Being an effective Coach & Mentor

One of the core responsibility of any manager is coaching and mentoring their teams

to be effective employees. A survey in 2021 done by the US Chamber of commerce

mentions, that 57% employees quit their jobs because of feeling disrespected at work by

seniors. This huge gap can have an enormous impact to a business.

Some of the key points that we can keep in mind if we have the thirst to be an effective

coach & mentor:

 The first rule to this relationship between the manager and the employee is to be an

active listener.

 Listening can borderline towards hearing, especially when we keep our pending

task aside to talk to an employee.

 This can further damage the relationship between a manager and an employee.

 To be an effective active listener, one needs to bring his/her entire being to a

conversation and also pick up on the unspoken words.

 Empathy is the key to ‘Active Listening’

 Another basic skill required, is having a clear understanding between the role of a

coach and a mentor. While this may look similar in my view they are very different

from each other.

 One of a leading behavioral assessment company in the US have very well-

articulated the difference between a coach & a mentor.

 They say ‘a mentor focuses on an Individuals skills while a coach focuses on the

performance of the individual.’

 In other words, a mentor focuses on the individual growth while a coach focuses

on the personality traits.

 A mentor is more flexible and a coach is more specific.

 For a mentor, the learnings are mutual for both and for a coach, the learnings are

more specific towards improving skills.

 As a mentor one needs to identify the strengths and challenges, as a coach one

needs to ascertain those strengths and use it to the benefit of the organization

and work on the challenges by designing a plan.

 In addition, a mentor would need to take the extra step to provide career

guidance and other informal advices.

 A core skill that can be developed, is understanding the personality type of his/her

employees along with his/her own personality type.

 Personality type differ for every individual and my view the personality type may

also differ based on a situation.

 Building a link between both the individuals personality type i.e. of a manager

and an employee will become the foundation of a conversation.

We at Diversity Solutions can help you build this foundation through an assessment called ‘Everything DiSC’ and be a mentor to support you in your successes.

Napoleon Bonaparte said: &A leader is a dealer in hope &Be the leader who can be an

effective coach & mentor and hope for a successful outcome of your effort.

You can reach at tyrone@diversitysolutions.in or call 9833556628