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Mentoring and Coaching
Mentoring is rapidly becoming recognised, throughout the UK and Europe, as a highly effective development process. Career development is one of the most significant issues facing our clients today. A mentor provides guidance at crucial times in an individual's career. Whether a mentor is inducting a new recruit or grooming a rising start for a senior level appointment, the mentoring relationship is of great importance.
You have probably been mentored at some point in your career – many people can remember being helped by someone who took an interest in their welfare, shared their experience and knowledge with them and enabled them to develop. Often we remember these relationships as being catalytic in our personal and professional development.
Mentoring can improve the confidence and interpersonal skills of an individual and can provide them with new insights. It enables the mentee to develop their understanding of the organisation and its culture, whilst helping them to see things from a different / new perspective. Individuals who have been effectively mentored and feel that they are being looked after gain confidence in their abilities and respond accordingly. They are often happier, more loyal and productive as a result.
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MENTORING AND COACHING
Although the skills used in mentoring and coaching are similar, the way that they are applied and the relationship between the two parties is significantly different.
A mentor has a high level of personal involvement with the individual being mentored; through guidance, stimulation and challenge. The content of the learning that results will be implicit, and the mentor is likely to gain development equally. It is the most intimate of learning approaches, with the primary focus not on the development of technical competence or the giving of advice, but on the acquisition of largely intuitive skills and behaviours. These are the skills that allow people to operate effectively at higher levels of management, or in a wider range of different situations. Mentors may or may not be more senior than the mentee, but they will always be more experienced
On the other-hand, coaching is used when there is a need to acquire skills. It is usually carried out by an individual who sees the person's work and can give immediate feedback and guidance
Coaching focuses on:
- A specific area of development
- Usually short-term
- Explicit feeback
- Develops skills
- Driven by the coach (but coachee must want to learn)
- Shows where you went wrong
- Coaches own success may be linked to that of the coachee
- Can be open discussion
Mentoring focuses on:
- Strategic / holistic
- Usually longer-term
- Intuitive feedback
- Develops capability
- Driven by the mentee
- Helps the mentee work it out themselves
- Mentor does not link own success to mentee's success
- Confidential
Contact Ian Swarbrick to discuss your own mentoring and coaching solutions, with an industry specific coach and consultant.
email: ian@xlhr.co.uk
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Manchester Office
XL HR Limited
Marsland House
2nd Floor
Marsland Road
Sale
Cheshire
M33 3AQ
Tel: 0161 495 9100
Fax: 0161 495 9101 info@xlhr.co.uk
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London Office
XL HR Ltd
130 Shaftesbury Avenue
Soho
London
W1D 5EU
Tel: 0207 149 3716
info@xlhr.co.uk
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