series 4 coaching and mentoringsydstrike.com/tradebe/downloads/series4coachingandmentoring.pdf ·...

Tips, information

and ideas for

Managers

Coaching &

Mentoring

Tips, information and ideas for managers – Coaching and Mentoring

Coaching and

Mentoring Skills for Managers

Unlocking the potential

of your people …

Syd Strike Training Solutions Yarm House 2 Hawkridge Close Stockton-on –Tees TS17 0QS Tel: 01642 767913 Fax: 01642 764878 Email: [email protected] www.sydstrike.co.uk

Copyright 1997 – 2016 Syd Strike Training Solutions All rights reserved


” Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.”

Coaching is about unlocking people’s potential to maximise their performance.

Mentoring is about offering ongoing support to the less experienced from the more experienced of your people.

Facilitating is empowering people to take control and responsibility for their own efforts.


Exploring facilitating …

“Of a good leader … when

his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will all say,

“We did this ourselves” Lao Tzu The word facilitate comes from the Latin Facilis which means ‘to make easy’. Some definitions from the dictionary are:

� To free from difficulties and obstacles � To make easy � To lessen the labour of � To render easier � To promote � Help forward

Other definitions for work based facilitation are:

� Facilitation is about empowering people to take control and responsibility for their own efforts

� Facilitation is about detachment � Facilitation is about drawing out rather than giving input � Facilitation is interrogative discussion helping the group or

individual to take ownership of, and solve their own problems


What are the skills

of group facilitation?

Skilful questioning … Asking questions is an important part of facilitating. Knowing what questions type of questions to ask will help you get your team members opening up. Good questions to get your team members to open up are ‘open questions’. These questions will begin with the words, who, why, what, where, when and how. Another phrase to help people open up is ‘Tell me about’. Try to avoid closed questions that will generate a monosyllabic answer such as ‘yes’ and ‘no’.


Listening … Listening helps you to understand more fully peoples’ fears and problems, assisting you to a deeper appreciation of what people are doing, how they are feeling and why. Listening gives you key information that you will require in order to guide your coachee through a problem solving process. Some key considerations about listening are …

1. Make sure you are listening. A common mistake that people make is to be thinking about their response whilst the person is talking.

2. Show you are listening by the way that you sit or stand by leaning

forward, nodding etc.

3. Ask questions of clarification. This helps you to keep alert, shows your coachee that you are interested and helps you to gain correct information. Be careful not to ask too many questions so that you don’t lose the flow of the conversation.

4. Summarise from time to time. This shows your coachee that you

have been listening and also assists the process of communication. Misunderstandings can be corrected.

Challenging assumptions … A good facilitator must listen carefully and be ready to challenge assumptions. For example, one member of the group may offer a general comment like ‘Well we all agreed that this was the best way forward’. The responsibility of the facilitator is pick up on this and respond by challenging the assumption. ‘Is this true? Did everybody agree?’


Summarising … Summarising is an ideal skill to help you understand what the speaker has been saying. When facilitating it is good to summarise from time to time. This shows the speaker(s) that you have been listening and also assists the process of effective communication. Misunderstandings can be corrected. While you summarise the group can reflect upon what they have said.

Guiding/keeping on course …

This is about keeping control of the group by making sure everyone contributes, allowing occasional diversions from the topic and then bringing the group back on track by summarising, re stating the goals and posing the next question to get the group back on track. The same skills work when you are facilitating individuals.

When working with groups it may be helpful to …

� Have a plan with the headings you wish to discuss � Share the headings with the group before the discussion

commences � Open the discussion by introducing the first heading and

encouraging the group to comment � Make sure all members of the group are given the opportunity to

participate � After each heading has been discussed summarise what has been

learned or agreed and introduce the next heading � If group members begin to stray from the topic of discussion

remind them of the purpose of the meeting and bring them back on track

� Finally summarise everything that has been discussed or agreed � If appropriate produce and action plan (better still let one of the

group produce the plan) � Thank everyone for his or her contribution � If appropriate, make notes and circulate (or ask one of the group to

do this)


A good facilitator can help a team become more effective… A facilitator is not a member of the group. The facilitator should not express his or her opinions. The facilitator is there to assist the group to make its own decisions. It is best when the facilitator has no authority or personal interest in the outcome. Therefore, sometimes it may be appropriate to hire a facilitator to help your organisation deal with some difficult issues.

Throwing back the ball … A facilitating style of leadership Telling may get you the job done but it doesn’t help people develop and grow. Facilitating, coaching and mentoring are developmental approaches to leadership. Giving people easy answers – spoon feeding, will inevitably make people become dependent on your support. When they have a problem they will ‘put the ball in your court’. A more facilitating style of leadership is about ‘Throwing back the ball’ This is not the same as saying ‘Don’t bring me problems, bring me solutions’ which tends only to de motivate people. A facilitating style of leadership is about communicating at the encouraging ideas and empowering end of the continuum below. You can of course support people, give them hints, projects or ideas but don’t do it for them or give them the answer if you truly want to help people grow,


Exploring coaching …

There are numerous models for coaching. You can explore those listed below…

John Whitmore’s GROW model … Goal – helping the coachee to decide what he or she is looking to achieve from the coaching Reality – helping your coachee to explore what is really happening Options – what options are available to help your coachee achieve the goals? What next? – action planning – helping your coachee to decide a plan of action to achieve his or her goals All of the above is achieved through facilitating – asking questions so that the person makes his or her own judgments and decisions.

Coaching is a process in which the manager, through direct discussion and guided activity, helps a team member to learn to solve a problem or improve a skill.

Coaching is unlocking people’s potential

to maximise their own performance.


Syd’s Dream Model … Desire – what are you looking to achieve as a result of the coaching? Reality – what is really happening now? Explore – explore the options available to achieve your goals Action – finish each coaching session with an action plan to be reviewed at the next sessions Measure – measure the success of the coaching as you go and at the end of the coaching programme


Mentoring Skills for Managers

A mentor is often described as an ‘experienced

and trusted advisor or guide’

The word comes from Greek mythology. Odysseus, king of Ithaca, went to fight in the Trojan war and entrusted his house and the education of his son, Telemachus to his friend Mentor. ‘Tell him all you know’ Odysseus said.

So, the word ‘mentor’ became synonymous with expressions such as advisor, friend and teacher.

Definitions …

There are numerous definitions and comments about mentoring … here are a few …

� "Mentoring is a supportive learning relationship between a caring individual who shares knowledge, experience and wisdom with another individual who is ready and willing to benefit from this exchange, to enrich their professional journey". - Suzanne Faure

� "Mentoring is a protected relationship in which learning and experimentation can occur, potential skills can be developed, and in which results can be measured in terms of competencies gained". - Audrey Colli

� "Mentoring involves primarily listening with empathy, sharing experience (usually mutually), professional friendship, developing insight through reflection, being a sounding board, encouraging" - David Clutterbuck

� “An accomplished and experienced performer who takes a special, personal interest in helping to guide and develop a junior or more inexperienced person". - Stephen Gibb


The following comments from ‘Implementing mentoring schemes’ by Nadine Klasen with David Clutterbuck

“Whilst the term ‘mentee’ seems very neutral, the term ‘protégé’ means ‘the protected one’, and suggests the existence of an unequal distribution of power between the mentor and the learner. In a mentoring context this should not be the case, and any differences in power should be ‘parked’ outside of the relationship. This statements holds true at least for most mentoring relationships in eastern European organisations, although the North American conceptualisation of mentoring, the mentee and the mentor is distinct form the European one… Protégé also seems to propose that the learner is somewhat naïve and less knowledgeable and has not much to contribute to the relationship, which is clearly not the case. Learners may not have much to contribute in relation to their own learning needs, but the mentor may be able to learn a lot form them in other respects! “The good news is that mentoring enables individuals to take charge of their learning and development by tailoring the relationship to their needs and experiences. The mentor merely encourages them on that journey. The bad news is that, in the process of formal education, many people have lost the ability to engage in self-determined learning. And herein lies the main task of the mentor: he or she has to enable individuals to re-acquire this ability; mentees must learn to develop their own solutions. Since the mentee’s learning is self-determined, it will also be more relevant than that which occurs on training courses. Furthermore, learning will continue to be relevant, since the contents and orientation of a mentoring relationship can be adjusted whenever necessary.


Two key requirements … In order for a mentoring relationship to work two key elements are required:

1. Commitment from the mentee 2. A positive attitude from the mentor

And here is a model for mentoring …

� Start with a contract – an unwritten agreement will be fine – but there must be commitment from both parties to make the relationship work

� Agree goals – what does the mentee wish to achieve and how will you offer support

� Coaching – use coaching sessions to help the mentee develop skills

� Supporting – help your mentee achieve goals by giving guidance and support, pointing him or her in the right direction

� Sourcing opportunities – for your mentee to gain new experiences � Protecting – sometimes you may need to speak to other people in

the organisation if you find they are not being helpful – remember you are the one with life’s experience

� Reviewing – review success and monitor progress

Otherwise … it won’t work!


A mentoring process … The aim is to facilitate and not to tell or manage. Therefore, it is important that you help your mentee become skilled at managing his or own learning. Consider the following model:

1. Identify learning and development needs and help the mentee write a development plan

2. Encourage the mentee to take responsibility for his or her own learning

3. Support the mentee during your mentoring meetings by reviewing encouraging and guiding – but let the mentee do the ‘leg work’

4. Review progress


If you need any help … Please get in touch … [email protected]

series 4 coaching and mentoringsydstrike.com/tradebe/downloads/series4coachingandmentoring.pdf ·...

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