to coaching, there are notable differences between the two terms

• From the definition, Mentoring follows a conventional path where a more experienced person gives advice politically or careerwise to a junior, less experienced person, while in coaching, the coach doesn’t need to have experience. The skills are what matters, and the coach can be younger than the person being coached.
• In mentoring, the mentee is in charge. He owns the goals, and he is the one driving the sessions. In coaching, the coach is more likely to be in charge of the sessions. The clients take responsibility for their development and always have input but are never in control of coaching sessions.
• A coach is like an emotionless mentor because a mentor is usually obliged to quote personal experience to inspire the mentee. In contrast, a coach is not obliged to give a unique experience, but instead, he uses his knowledge on a particular skill to help a client sharpen his. (NU.P et al., 2013).
• Mentoring is for guiding and advising. It helps achieve some peace of mind, while coaching mainly focuses on upskilling and training to have a winning mentality. It helps in increasing self-awareness and identifying the obstacles that are preventing someone from utilizing his full potential.
• Mentoring is long-term. It can last a lifetime and has a potential for friendship because it is informal and personal in nature. The goals can change with time, while coaching is short-term. It is results-oriented and gives no regard to personal relationships. It is difficult to change the goals as they are set mainly by the coach for the clients.
• Mentors usually give their services voluntarily. They find their jobs fulfilling and rarely ask for payments for their services formally through the company’s mentoring programs or informally. Coaches, on the other usually ask for payments for their services. This is because their services benefit the company more than the client being coached.

Roles of line managers

The line managers are people responsible for managing the junior employees while answering to the executive. They ensure that the junior staff well receives the objectives of the company and they oversee their operations. The Line managers are usually the mid-level managers given the task to supervise the operations of a specific department or line.  They are the main point of contact between the senior managers and the junior staff. Therefore they have to give daily reports on the progress and operations in the company. At the same time, they communicate the desires of the senior managers to the junior staff.  The company’s success usually lies in the hands of the line employees. They are best placed to identify the shortcomings in the operations and recommend the best course of action to the executive or direct them to the junior employees.

Their main role in an organization is ensuring that the goals and objectives are achieved. They are also responsible for the welfare and the well-being of other employees. Their main roles in regard to other employees are recruiting and hiring, performance management appraisal, motivation, team bonding, health and well being and coaching and motivation.

When it comes to coaching and mentoring, their primary role is always focused on the recruits. They rarely mentor or coach the regular employees. This is mainly due to the conflicts that usually arise from this role. Such conflicts include being a friend who a person can confide in versus being in charge of the discipline. Advocating for the company’s stand on bonuses and job promotions versus having an honest and open conversation regarding performance and careers. Giving advice on the importance of long-term goals on the development of career paths versus striving to achieve the company’s short-term goals.

The conflicts above make most line managers focus on new recruits when offering mentorship and coaching. It is always easier to coach an employee than to mentor them because mentoring requires closure and trust. For some employers, this may be too much as it will reveal their vulnerability, and some staff may take advantage of it. As a manager responsible for the employees’ welfare, it is their responsibility to ensure that the staff has the mental capacity to carry on, so they have to be a mentor to them. The following are some of the tips that most line managers use to  mentor and coach employees

• When coaching and mentoring, most line managers emphasize on building strengths rather than strengthening weaknesses. Improving opportunities rather than solving problems
• Having an all honest conversation with junior staffs on their limits in terms of workload and trying to incorporate it with the company’s policies
• Making sure that all the junior employees under him have development plans, including short term and long term goals
• Let the junior express themselves freely to release any work associated stress
• Offer flexibility in the work environment such that work is not affected by personal problems and vice versa.

Types of coaching

Executive coaching. This is where the executive coach work with high potential executive personnel to help them achieve their development goals and objectives. (Levinson, H. 1996).  This is where the coaches refrain from solving the problems of the client. Instead, they ask the clients questions to help them identify the obstacles by themselves.  The focus is always to enhance performance, helping the client to be adaptive to new environments and situations, and to help in the development of talents

Career coaching. This is where the career coach focuses on helping an individual to understand the career path better, train the brain and give him skills to help him handle future obstacles. Career coaches help an individual understand the job market, Asses his skills, understand the organization’s processes, and help manage career transitions.

Personal life coaching. The personal life coach focuses on helping an individual understand the events going around his personal life and help him understand what he really wants in life. These coaches focus on what an individual wants in life, Identifying the achievable dreams and finding answers to achieve those dreams. They also help the person to identify their potential skills and talents and what they love doing.

Types of Mentoring

Peer mentoring. This is where the mentor is a colleague of the same age and experience. There is no defined mentor and mentee. (Stiglitz, J. E. 1990). The two take a turn as the main aim is to learn from each other and to hold each other accountable

Group mentoring. This is a type of mentoring here. The mentor is one, and the mentees are many. Group mentoring helps to cultivate the culture of inclusion and helps to bring a sense of belonging. It is appropriate in an organization that has a few number of mentors while the mentees are many. Besides offering mentorship, this type of mentoring also encourages teamwork

Reverse mentoring.  This is the type of mentoring where a junior person offers mentorship to a more experienced person. This type of mentorship usually occurs where the junior person and the senior person have a long-standing relationship. There is a lot that can be learned, especially if the senior person is open-minded

Factors that should be considered before introducing coaching and mentoring

Good coaching and mentoring can help an organization achieve the set goals and objectives. Before introducing it, the following factors must be considered.

• The organization culture. In this organization, there is no culture for mentorship and coaching. Introducing it should not be abrupt. It should be an all-inclusive gradual process involving all stakeholders
• The levels of skills. The line managers do not see it as their responsibility because they do not see the need for mentoring and coaching. This means that the employees are skilled and there is no need to improve them. The level of skills matters a lot in mentoring and coaching for both mentor, coach, mentees, and those being coached.
• Lack of time and resources. Coaches are professionals, and they need to be paid for their services. Mentors may volunteer, but they need an appreciation for their time. Before introducing Mentorship programs, resources should be considered. The company should also set aside time for mentorship programs if they are introduced.
• Executive support is important for mentorship and coaching programs to be successful. (Tonidandel S et al. 2007).

Activity 2

Part 1

Performance coaching is regarded as the most effective way to assist employees in gaining new information, experience, and skills and support their fellows having different learning capabilities. Some of the coaching strategies that can be adopted include internal coaching and peer coaching. Internal coaching includes training and development for internal coaches trained on supporting and increasing employee development and learning. Internal coaching helps in saving the organization’s expenses and performance (Kocabas & Yirci, 2011).. The organization can also encourage peer coaching where workmates or colleagues with the same ability, experience, and work level are included in peer coaching programs. External coaching involving the organization’s executive management is essential since it emphasizes the nurture and development of executive leadership strategies.

Line managers are responsible for development and employee learning to enhance the performance towards goal achievement (Tonidandel S et al. 2007). Line managers should also guide their employees through leadership obligations. The line managers educate other staff members on performing their duties and applying the things learned during training. The line managers should be involved in the coaching and mentorship program since they significantly influence the identification and task-oriented selection of employees and enhance the learner’s readiness level in establishing learning activities and task assigning (Kocabas & Yirci, 2011). The involvement of line managers in the mentorship and coaching program is essential since it enhances complexity and accountability.  Besides, the line managers play a significant role in supporting the staff by paying costs for budgets, time allocation, and assessing the importance of employee training and development programs (Tonidandel S et al. 2007).  Moreover, line managers act as channels through which employees can learn and develop since they are conduct recruitment, orientation or induction and provide mentoring and coaching to their new employees. The managers also contribute to employee development and learning because they can easily reach them and inquire about what they cannot understand.

Line managers smooth training and development of employees to improve the organization results. As coaches, line managers enhance the good relationship between employees and the organization, especially in the case of subordinate staff. The interventions strengthen the relationship of the line managers and the staff commitment. Consequently, the organization’s productivity increases as the workers remain committed to their duties (Hall et al. 2011). Through the application of managerial, behavioral, and cognitive skills, the line managers become good coaches to their employees and mentors who inspire the performance of other workers.

When implementing coaching and mentorship programs, various factors should be considered.

Relationship

The relationship between the mentor and mentee or between the coach and the student is essential. The relationship should be intense to ensure the success of the programs (Tonidandel S et al. 2007). When the coach/mentor does not relate well with the employees, the success of the mentorship or coaching program may be hindered by prejudice and informed opinion about a mentor. Therefore, the relationship is significant for the success of the program.

Duration

Compared to coaching, mentorship requires more time. Together with other executive staff members, line managers should clearly define and allocate enough time for the coaching and mentoring programs (Hall et al. 2011). A rush in the implementation process will leave essential parts not tackled. However, taking too long with the program may be expensive and tedious. For instance, an employee may start attending the program and then do not complete the training because it takes too long and takes much of their time. The employee could also skip essential training programs.

Ethical considerations

The mentorship and coaching programs should base on organizational ethics. The management and the human resource department should ensure that the mentors or the coaches engaged during the program are well conversant with the organization’s ethics so that their activities will satisfy the organization’s ethics (Kocabas & Yirci, 2011). When the implementation includes the company’s ethics, the employees will feel safeguarded and secure through the mentoring and coaching process.

Qualities of the mentor or the coach

The coach or mentor should consider their life aspects and apply them when doing the program. The personal life aspects will essentially inspire the employee or the learner to gain more experience during the training. A mentor or a coach may not effectively implement the mentorship or coaching program when using theoretical assumptions. As a result, job performance increases.

Communication feedback

The line managers should receive the employee feedback and channel it to the management. Employee feedback is essential in providing the best strategies for implementing coaching or mentorship program. Employee feedback is critical in assessing employee performance and raises employee commitment, retention, and promotion. Employee coaching and mentorship increase their retention and dedication. The input is also essential in implementing motivation activities such as pay rise.

Mentor’s or coach’s attitude

The coach or the mentor should have a positive attitude during the programs to influence their trainees to accept the program. With a positive attitude, the employees will not question the applicability of the program (Kocabas & Yirci, 2011). A positive attitude will ensure the effective implementation of a coaching and mentoring program. The organization should define an appropriate implementation program.

The organization should encourage and allow other staff members to voluntarily enroll in the coaching and mentoring process and get various strategies. some of the approaches include

Qualitative analysis of the organization

The organization should analyze the systems to have a goal-oriented implementation of coaching and mentorship program (Hall et al. 2011). The managers and the human resource department should conduct examinations for the organization to help in aligning the programs with objectives and goals.

A motivation-based approach should be included to recognize the employee motivation to align the implementation program with the relevant objective. The programs help fill the gap between the top workers and management and the employees. Mentors should take the responsibility to motivate their junior employees and be role models to other staff.

Inclusive coaching agreements.

For a mentorship program to be effectively implemented, the organization should include juniors and mentors to sign agreements (Hall et al. 2011). The agreement, however, should be designed to accommodate the employees’ weaknesses and strengths and reflect the organization’s objectives.

Agreement implementation policy

Once the organization has defined an implementation agreement, the implementation committee should follow the agreement when executing the contract. The adherence to the policy agreement will enhance the satisfaction of all the parties involved.

Effective program running

The implementation of the mentorship programs should include holistic views. Life factors should be included to serve the social welfare of the employees and positively impact the organization’s employees. The long-term implementation needs to address the employees’ social wellbeing.

For effective recruitment and retention of employees, mentorship and coaching have yielded positive outcomes. Many organizations get it wrong since they allocate limited resources to mentorship and coaching program and prefer investing in other projects which are considered more meaningful to the organization. The organization should do the opposite and dedicate enough resources for the coaching and mentorship programs since mentorship is not a short-term activity and involves addressing the development needs personally (Hall et al. 2011). Mentorship programs are beneficial for both the organization and the employees since it influences the employees to have the right mind state and enhance the organization’s performance.

The program’s implementation following the strategies above causes the management to make their employees value by showing a stepwise implementation of the program. The skills acquired by the employees are essential motivational factors that the human resource should consider when implementing the strategies. Since the employees will practice the skills in their career, they will feel a sense of belonging, which enhances employee satisfaction and boosts the organization’s performance (Kocabas & Yirci, 2011). The mentorship and coaching program influences the ability of the employees to embrace change and appropriately adjust. The training program also equips the employees with the knowledge to handle daily activities and prepares them to address the challenges they may encounter during their operations. As earlier mention, the mentors or the coaches should conduct the training and implementation based on personal experience and not on a theoretical basis since the theories may not be applicable at the organizational level.

The mentorship and coaching program should not yield immediate results since they are used to address particular instances. A proactive strategy should be included because it is a continuous course.

Part 2

The company is advised to come up with a good mentorship program and avoid coaching plans to save on costs. Most coaches are private practitioners and have little to no attachment to the company’s culture.

Mentoring has gained favor in many organizations over the past decade. It is a cost-effective way of achieving certain organizational goals. Coaching is a bit expensive, so the organization should develop a mentorship program. Mentors are usually not paid (Pomeroy et al., (2011). The organization should form a body comprising of senior managers and experienced staff as the mentors and other staff as members of the body. The cost per mentee is usually low because most mentors are volunteers.

On the other hand, coaching sessions are charged per session, which can adversely affect the company’s finances. A well-managed and effective mentoring program that lasts for six months will cost the company an average of between 500 to 1500 dollars. The mentorship program can be designed for a large number of employees. A structured one can be used to solve key challenges such as

• Attracting and retaining skilled workers. A mentorship program can act as an enticing tool.
• Supporting diversity. People from minority groups can effortlessly navigate the company through a good mentorship program
• Mentored people are always motivated and more engaged, so the program can help to increase productivity
• Mentorship programs have the potential of creating future leaders and managers, thus creating a good reputation for the company
• Help in developing and improving service culture.

When developing a new mentoring program, different models are system-based, but the best is the ADDIE model. This model is premised on five stages. ADDIE is an acronym for Analysis, Develop, Design, Implementation, and Evaluation. (Molenda, M. 2003)

Analysis phase. This is where employees’ needs are identified. Needs can be identified through the difficulties realized by the mentors when interviewing the mentee. Individual differences are also considered. These needs should help in developing the company’s policies and objectives.

Design phase. Mentee’s analysis should help in designing appropriate programs. This stage involves the identification of the barriers that hinder the performance of the mentee. Factors such as environmental factors, individual characteristics, and working strategies are studied in this stage.

Development phase. This is where appropriate working plans and policies are developed according to the employees’ needs. These policies must be must take into consideration the feelings and the needs of the employees. They must be flexible, simple, and conceivable.

Evaluation phase: This is where the effects of the program are effective. Evaluation answers questions such as is the program meeting the desired results? The importance of evaluating a mentoring program is to identify the misakes and flaws in the program. This enables the management to correct the mistakes and modify the contents of the program if need be. The figure below shows the tree diagram of ADDIE program.

Implementation of the program

Implementation involves stages. The first stage is to recruit the mentors and the mentees. Mentors should be knowledgeable and know how to handle people. These should be individuals with in-depth knowledge of the company. They should uphold strict work discipline as the other employees look up to them. Mentors should be knowledgeable intellectually and must be ready to learn (Kocabas & Yirci, 2011). Mentors and mentees should have a good relationship because the program’s success depends on the kind of relationship the two have.

The second phase is compatibility. Mentor and mentee should be compatible for the program to be successful. Mentorship requires closure, so the mentee should trust enter fully. The mentee should then be trained on what to expect during the mentorship session. Likewise, mentors should be trained on how to handle different people.

The last stage is the implementation. If the mentee and the mentor are matching, the program is then implemented.

References

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