It can be a truly rewarding task for any person to guide others through life. At the same time it can be a daunting challenge. The person who has taken on the role of guide needs to walk a very fine line. On one hand the person must be strong enough to be able to reprimand the follower when that person ignores advice or strays from the path. On the other hand, it is also his responsibility to allow the follower to stray. This freedom to make mistakes is essential to the learning process and enables the person to learn and understand why things should be done differently. The people doing the guiding are generally called coaches and mentors. The two roles are similar in some ways but in fact are very different. Before attempting this role laden with responsibility it is important to understand the difference between coaching and mentoring and to find out what is best for your relationship with your potential followers. Mentoring generally involves a closer and more meaningful relationship than is seen in coaching. The leader and follower is most often referred to as mentor and protégé. The mentor is often older than the protégé, and is certainly more knowledgeable, wise and more experienced dealing with life experiences than the follower. The mentor’s task is to guide the more inexperienced protégé. The main objective is to allow the protégé to grow closer to the mentor’s level of knowledge and experience during the course of the mentoring program. The mentor-protégé relationships has been around for a long time. Most commonly “mentorships” are found in the work environment where a new employee on first entering the company is assigned a mentor. This is somebody who has been in the company for a long time. This particular mentorship program is designed to ease the new employee into his position as easily and quickly as possible. The mentor will introduce the protégé to work processes and procedures and advise on how to advance in the workplace. This could lead to the protégé eventually taking over a mentoring program himself. The concept of coaching, on the other hand, is quite different from mentoring. The coach is a leader or supervisor who directs the movements of one person or an entire group. The instruction and training the coach provides have a specific goal in mind. The instructions given could include motivational talks or the purpose could be to improve performance. The coach could use seminars or workshops. In sports the coach would focus on instruction and practice. In mentoring, a mentor teaches a protégé how to live better or how to function better in society. In coaching a more specific method is used to attain an end goal. For sports coaches this would be the winning of games or an event. For marriage coaches, the goal would be to work towards stronger marital bonds. And for coaches specializing in working with families, the end goal would be to foster stronger familial bonds between all members of the family unit. There are many different kinds of coaching and mentoring. In the same way there are many techniques associated with each of the two practices. Each situation will need to be evaluated to ascertain whether coaching or mentoring would be the more appropriate relationship to enter into. What’s your experience of either being mentored or coached, or being the mentor or coach? Andrew Rondeau transformed himself from a $4 an-hour petrol-pump attendant to a highly successful Senior Manager earning $500k every year.

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The current trend is for an increase in coaching and mentoring in the workplace. Coaching and mentoring, whether on an executive level or for overall staff, are increasingly being recognised as important in employee development. It is acknowledged by senior management in many organisations that their company will thrive if they offer some form of coaching and mentoring to their staff. We are particularly aware at how much this trend for coaching and mentoring has grown in the UK, as this is where most of our clients are based. We work with companies who automatically assign a mentor to new employees, some who leave it up to the employee to seek out a coach for themselves, some who don’t or won’t see the advantage of having coaches for their people and just about everything in between. Fortunately, many more companies are giving their people an understanding of the benefits of coaching and mentoring, of which there are many, and more people are training and acquiring qualifications in coaching and mentoring than ever before. What Coaching and Mentoring Training is available? People can get a professional qualification in coaching and mentoring, a certificate in coaching and mentoring; there are many courses offering training in coaching development, creative mentoring, career coaching, face to face training, on-line training, workplace mentoring, becoming a coaching and mentoring consultant, building a coaching network, business approaches to coaching and mentoring, distance learning, management mentoring, staff coaching, in house training courses, ‘out’ house training courses. There are basic courses and advanced coaching and mentoring training and qualifications. The list truly is endless! It seems as though everyone from business schools to the corner shop is getting on the coaching and mentoring bandwagon. This isn’t a bad thing. How do I know what to do? The only problem is that for someone who has never used a coach or mentor before, it can all be very confusing. For those who want to train to become a coach or mentor, the choices can seem daunting: ‘Where do I begin?’ For companies who want to initiate a coaching and mentoring programme, they want reassurance of the tangible benefits and return on their investment. What we aim to do here is to give you a brief overview, understanding and insight into just exactly what coaching and mentoring means, some coaching and mentoring theory and to give our view on what it takes to be a good coach or mentor. Coaching and Mentoring overview Is there a difference between Coaching and Mentoring? We’re going to cop out here and say there probably can’t be a definitive answer to this. The two terms seem to be increasingly linked and are often used interchangeably. These happen to be our definitions, but we’re sure you’ll find a bunch of others if you look around. Coaching: we see a business, corporate or executive coach in much the way we see a sports coach. This person sets specific goals and objectives, sees what you need to do to achieve them and works with you on target setting, professional and personal development, expansion of your skills base and offers practical and relevant advice and guidance. Mentoring: a mentor can almost be seen as a wise, experienced friend or favourite aunt or uncle type person. A mentor leads by example and is a role model. They might be very good at helping you see the big picture and understand the politics of the organisation you work for. A coach can be a mentor and a mentor can be a coach, or the role can be rolled into one. The key is that whatever term you use, the person being coached or mentored gets unbiased support and guidance. Benefits of Coaching and Mentoring When you work with a coach or mentor you will benefit in many ways: Have a safe place to offload
Develop skills you already have
Learn new skills
Gain insight into yourself and the people you work with
Get unbiased, confidential support
Gain fresh perspectives on your issues
Get advice, suggestions and options Coaching and Mentoring Theory We’re probably the wrong company to ask about coaching and mentoring theory. As a matter of fact, we’re not too hot on theory since we believe that you can’t pigeonhole people and impose a template of how coaching and mentoring should look. On one level, we suppose that you could say that having a counselling skill is a good ‘theoretical’ place to start. The principles that a good counsellor needs to have are equally true for good coaches and mentors: Maintains confidentiality
Excellent listening and responding skills
Non-judgemental
Objective outlook
Advises rather than tells
Has the ‘mentee’s’ best interests at heart Coaching and Mentoring Development Coaching and Mentoring Training As we said earlier, the list is endless when it comes to ’stuff’ around coaching and mentoring. There are stacks of training courses, programmes, qualifications, certificates and workshops all claiming to provide you with the skills needed to become a coach and/or mentor. We can’t say which of these is any good. There are some essentials to look for when finding the right training for you. No promises about outcomes
It shouldn’t cost the earth
It needs to have a high degree of integrity
It should be practical and experiential
You should feel a compatibility with the people running it
You should be given lots of individual suggestions on how to develop yourself as a coach/mentor
Trust your tummy! Meet up before you sign up and ask lots of questions. An example of someone who’s ‘doing it’ We can, however, give you an insight into one of the people within Impact Factory who is a coach and mentor and the range of skills she has which help her do the job. Jo Ellen Grzyb, one of the founding partners, has an eclectic background, which we believe is a good place to start when thinking about training to become a coach and mentor. We say this because the more experience you have, obviously, the more you bring to the job. Jo Ellen has worked in the business and arts communities in one form or another, and on both sides of the Atlantic, for 30 years. She trained as a psychotherapist and ran career development courses for a number of years before founding Impact Factory with Robin Chandler 14 years ago. She has had years of personal psychotherapy and has a monthly session with her own supervisor. She has also changed careers a number of times and has real insight into how to ‘take the plunge’ and move one when something isn’t working well. She writes, appears on radio and telly. She’s a brilliant networker and isn’t particularly self-deprecating about what she can offer people. Through all her years of experience, one consistent theme has been her focus on enabling other people to do their work better. Most importantly, she has never sat around waiting for someone else to make it happen for her – she’s just gone and done it, success or failure being far less important than the doing. All of that makes her excellent in her role as a coach and mentor. So what’s the point? Why we’ve given you that thumbnail sketch is that we get lots of enquiries from people wanting to become coaches and mentors who are looking for someone else to make it happen for them. That ain’t going to work. If you want to train as a coach and mentor, you need to take a good, impartial look at yourself to see if you’ve got what it takes. Remember earlier we said that everyone seems to getting on the coaching and mentoring bandwagon? Well, we feel pretty strongly that a lot of them should get off. Having said that, the profession is open for good, committed people. You may be one of them. Using a Coach or Mentor How do I get one? As we can see there’s no shortage of people wanting to become coaches and mentors. But what if you want to use one. Where do you begin? Of course, the best place to look is your workplace. If they already have a corporate coaching and mentoring programme that you aren’t accessing, get yourself to HR ASAP and ask to be assigned one. You could also look around your company and identify someone you think would make an excellent coach or mentor and ask them if they’d be willing. Using either a formal or informal approach is equally effective. The key is working with someone you like, admire and with whom you feel comfortable. Anything else I should be aware of? There are a few important things that will help you make the most of your coach or mentor. Meet with them on a regular basis – whether fortnightly, monthly, quarterly, etc
Set clear objectives
Rely on them for guidance, not answers
Be honest
A mentor isn’t a dumping ground Using a coach or mentor is one of the best ways to develop yourself and is a great way not to have to go it alone. WP Autoblogging Plugin