Performance unit 4 concepts and applications

¶ … managers have to coach and mentor at some point in their careers. In order to be successful at coaching and mentoring there are some basic fundamentals that one must remember. Coaching and Mentoring is not the same thing. Mentoring is a power free, mutual jointly beneficial learning situation where the mentor provides recommendations, shares knowledge and experiences, and teaches using a low stress, self-discovery advance. Coaching, on the other hand, is task linked enhancement of knowledge, skills or abilities in order to better execute a given task. A good coach creates the need for conversation and is responsible for follow up and holding others responsible (Starcevich, 2009).

In order for people to be coaches and mentors they must have certain skills. The first is that they must understand the concept of empathy and know how to deploy it when necessary. To show empathy is to recognize another's feelings. It is to emotionally put oneself in the place of another. The capability to empathize is directly reliant on one's ability to feel their own feelings and recognize them. People with a good level of innate emotional intelligence usually do very well with this. A person who has actually experienced the widest range and variety of feelings is the one who is most able to empathize with the greatest number of people from all walks of life. Conversely, when one says that someone can't relate to other people, it is likely because they haven't experienced, recognized or accepted many feelings of their own (Empathy, n.d.).

A second basic skill is that of having diversity. There is a basic strength in knowing what diversity is and how to use it. Not everyone is the same. Every person is an individual and must be treated as such. When it comes to coaching and mentoring in order to be successful each person has to be dealt with on an individual basis. It is important that managers avoid the one-size-fits all approach. No two people are alike and no two people's situations are alike. When looking to coach or mentor it is important that the coach or mentor analyze each situation on its own merits and then come up with the best plan of action.

It is important in these situations that there is a strong relationship between coach/mentor and the person receiving the coaching or mentoring. The nature of the quality of the relationship is emphasized in coaching/mentoring as a prerequisite for learning and satisfaction more than in other strands of development. Features that are frequently cited as contributing to that quality association are trust, promise, genuineness, listening, time for critical reflection, positive regard and caring, boundary clarity and management, questioning and challenge. These go outside the routine, automatic and instrumental conditions for learning employed by other methods and lie at the core of coaching and mentoring processes (Coaching and Mentoring Diversity in Practice, 2007).