Welcome back.
We believe strongly in evidence-based research: research which has been scientifically and ethically planned, debated academically, published, and peer reviewed. We don't blindly copy articles from social media or jump on the band wagon to champion the views of influencers based purely on their number of followers.
Having decided that you, or your organisation, need help, you may consider a few things:
1. Do I need a coach or a mentor to help identify and implement change?
2. What do our employees and clients believe is our culture?
3. Is our culture fit-for-purpose? or do we need to change it, and if so, what training and growth will be required?
4. In a market flooded with views on leadership, where soundbites are offered as expert opinion, how do I find real experts that can provide bang-for-buck, return on investment?
5. Is our leadership style fit-for-purpose? Do we understand what leadership styles are? Are we managers or leaders?
6. To sustain our growth, how do I develop a coach-mentor approach to leadership at ALL levels of the organization?
Firstly, let us revisit the difference between coaching and mentoring.
In a nutshell, coaching takes a non-directive approach whereby a skillful practitioner will help you to identify the root cause of a problem, consider your options, create a personalised plan, build in accountability, and review (with you) your progress.
Mentoring takes a more directive approach. The mentor is often a person with more experience and expertise in the area you are discussing. They offer advice, give examples of their own experience, and between you, set goals.
Picture the support offered by coaching and mentoring as being on a continuum. At one end is coaching (non-directive), at the other is mentoring. (directive) A skillful coach-mentor leader will be able to transition between the two, dependent on circumstances. (Personalities, timeframes, environments etc)
Rather than enter the discourse comparing coaching and mentoring, or what makes an effective leader, I will focus on something my MBA lecturer went to great lengths to point out; learning and development are at the heart of coaching and mentoring. Relationship building, trust, empathy, skillful questioning, active listening, and many other attributes have been posited as essential skills for coaches and mentors, but an understanding of what constitutes learning and what constitutes development, and how improvements are measured, is absolutely crucial if the intervention of coaching or mentoring is to be viewed as successful.
The Agile Approach
When offering coaching services, providers often push their own model: GROW, GROWTH, TGROW, Appreciative Inquiry, Egan's Skilled Helper... the list is endless and confusing. Likewise with mentoring: GSTAR, 5C's, etc... You may also come across different types of coaching: career coaching, coaching in education, lifestyle coaching, corporate coaching, leadership coaching, instructional coaching, etc... Is it a style or an approach or a model or a framework?
It may surprise you to know that in a quantitative survey, done with 98 teachers as part of my final case study, there was no common understanding of coaching or mentoring, with several describing coaching using common definitions attributed to mentoring, and vice versa. They did all, however, see coaching and mentoring, when used effectively, as an important support mechanism. Regardless of which approach is taken:
The most important point, however, is not that everyone has to agree on a single definition, but that everyone in a specific organisation should know the definition that applies to their particular situation. (Parsloe and Leedham, 2017)
Our unique selling points are:
Highly skilled in the area of pedagogy and andragogy, with over 40 years of effective teaching and instruction of children, adolescents, young adults, and adults, using contemporary methods, addressing deep learning requirements, and career development.
Highly qualified coaches and mentors, able to teach the difference between the two, and/or employ the most appropriate for the needs of the client.
Extensive experience of transformational, authentic, servant leadership in corporate, educational, and high-tempo military environments.
We believe that the support given to facilitate learning and development should be eclectic, designed for the needs of the individual/organisation, as determined by a thorough analysis of your current reality, current needs, and future aspirations. We take an agile approach to coaching and mentoring using the generic framework suggested by Parsloe and Leedham, that consists of four sequential stages:
1. Analysing for awareness of need, desire and self.
2. Planning for self-responsibility.
3. Implementing using styles, techniques and skills. (An agile approach)
4. Evaluating for success and learning.
We are trained through several organisations, and accredited accordingly, (IECL, EMCC, GCI. From the MBA in Coaching, Mentoring, and Leadership, I discovered that one size does not fit all! Understanding the principles, skillfully moving between approaches, as determined by an individual's needs, is effective coaching and mentoring. To be effective you need to have a range of tools in your toolbelt, one approach limits your effectiveness, and in some cases, dogmatically sticking to one approach can hinder rather than help. We view our approach as Agile Coaching and Mentoring. Whether coaching or mentoring, or training people to become coach-mentor leaders, we have the expertise to deliver high quality services for people development, reinforcing good organisational culture, and supporting organisational change.
Next time:
Evidenced based research: The benefits of coaching and mentoring on an individual.
Future topics:
Evidence based research: The benefits of coaching and mentoring on an organisation.
Bang-for-buck: How is effectiveness measured?
A comparison of internal and external coaching.
Organisational culture-what does it mean?
How to identify organisational culture.
What is a learning culture, how does it compare to a high-performance culture?
Leadership styles, which is best?
Imposter Syndrome: Are you writing cheques that you can't cash?
How a focus on improvements in well-being can improve workplace performance.
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