Coaching and mentoring

processes

CMI LEVEL 3 COACHING AND MENTORING

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Contents The implementation of the coaching process ........................................................................................ 2

The different methods of coaching and training available to the coach ............................................ 2

Coaching opportunities in the organizational environment ............................................................... 4

The coaching process .......................................................................................................................... 6

The implementation of the mentoring process ...................................................................................... 7

The methods of mentoring available to the mentor .......................................................................... 7

Mentoring opportunities in the organizational environment ............................................................ 8

The mentoring process ....................................................................................................................... 8

The reviewing of progress and provision of feedback .......................................................................... 15

The need for objectives and constructive feedback in the coaching process .................................. 15

The need for exploratory feedback in the mentoring process ......................................................... 17

The need for confidentiality and ethics in coaching sessions ........................................................... 19

The achievement of progress and recognize success ....................................................................... 21

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The implementation of the coaching process

The different methods of coaching and training available to the coach One of the best things about Coaching and Mentoring programmes is that they can be tailored to suit

any company culture and available resources. There are four key models of Coaching and Mentoring.

Understanding how each of these works will empower you to choose the best option for your

organisation. Choosing wisely also means that those receiving Mentoring and Coaching services will

get exactly the help they need in a way that is in keeping with the business and employee goals and

objectives.

One-On-One

This is far and away the most common form of Mentoring or Coaching. It is tried, tested and proven

and involves a Mentor and a Mentee meeting to talk and develop. It allows both to build a strong,

effective relationship and gives individual support which many people react to better than group

direction. The only real limitation on this technique is the availability of the mentor/coach and the

number of individual staff members they are able to see.

Resource-Based

Similar to one-on-one, the Coach or Mentor will work individually with a single person. But it is less

organised and the person seeking help chooses who to ask for advice. This can create mismatched

relationships that do not benefit either party. There is also no guarantee that the Mentor will be able

to do everything the Mentee wants. On the up side it’s a very easy to implement solution for

businesses that require little support or resource commitment.

Group

Group-based solutions put one Mentor or Coach with four or more employees at any one time. This

means the group is working with both Senior influencers and also with their peers. The hope is they

all help each other to learn and develop. This is slightly less personal than one-on-one and can run up

against time constraints due to the number of people involved. A good Mentor or Coach should be

able to make this work for all members of the group. This option is often favoured by business leaders

because it fosters a connected company culture and helps build stronger interpersonal relationships.

Training Based

This model would be tied directly to a training programme. Mentors or Coaches are assigned to

specific staff members to help them develop specific skills taught in the programme. This focuses on

the subject and limits the development of a broad range of skills. But if money is being spent on

training this can re-enforce those sessions and help the employee excel.

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In an ideal world every manager would have the time, focus, and energy to coach every one of his or

her employees as often as needed. Unfortunately there are many other things like proposals,

presentations, budget planning, RFP, sales reporting, hiring, firing, employee training, etc. that can

steal your time, and attention away from employee coaching. However coaching is not an activity that

you cannot afford to neglect…according to a study done by the Leadership Council in 2007 “Employees

will yield a 57% greater discretionary effort when they are engaged with their manager.”

Do not disengage with employees when managing a full schedule; you will be doing more harm in the

long run. Learning when and how to utilize the 5 different types of coaching will allow you to keep up

with a demanding workload without neglecting employee coaching and engagement.

THE 5 TYPES OF COACHING

• 30 Second Coaching is a short, direct high-energy approach to building and sustaining change.

Scheduled with individual employees, the 30 second coaching technique is most successful

when used to address a specific act or behavior demonstrated by the employee and focuses

on one direct message through positive reinforcement. 30 second coaching is the only

coaching technique that scheduled as needed.

• One on One Coaching is a scheduled session used to cover 1-2 targeted areas. Each one to

one coaching should be filled with activities that complement the chosen targeted area and

challenge the mind of the employee. Sessions can be scheduled weekly or bi-weekly.

• Peer to Peer Coaching is a scheduled session for employees to coach one another without the

manager’s direct supervision. Scheduled weekly or bi-weekly, each session should include

specific, well-defined activities for the employees to cover. All activities should have

associated metrics to help employees navigate through the activity, promote teamwork, and

open lines of communication while building performance levels.

• Group Coaching is a team coaching session that should be designed around a one-theme

concept that all employees can benefit from. Sessions should be focused on activities such as

simulation, role-play, and group discussions without lecturing from manager. Group coaching

should be should be scheduled on a weekly basis.

• Self-Directed Coaching is a coaching activity prescribed by a manager for the employee to

perform independently and report back with results once complete. Self-directed sessions can

be adaptable to either a daily or weekly schedule.

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Coaching opportunities in the organizational environment Of many books have been written addressing organizational change, very few mention organizational

coaching. None provide frameworks and perspectives that can assist coaches working in multinational

companies or on cross-border challenges. Most approaches rely on either the Organisation

Development (O.D.) paradigm (Lewin 1947; McGregor 1971) or the Corporate Culture Change

methods (Schein 1985). Models were either ‘commitment based’, trying to convince employees and

middle management by showing positive images of the future, or ‘compliance based’, changing

behaviours by imperatives. These models only go so far in providing guidance and clarity for coaches

immersed in the complexity of global business.

Coaching for executives and high potential managers developed in the USA and in Europe during the

1980s. Team coaching for executive boards or for project leading teams started to be a reality at the

beginning of the 1990s. Logically, organizational coaching should have emerged early in the

millennium. In fact, its development has been slowed down by the existence of several strong

‘compliance based’ methodologies like, for instance, business process reengineering (BPR) (Stewart

1993) and performance management. These methodologies assume a top-down approach with an

‘external expert’ or ‘guru’ role for highly paid consultants. They give token attention to inclusive,

action-learning approaches which position organizational players at all levels and locations with

shared responsibilities for change. It is in this latter kind of organizational change paradigm that

executive coaching is starting to have an impact and which is the focus of this chapter.

Changes in the environment

The organizational challenges face top level management and the executive coaches who they are

increasingly engaging to assist them. Invariably, these challenges have strong international

dimensions, often related to shifting labour markets. With the rapid development of Chindia (China-

India) during the last decade, Western countries are facing a situation where one billion new workers

are potentially available all over the planet at a very low salary rate. In order to cut production and

administrative costs, the occidental multinational companies are moving their workloads to countries

where infrastructure and personnel costs are low. More and more plants, call centres and

administrative tasks are implemented in Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa or Latin America. Market changes

are now very fast, and competition between enterprises is looking more like a kayak race in the rapids,

rather than a rowing contest on the Thames. If they want to be effective, coaches need to be informed

about such trends. Plus, they need to be professionally and personally equipped to deal with

international and organizational ‘white water’. The concepts and examples that follow may be of

assistance.

Recent approaches to organizational change

If we consider the many theories of organization, from the very beginning, with Frederick Taylor and

Henri Fayol, to the most recent ones, we eventually come to representing an organization as a system

interacting with its environment. Within this system, four subsystems are possible entry points when

one considers triggering a change:

1. The corporate culture. Many authors have considered changing the organization by changing its

culture: Edgar Schein, of course, but also Ronald Burt (1999), John Kotter and James Heskett (1992),

Gareth Morgan (1989), Millward and al. (2003), Weick and Quinn (1999), Giroux and Marroquin

(2005), etc. ;

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2. The corporate structure, which is more or less represented by a combination of the organization

flowchart and the corporate processes, both being implicit or explicit depending on the country and

the activity;

3. The information technology, which is providing new opportunities not only in terms of

communication between people, but also in terms of managing data, to extract from it information

and perhaps knowledge. Originally, the Socio-technical System Theory (STS) (Trist and Bamford 1951)

considered the tight relationship between the social and the technical systems. Recent technology

development makes it possible to have organization patterns that were beyond our imagination a few

years ago. Not only is the functional structure, designed by Frederick Taylor in 1911, finally possible

to implement, but also, since then, a multitude of other organizational layouts have been created.

Enterprises are more and more like cyborgs, half human, and half cybernetics; and

4. The decision system, which carries objectives to execution, usually from top to bottom.

This four-subsystem representation is similar to how Dr Tony Grant at the University of Sydney (Grant

and Greene 2003) identifies four elements in the coaching process:

· behaviours (equivalent of the decision system above);

· emotions (corporate culture);

· situation (structure); and

· cognition (technology).

There are tight interactions between the four subsystems. Acting on one of them usually strongly

impacts on the three others. Any change process that only takes account of one subsystem is doomed

to fail because resistance will be overwhelming. The message is that while there are four potential

entry points, it is necessary to traverse all four subsystems to facilitate sustainable change.

Resistance as an opportunity

According to Tannenbaum and Hanna (1985) resistance is due to the lack of ending which prevents

organizational members letting the past go. Another view is that the change may create a threat to

self-esteem (Jetten, O’Brien and Trindall 2002). Also, the analysis of potential gain and loss by the

people has been considered by Prochaska, Redding and Evers (1997) as a good predictor of resistance.

But, the research on resistance and organizational inertia is overall insufficient and urgent attention

is needed from the community of researchers.

What we know for sure is that resistance to change is inevitable, but not unhealthy. In the outside

expert model, those who resist are often viewed as ‘not getting it’ and either demonized or excluded

from the processes. In the complex international systems which make up large contemporary

corporations, such approaches make little sense. Executive coaches who are savvy in such systems use

resistance as information and as energy to accelerate the transformation. Coaches expect resistance

and their sole concern is how to use it. Those who initially resist are engaged within the system

(although some may need to leave the organization if they will not or cannot work with the

transformation).

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The coaching process Many talent leaders charged with developing executive-level talent may at some point ask, should we

hire an external executive coach? Since I provide executive coaching for a living, it’s a little hard for

me to be objective in answering this question. But I can offer some guidelines on when, how and if

you should hire an executive coach. We’ll pretend the executive in question is a CEO successor.

To begin with, make a rough analysis of the needs of the potential CEO. This memo should focus on

behavioral coaching — that’s all I know. If your successor needs help in a different area, do not

describe his or her needs and then ask the prospective coach if he or she is qualified to handle this

type of challenge. Begin by asking the coach to describe his or her area of specialty. For example, my

area of expertise involves helping leaders achieve positive, lasting change in leadership behavior. I

don’t do strategic, functional, technical, “how to give speeches” or “how to get organized” coaching.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with those types of coaching; they’re just not what I do.

I do get ridiculous requests for coaching. One pharmaceutical company wanted me to coach a

potential head of R&D. When I asked about the person’s major challenge, I was told, “He is not

updated on medical technology.” I replied, “Neither am I!” I cannot help a bad scientist become a good

scientist or a bad engineer become a good engineer. If your potential successor needs to brush up on

skills in marketing or finance, find a coach who has expertise in that field.

Strategy can be a particularly tough area to work on. There are very few strategists in the world who

I would recommend. Great thinkers like C.K. Prahalad or Vijay Govindarajan could help far more than

I could. Your successor’s strategic vision may well determine the future of the company. So be careful

who you ask for advice in this area. Far too many “experts” pretend to be knowledgeable about

strategic coaching when their backgrounds show they are not at all qualified to give advice on strategy.

I am not an expert on strategy, but I know enough to know that I am not an expert.

If your successor needs coaching in a specific area, hire a coach who specializes in that field. For

example, David Allen is a true expert on productivity and getting organized. Andrew Sobel and David

Maister are experts in professional services. Robert Dilenschneider is an expert on executive presence.

At the CEO level, most requests for coaching are behavioral, not technical, functional or strategic. The

first advantage of having an external executive behavioral coach is confidentiality in collecting data. It

can be hard for insiders to get valid information about a potential chief executive. Outsiders tend to

be more trusted for this type of data collection.

A second advantage of an outside coach is credibility. If your successor needs help in a certain area,

you may have credibility as a senior talent executive but have low credibility as a coach or teacher.

A third advantage of an outside coach is time. I have never met a talent leader who wasn’t extremely

busy. How much time are you willing to devote to the coaching process?

When I was asked by one CEO, who I knew very well, to coach a potential successor, I asked, “Why do

you want me to do this? You have been to my classes several times. You understand my coaching

process as well as I do. Why don’t you just do it yourself?”

He laughed and replied, “To begin with, you love this type of work more than I do, so you have more

motivation than me. Second, although you say I can do this as well as you, I think you have more ability

as a coach than I do. Third, I am totally overcommitted and don’t have the time to do this on my own.

Fourth, your fees are high, but you make a lot less than I do. So hiring you will save the company a lot

of money.”

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Although I ended up coaching the successor, the CEO remained involved in the process and was a key

player in its success. In most cases, I believe that hiring an executive coach can be a useful part of the

succession process. But the talent leader, the CEO or whoever is responsible for initiating coaching

must take responsibility for the entire process. He or she likely knows more about what it takes to be

the next leader of the organization than any outsider does.

The implementation of the mentoring process

The methods of mentoring available to the mentor The benefits of mentoring are well known: It gives less experienced employees valuable feedback,

insight and support, while passing down wisdom and institutional knowledge. But who can develop

effective mentoring relationships with today's time pressures and revolving doors of employees?

In organizations flattened by design or by downsizing, employees often take on larger or more

challenging roles with very little preparation or support. High-potential managers move around the

organization, gathering experience but often missing out on time to reflect on what they are learning.

Such situations can be both exciting and overwhelming--and when they arise, mentoring relationships

can help employees both adapt and learn.

Of course, as an experienced manager, you run major initiatives, take on complex jobs and have zero

time to spare. Helping younger employees manage their careers, navigate organizational politics and

gain success is almost certainly not your top priority. Take a moment, though, to consider how being

a mentor will help you with your own career goals.

For starters, the most effective mentors also improve their own leadership skills. As you assist your

mentee, you have the chance to reflect on and articulate your own expertise and experience--

something you probably don't take time to do otherwise. Along the way, you may see patterns you

didn't spot before.

Mentoring also helps you view the organization with a fresh eye toward its functions, politics and

culture. You may, for example, gain a new understanding of how people from different generations

or backgrounds approach their work and careers. Also, many mentors say they get personal

satisfaction and fulfillment from their mentoring relationships. If you're feeling burned out or cynical,

mentoring can give you and your career a boost.

What does it take to become an effective mentor? Here's a brief look at seven key tasks for the mentor

to perform:

--Develop and manage the mentoring relationship. Initially, this involves assessing your own readiness

and interest, selecting someone to mentor and getting to know each other. Over time, it means

working to build trust, set goals and keep the mentoring relationship on track.

--Sponsor. Opening doors and advocating for your mentee can allow her to develop new skills and gain

meaningful visibility. You can create and seek new opportunities for her and connect her with people

in your network.

--Survey the environment. Mentors keep a watchful eye on the horizon, looking for both threatening

organizational forces and positive opportunities. You want to be on the lookout for include rumors,

people taking an adversarial position relative to the mentee, shortcuts through the system, low-

visibility or no-win assignments and high-visibility or win-win assignments.

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--Guide and counsel. You may serve as a confidant, sounding-board and personal advisor to your

mentee, especially as the relationship grows deeper over time. You may help your mentee understand

conflict or explore ways to deal with problems, for example. You also can warn your mentee about

behavior that is a poor fit with organizational culture.

--Teach. Many mentors enjoy the teaching aspects of mentoring, which mean not only imparting their

knowledge but also sharing their experiences and recommending assignments.

--Model. Just while observing you mentees pick up many things: ethics, values and standards; style,

beliefs and attitudes; methods and procedures. They are likely to follow your lead, adapt your

approach to their own style, and build confidence through their affiliation with you. As a mentor, you

need to be keenly aware of your own behavior.

--Motivate and inspire. Mentors support, validate and encourage their mentees. When you help your

mentees link their own goals, values and emotions to the larger organizational agenda, they become

more engaged in their work and in their own development.

You will not do all seven of these things all the time. Each mentoring situation is different, and you'll

need to shift your role depending on the person and their goals. For example, if you're mentoring an

up-and-coming project manager who will be moving on to another assignment soon, your focus may

stay on her near-term challenges and preparation for the next step. Another mentee may be need

help navigating the organization and building his career, so sponsoring and protecting may be your

focus.

Always remember that mentoring is a shared job. You aren't solely responsible for creating a

successful mentoring relationship. The person being mentored needs to be flexible, honest, open and

receptive to feedback and insight. He or she needs to be willing and able to take action in pursuit of

goals, to invest in learning and to take steps toward needed change. The mentee also needs to be

willing to give you feedback and talk about what is or isn't working well in the relationship.

As you work together, you'll make course corrections, the relationship will deepen, and you'll discover

that being a mentor is no longer an unnecessary, expendable task. Instead it will be a rewarding one

for you that has a profound impact on others.

Mentoring opportunities in the organizational environment For many companies, a diverse workplace is an important part of encouraging business objectives such

as employee engagement and retention. As Iliana Castillo-Frick of SHRM said, “By fostering a culture

of diversity and inclusion, organizations will attract and retain the highest level of talent.” Diversity is

important – but are HR professionals managing their programs in a way that ensures as much impact

as possible? And can diversity mentoring, with its emphasis on informal relationships, really help

organizations?

The Importance of Diversity in Organizations

Many organizations increasingly tie diversity to business results and objectives. A survey by

Bersin found that organizations, especially Fortune 500 companies, invest in diversity and inclusion to

drive talent and business outcomes:

51 percent seek enhanced employee engagement

44 percent seek increased innovation and agility

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Additionally, inclusive organizations are 3.3 times more likely to be high performing and five times

more likely to be agile.

However, other organizations still face difficulty explaining why diversity is important to them. Bersin

found that 62 percent of organizations couldn’t agree that diversity and inclusion initiatives mapped

to strategic business outcomes and 54 percent couldn’t agree they mapped to strategic talent

outcomes.

It’s important to form effective diversity and inclusion initiatives. But it’s also important to formalize

and measure them to prove their value to your leadership.

How Mentoring Helps Diversity

That’s where diversity mentoring programs come into play. By creating a diversity mentoring program

that helps create informal relationships, organizations discover top talent, encourage employees to

build career paths, and create an environment with equal opportunities so all employees feel

empowered to collaborate.

Diversity mentoring combines all of the benefits of informal relationships with a structured goal. And

when a diversity mentoring program is set up correctly, organizations can track and measure results

to tie to them to business objectives to prove the value of their programs.

Of course, doing this is easier said than done – mentoring within or between unique groups can come

with its own challenges.

Best Practice Tips for Diversity Mentoring Programs

Define the Purpose Carefully

Ensure there are clear objectives and actionable goals so it’s easy to measure results. A goal such as

“supporting women in the organization” isn’t direct enough if you want real results. Instead, try topics

such as “encouraging more women leaders” and tie it to a specific goal like tracking the number of

promotions within active mentoring relationships vs. outside of active mentoring relationships.

Know Your Audience

It’s important to clearly understand the groups you’re trying to support and be careful about being

sensitive to their needs. We suggest having regular roundtables with active members to ensure the

program is valuable and to see if there are possible improvements. If you have software, launching

surveys to all program members is an easy task but there are plenty of other survey clients out there

too.

Make Programs “Opt In”

After going through the effort of creating a program like this, it might be tempting to automatically

enroll everyone who qualifies. That way the most people can benefit from it, right?

But for your program to be as successful as possible, it’s imperative that mentors and mentees want

to be active participants. They should be excited and eager about the program, especially since

diversity mentoring requires careful thinking and listening to people with differing perspectives. You’ll

want members who truly care about helping others and making an impact through the mentoring

program.

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Ensure Quality Trumps Quantity

Say you have 100 very excited mentees and only 40 mentors. You might want to let everyone join the

program. But limit the program to the number of quality mentors available so that in-program

mentees don’t feel let down if they don’t have a match. You want to keep in-program enthusiasm

high. Create a waiting for list for those who aren’t in the program and send them a few updates along

the way so they know they’re not forgotten.

Alternatively, you can see whether mentors are willing to take on additional mentees. We recommend

setting two as the maximum even if mentors say they can take on more. You don’t want overwhelmed

mentors and you want to be sure they can dedicate a good amount of their time to their mentees.

Same Group vs. Cross Group? – It Depends

Pulling mentors and mentees from the same diversity group can encourage empathy between the

matched pairs. But cross-group relationships can foster a greater level of understanding which is good

for the organization as a whole. Think carefully about what your organization needs more. A

supportive environment for diverse employees? Or more knowledge and sensitivity throughout the

organization?

Either way, diversity mentoring program will help mentees and mentors feel supported and foster

learning.

Invest in Training & Guide Relationships

A common misconception is that mentors and mentees automatically know what to do to make their

relationships a success – and if it isn’t, it was probably bound to fail anyway. Luckily, that’s not true.

Basic mentor/mentee training contributes significantly to positive relationships.

Training most commonly takes the form of videos or documents. But regardless of the format, it

should help mentees understand their role and improve mentors’ coaching capabilities. In addition, in

diversity mentoring it’s especially important to train people about cultural sensitivity issues.

After training, initial enthusiasm can wane if mentoring pairs aren’t directed. Provide your participants

with workflows that guide them throughout the mentoring process and help them stay on track for a

productive relationship.

Acknowledge Stereotyping

No one likes stereotyping – but it happens, so make sure you discuss this during training. Mentors in

particular should be able to openly and honestly discuss the role of stereotypes if the topic should

come up. That way, they’ll be knowledgeable enough to move the conversation forward and address

any concerns the mentee may have.

Avoiding this topic in a diversity mentoring relationship can hinder it from reaching its full potential,

so it’s important to ensure it can be openly talked about and acknowledged.

Balance Challenges With Advantages

It may be tempting to avoid discussing challenges related to diversity – or to focus too much on them.

Mentors must tread a fine line between ignoring challenges and allowing them to overtake the

mentoring relationship. Focusing solely on either of these limits the mentee’s potential.

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Mentors should work with mentees to establish a balance sheet of both the advantages and challenges

they may face in the workplace. Then, they can use this to create a go-forward plan of how to make

full use of the advantages and overcome the challenges. This puts a framework in place that

encourages progress towards defined goals.

Conclusion

The benefits of diversity mentoring programs are manifold. They connect employees, build

communication networks, and spread ideas across the company. When tied to business objectives,

they can increase promotion rates of target groups and enhance the organization’s ability to compete

in global markets. While implementing a diversity mentoring program can seem daunting, we hope

this list of best practices tips and items to consider will help.

The mentoring process You only get out what you put in. The right mentoring process (input) is integral to the results you take

away from a mentoring (the output). Mentoring is sneaky in the sense that it seems relatively soft; it

appears that people would be able to figure it out on the fly or wing it, and that building an effective

mentoring programs is pretty self-explanatory.

But this is not the case.

Good mentoring requires great mentoring process; process which dictates direction, cadence, and

guides the mentorship to success.

Rather than focus on the what the right process looks like for just mentors, mentees, or mentoring

program coordinators, we thought we’d address them all in some detail — as they are all intertwined

and closely linked.

In fact, it’s interesting to see the synergies between the processes when they work in harmony, and

create true mentoring magic.

Only interested in your own process? I’ll forgive you if you skip the others.

The mentoring program coordinator process

As a B2B mentoring software provider, I’ll cover the program coordinator process first — as they are

the ones who are being paid to facilitate an effective mentoring program and can make or break an

entire cohort of mentors and mentees by setting the right — or wrong — mentoring program process.

Step 1 — Promote, promote, promote

A critical part of building any people program is to promote it effectively, or it certainly won’t be

successful. Promoting your mentoring program can take many forms including via your intranet, email,

or an event.

Step 2 — Recruit

To have a mentoring program, part of your process must be recruiting or ‘onboarding’ mentors and

mentees. This part of the process involves creating a survey questionnaire which your potential

mentors and mentees will fill out. The answers to this questionnaire become their profiles; and their

profiles are how you match them.

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Step 3 — Match

The most talked about part of the mentoring process: matching. Matching is quite clearly a critical

component in the mentoring process and requires a bit of strategy and a bit of execution.

The strategy component involves deciding on the why of your mentoring program — which is derived

from the outcomes you want to achieve e.g you want to match juniors with same department seniors

for leadership development, which means matching based on those criteria; while the execution piece

centres on actually matching, whether that be by spreadsheet and email (not recommended), or by

using dedicated matching software.

Step 4 — Guide

Many program coordinators let their mentoring programs down by thinking that matching is the final

part of the process. It’s not. It’s the beginning of the mentorship.

The vast majority of your mentors and mentees are unseasoned: they don’t have mentorship

experience. You need to supply them with the resources and content required to make their

mentorship work. This can include agreements, checklists, and subject suggestion at the start and

during the mentorship.

Make sure part of your process is equipping mentors and mentees with their process.

Step 5 — Measure

The final component of the mentoring coordination process is closing the loop on the program and

measuring or reporting on success.

This involves surveying mentors and mentees, reporting on engagement statistics, and reporting back

on initial goals — which dictate whether or not your program — and current process was successful.

The mentee process

Once a mentoring program has begun (or if a mentorship is taking place outside of work), it’s

usually down to the mentee to ensure that their process is one that drives forward progress. The

mentee is the stakeholder who is set to gain most, and hence should be the stakeholder who drives

the process forward.

Step 1 — Say thanks, agree on expectations, and set up a first meeting

The first job as a mentee is to appreciate the fact your mentor is volunteering his or her time, thanking

them for it, and respecting their time (and your own) by setting early expectations.

This can be done in a simple message or email, or in the first meeting or in-person interaction. Make

sure you set a first meeting straight away, so that neither the mentee or mentor is left in the dark or

in an awkward spot of having to rekindle a mentorship that never really began.

Step 2 — Meet (in-person or digitally) and set goals and direction

The first meeting really is the crux of the mentoring process for mentees.

It’s when the mentee must make their goals and intentions clear to the mentor, so that the mentor

has a good first impression and understands where they can add value.

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Depending on how you are set to be mentored, set a few different types of goals: habit forming goals,

reach goals and stretch goals. During the mentorship, these goals will guide your discussions and the

rest of the process.

Step 3 — Track against your goals

Between months 1 and 6, the success of the mentorship will be based on the mentee coming back to

the mentor with progress updates, successes, and new obstacles.

It’s the mentees job to find the most suitable way (Along with the mentor) to accurately track and

share their efforts. Only then can the mentor help overcome obstacles or re-shape the mentee’s

strategy.

Step 4 — Receive feedback and iterate

Listening and receiving feedback is a more proactive part of the process than most people realise.

When a mentor gives advice or insight, it’s critical that the mentee notes it down, remembers it, and

applies it to their endeavours.

This helps create forward momentum, and helps give the mentor the satisfaction of helping (and not

just wasting their time).

Step 5 — Find the right conclusion

Most mentorships (especially in the workplace, university etc.) taper off eventually, as a mentee’s

career and life progresses. Part of the mentee process is to ensure you close this mentoring chapter

effectively, and open as many new ones as possible.

This involves maintaining a good relationship and ensuring that your valued mentor becomes a part

of your personal advisory board (most mentors are happy to be reached out to during decisive

moments of careers etc.), and to leverage this new resource.

Can your mentor recommended another mentor to connect you to?

The mentor process

Lastly, we will address the 5 key steps in the mentoring process for mentors. Much has been made of

the role the mentor should play in the process.

Should he or she be charged with initiating communication at any point during the mentorship?

Should the mentor be responsible for any meeting prep?

The answer to this really does come down to the mentor. And the fact of the matter is that either way

(more proactive work or less work), it’s worth it.

My best mentors have chosen to guide the mentee process; by sitting down on day 1 and helping me

set goals for the next few months. Then they have actively held me accountable and tracked my goals

— and setup follow-up meetings.

In some settings, it’s far more appropriate for the mentee to drive the engagements. I have a new

mentor based out of San Francisco and we were matched relatively informally. He agreed to mentor

me; now we connect when I run into an obstacle and he provides me with his insight and experience.

This mentorship works best when I drive the engagement and bring my problems to him.

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Factoring these thoughts into the equation, there are some fundamental steps to the mentor process

which help both mentors and mentees get more from their time together.

Step 1 — Understand what your mentee is looking for from you

The first part of the mentor’s process is to try and understand where they can add value to the

mentorship. Understanding this stems from getting a clear articulation from the mentee as to what

their goals and objectives are — and then finding the gaps with which the mentor can help.

Step 2 — Help your mentee shape their goals

Mentors bring experience to the table; that experience can be in years, or in applicable experience.

Either way, mentors can often add most value because they have navigated the mentee’s path before.

For this reason, a mentor should help shape a mentee’s goals. The mentor can look at their own

experience in retrospect and understand where they could have been better, smarter, or faster.

These insights should help shape the mentee’s goals; making them more ambitious, less ambitious, or

helping to help them understand exactly what they might be looking to do.

Step 3 — Keep your mentee accountable

Many mentors differ in their opinions of this element of the process: Should a mentor be charged with

holding the mentee accountable? The answer in my mind is yes, to an extent.

The mentor doesn’t need to act like a parent, nor be strict about it, but checking in with the mentee

and focusing on how they are moving forward is an essential part of being a good mentor. After all,

that (and context) is what separates a mentor from plain information.

Step 4 — Provide feedback and suggestions for progress

At every stage of the mentorship, the mentor should be looking to provide feedback and suggestions.

This is the part of the process that makes the mentee take stock and shift their goals and agenda,

which is what creates better results than what the mentee could have achieved alone.

Step 5 — Conclude

Saying goodbye to a mentee can be hard (or easy depending on the mentee), but their life changes as

does yours. Their comes a time in a mentorship when your experience, chat, and advice is mostly

exhausted, for now.

When this time comes, offer to be there when you are needed; think about if there is another mentor

who you could pass your mentee onto for even more progress; and make the mentee feel good about

their efforts by saying how much they have grown and changed.

None of these steps are rocket science; in fact, most of them are pretty simple. It’s not the process

which is hard — but understanding the process and implementing it at scale.

Mentoring process is the key to mentoring success — for mentoring program coordinators, for

mentors, and for mentees.

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The reviewing of progress and provision of feedback

The need for objectives and constructive feedback in the coaching process Entering into a business coaching relationship with a client requires that both parties make their

expectations known from the beginning. After all, you can’t create a roadmap unless you know where

you’re going. One of the most critical elements of a business coaching plan is good feedback. “Good”

refers to high quality here, not just positive feedback. When negative feedback is presented tactfully

and constructively, it can be as effective as positive feedback. Furthermore, those who want business

coaching almost by definition want feedback. A 2010 study by IMD found that executives working with

a business coach wanted in-depth, constructive feedback to help them define a plan of action. Here

are some thoughts on why feedback is so important in the business coaching relationship.

What Feedback Does

What does feedback do? For one thing, it helps leaders know how they’re actually doing so they can

compare that to how they think they’re doing. This is particularly important for executives, because

there aren’t many people at the top of the org chart, and executives may lack opportunities to discuss

their work with others.

People who report directly to a leader may be reluctant to give open, honest feedback due to the

power imbalance between them. Formal performance reviews for executives are good, but they’re

not a substitute for coaching feedback. A business coaching relationship gives the executive valuable

information they won’t get from anyone else.

Elements of Good Feedback

Not all feedback has to be positive, but in order to be constructive, positive or negative feedback

should contain some key ingredients:

• It should reinforce the feedback recipient’s value and how respected he or she is.

• It should involve active listening that builds trust and improves communication.

• It should involve asking the person being coached his or her opinion on solving a problem.

• It should be honest and explain the rationale behind the feedback.

• It should be supportive, without relieving the feedback recipient of responsibility.

A Feedback Session Should Also Include Plenty of Questions

A business coaching feedback session should involve asking the executive being coached a number of

questions. These questions can help a person clarify issues, confront surprises, and develop a clearer

plan for improvement. Some important questions include:

• What’s good and bad about your present situation as an executive?

• How will you use the feedback data you receive?

• Did any of the feedback you received surprise you?

• What have been some of the positive themes in your feedback?

• What has feedback taught you about opportunities for improvement?

• What changes would you like to make?

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Feedback sessions should include questions as well as delivery of feedback information.

When Feedback is Rejected

When in a business coaching relationship with an executive, you can’t assume that he or she will

automatically accept whatever feedback is given. If a client rejects feedback, becomes defensive, or

immediately starts trying to justify actions, there are ways to get the business coaching relationship

back on track. It’s important to remind the client that good feedback is information, and is not a

statement on the client’s worth as a person or leader.

Sometimes clients need to be reminded that rejecting feedback generally means rejecting change, and

if that’s the case, why is there a business coaching arrangement to begin with? When coaching an

executive, it’s essential to remain cool and address defensiveness in a constructive way. You could,

for example, state that the client appears not to see the feedback as helpful, and ask how he or she

would like to proceed.

Skills Executive Coaches Must Have

The executive coach is brought in to identify strengths and weaknesses, increase an executive’s

effectiveness, broaden his or her thinking, set goals, and develop a plan of action to meet them. This

requires the executive coach to know how to build a professional relationship based on honesty. A

coach should also be ready to help the client identify skills gaps and differentiate between current and

desired performance. A coach that asks well-formed, open-ended questions and then really listens to

the answers helps the client identify possible solutions. Ultimately, executive coaching should be

supportive and encouraging and should drive specific personal and business results.

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The need for exploratory feedback in the mentoring process There are a number of areas which are common to both mentor and learner, such as using reflective

practice. Other skills may be more important for mentors; for example coaching skills and an

understanding of some theoretical models that may help the learner.

It is also helpful to understand that any mentoring relationship will change over time and that different

skills are important at different stages of the relationship.

However, one thing is fundamental to being a good mentor and that is a belief in the potential of the

learner.

Building a Mentoring Relationship

Managing the Process

Although mentor and learner need to agree how they’re going to work together, it is usually the

mentor who takes responsibility for ensuring the process has been discussed and agreed. This will

include setting out a contract and agreeing a process for review.

Mentors therefore need to have good organisational skills so that they can take responsibility for

organising the practicalities and make sure that all the essentials are covered in the early days.

The Contracting Process

The contract between mentor and learner may be more or less formal, depending on how you choose

to work. However, whether written down formally or not, you need to discuss:

• How long you will work together (whether a time period, or until a goal is achieved).

• Your initial goals, which may include the development of long-term goals for the relationship.

• The practical arrangements such as how often you will meet, where you will meet (in the

office or elsewhere, for example), as well as whether cancelling meetings is acceptable and, if

so, under what circumstances.

• The process for reviewing the relationship. This should include end-of-session reviews to

discuss the process and learning from each session, and periodic reviews of progress towards

goals.

Part of contracting is clarifying the objectives and goals of the mentoring in the early stage and helping

the learner to identify their own learning goals. Our page Strategic Thinking may be useful in this

process.

Forming a Mentoring Relationship

Perhaps inevitably, it is also the mentor who usually takes responsibility for building the relationship

in its early stages.

The first contact with the learner may well be an exploratory one to see if you might be able to work

together productively in a mentoring relationship.

It is helpful if you can build rapport from an early stage as this builds trust too. It may also be helpful

to share the stories about how you came to be a mentor and learner, and what you both want to

get out of the relationship.

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At this stage, mentors really need to have good emotional intelligence to help them respond to the

learner’s emotions and feelings.

WARNING!

Ethics of Mentoring

Good mentoring has a strong ethical component. As a mentor, you need to bear in mind:

• The responsibility of the learner for his/her own learning.

• Respect for the learner's right to make his/her own decisions and to live as he/she chooses.

• A non-judgemental approach where people are treated with respect and honesty.

• Confidentiality regarding personal issues.

The issue of confidentiality may turn out to be difficult if, for example, the learner reveals behaviour

that is illegal. Make the terms of the relationship, including limits on confidentiality, clear at the start

and there will be fewer problems later.

It is also good practice to pay attention to your own learning and development and make sure that

you have a sounding board with whom to discuss any difficult issues in the mentoring relationship.

The Ongoing Mentoring Relationship

As the mentoring relationship develops, the learner will inevitably and appropriately start to take

more control of both the process and the content.

As a mentor, your role is largely to support this, to ensure that the learner is able to focus on their

goals. As a ‘critical friend’, you may also want to point them towards areas of development that may

be important, but less attractive. However, if they choose not to pursue these areas, then you should

accept that, and allow them to take responsibility for their own learning.

Your Mentoring Skills and Approach

Reflective practice is also a useful tool both within the mentoring relationship, and to reflect on your

own learning from the process outside the relationship.

Most crucially, perhaps, you will need to work on communication skills, such as active

listening and questioning skills to ensure that both you and the learner fully understand the situation

being discussed.

Be prepared to model behaviour that you think is helpful, both within the relationship and more

generally. For example, if you and the learner have been discussing the need to be more assertive,

then make sure that you are modelling assertiveness to them.

A Theoretical Underpinning

You may also want to familiarise yourself with various models of behaviour and learning,

including Myers-Briggs Type Indicators, the Ladder of Inference, Transactional Analysis, and Dilts'

Logical Levels. You may find that they are helpful to the learner in understanding their own and others’

behaviour.

Reviewing and Ending the Mentoring Relationship

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Regular review is crucial to maintaining the usefulness of the mentoring relationship. At the very least,

mentor and learner should pause at the end of each session to check:

• That both are clear what needs to be done before the next session.

• How far the learner has got in achieving the objectives of mentoring.

• Whether the style of learning and/or facilitation is helping, and if not, how could it be

improved.

• In what direction they are planning to move next.

A periodic review of the relationship more generally is also helpful, covering the same sort of areas

but in a broader sense. During review, be generous in noticing effort and praise achievement rather

than skill level. It’s the same with children: you need to notice how far they’ve come, as well as how

they have to go.

In the same way, welcome feedback from the learner, even critical feedback, and even if not very

tactfully expressed. You may be skilled at giving feedback, but they may not. All feedback is helpful

learning and can inform your development. A review process may uncover the situation that learner

and/or mentor feel that the relationship has reached the end of the road. If so, it’s best to agree to

end the mentoring relationship with a solid review of learning for both, including detailed feedback,

so that both can learn and move on.

Finally…

As a mentor, you need to remember that you, too, are always learning and developing. There is

always room to improve.

Ask the learner for feedback on your mentoring style, and change it to adapt to their requirements.

But especially if you’re working with several different learners, don’t forget that everyone is

different and the ideal approach for one may not work for another. Flexibility is key.

The need for confidentiality and ethics in coaching sessions Most people understand that coaching, when on a 1:1 basis, is a confidential conversation. But what

does confidentialactually mean in this context? And what do we mean by ethics?

Confidentiality

Absolute confidentiality is actually very rare, and in workplace coaching, neither achievable nor

helpful. In workplace coaching, there needs to be a clear set of confidentiality boundaries which are

agreed at the outset by the coach, player, sponsor, and any other specific stakeholders eg. HR/Talent

dept. These boundaries will form part of the coaching contract.

Fundamentally, the content of the coaching conversations between coach and player should not be

disclosed to a third party, unless it is agreed at the outset, such as the sharing of public goals with the

sponsor, or player/sponsor progress reviews etc, or with the coach’s coaching supervisor – in which

case the player should be made aware of the purpose of coaching supervision, and how the coach will

contract with their supervisor to maintain the confidentiality of the player.

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It may be the case that number of coaching sessions, date and venues etc are a matter of record for

the HR or OD Departments, and the player may choose to share the content of their coaching

conversations with third parties as their prerogative. The coach however may not share any content,

unless it has been specifically agreed in advance in the contract. There are two key circumstances

however when the coach must consider the confidentiality boundary breached. These are:

• when there is convincing evidence of serious danger or harm to the player or others if the

coach withholds information from the appropriate third party eg. sponsor/HR

• when the coach has convincing evidence that the player or others are assisting or colluding

in conduct which is dishonest, unlawful, unprofessional or discriminatory

Under these circumstances, which should be clearly defined in the coaching contract, the coach is

under obligation and duty of care to disclose the information to the appropriate authority or third

party. Ideally the player should be encouraged to make the disclosure themselves, and the coach

support the player to do this in an agreed timeframe, which clearly should be immediate if there is an

issue of harm, child protection, or unlawful behaviour.

Ethics

Ethics is about an appreciation of what is right and wrong in certain situations, and how to act in those

situations. Often ethics will be reduced to a set of rules or guidelines to help individuals act

appropriately. In coaching, the European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC), the International

Coach Federation (ICF) and the International Association of Coaching (IAC) each have their own set of

ethical guidelines for their members, which are similar and generally cover the key area of:

• Competence – the coach is competent and engaged in professional development

• Context – the coaching is relevant and appropriate to the background context

• Boundary Management – the coach will not work outside their professional capability and will

refer the player to another professional if necessary

• Integrity – maintain confidentiality within the terms of the contract and unless there are

grounds for breaking confidentiality as previously agreed, such as conduct which is dishonest,

unlawful, unprofessional or discriminatory

• Professionalism – act professionally in the best interests of the player/client and not exploit

the player/client in any way

Ethical guidelines such as these will be strictly adhered to by the vast majority of coaches who take

their coaching responsibilities and professionalism very seriously. There will always be situations

which fall outside of, or are in a grey area of interpretation of an ethical code, and these situations

can create ethical dilemmas for the coach as it may be unclear to them how they should best behave

or react to maintain ethical professionalism in the situation. On these rare occasions, the coach should

resort to professional coaching supervision to help them manage and work through the dilemma in

the best interests of the player and client.

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The achievement of progress and recognize success When last did you raise a glass to the success of your company’s achievements? Celebrating

milestones injects life into the organisation, making it worthwhile for employees to contribute to the

long term success of the company. Defining success can be as simple as a praise for an individual's

performance over a week or the overall success of the company over the past 12 months. Success

should be whenever a colleague achieves a goal. Personal efforts count when the achievement

contributes to the team’s common goals. Basically, everything that gets done and contributes to the

the mission of the team is a team success.

If you have a team member who has achieved something important in his/her roll, a celebration can

be as simple as treating them to a lunch and discussing their success in detail. Understand what they

loved about the success, how it made them feel and if there was space for possible improvement. Its

likely that this person is passionate about their recent achievement, and will be incredibly open to

talking about it. Celebration lead to establishing ritual that help to simply make it through a tough

week. Camaraderie within an organization lead to higher employee moral and ensure that the most

valued colleagues stick around for good.

Should team mates share success stories?

The stories employees tell about how they achieve a goal can be very helpful. They are the practical

tips others can take up to solve similar problems. Others learn from the workflow of the success. In

addition, success stories serve as an inspiration for others to excel. When team members share stories

with each other, the team gets stronger because people get to know each other better.

Why should everyone recognize everyone else’s success?

Recognizing success is very powerful. employee recognition brings fulfilment because it reinforces the

meaning of determination and collaboration. When you show your respect to another’s achievement,

you are likely to boost their esteem.

Moreover, a manager can motivate an employee a great deal by showing gratitude and appreciation

towards the employee's accomplishments. Being motivated by the manager, they are likely to try

harder and contribute more. Mutual respect brings forges stronger relationships and encourages

employee engagement.

How to share and celebrate success

• The story

Sharing success is like telling a story. You want to tell a good story that has an impact. You want to

help and inspire people to achieve their own goals. Here is some tips for a good story:

• Focus on useful content

You want your audience to take home practical tips. Think of the exact step-by-step that you have

taken to achieve a goal. Share the steps as a tool to solve a similar problem.

• Be inspirational and authentic

You want to inspire your audience to gain something for themselves. Think back of the obstacles,

especially mental blocks, and how you overcame them. A story that talks to one’s feelings tends to

have a stronger impact and stay longer in one’s mind.

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Moreover, it is very important to try not to come across as being arrogant. You have all the rights to

be proud of your achievement but avoid sounding snobby. It is best to stay authentic and down to

earth.

The celebration

As manager, you should take time to celebrate a employee achievements. Show them that you do not

take their hard work for granted. Besides, it is helpful to create an environment where team mates

can easily recognize and celebrate each other’s success.

Here is some tips for you, as manager, to make a positive impact with recognizing employee

achievement.

• Do it soon

The rule for recognition is that the earlier the better. Being manager, you should always know what is

going on in your team. If your employees do something great, you should be the first to notice and

the first to congratulate them. Come to them as soon as you can, for a handshake or a high-five. An

official congratulation or a bonus can come later but there is no reason why you should wait to say

thanks to an employee for his or her hard work.

• Make it public

A public recognition is more powerful than a private one. You don’t have to put up a stage with flowers

and stereo sound system every time, of course. But a compliment in public is far better at boosting

one’s esteem than the same one sent via an email or even 1-on-1. A celebration only feels like a real

one with a crowd and some level of noise. That is why we gather for fireworks to celebrate a new year

or a national holiday. Well, I am not saying you should stock fireworks in your company’s basement.

It works as well when you have a Wall of Fame with photos of your go-getters. You can also get a

buzzer to hit when someone achieves something. As manager, you could hold weekly meeting(e.g.15

minutes of heroism) to make success acknowledgement official and public. Let’s share ideas below in

the comment section.

Add a bonus or a token gift

A high-five or a handwritten thank-you note is great but more is in order in many cases. Rewards and

hard work should go together. Depending on the level of achievement, a certain form of rewards is

due. Why do you think the Nobel Prizes, the Pulitzer Prizes, the Oscars and many other awards exist?

It is important to reward your employees, so you should do learn to do it appropriately. It would be

even better if you can do it in a creative and authentic way.

Rewards can come in all shapes and sizes, and can involve cash or non-monetary rewards. Traditional

rewards often include a monetary bonus or a pay rise. Inarguably, most would be happy and motivated

with a bigger paycheck. However, there are rewards that can be just as effective or even more

impactful and cost the company far less. To name a few ideas:

• A day-off pass to use for extra time off or flexible hours

• A nice, long lunch to celebrate the achievement together

• A voucher from a fine diner in town

• A massage gift card

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Do you have some good ideas?

Go an extra mile to find out what your employees like, what their hobbies are and what they are

passionate about. For example, if an employee likes reading, a book signed by her favourite author

will make a great gift. It shows that you can also go the extra mile to make her happy as she did with

clients.

In brief

Building a great team is a challenging job. You should take pride in your team’s success. Take time and

efforts to celebrate success with your people. Whenever one achieves a goal, acknowledge your

appreciation timely and publicly. Never to forget a reward or a token gift. Recognize employee

achievement and you will reap the rewards from their motivation and loyalty.