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