Coaching and Mentoring in Performance Management

What is Coaching?

Coaching refers to a continuous process where managers or leaders work closely with employees to enhance their skills, improve performance, and achieve organizational and individual goals. It is a developmental approach aimed at maximizing an employee’s potential by providing guidance, feedback, and support.

Effective coaching depends not only on the skills of the coach and the receptiveness of the person being coached, but also on the conditions outlined above being present (clarity about success criteria, usable feedback, etc.) in the work setting, At the same time, when managers start to coach, if they are working effectively there is a better chance of the surrounding conditions being improved.
Coaching conversations may lead to increased clarity about job expectations, for instance, and may provide regular feedback and the opportunity to think through standards and criteria for success. There is a close two-way relationship between effective coaching initiatives and a favorable learning climate, each enhancing the other.

The concept of coaching remains most easily associated with sports coaching where the purpose of the coach is to help the person they are coaching to reach their personal best. Interestingly, the nature of sports coaching is undergoing basic changes—ones which are, to some degree, mirrored in organizations.

There was a time when the coach was the person who drove the athlete on, forced the pace and continually instructed. Increasingly, coaches are now moving to an approach which involves accurately targeted questioning to help the athlete become increasingly aware of ‘what works’—for instance, the environment in which he or she performs best, how this feels, and what the obstacles are to achieving this repeatedly. Despite this changing emphasis, some traditional aspects of coaching remain.

Skills and Activities of Coaching

There are many possible approaches to coaching. They may involve watching what a person does and giving feedback on what you notice; working on problems with someone and learning together; asking stimulating open-ended questions; taking through your own thinking processes aloud, and encouraging the other person to do the same, encouraging analysis of what really works for individuals; finding your own way of seeing the work and the learning from the other person’s point of view; and using questioning as a way of helping a person understand their own thought processes.

Coaching can be thought of as two kinds of conversation:

• Mapping-related, and
• Performance-related ‰

• Mapping-related conversations may focus on:
  • The organizational setting or culture—‘what works around here?’, where does this project fit into the overall strategic plan?
    
    
  • Identifying problems and possible causes—‘what exactly is going wrong?’, ‘has this happened before?’
    
    
  • Establishing overall desired outcomes—‘what are you trying to achieve?’, ‘what is the general purpose here?’
    
    
• Performance-related conversations may focus on:
  • What the person is doing—‘what exactly did you do?’, ‘how are you going about this?’
    
    
  • Comparisons—‘is this different from what you did last time?’, are other people doing the same thing?’, ‘can you learn from them?’
    
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  • Questions about thinking—‘how are you thinking this through?’, ‘what evidence are you looking for?’, ‘what assumptions are you making?’, ‘do they need checking?’
    
    
  • Questions about resources—‘what it help to organize your resources differently?’

Pitfalls faced by Managers as Coaches

Managers as coaches face a number of common pitfalls in their conversations, for any of the following reasons:

• Having moved into coaching before establishing a certain amount of rapport and trust;
  
  
• Being unclear in their own minds about what they are trying to achieve by engaging in the conversation;
  
  
• Not listening properly because they are too busy deciding whether what they are saying is right or not;

These pitfalls can be avoided by keeping in mind the purpose and desired outcome of the coaching activity.

Coaching to Improve Unsatisfactory Performance

A further and more skilful area of coaching is in the area of challenging or confronting for performance improvement. When a person is not delivering the performance required, he/she may have a variety of emotional reactions such as despair, resistance, self-justification, or even complete unawareness.

The coaching approach in this situation is to deal with these by focusing on clear expectations. Often these expectations have not been properly mapped out or clearly understood.

Gathering information and agreeing where the problem lies are essential next steps, at the same time as staying aware of the other person’s reactions.

Learning to Coach

The value of coaching is that it establishes an effective and dynamic working relationship in difficult and changing situations.

In many cases, managers are encouraged to coach by ‘manager as coach and developer’ initiatives. These may take the form of workshops or of elements of management development programmes. As training and development responsibilities are being developed more and more to line managers, the pressure on them to work in this way increases.

Lack of time or other priorities often get in the way, with the widespread feeling that in current working conditions it’s quicker just to tell someone how to do things or, alternatively, to let them get on with their job, rather than taking time to coach. Because of this, there is often a certain amount of resistance to adopting a coaching style of management in the first instance; this resistance may also be in reaction to the hype that is in some cases connected with approaches to coaching.

Resistance may be overcome by starting the coaching from the top. The managers who are expected to move to a coaching style may themselves need to be coached. This experience helps them to understand the value of coaching at first hand, and to get an intuitive sense of how to do it themselves.

What is Mentoring?

The term ‘mentor’ originated in Greek mythology. Mentoring is an essential component of an effective training and development process within organizations. It is defined as a relationship through which employees of the organizations are exposed to practical knowledge, guidance, support, and feedback from more experienced employees within a given setting.

To upgrade skills and so also to enhance the satisfaction of employees, in the era of competition and market uncertainty, mentoring is now considered as one of the most powerful tools to enhance employees’ development and performance. Also to make employees compatible with the organizational culture, mentoring is considered as the most useful means.

In today’s workplace, employees need to be multi-skilled and powered with a wide range of cognitive, interpersonal, and technical skills. The basic premise of mentoring is to emphasize on the situational or experiential learning. Employees of the organizations attach meaning to the work constructs. Hence, they need guidance to learn contextually in relations with others. Good mentors facilitate learning to help employees to understand the ways and means of problem solving.

Mentoring offers primarily two types of benefits:

• Vocational benefits: These are achieved in terms of acquisition of specific skills, viz., and apprenticeship.
  
  
• Psychosocial benefits: These are those which assist the employees to socialize, improve their interpersonal skills, and allow them for collaborative critical thinking, planning, reflection, and feedback. It enhances employees’ collegiality.

Kram (1983) suggested four phases of mentoring relationship process: initiation, cultivation, separation, and termination. Creating a positive mentoring relationship is the prerequisite for the success of any mentoring programme.

Once the relationship is developed, a mentor can influence the mentee for positive behavioural changes, and with this support the mentee can increase the level of performance. Therefore, the mentoring programme can systematically develop the knowledge, skill, and the leadership ability of every cross-section of employees of the organization.

Skills and Activities of Mentoring

What is required of a mentor? The most favored attributes appear to be acting as a sounding board for ideas; being a source of organizational knowledge; and helping people to see themselves more clearly. Interestingly, few potential mentors choose a role model; someone who exemplifies good practice although this is frequently the reason a mentor is chosen by a mentee.

Each variant of the mentor role requires different skills, but a core might include some familiar and well-developed techniques, to be used during a mentoring meeting:

• Listening openly without making judgments
• Asking open-ended questions
• Summarizing
• Clarifying
• Reflecting back ‰

The main purpose of the mentoring relationship is to help mentees develop their own thinking and planning about their career and development, with someone supportive who has organizational experience and knowledge. Unhelpful behaviours such as those listed above sabotage this process.

It is noticeable, when working with potential mentors, how easy it is for them to fall into the trap of asking leading questions or of disguising statements or opinions as questions. These are habits acquired from an earlier style of management and it is easy not to be aware of them, or their inappropriateness, in the mentoring situation.

For senior managers, mentoring involves a change of behavior but an even more dramatic change of thinking. Senior managers have mainly got to where they are by being effective and decisive and by (quite appropriately) knowing what people should do and getting them to do it. Working with someone who is junior to them but whom they do not manage can initially be quite challenging. This stretch of style is one of the benefits that mentors identify as a personal gain from being involved in the mentoring process.

Learning to Mentor

Many organizations provide orientation or training for mentors, to provide a base-line or a common approach. Attending a mentoring workshop can be a welcome opportunity to engage in some personal development, to revisit the skills of listening, establishing rapport, reflecting on one’s own behaviour; skills that may have become rusty in the journey to a senior position.

The use fullness of mentors lies partly in their knowledge and experience; but as this becomes less relevant with changing times, mentors’ key value is in their ability to help their mentees to gain knowledge and experience of their own in their current role, and to develop their ability to make effective judgments in ambiguous or uncertain or uncertain situations.

Types of Mentoring

Mentoring can take several forms, and depending on the specific requirements of the mentee, specific types of mentoring are chosen by the organization. Some of the widely used mentoring forms are explained below:

• One-to-one Mentoring: This consists of usually one but sometimes more than one mentee to each mentor, with each mentoring relationship existing independently.
  
  
• Group Mentoring (or mentoring circles): This typically consists of a group of several mentees and mentors, with the ratio of one mentor for every two to three mentees, but no individual mentor being allocated to a mentee.
  
  The advantages of group mentoring are:
  
  
  • Efficient use of mentors, with a higher ratio of mentees to mentors.
  • The mentees in the group can build a rapport and integrate with colleagues.    
  • The mentees can receive multiple sources of feedback.
    
    However, group mentoring has several disadvantages:
    
    
  • Some people do not work well in a group environment.
  • There may be concerns about confidentiality.
  • The mentee has less or possibly no one-on-one contact with a mentor.
    
    
    Group mentoring has to be more structured than one-to-one mentoring as scheduling is necessary in order to accommodate everyone.
    
    
• Reverse mentoring: It is a tool that many companies use today to develop talent between generations and to develop unity as well. There is a huge amount of knowledge transfer that can take place across generations such as the utilization of social media and business best practices. Reverse mentoring will allow pairs to meet in a non-hostile, common-ground environment.
  
  Reverse mentoring partnerships generally include an older, more experienced executive with a younger, less-experienced newcomer. As the name suggests, the younger employee servers as the mentor. Yet, reverse mentoring is indeed a two-way street. Reverse mentoring gives senior executives an opportunity to stay up-to-date with the latest business technologies and workplace trends.
  
  
  On the other, it helps junior employees see the larger picture and gives them a glimpse of macro-level management issues. Reverse mentoring also increases retention of Gen Y employees and gives senior executives the satisfaction of sharing their knowledge with the next generation.
  
  The keys to a successful reverse mentoring relationship are:
  
  
  • Defined expectations: Each party needs to be very clear on their expectations.
    
    
  • Agreed-upon rules: Each party must be fully committed to the mentoring relationship and agree upon the rules that will be followed.
    
    
  • Willingness to learn: In a reverse mentoring relationship, both parties act in the capacity of a mentor as well as a mentee; so they must both “genuinely want to learn from and share with the other.” 
    
    
  • Trust: Reverse mentoring requires the trust of each party. The goal is to “push one another outside of their comfort zones and try new ways of thinking, working and being.”
    
    
  • Transparency: Both parties must be open with their feelings and with what they are thinking. They must be able to overcome differences in communication style (since different generations communicate differently) and be open to seeing situations from different angles.
    
    
• Formal mentoring: It is structured, is based on a specific business objective, is often measured, and brings people together on the basis of compatibility. A formal relationship typically lasts for a specified amount of time and then formally ends (although sometimes a mentoring pair may decide to continue their mentoring relationship informally at that time).
  
  
  The following are some key attributes of formal mentoring.
  • Connection to a strategic business objective of the organization
  • Established goals
  • Measurable outcomes
  • Open access for all who qualify
    
    
• Informal mentoring by definition has very little structure or is loosely structured based upon chemistry between two partners to be involved in a mentoring relationship. Informal mentoring will sometimes even develop into a long-term friendship.
  
  The following are some key attributes of informal mentoring.
  • Unspecified goals
  • Unknown outcomes
  • Limited access to the program Self-selection of mentors and mentorees

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Differences Between Coaching and Mentoring

Mentoring: Mentoring is an indefinite, relationship based activity with several specific but wide ranging goals. It does not have to be a formal process. The mentor is a facilitator who works with either an individual or a group of people over an extended time period. The agenda is open and continues to evolve over the longer term. Mentoring seeks to build wisdom – the ability to apply skills, knowledge and experience to new situations and processes.

Coaching: The focus is on meeting very specific objectives within a set period of time. Coaching is mainly concerned with performance and the development of certain skills.

It usually takes place on a one-to-one basis and has a very specific purpose. There is usually a planned programme with a much shorter timeframe than in mentoring, so the learning goals are usually determined in advance.

Mentoring and coaching can be ‘stand alone’ activities, but they can also be used to complement each other.

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Coaching and Mentoring in the Organization

The significance of coaching and mentoring for the modern organization lies in four key aspects:

• The attention to the individual provided by these activities. This in itself is a shift from previous attitudes to the management of subordinates. This attention can provide a point of stability that makes people more able to respond effectively to change.
  
  
• The individual becomes a skilful and reflective learner. This is the underlying aim of both activities. Individuals increasingly use their own experience as the key material for learning, assisted by the knowledge and wisdom of the coach or mentor.
  
  
• The importance of the relationship. Both activities are examples of what has been described as ‘developmental working relationships’. A large part of the success of the mentor or coach depends on the way they manage the relationship at a human and personal level. This ability transfers into other working areas, as not only a survival skill in the new style of organization, but as a means of sharing knowledge and expertise.
  
  
• The effect of organizational climate, and the effect on it. Though the one-to-one relationship is clearly central in coaching and mentoring, to be fully effective it needs to be part of an organization-wide appreciation of the value of learning as a driver for relevant change. Effective coaching and value of learning as a driver for relevant change. Effective coaching and mentoring relationships can help to develop this wider process as well as deriving benefits from it.

Coaching and mentoring frequently run alongside, or are an intrinsic part of, a self-development process set in place by the organization. This process can vary with personal projects and personal development plans at one end of the continuum, and an organization-wide self-managed learning programme at the other. They are linked by an emphasis on development becoming something for which individuals have to take responsibility themselves.

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Setting up coaching and mentoring programme

A mentoring program in an organization must be established with a certain set of standards and guidelines in mind. Mentoring best practices have certain elements that are crucial to the success of the program.

The following stages need to be considered before a mentoring or coaching programme can be planned and executed:

• Conducting needs assessment: Every organization that seeks to incorporate mentoring program must examine its needs and importance, the expectations of the organization and the components of the program. The needs-assessment may be conducted by the human resources team, training team, or an assigned committee. ‰
  
  
  
• Building a mentoring program roadmap: The mentoring program roadmap covers all the necessary tools and components to initiate the program. This would comprise of the project and implementations plans, the results of the needs assessment and the program description.
  
  
• Getting top management support and commitment: A successful formal mentoring program has the support and commitment of the management. People in the top management can participate as mentors to the staff or the low-level employees. Mentoring best practices can also be identified from the experiences these senior leaders have.
  
  
• Assigning a dedicated mentoring program manager: The program must be facilitated by a dedicated program manager who is responsible for overseeing the course of the program. The role of the program manager is crucial to the success and effectiveness of the mentoring program.
  
  
• Create a working committee or mentoring group: The mentoring program committee is assigned to set specific goals and objectives of the program. They must commit themselves to developing a learning culture within the organization. They work hand in hand with the program manager.
  
  Potential mentors and coaches need to consider the following issues:
  
  
  • The protégé: What is the protégé’s current work situation? How does he or she see themselves in a particular role? What are his or her goals?
    
    
  • The protégé’s work: What work does the protégé do or aspire to do? What does the protégé find challenging or satisfying? How could he or she achieve something? What are the options?
    
    
  • The mentor or coach: What is the mentor or coach’s current work situation? Who will control the programme – the mentor/coach or the protégé?
    
    
  • The relationship with the protégé: Is the programme led by the mentor/coach or the protégé? Where does accountability lie?
    
    
  • The wider team: Where does the protégé fit into his or her existing team? What are the team dynamics? How could the protégé engage better with his or her colleagues? What needs to change?
    
    
  • The organization: Who are the organisation’s stakeholders? What is the organisation’s structure? What is the organisation’s culture? Are the goals of the mentoring or coaching programme compatible with these?
    
    
  • The work environment: What role does IT play in the organization now and in the future? What are the organization’s current priorities? Are the priorities of the protégé compatible with those of the organization? Are mentoring and coaching part of the organization’s culture? What is the organization’s current financial situation?
    
    
  • The wider context: What is the attitude towards work-life balance? How does this influence decision making?
    

Mentoring and Coaching Briefing

Once it has been agreed in principle to begin a mentoring or coaching programme, the mentor/coach and the protégé need to brief themselves on the following key issues:

• Determine the area for mentoring or coaching.
  
  
• Agree the overall objectives
  
  
• Identify realistic outcomes and devise an action plan to achieve the desired result.
  
  
• Devise an appropriate mentoring or coaching programme. This might include a secondment, work shadowing or supervised working.
  
  
• Agree a suitable timescale.
  
  
• Agree criteria for evaluation, standards and assessment of the programme.

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Benefits of Coaching and Mentoring in an Organization

Coaching and mentoring benefits the organization in many ways. Some of these benefits are listed below:

• It exerts positive impact on recruitment and retention.
• It is very effective for succession planning.
• It makes organizations adaptable to change.
• It increases productivity through better engagement and job satisfaction.

Also coaching and mentoring benefits the mentored person in several ways, as under:

• By facilitating development of mentored person in terms of knowledge, technical skills, and behavioural improvements.
  
  
• By better management of career goals. ‰
  
  
• By developing wider network of influence.
  
  
• By increasing the confidence and self-awareness which helps in building performance and contribution.

Coaching and mentoring also benefits the organization as a whole, more particularly the line managers and the HR as both of them benefit through better employee focus and engagement.

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Barriers to Effective Coaching and Mentoring

The most challenging aspect for coaches and mentors is the change in mindset that is required. They should no longer give the impression of knowing best or insist on instructing or commanding. Instead, they should work alongside their colleagues – a position that remains rigorous and targeted but in a very different way. For people who are used to a ‘telling’ style, the ideas and approaches of coaching and mentoring can seem softer.

• People are more demanding on both parties in that they require thinking, sophisticated attention, sensitivity to nuances, and a commitment to outcomes while abandoning the need to be in control of people or of situations.
  
  
• People surmount these difficulties more easily when they see the positive effect of working in this way, particularly in organizations which are going through changes such as restructuring, downsizing or change in corporate focus.

Most barriers to effective mentoring and coaching stem from:

• Issues of organisational culture where the prevailing culture is not sympathetic to mentoring and coaching, or does not fully understand it.
  
  
• Personality issues between those involved in mentoring and coaching programmes.

Barriers include:

• Poor matching of mentors or coaches to their protégés
  
  
• Lack of managerial support at higher levels
  
  
• Resentment from those not chosen to participate in mentoring and coaching programmes, perhaps due to a perception of favouritism
  
  
• The creation of unrealistic expectations as to what mentoring and coaching can achieve
  
  
• The blurring of role boundaries, for example, between the role of manager and mentor.

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Coaching and Mentoring Practices in Indian Organizations

Lew Platt, the former CEO of Hewlett-Packard (HP), believed that mentoring is like educating our children. It is both a business and social imperative. HP has a large number of K-12 level manpower, and hence to make them to deliver results, HP emphasizes on continuous mentoring. Platt observed that all the young faces of today are the faces of the workforce and customers of tomorrow.

Hence, like a teacher in a class, we must perform the role of a mentor for handholding of youngsters.

In organizations, we require business mentors who sincerely invest in others’ growth, capable to exert positive influence, so that the mentees feel at ease to learn and grow. It requires inculcating a culture of mentoring.

Mentoring culture continuously develops the mentoring capacity, competence, and so also the capability of the organization as a whole. Some of the important hallmarks of a mentoring culture are accountability, alignment, communication, values, and visibility.

HP practices successful mentoring culture, and in the process, today they are widely visible in the global IT industry. With the HR vision of achieving organizational excellence through development of people.

ONGC in India also emphasizes on extensive mentoring programme. ONGC’s polices are employee-friendly and encourage workers’ participation in management. The process is facilitated by informative, consultative, associative, and administrative forum that encourages participation and foster innovative culture. Also such practices, including the mentoring programme, could facilitate in building a positive work environment to propel excellence in ONGC’s performance.

However, there is no general or universal best practice for all companies and organizations. Every company has its own set of best practices in their coaching programs.

Listed below are few among best coaching practice:

• Coaching Preparation: The coach makes the necessary preparations for the coaching sessions by identifying the purpose of the coaching in concordance with the needs of the employee. ‰
  
  
• Build a Positive and Trusting Coaching Relationship: The coach initiates a warm and comfortable connection with the trainee.
  
  
• Setting of Expectations: The coach establishes clear coaching goals with the trainee and identifies roles and responsibilities.
  
  
• Coaching Plan and Practice: The coach coordinates with the supervisor, plan suitable coaching schedules and discusses tools and resources for coaching.
  
  
• Observe Practice: The coach makes an initial assessment of the trainee’s performance before the start of the coaching sessions.
  
  
• Develop Coaching Strategy and Technique: The coach creates a coaching style and technique based on the results of the initial assessment.
  
  
• Conduct Coaching Session: The actual coaching session with the trainee is done. Any coaching drills and activities will be delivered during the sessions.
  
  
• Evaluate Progress of Performance: The coach conducts a final assessment of the trainee’s performance after the coaching sessions.
  
  
• Documentation Process: The coach documents any changes in the performance trend of the individual and recognizes any signs of improvement. Also, the coach submits performance feedback to the trainee’s immediate supervisor as well as to the trainee.

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Key Terms

• Coaching: It is a process of developing skills and knowledge of people to improve their job performance.
  
  
• Mentoring: It is more holistic. It facilitates employees’ total development, builds relationships, and even inculcates confidence in employees which autonomously compels to take higher responsibilities and deliver the best results.
  
  
• Vocational Benefit: Vocational benefits of mentoring are achieved in terms of acquisition of specific skills.
  
  
• Psychosocial Benefit: Psychosocial benefits of mentoring are those which assist the employees to socialize, improve their interpersonal skills, and allow them for collaborative critical thinking, planning, reflection, and feedback. It enhances employees’ collegiality.
  
  
• Protégé: A person who is guided and supported by an older and more experienced or influential person.
  
  
• Remote Mentoring: Sometimes mentors need to conduct the mentoring programme via e-mail, teleconferencing, or through telephone, it is known as Remote Mentoring or e-mentoring.
  
  
• Group Mentoring (or mentoring circles): This typically consists of a group of several mentees and mentors, with the ratio of one mentor for every two to three mentees, but no individual mentor being allocated to a mentee.
  
  
  
• One-to-one Mentoring: This consists of usually one but sometimes more than one mentee to each mentor, with each mentoring relationship existing independently.