Coaching & Mentoring Relationship
My experience as both a department manager and employee indicate successful coaching & mentoring involves a consistent dialogue and onging trust relationship between both parties. This process offers constant opportunity for sharing information relevant to enhanced job performance and employee satisfaction.
Nancy Jane,
this is so true. In fact, many professional coaches sign an agreement (beyond the actual fee contract) that spells out what the partnership will look like so both sides are accountable.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
Coaching is a partnership. The employee needs to understand and participate in the process. It is important to develop a supportive bond to achieve employee success in the coaching process.
Ralph,
Yes, great point! And the key is that we, as the leader, must make the environment safe for them to take risks & to fail without FAILING, as you said. Thanks,
Ryan
The process also has to include what I always refer to as the 'hotstove affect"- the person you mentor has to be 'allowed' to fail without FAILING- learn by their mistakes rather than guessing what they did right was the right thing to do.
This is why I like to separate coaching from performance feedback & evaluation. I personally view coaching as a chance to talk about the long-term professional & personal development of an individual.
By doing this they can feel safe in stretching themselves & this is not going to reflect on their overall performance evaluation. I don't neglect the performance but keep that, as you stated, in a separate more numbers focused context.
Ryan
The evaluation process I believe is a quantitative process, statistics and evidence of performance are what dertimine the outcome of assessment of skill and proficiency. Coaching is more of a personal process to evaluate the progress someone makes in a certain area of their skill set. The coaching may be a way of showing improvemant in certain areas of a job, but the evaluation process should only take into account the job performance. if you take into account a personal process during the evaluation this may not be effective to make a un-biased opinion of the charges skill level at their job, and only upon the progress made in their coaching, which I do not believe will give an acurate assessment of progress. Also if they are connected no matter how hard someone works if they still struggle with their coaching tasks this could hinder the progress of a quality employee with a few issues that need to be adresses to make them an invaluble employee.
Yes, & I think your comment helps illustrate that one does not have to be in a formal leadership role in order to coach others.
Ryan
It seems that the open repore between two people has to occur before any coaching can be successful. Therefore, as stated in the program, it needs to be a mutual agreement; one person needs the help and another is willing to give it. Unless there is that balance, any coaching will seem like a non-supervisor is just putting in there "two cents worth".
LOL, I think the chicken and the egg is a perfect analogy for earning and demonstrating trust. Thank you for the response comment.
Excellent question...to me this is a bit of the "chicken or the egg" idea. I think gaining trust & demonstrating trust in a leadership concept need to be happening concurrently. They go hand in hand & are two threads in the same leadership cord. Hopefully that makes sense.
Ryan
Agreed, I would not use the term "mentor" or "coach" for this individual. Unfortunately, this type of situation occurs too frequently & really it becomes an example of what not to do. Hopefully you can learn from that poor example.
Ryan
Yes, the point in order to earn trust you must first give trust. What do you think is more of an overlapping challenge for leaders, to gain the trust of their employees or to trust their employees? There is a good deal of corruption on both ends in the world these days. Thoughts?
It has to be consistent! I am currently on the end of where it is obvious my mentor plays favorites. My mentor will only provide me feedback when I seek it and it is a closed conversation. When she provides it to others it is on a regular basis and in open dialogue fashion. It makes it very challenging for me to receive “coaching sessions” from this person. Mentor is probably not the best word….supervisor.
You are right, it is very difficult to walk the line between coach & friend. One thing is to make sure that both parties are clear on the distinction between the roles.
Ryan
I think that once the boundaries are crossed from coach to friend the coaching must be done in a very creative way and frankly don't do it it is too much work.
Good point about ongoing trust between both parties. As a manager and employee I appreciate open and honest communication. As an employee I have to be able to trust my employee wants to be successful and do the best job possible. As an employee I want my supervisor to know the same about me.
You make a great point regarding the need for the consistent dialogue & trusting relationships. And I think the key to remember in the dialogue is that means I, as the coach & mentor, should be doing less talking most of the time & more listening.
Ryan
