Coaching And Mentoring Strategies Management Essay

1. Introduction and executive summary in Coaching and Mentoring in an organisation:

Organisations posses a set of ‘unique’ characteristics. These characteristics make studying organisations especially challenging because of the need to develop a different appreciation and understanding compared to larger companies (Beaver and Jennings, 2000, Hill and McGowan, 1999, Jennings and Beaver, 1997, Storey, 1994 and Carson and Cromie, 1990). Here, I would like to discuss coaching and mentoring with leadership and management and to discuss some of the barriers that inhibit this coaching and mentoring activity, how they work and how might they be addressed in order to increase accessibility. This is further compounded by the additional lack of research which specifically addresses the question of coaching and mentoring within the organisational context, and even coaching and mentoring in general (Cox and Ledgerwood, 2003). The area covered during the course work about the organisation which implementing coaching and mentoring in their respective fields were leadership style, management, learning, emotional intelligence, ethics, culture, diversity, coaching and mentoring process, motivation, barriers, roles and responsibilities of mentor and coach. The study was approached by various sources of information from University of Wales academic papers.

Definition and meaning of Mentoring:

Weaver and Chelladurai (1999) who defined mentoring as ‘a process in which a more experienced person (i.e. the mentor) serves as a role model, provides guidance and support to a developing beginner (i.e. the protégé), and sponsors that individual’s career progress’ (p.25).

The mentoring was nothing but the happiness and self-fulfilment acknowledged from observing the professional and individual development of a protégé (Burke et al.,1994). Mentors may also promote from organizational appreciation of their relationships with protégés and the loyal support acknowledged from the protégés themselves.

Definition and meaning of Coaching:

‘Coaching may be defined as a goal-directed, multifaceted process for enhancing people, work and life and, as an industry, it has, and is still, experiencing rapid growth’ (Brock, 2006).

Coaching is also effective learning system, but it was traditional. Generally the coach is an outsider who can provide the means for a neutral approach. Although it has become more common for coaches to operate from within the organization, there are some important boundary management issues to resolve if this is to be successful. Indeed, boundary management is one of the defining issues in the delivery of effective coaching (Sagas and Batista, 2001, Brock, 2006).

Coaching versus Mentoring (According to Nancy Thomas and Scott Saslow, from

Academic paper):

Coaching

Mentoring

Purpose

Coaching helps employee to gain better self-awareness, build skills, adjust behaviour or management style and ultimately achieve business objectives.

Mentoring guides employee understand cultural degree in an organization, grow expertise in a specific control, give ideas and motivation about career course or representation employee to various parts of the business and various management stages. Knowledge management for the organization.

Coaching for general candidates (low performers).

Mentoring for only high achievers in the organisation.

Time frame

Coaching is defined term such as six or nine months having frequently scheduled meetings.

Mentoring is classically six months to a year having scheduled meetings. Informal mentoring relationships might be continuous process for years.

Appropriate job levels

Coaching executives and high-potential managers are where organizations classically find the most influence.

New hires at any level, high potentials, first-level and midlevel managers.

Types of situations

With active managers who, it’s supposed, can execute even better and achieve more professionally – most specialists agree coaching is not for corrective situations or personal situations.

New managers who need to be trained about the culture and organizational structures, individuals who have been promoted in future and need to elevate leadership skills, individuals who must get up to swiftness on new technology or skills.

Advantages

No scarcity of external coaches.

Professional teaching and/or certifications might elevate credibility.

Apparent objectivity and privacy

Utilize companies have personal capital.

More visibility and opportunities for career development.

Increases maintenance.

Mentors advantages from being seen as specialists and role models and grow fulfilment from developing others.

Disadvantages

Quality control and reliability in what/how coaching is done, particularly if no central failure to notice.

Cost consuming.

Time dedication necessary of mentors.

Needs structure and failure to notice to attain best results.

According to Lester Desmond refers that Mentoring is a medium- to long-term relationship in which an individual employee or employer can gain knowledge of from the understanding of a successful professional in the field. It is intended to help employee or employer develop them. Usually, the main focus is long-term career development, in advance knowledge and understanding of the wider system in organisation and learning how to navigate the organizational system and develop networks of influence.

Coaching (Lester Desmond) is a temporary or short-term, task-focused relationship, helping individual employer or employees to develop into more effective in their work by equipping them with the tools, knowledge, experiences, and opportunity they need to find out solutions for themselves. It also ensures position between individual employee’s actions and organisation goals.

Organisation recommends internal workshops to assist mentors and mentees (protégés) begin their relationships effectively and have a general understanding of the method. There are also various number of plans, checklists, and instructions available to assist them build the method and relationship effectively. The mentor is component group of relationships supporting the individual employee’s, and it is significant that all are obvious on their positions in relation to each other. Line managers, coaches, and local development or potential advisers all play a vital part in serving to develop performance and recognize individual potential.

Critical reflection of skills required to be an effective coach and mentor:

Coaching

Mentoring

1

Coaches almost same like mentors to guide them with moderate degree of faith and confidence

Mentors will give guidance to make the mentees to carry their work with faith and confidence

2

Through discussion coach will approach coachees to provide training, coach will not take high risk

Mentors rely only on training and development

3

Coaches facilitate the coachees for their training

Mentors guide mentees the procedure of training and development

4

Tailor activities in partnership with the expert learner

Broker access to a range of opportunities to deal with the various goals of the expert learner

5

Senior and experts will be the coach

Managers, high achievers and Juniors will be possibly become mentor

6

Coach will provide information that permits learning from errors and achievement

Mentor will provide information and feedback that permits learning from errors and achievement

7

Facilitate increasing independence in expert learning from the onset

Build a learner’s control over their expert learning

8

Use open questions to raise consciousness, discover values, persuade expert learners to arrive at their own tactics, realize consequences and expand resolutions

Use open questions to raise consciousness, discover values, expand tactics, realize consequences and explore and execute to resolutions

9

Listen actively:

Focusing mainly on physical activities

Few special coach will be employed on short term to their coachees career guidance

Listen actively:

Mentor will give both physical and mental support and career guidance for their mentees

10

Coach will assess the overall performance at the final stage

Assessment will be carried on step by step basis

Coaching and mentoring processes:

Mentoring process:

Mentoring is a systematic, updated learning process from senior/experience people, colleagues to instruct skills, training, knowledge and experience to new comers/juniors in the organisation. Mentoring will be approached and focussed on the development of mentee such as helping in crises and giving general advices. Application of mentoring may be for long-term, directive and non-directive (Ragins et al., 2000 & Tepper, 1995).

Executive mentoring:

Executive mentoring was typically focussed on high achievers. This type of mentoring is commonly attached to talent management program and leadership management program.

Diversity mentoring:

Diversity mentoring program was known mentoring process which is applied to rectify in-equalities in the work place or throughout the organisation.

Volunteering sector mentoring:

Volunteering sector mentoring was meant for helping vulnerable member of society. For example, drug addict, women addict, and so on.

Coaching process:

An executive coaching has become associated with the following benefits: Achievement of personal and professional goals, sales increase, client retention increase, higher level of employees satisfaction, promotion, productivity increase, organisational and communication effectiveness enhancement, success of team collaboration, profitability increase, and ability to make quick and better decision.

Stage 1: The alliance check

Stage 2: The credibility assessment

Stage 3: The likeability link

State 4: Dialogue and skill acquisition

Stage 5: Cue-based action plans

Leadership and Management:

According to (Milgrom, Paul and John Roberts (1992)), ‘Effective management requires a long-term focus and choosing strategic alternatives that yield an overall highest expected net present value (ie, strategies that maximize the sum of the expected discounted future profits). Thus, the strategic alternatives managers select depend both on the expected cash flow stream and on the discount rate they use.’

Management is nothing but planning, organising, executing, co-ordinating, controlling, promoting, maintaining codes and standards, selection and recruiting in an efficient and effective way in any of the organisation.

Leadership behaviours and styles in coaching and mentoring strategies:

There is a great difference between leaders and managers. A leader may not be a good manager on managerial functions such as planning, directing, organising, controlling, executing, and coordinating and so on. The style of a leader should be such that the acts must me functional to leadership. In the new trend the subordinates wish to have participative style of leaders Dale & Fox (2008). The behaviour and style of leader plays an important role in building and boosting morale.

Motivation:

Motivation has been de¬ned as the intensity and direction of effort (Weiss & Ferrer Caja, 2002). People will engage in activities for different reasons with varying degrees of energy, effort and persistence.

Motives are expressions of a person’s needs. Management job is to identify and activate employee motives constructively towards task or goal oriented performance (MarcinkevičiÅ«tÄ-, 2005). Motivation varies to person to person. So it is the duty of the manager to manage the motivational activities. Motivational factors are related directly to the job and by the performance recognisation and growth can be secured. The factors are job-centered and job-content. But maintenance factors are external and environment oriented.

Self-determination theory (SDT) for a coach/mentor:

According to (Ryan & Deci, 2000, 2002) self-determination theory (SDT), the reasons why individuals select to participate, use to try, and carry on in an activity can be classified along a continuum of self-determined behaviour. Intrinsic motivation (IM) is the ¬nal and most self-determined sort of motivation identi¬ed by SDT. Intrinsic motivation can normally be explained as engaging in an activity for the gratification and fulfilment derived from the activity itself.

For example, intrinsically motivated individuals are more likely to select to participate and work hard when extrinsic rewards and supports are not existing, experience junior levels of performance-related concern, and display senior levels of skill learning relative to those with a more extrinsic motivational direction (see Vallerand, 1997; Vallerand & Losier, 1999; Weiss & Ferrer Caja, 2002). One factor that appears mostly applicable in sport is the behaviour of the coach. There have been a handful of studies investigating the authority of different coaching behaviours on athletes’ motivational direction (see Vallerand & Losier, 1999).

Self-actualisation theory for a mentoring/coaching using emotional intelligence:

Emotions are a part of human’s physical and mental reaction. ‘Emotional intelligence is defined as the ability to recognise emotions in one-self and others and to use this knowledge for improved self-management and relationship with others’ (Goleman, 1995). Emotional intelligence classified into self awareness, self-management and relationship management.

According to Maslow’s need hierarchy theory regarded this as the highest level need in the hierarchy, when this need is achieved it makes either the leader or employer or employee give up dependence on others or on the environment. The leaders become growth oriented, self-directed, detached and creative, this is the need which totally lies within one-self and there is no demand from any external situation or person to quote Maslow’s what a man can be must be, to be ultimately happy. This need was called

self-actualisation (Dr. V. Balu).

Mentoring (under the roof of Human Resource Management) has to play a vital role in shaping mentee’s through efficient mentors. The purpose of the study was to examine how organisational policies and practices affect the emotional skills of managers in any organisation.

For example, Howard Buffett, Warren’s son and a director of his father’s Berkshire Hathaway business, has also got some guidance/mentoring, but of the helpful rather than the condemnatory kind. He said that when he was 11 years old, his father told him, ‘it takes you 30 years to build a reputation, but you can ruin it in 30 seconds.’ The sage is not just a good leader/mentor, he was a thoughtful dad. Hence, Howard Buffett emotional intelligence was proved to be effective and efficient.

Leadership style:

Organisational researchers have been obsessed over the last four decades with leadership and attempt to deconstruct the phenomenon into a universal set measures (Kets De Vries, 1993; Goffee and Jones, 2000, Higgs, 2003; Conger and Toegel, 2002). A leadership style can be classified into various types such as autocratic, democratic, and decision making.

Autocratic: Autocratic or directive leadership style explains that direction are forcibly given by leaders. There is no way to participative approach by employees will be possible. It will be like ‘do what I said’. Employees will be having no confidence in their leaders. Employees don’t feel free at all to discuss things about the job with their superiors Dale & Fox (2008). Though they are creative and innovative no support will be there with their leaders.

Democratic: Participative or democratic type of leadership mainly gives a feeling of importance and need. Hence those might be affected by change themselves are given an opportunity to take part in the change and their opinions taken into consideration before final decisions are made Dale & Fox (2008).

Decision making style: The coaches decision making style will have an impact on the athletes’ intrinsic motivation through autonomy, with an autocratic leadership style (i.e., a style where the coach asserts sole authority over decisions) demonstrating a negative relationship, and a democratic style (i.e., a style where the coach involves athletes in the decision-making process) having a positive relationship. Finally, positive feedback and social support from the coach are predicted to positively associate with the athletes’ IM through their sense of relatedness.

An efficient leader/mentor should be having personal characteristic of authenticity (being genuine in their way), integrity (being consistent in what they do and say/follow), Will (a drive to lead and persistence in working towards a goal), self-belief (a realistic evaluator of capabilities and belief’s to achieve goals), self-awareness (a realistic understanding of who he is and how he feels by others). He should be goal oriented, involving to the development of the organisation and should engage with their mentees throughout his/her career. Hence, participative style of leadership will be apt for a mentor to carryout his/her job performance.

While numerous coaching behaviours authority/power an athlete’s motivational direction, the majority of available research has focused on the comment patterns and universal leadership styles of coaches. Previous studies examined the things of positive and negative comment on intrinsic motivation (e.g., Vallerand & Reid, 1984; Whitehead & Corbin, 1991). For example, Amorose and Horn (2000) had male and female college athletes from a range of sports report their perceptions of their coaches’ comment patterns and universal leadership styles, as well as indices of their intrinsic motivation. Even though there were minor gender differences in the pattern of relationships, in universal high levels of intrinsic motivation were connected with athletes who perceived their coaches to demonstrate a leadership style that highlights training and coaching and was high in democratic behavior and low in autocratic behavior.

Barriers to coaching and mentoring strategies:

In this studies factors related to perceived barriers in improving the relationship between coaching and mentoring. The major barriers include current levels of coaching and mentoring activity, management style, leadership styles, power, culture, ethics and gender. Beaver and Prince (2004, p.398) argued that ‘management in small firms cannot be divided from the motivations and actions of the key actors’ because ‘the relationships between ownership and decision making, managerial style, organisational structures and culture…’.

Gender barriers to coaching and mentoring:

Women maybe face many barriers to initiating the relationship between coaching and mentoring than men. A major reason for this is that the lack of women at higher levels of organizations (Blau & Ferber, 1987) makes a lack of potential female mentors/coaches. There are three major factors may block women from getting a male mentor/coach: 1) sexual issues; 2) sex-role expectations..

Sexual issues: Women may be unwilling to start a relationship with a male mentor/coach for scare that such an approach will be misunderstood as a sexual advance by the coach/mentor or by others in the organization (e.g., Clawson & Kram, 1984). Male coaches/mentors may choose male greater than female protégés to avoid serious office rumor and discrediting suggestions.

Sex-role expectations: Usual sex-role expectations support men to take destructive roles and women to take passive roles in begin relationships (Frieze, Parsons, Johnson, Ruble & Zellman, 1978). Women may scare that aggressive attempts to begin relationships may guide to threatened coaches/mentors and negative supervisors and coworkers. As a effect, women may be more likely than men to remain for the potential coach/mentor to begin the relationship.

Ethics, diversity, power, and culture barriers to coaching and mentoring:

‘Ethics is the study of morality and the morale choices with people make in their relationship with others. Ethics concern how one should behave in the roles that society given us’. A leader’s failure to acknowledge the ethical limits of power causes a loss of credibility and trust and does devastating damage to the leader and his constituency. Leaders/Mentors/Coaches should direct their employees by giving them training and seminars to eliminate the differences among them. They should frame the flexible policy of the organisation towards diversity. Rewarding and recognising can promote to eliminate diversity issues.

Power differences may cause followers to give the leader false positive feedback and create an elevated sense of self-worth on the leader. The leader may devalue followers’ worth and to avoid regular contact with followers or mistreat them. Political and cultural issues are the significant barriers to forming coaching and mentoring strategies. At a point of time mentors will be affected by their mentees for political reasons. In cultural barriers involved in coaching and mentoring were sex, age, language, ethnicity, race and religion. Financial and time constraints are also common barriers to coaching and mentoring strategies (referred by LSBF Material, CMLM mentoring to Barriers slides, Leadership ethics and diversity slides by Kulbir Basra).

There are some other important factors that may influence perceived barriers to mentoring relationships. For example, individuals with earlier experience in mentoring relationships should be more happy and experienced at beginning a relationship than individuals missing experience. Finally, since mentors are commonly initiated at senior levels in organizations (Hunt & Michael, 1983), individuals at top ranks would most likely have more access to prospective mentors, and therefore experience fewer barriers to taking a mentor than individuals at poor ranks.

The result shows that misinterpretation by others is not a critical barrier to forming a mentoring relationship. Sexual concerns don’t appear to inhibit mentoring relationships from forming. This is suggestive of an organizational culture where there is insufficient upstream communication. Organisations must also ensure that females must have access to mentors if not this could inhibit the organisation’s long-term ability to achieve a diverse workforce.

Conclusion:

As a result of the study focussing on were leadership style, management, learning, emotional intelligence, ethics, culture, diversity, coaching and mentoring process, motivation, barriers, roles and responsibilities of mentor and coach. Changing scenario will be only permanent. In addition, the study also provides guidance for future theory development both in mentoring and knowledge management. I believe the future work to study the possible influence of organisational structure with mentoring and coaching includes in it.

Individual Critical Reflection on Essay and Learning Outcomes

From,

Rajkumar Vasu,

Student ID : A4018565,

MBA intake 3, Group B,

London School of Business and Finance,

(University of Wales),

London.

To,

Kulbir Basra,

Senior Academic Programme Manager,

London School of Business and Finance,

(University of Wales),

London.

Subject: Critical reflection work on Coaching and Mentoring for Leadership and Management module at London School of Business and finance.

Before Coaching and Mentoring for Leadership and Management session with Kulbir Basra in London School and Business and Finance:

Mentoring is a process which starts from only house and surrounding in the universe. Coaching is a process for players with high efficiency or talent.

After 12-weeks session with Kulbir Basra in Coaching and Mentoring for Leadership and Management in LSBF:

Mentoring

In a modern organizational context, Shea (1995) defines this mentoring process as a developmental, caring, sharing, helping relationship where one person invests time, know-how and effort in increasing and improving another person’s growth, knowledge and skills.’ As mentors are usually senior person in the organisation who impart new skills/knowledge to their junior protégé who will be high achievers and future leaders/managers for their organisation. Mentoring can be classified into formal and informal mentoring system.

Formal Versus Informal Mentoring Systems

Traditionally the concept of mentoring is rested in informal systems where linkages form almost by chance when a protégé randomly seeks help.

Formal mentoring refers to organizationally initiated efforts to match mentors and protégés.

Informal mentoring relationships develop because of mutual identification and interpersonal comfort (Ragins, 2002).

• Formal mentoring programmes match individuals as part of an employee development process, and each pair must strive to get to know one another.

Modes of mentoring:

Modes of mentoring can be classified into three types:

Peer-mentoring: ‘In a context of rapid technological change and shifting organisational structures with confusing family and personal anchor points, there is no reason to assume that people of roughly the same age and experience could not engage in mentoring activities, especially if the natural competitiveness of the bureaucratic pyramid is replaced with an encouraging teamwork in the process oriented firm.’

Co-mentoring: ‘It is a way of formalising the mutuality within a mentoring relationship. It implies that both parties in the relationship are learning and that they are equal partners.

E-mentoring: ‘It is using information technology and other media for mentoring conversations has become increasingly popular. It benefits of e-mentoring are as follows: It is easily accessible via the internet. It can help to equalise the power difference between mentor and mentee. It removes first impression prejudice. It gives more time for reflection and learning.’

Definition of Knowledge:

The word knowledge has two dimensions: tacit and explicit and there are two knowledge base components: information centre (based upon explicit knowledge) and organisational memory (based upon tacit knowledge).

Coaching:

Grant and Stober (2006) defines, “A coach with highly developed applied coaching skills can deliver excellent outcomes purely through facilitating a process that operationalises the principles of coaching, rather than through an instructor mode that emphasises the delivery of expert knowledge.” A coach will be directive for short-term, goal oriented, dynamic, who actively helps their employees, learn and grow.

Approaches to Coaching:

Humanist: “Coaching is above all about human growth and change.” (Stober, 2006)

Behaviourist: “The purpose of coaching is to change behaviour” (Peterson, 2006)

Adult Development: Coaching is about helping clients develop and grow in maturity

Cognitive Coaching: Coaching is foremost about developing adaptive thoughts

Systemic Coaching: “Coaching is a journey in search of patterns”. (Cavanagh, 2006)

Goal-Focused: “Coaching is a goal-oriented, solution-focused process” (Grant, 2006)

Positive Psychology Approach: “Shift attention away from what causes and drives pain to what energises and pulls people forward.” (Kaufmann, 2006)

Adventure Coaching: Stretching the client through entering into challenging situations and the learning that arises

Adult Learning: A learning approach that helps self-directed learners to reflect on and grow from their experiences.

Leadership style:

It can be classified into autocratic, democratic, free reign and systematic approach. The literature strongly suggests that the situation or context is highly relevant to leadership style. Further work should focus on interaction between style and context and links to leader performance.

Personal characteristic of leader is essential to engage him-self in an effective manner

A range of skills and behaviours should need to be an effective leader

A good leader must be a goal oriented

An effective leader can be a mentor

Leader much perform to the commitment of the organisation

Motivation:

Motivation is the intention of achieving a goal, leading to goal directed behaviour. Some human activities seem to be best explained by postulating and inner directing drive. While drives is often considered to be an innate (inner) biological mechanism that determine the organisms activity. A motive is defined as an innate mechanism modified by learning (Stefan Stern). Socially acquired needs activated by a desire for their fulfilment. Drives are defined as the innate, biological determinants of behaviour, activated by deprivation for food. Motivation can be explored from three distinct but related perspectives: goal, decision, and influence. Key terms in motivation I have learnt during the course of study: drives-motivator factors, motives-hygiene factor, motivation-vertical loading factors, self-actualisation-intrinsic rewards, equity theory-extrinsic rewards, expectancy theory-growth need strength, valence-job diagnostic survey, instrumentality score-motivating potential.

Theory for motivation (example)

Maslow’s theory nine motives: biological needs, safety needs, affiliation needs, esteem needs, the need to know and to understand, aesthetic needs, the needs for transcendence, the need for freedom of enquiry and expression, and self-actualisation needs.

Conclusion:

I have understood different ways in which the term motivation was used. I understood the nature of motives and motivation process has influence on behaviour of leadership. During the course of study I have been treated well at the class and it was two way communications between all students and tutor. Our tutor was participative with her approach towards students. She has taken intensive care during the course of study by giving us quality book materials and subject references. Overall I was very much satisfied with my tutor who dedicated herself to shape me for my future career development.