Coaching and Mentoring
Solutions to coaching and mentoring a large UK-based customer facing organisation over a two year period and beyond
Introduction
The chartered Institute of Personnel and Development in the UK (CIPD 2009) reports that 79% of survey respondents are using coaching within their organisation and that 77% say coaching has been increasing in recent years. It is therefore no surprise that the large UK-based customer facing organisation, where I am hypothetically working as a human resources manager, has made a commitment to deliver coaching and mentoring to improve performance over the next two years. The aim of this report is to highlight how coaching and mentoring differs from training, and to also explain how the use of coaching can effectively improve manager performance within the organisation. Such a result can be achieved by identifying the potential barriers to success encountered when using coaching and providing solutions for them. The report will conclude by recommending ways to overcome the potential barriers and suggest ways to ensure cost effective delivery of coaching and mentoring over the two year period and beyond.
How coaching differs from training and how it can improve manager performance
Coaching can be seen as the use of silence, questions, and challenges to assist a coachee towards a defined work-based target. These are often present issues or ones that relate to the future (McLeod 2006). Therefore, coaching is an intervention aimed at helping the coachee to focus on and achieve their clearly defined goals. The coach uses open ended questions to provoke thought, raise awareness, and to inspire motivation and commitment (Ives 2008). From the range of coaching approaches diagram (Downey 2009) below, it shows that coaching can be generalised as being directive (push or hands on) or non-directive (pull or hands off).
[pic]
Whitmore (2003) suggests that hands-off approach should be applied whenever possible. Parsloe and Wray (2000)
Introduction
The chartered Institute of Personnel and Development in the UK (CIPD 2009) reports that 79% of survey respondents are using coaching within their organisation and that 77% say coaching has been increasing in recent years. It is therefore no surprise that the large UK-based customer facing organisation, where I am hypothetically working as a human resources manager, has made a commitment to deliver coaching and mentoring to improve performance over the next two years. The aim of this report is to highlight how coaching and mentoring differs from training, and to also explain how the use of coaching can effectively improve manager performance within the organisation. Such a result can be achieved by identifying the potential barriers to success encountered when using coaching and providing solutions for them. The report will conclude by recommending ways to overcome the potential barriers and suggest ways to ensure cost effective delivery of coaching and mentoring over the two year period and beyond.
How coaching differs from training and how it can improve manager performance
Coaching can be seen as the use of silence, questions, and challenges to assist a coachee towards a defined work-based target. These are often present issues or ones that relate to the future (McLeod 2006). Therefore, coaching is an intervention aimed at helping the coachee to focus on and achieve their clearly defined goals. The coach uses open ended questions to provoke thought, raise awareness, and to inspire motivation and commitment (Ives 2008). From the range of coaching approaches diagram (Downey 2009) below, it shows that coaching can be generalised as being directive (push or hands on) or non-directive (pull or hands off).
[pic]
Whitmore (2003) suggests that hands-off approach should be applied whenever possible. Parsloe and Wray (2000)
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