Coaching and Mentoring
Prof. Preeti Bhaskar
Symbiosis Centre for Management Studies, NOIDA

case
• Barry is new at quality control. He completed
three weeks of training, but he has already made
two major errors that cost the firm $3000. He's
obviously upset and discouraged over his shaky
start. If you were Barry's supervisor, what would
you do?

coaching
• Coaching assists employees in getting from where they are now, to
where they want to be with their performance.
• coaching - positive, solutions and future focused, and uses
strategies from performance enhancing areas such as sports and
performance psychology.
• Coaching is for anyone who wants to be performing at a higher
level than they currently are. It is about enhancing and maximizing
performance.
• Coaching is about performing at your best through the individual
and private assistance of someone who will challenge, stimulate
and guide you to keep growing.

How does it work?
Execute and Evaluate – ongoing action, evaluation of progress, coaching, and
re-setting of goals as they are achieved.
Personal Action Plan – developing specific action steps to take.
Performance Improvement Plan – identifying areas where performance can be
improved.
Assessing Current Performance Levels - how are you performing right now?
Identifying Specific Goals and Objectives – what do you want to achieve?
The 5 Stage Coaching Process

benefits of coaching
• Avoid making mistakes in both your business and personal life.
• Accomplish more, in less time.
• Minimize problems and enable you to tackle those that remain.
• Achieve lasting happiness with a better life .
• Climb the ladder in your career or personal development.
• Helps to become more effective and influential.
• Helps to be more attractive to others.
• Rapidly enhanced development of managers and leaders, decreasing
the necessary development time between promotions.

Cont….
• Learned leadership behaviors that result in higher levels of job
satisfaction.
• Increased employee motivation and productivity.
• Decreased attrition and greater retention of managerial and
executive talent.
• Improved ability to appropriately delegate and accomplish more
through others.
• Increased ability to coach and develop direct reports.
• Improved communication and interpersonal relationships.
• Improved morale and motivation among employees.
• Significantly lowered expenses for severance recruitment and hiring.

Use of coaching:
• Support newly promoted executives
• Fast track high-potential executives to the top
• Accelerate the personal development of key executives and board
members
• Support individuals and teams during organizational change
programmes
• Reward and retain key staff

Difference between coaching and mentoring
Mentoring Coaching
Ongoing relationship that can last for a long
period of time
Relationship generally has a short duration
Can be more informal and meetings can take
place as and when the mentee needs some
advice, guidance or support
Generally more structured in nature and
meetings are scheduled on a regular basis
More long-term and takes a broader view of the
person
Short-term (sometimes time-bounded) and
focused on specific development areas/issues
Mentor is usually more experienced and
qualified than the ‘mentee’.
Coaching is generally not performed on the basis
that the coach needs
Focus is on career and personal development Focus is generally on development/ issues at
work
Agenda is set by the mentee The agenda is focused on achieving specific,
immediate goals
Mentoring resolves more around developing the
mentee professional
Coaching revolves more around specific
development areas/issues

Definitions
Mentors
• Advisory relationship
• Experts in the field
• Guide, answer questions,
give opinions, and direct
Coaches
• Employee sets agenda
• Employee provides
answers
• May be less expert
• Asks questions and
poses challenges
• Holds employee
accountable

Coaching vrs Mentoring
• Coaching helps all your employees or team
members
– When you coach employees, you improve their ability
to do their current jobs and increase their potential to
do more in the future.
• Mentoring is reserved for your most talented
employees.
– Work with talented people, help them advance, and
they will become assets now and allies in the future.
– Ignore them, and they’ll find someone else — maybe
a competitor — who appreciates their talents.

Coaching vrs Mentoring
• Mentoring is for your exceptional employees, people who
show promise but need help to become top performers.
• As a mentor, your responsibilities are to
– represent the company’s values,
– give pep talks,
– offer instruction about your company’s political structure,
– influence decision makers to help your mentee, and
– provide contacts and resources
• A mentoring relationship shortens your employees’
learning curve and increases productivity.

Coaching: Definition
• Manager
– Interacts with employee and
– Takes active role and interest in performance
• Collaborative ongoing process
– Directing employee behavior
– Motivating employee behavior
– Rewarding employee behavior
• Concerned with long-term performance

Major Coaching Functions:
• Give advice
• Provide guidance
• Provide support
• Give confidence
• Promote greater competence

Key Coaching Behaviors
• Establish developmental objectives
• Communicate effectively
• Motivate employees
• Document performance
• Give feedback
• Diagnose performance problems
• Develop employees

The Good Coach Questionnaire
 Do you listen to your employees?
 Do you understand their individual
needs?
 Do you encourage employees to
express their feelings openly?
 Do you give tangible and intangible
support for development?
 Do your employees know your
expectations about their
performance?

(continued)
Do you encourage open and honest
discussions and problem solving?
Do you help your employees create
action plans that will
Solve problems?
Create changes?
Do you help your employees explore
potential areas of
Growth?
Development?

Coaching Styles
More Assertive Less assertive
Task & Fact
oriented Driver Analyzer
People
oriented Persuader Amiable

Adaptive coaches use all styles
according to employee needs:
• Sometimes providing direction
• Sometimes persuading
• Sometimes showing empathy
• Sometimes paying close attention to
rules and established procedures

What is mentoring?
1
9
• caring relationship
• a person with more experience (i.e. the Mentor)
• works with a less experienced person (i.e. the
mentee)
• to promote the professional and personal
development of mentee
Mentoring and Coaching

What are the advantages of mentoring?
2
0
Mentoring and Coaching
Advantages to Mentors Advantages to mentees
Advantages to
organizations
 Creates opportunity for
Mentors to share their
experience and thus
‘enriches’ Mentors.
 Creates opportunity to
be recognised.
 It provides an
opportunity to do
something different
(than normal duties).
 Provides professional
recognition and
affirmation.
 Reduces isolation.
 Provides meaningful
learning experiences
and an opportunity for
personal and
professional growth.
 Improves integration of
new employees.
 Increases communication,
networking and openness/
transparency in
organisations.
 Improves employee
satisfaction.
 Enhances career
development.
 Creates a learning culture.

Steps in the mentoring process
2
1
Mentoring and Coaching
Initiate the mentor-mentee relationship
Define the mentor-mentee relationship
Plan the education, training and development of the mentee
Review the planned education, training and development of the mentee
Perform continuous mentoring-related activities

What should the HR/ Training Department do to initiate
the mentor-mentee relationship?
Mentoring and Coaching
Step 1
• Identify Mentor and mentee

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Who can be a Mentor?
23
• Senior professional employees (e.g. Accountants,
Engineers, Technicians, HR Consultants, etc.).
• Senior trade workers (e.g. Carpenters, Mechanics,
Electricians, etc.).
• Senior employees from other occupations (e.g. clerical
workers, etc.).
• Supervisors and Managers.
• Employees from the HR/ Training Department.
Mentoring and Coaching

What characteristics should a Mentor have?
24
• Leadership – The Mentor should be able to influence the
mentee to achieve certain objectives.
• Self-knowledge – The Mentor should be aware of his/her
likes, dislike and beliefs.
• Commitment to the development of people – The Mentor
should be willing to develop and motivate others.
• The ability to act as sponsor, teacher, ‘insider’,
encourager and supporter, counsellor and advisor to the
mentee.
Mentoring and Coaching

Who can be a mentee?
25
• New employees (including professionals and trade
workers) who just completed education-type training
interventions i.e. qualifications.
• Less experienced (and usually younger) employees who
are earmarked for accelerated development.
• Employees who are busy with training interventions (e.g.
qualifications, skills programmes, short courses, etc.).
Mentoring and Coaching

What should the HR/ Training Department do to initiate
the mentor-mentee relationship? (cont.)
Mentoring and Coaching
Step 2

• ‘Pair’ Mentor and mentee

• Orientate Mentor and mentee
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Step 3

Steps in the mentoring process
Mentoring and Coaching
Initiate the mentor-mentee relationship
(Learning Unit 3)
Define the mentor-mentee relationship
(Learning Unit 4)
Plan the education, training and development of the mentee
(Learning Unit 5)
Review the planned education, training and development of the mentee
(Learning Unit 6)
Perform continuous mentoring-related activities
(Learning Unit 7)
27

What should the Mentor discuss during the
meeting?
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• The purpose of the meeting.
• The agreement to the mentor-mentee relationship.
• The purpose and benefits of mentoring.
• The mentee’s background and work experience.
• The Mentor’s background and work experience.
• The mentee’s previous mentor-mentee relationships.
Mentoring and Coaching

What should the Mentor discuss during the
meeting? (cont.)
29
• The roles and responsibilities of role-players involved in
the mentoring process.
• The structuring of the mentor-mentee relationship.
• The questions, inputs and/ or concerns of the mentee.
Mentoring and Coaching

Steps in the mentoring process
Mentoring and Coaching
Initiate the mentor-mentee relationship
(Learning Unit 3)
Define the mentor-mentee relationship
(Learning Unit 4)
Plan the education, training and development of the mentee
(Learning Unit 5)
Review the planned education, training and development of the mentee
(Learning Unit 6)
Perform continuous mentoring-related activities
(Learning Unit 7)
30

Activity 2 (cont.)
31
2. Conduct an ‘IDP-planning meeting’ with ‘your mentee’ to plan
the education, training and development of the mentee. (One
person will play the role of ‘the Mentor’ and another person will
play the role of ‘the mentee’ during the ‘IDP-planning meeting’.
‘The Mentor’ has to discuss relevant aspects with ‘the mentee’
and ‘the mentee’ has to provide inputs during the ‘IDP-
planning meeting’.). Also complete ‘your mentee’s’ Individual
Development Plan (IDP) (available on the next pages) during
and after the ‘IDP-planning meeting’.
Mentoring and Coaching

Activity 2 (cont.)
32
3. Observe the ‘IDP-planning meeting’ that takes place
between ‘the Mentor’ and ‘the mentee’. (The purpose of
the ‘IDP-planning meeting’ is to plan the education,
training and development of the mentee.) Make notes on
the effectiveness of the meeting by using the Observation
checklist provided on the next page(s).
4. As a group, discuss the effectiveness of the meeting that
took place.
Mentoring and Coaching

Steps in the mentoring process
Mentoring and Coaching
Initiate the mentor-mentee relationship
(Learning Unit 3)
Define the mentor-mentee relationship
(Learning Unit 4)
Plan the education, training and development of the mentee
(Learning Unit 5)
Review the planned education, training and development of the mentee
(Learning Unit 6)
Perform continuous mentoring-related activities
(Learning Unit 7)
33

What should the Mentor discuss during the
IDP-review meeting?
34
• The purpose of the IDP-review meeting and the Individual
Development Plan (IDP).
• The progress in terms of the planned education, training
and development-type training interventions.
• The questions, inputs and/ or concerns of the mentee.
• The mentee’s review of the IDP-review meeting as well
as the mentee’s agreement to his/ her revised IDP.
Mentoring and Coaching

Steps in the mentoring process
Mentoring and Coaching
Initiate the mentor-mentee relationship
(Learning Unit 3)
Define the mentor-mentee relationship
(Learning Unit 4)
Plan the education, training and development of the mentee
(Learning Unit 5)
Review the planned education, training and development of the mentee
(Learning Unit 6)
Perform continuous mentoring-related activities
(Learning Unit 7)
35