What is Coaching and Mentoring?

Coaching & mentoring both of which focus on the individual, can enhance morale, motivation and productivity and reduce staff turnover as individuals feel valued and connected with both small and large changes. This role may be provided by internal coaches or mentors and, increasingly, by professional external coaching specialists whom focus on specific types of business for example Hotels, restaurants, Foodservice and catering businesses and specific situations such as strategic planning, business planning or marketing planning or increasing sales and profitability or staff development.

There is also an increasing trend for individuals to take greater responsibility for their personal & professional development and even those who are employed in larger businesses are no longer relying on employers to provide them with all or their career development needs. There has been an increase in the number of individuals working with coaches and mentors on a private basis. Some are looking for a career change, but many are also seeking to maximise their potential with an existing employer or achieve greater balance with their work and home lives.

Early use in the business world often carried a remedial connotation - people were coached because they were underperforming or their behaviour was unsatisfactory. Now coaching is more usually seen as a means of developing people within an organisation in order that they perform more effectively and reach their potential.

Professional coaching is a partnership between a coach and an individual that supports the achievement of results, based on goals set by the individual. Through the process of coaching, individuals focus on the skills and actions needed to successfully produce their personally relevant results.

The individual chooses the focus of the 'conversation', while the coach listens and contributes observations and questions as well as concepts and principles which can assist in generating possibilities, potential and actions. Through the coaching process the clarity that is needed to support the most effective actions is achieved.

Coaching can be seen as a collaborative process in which clients discover answers for themselves through the coach's use of questions and other techniques.

Coaching presupposes that the client is not 'broken' - they work perfectly, and it's not the coach's responsibility to 'fix' them. The client is an expert on themselves and the skill of the coach, and their role, is in allowing the person to come up with their own solutions. This doesn't mean that the coach brings nothing to the relationship - they have knowledge based theory, methods, exercises and questions that help the person move forwards. Nevertheless, the coach's skills are based around processes, not solutions.

In essence, coaching has two main facets. First it is performance focused, which means it is concerned with helping individuals perform tasks to the best of their ability. Second, it is person centred which means that the individuals being coached are seen to have important insights.

Fundamentally then, coaching is about drawing out, not putting in! Or, put another way - 'the brain with the problem; is the one with the solution'.

Coaches work in the certain belief that people have vast reserves of potential which are rarely used and that it is the coaches job to draw it out.

A mentor is a guide who can help an individual to find the right direction and who can help them to develop solutions. Mentors rely upon having had similar experiences to gain an empathy with the individual and an understanding of their issues. Mentoring provides the individual with an opportunity to think about options and progress.

A mentor should help the individual to believe in herself and boost her confidence. A mentor should ask questions and challenge, while providing guidance and encouragement. Mentoring allows the individual to explore new ideas in confidence. It is a chance to look more closely at yourself, your issues, opportunities and what you want in life. Mentoring is about becoming more self aware, taking responsibility for your life and directing your life in the direction you decide, rather than leaving it to chance.

Mentoring, particularly in its traditional sense, enables an individual to follow in the path of an older and wiser colleague who can pass on knowledge, experience and open doors to otherwise out-of-reach opportunities.

Mentoring is often described as, "to support and encourage people to manage their own learning in order that they may maximise their potential, develop their skills, improve their performance and become the person they want to be."

Coaching on the other hand is not generally performed on the basis that the coach has direct experience of their client's formal occupational role.

Having said this, there are professionals offering their services under the name of mentoring who have no direct experience of their clients' roles and others offering services under the name of coaching who are not only coaches, but coaches with specialist knowledge and skills relevant to the client's situation.

So the moral of the story is, it is essential to determine what your needs are and to ensure that the coach or mentor can supply you with the type and level of service you require, whatever that service is called.

Coaching is proven to work when these two factors are present: the client is willing to grow and there is a gap between where they are now and where they want to be.

That is all that is necessary for you and your coach to solve problems, create a new Life, turn a business around, double sales and profitability, and design and implement a plan of action, or create whatever else is called for to ensure that you have what you need to get more of what you want.