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Welcome to The Forton Group website terms and conditions for use ("Terms").
These Terms apply to the use of this Website and by accessing this Website and/or placing an order for Products or Services you agree to be bound by the Terms set out below. If you do not agree to be bound by these terms and conditions please do not use our Website.
Before you place an order with us, if you have any questions relating to these terms and conditions please contact us by email at info@thefortongroup.com , or call us on 0845 077 2980. We are open between 9.30-5.30 daily (Monday - Friday).

Please note that customer service calls will be charged at the UK local rate (BT users only, other network charges may vary). Mobile caller rates vary according to tariff when dialling local rate telephone numbers.

You may want to print a copy of these Terms and Conditions for future reference.
Contents

1. Definitions

2. Use Of Our Website

3. Purchase Of Products And/Or Services

4. Contract Cancellation & Return of Goods

5. Description Of Products Or Services

6. Price & Payment Methods

7. Pricing and VAT outside of the UK

8. Delivery

9. Third Party Links

10. Your Privacy

11. Gift Vouchers

12. Money Off Vouchers And Promotional Discounts

13. Prize Draws

14. Our Liability

15. Events Outside Our Control (Force Majeure Events)

16. General

17. Compliance with laws

18. Contact Us

19. Customer Policies: public workshops, masterclasses & training courses

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"Personal Information" means the details provided by you when you register on this website

"Product" means a product displayed for sale on the Website

"Service" means a service displayed for sale on the Website

"We/us/our" means The Forton Group Limited of College Farm, Main Street, Willoughby, Warwickshire, CV23 8BH and the trading names of "The Professional Leadership Coach Training Programme", "The LeadershipZone" and "The Leadership Coach".

"Website" means the website located at www.theleadershipzone.org and/or www.thefortongroup.com or any subsequent URL which may replace them;

"You" means a user of this Website.

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2.1 Access You are provided with access to this Website in accordance with these Terms and Conditions. Orders placed by you must be placed in accordance with these Terms and Conditions. Back to the Top

2.2 Registration

2.2.1 By registering as a user of our Website, you warrant that:
(a) the Personal Information which you provide when you register as a user is true, accurate, current and complete in all respects; and
(b) you will notify us immediately of any changes to the Personal Information by contacting us by email at admin@thefortongroup.com

2.2.2 You agree not to impersonate any other person or entity or to use a false identity, name or a name that you are not authorised to use.

2.3 We reserve the right to:
(a) modify or withdraw, temporarily or permanently, this Website (or any part thereof) with or without notice to you and you confirm that we shall not be liable to you or any third party for any modification to or withdrawal of the Website; and/or *
(b) change these Terms from time to time in accordance with clause 17.8 Our Right to Vary these Terms. If you do not agree to such amended terms, you must stop using the Website. If you continue to use the Website you will be deemed to have accepted the amended terms.

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Purchase Of Products And/Or Services

3.1 Ordering
By placing an order through our Website, you warrant that you are legally capable of entering into binding contracts;

3.2 How the contract is formed between you and us
After placing an order, you will receive an email from us acknowledging that we have received your order. Please note that this does not mean that your order has been accepted. Your order constitutes an offer to us to buy a Product or Service from us. All orders are subject to acceptance by us, and we will confirm such acceptance to you by sending you an e mail that confirms either or both of the following (depending on whether you have bought products, services or both):

3.2.1 Buying Products: The contract between us ("Contract") will only be formed when we send you a "Dispatch Confirmation" email.

3.2.2 Buying Services: The contract between us ("Contract") will only be formed when we send you a "Services Confirmation" email, containing passwords and other details enabling you to access the Services you have bought.

3.2.3 The Contract will relate only to those Products or Services that we have confirmed in the Dispatch/Services Confirmation. We will not be obliged to supply any other Products or Services which may have been part of your order until they have been confirmed in a separate Dispatch/Services Confirmation.

3.2.4 Non-acceptance of an order may be a result of one of the following: * - The Product or Service you ordered being unavailable from stock. * - Our inability to obtain authorisation for your payment. * - The identification of a pricing or Product description error. * - You not meeting the eligibility to order criteria set out in these Terms.

3.2.5 If you have any queries regarding orders you have placed with us please call us on 0845 077 2980, email us at info@thefortongroup.com or write to us at: Customer Services, The Forton Group Ltd., College Farm, Main Street, Willoughby, Warwickshire, CV23 8BH

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Contract Cancellation & Return of Goods

4.1 If you are contracting as a consumer and buying a physical product, you may cancel a Contract at any time within 14 days, beginning on the day after you received the Product you ordered. In this case, you will receive a full refund of the price paid in accordance with our refunds policy.

Refunds Policy: Products purchased via the LeadershipZone Website can be returned for a full refund or exchange within three months of the date of dispatch.
When you return a Product to us:

(a) because you have cancelled the Contract between us within the 14 day period we will process the refund due to you as soon as possible and, in any case, within 30 days of the day you have given notice of your cancellation. In this case, we will refund the price of the Product in full, including the cost of sending the item to you. However, you will be responsible for the cost of returning the item to us.

(b) for any other reason (for instance, because you have notified us in accordance with clause 17.3 that you do not agree to any change in these terms and conditions or in any of our policies, or because you claim that the Product is defective), we will examine the returned Product and will notify you of your refund via e-mail within a reasonable period of time. We will usually process the refund due to you as soon as possible and, in any case, within 30 days of the day we confirmed to you via email that you were entitled to a refund for the defective Product. Products returned by you because of a defect will be refunded in full, including a refund of the delivery charges for sending the item to you and the cost incurred by you in returning the item to us.

4.2 We will usually refund any money received from you using the same method originally used by you to pay for your purchase.

4.3 To cancel a Contract, you must inform us in writing. You must also return the Product(s) to us immediately and at your own cost and risk. The product must be unused and returned in the original packaging, in good condition. Please take reasonable care of the Products while they are in your possession. This provision does not affect your statutory rights.

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Description Of Products Or Services

5.1 We will take all reasonable care to ensure that all details, descriptions and prices of Products or Services appearing on the Website are correct at the time when the relevant information was entered onto the system. Although we aim to keep the Website as up to date as possible, the information appearing on this Website at a particular time may not always reflect the position exactly at the moment you place an order. We will confirm the price of a Product in the Dispatch or Services Confirmation.

5.2 Every care has been taken to ensure that the description and specifications of the Products are correct. However while online colour reproduction is a close representation, variations in actual Products may occur.

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6.1 The price of any Products and Services will be as quoted on our Website from time to time, except in cases of obvious error. These prices exclude delivery costs, which will be added to the total amount due.

6.2 Prices are liable to change at any time, but changes will not affect orders in respect of which we have already sent you a Dispatch/Service Confirmation.

6.3 Every effort has been made on this Website to ensure that shopping online is safe and secure, using the RBS Worldpay System. The LeadershipZone cannot be responsible for the fraudulent use on our Website of a lost credit card, but will assist your credit card company where necessary - and with your express permission - once you have reported the fraud to them.

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Pricing and VAT outside of the UK

7.1 Payment is to be made in pounds Sterling. International credit card providers or banks will determine the exchange rate, and may add an additional processing or administration charge which the cardholder will be liable to pay.

7.2 All Product prices shown on the Website are inclusive of any applicable UK VAT. This means that the total price you pay for the Product is always the same, regardless of whether or not UK VAT is chargeable on our sale of the Product.

7.3 If you order Products or from us for delivery outside the UK, they may be subject to import duties and taxes which are levied when the delivery reaches the country of delivery or the delivery address. The recipient at the delivery address will be responsible for paying any such import duties and taxes. If you're ordering Products to be delivered to someone else, please ensure they're aware that they'll be responsible for these additional charges. Please note that we have no control over these charges and cannot predict their amount. Please contact your local customs office for further information before placing your order.

7.4 The Forton Group Ltd. has a policy of charging all customers the same throughout the world, so that the price paid in pounds sterling is the same wherever customers live (except for the cost of delivery). None of the significant additional administrative costs for overseas orders are passed on to customers. Equally, an effective reduction in prices through reclaiming VAT is not available.

7.5 Please also note that you must comply with all applicable laws and regulations of the country for which the Products are destined. We will not be liable for any breach by you of any such laws.

7.6 For payments by credit card over £750 we reserve the right to add a surcharge of 2% as a contribution towards the fees charged by credit card companies.

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8.1 From receipt of your order and payment in full we aim to deliver Products within 2 weeks, stock permitting and access to Services within 48 working hours (Monday to Friday).

8.2 For stock purposes, each item requested constitutes an individual order. We will always attempt to consolidate multiple orders in one shipment. Due to stock and packaging requirements, Products may be shipped over several days and in more than one package.

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9.1 Links to third party websites on the Website are provided solely for your convenience. If you use these links, you leave the Website. We have not reviewed any of these third party websites and do not control and we are not responsible for these websites or their content or availability. We do not endorse or make any representations about them, or any material found there, or any results that may be obtained from using them. If you decide to access any of the third party websites linked to the Website, you do so entirely at your own risk.

9.2 Where the Forton Group has a commercial arrangement with a 3rd party (e.g. Amazon), this interest will be declared.

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10.1 We process information about you in accordance with our privacy policy. By using our Website, you consent to such processing and you warrant that all data provided by you is accurate.

10.2 When you shop on this Website, we will ask you to input and will collect Personal Information from you such as your name, e-mail address, billing address, delivery address, telephone number, product selections, credit card or other payment information and a password. We may also collect information about where you are on the internet (eg the URL you came from, IP address, domain types like .co.uk and .com), your browser type, the country and telephone area code where your computer is located, the pages of our website that were viewed during your visit, and any search terms that you entered on our website ("User Information"). We may collect this information even if you do not register with us.

10.3 When you create a shopping account while ordering online you will be given the option to receive information from The Forton Group by post, e-mail or telephone, about products, services, promotions or special offers which we feel may be of interest to you. In the event that you do not wish to be contacted for such purposes, ensure that you tick the appropriate box as you go through the registration process. You may unsubscribe from our contact list at any time by replying to a promotional e-mail with the word "unsubscribe" in the subject line, by e-mailing us at info@thefortongroup.com or telephoning us on 0845 077 2980 during office hours.

10.4 We will not release your Personal Information to any company outside of the Forton Group for mailing, marketing or any other purposes.

10.5 If we are requested by the police or any other regulatory or government authority investigating suspected illegal activities to provide your Personal Information and /or User Information, we are entitled do so.

10.6 'Cookies'
We use Cookies to keep track of your current shopping session to personalise your experience and so that you may retrieve your shopping basket at any time - if you do not accept Cookies you will be unable to use this Website for shopping purposes, only for browsing and research.

10.7 Our Data Protection Responsibilities
There are eight enforceable principles of good practice related to the processing of personal data. The 8 principles of the Data Protection Act state that the data must be: * Fair and lawfully processed * Processed for limited purposes * Adequate, relevant and not excessive * Accurate * Not kept for longer than necessary * Processed in accordance with the data subject's rights * Secure * Not transferred to countries without adequate protection The Forton Group is fully committed to these 8 principles.

10.8 Our Privacy Policy
This site is being monitored and may capture information about your visit that will help us improve the quality of our service. Any Personal Information which you provide to us (or which is available on pu blic registers) and any User Information from which we can identify you, is held in accordance with the registration we have with the Data Commissioner's Office. We use your information only for the following purposes: * Processing your orders; * For statistical or survey purposes to improve this Website and its services to you; * To serve website content to you; * To administer this website; * If you consent, to notify you of products or special offers that may be of interest to you by emails and our bulletin.

10.9 Storing your data outside the EU
Your data may be stored and processed outside of the EU. If, through using a third party data storage mechanism outside of our direct control (such as through the use of 'cloud computing'), we store your data outside the EU, we take the following steps:

Notice: we will inform online and offline users, in a clear and conspicuous manner, about the purpose(s) for which information about them is collected and used; the choice mechanism(s) available for limiting use and transfer; the types of third parties to which data is transferred; and how to contact the organisation for enquiries or complaints.

Choice: We offer all users a clear and conspicuous opt-out mechanism for any secondary uses of data.

Access: You can obtain reasonable access to personal information about you by contacting us (see Contact Us, below). You can also correct, amend or delete information that is inaccurate by contact us.

Security: We take reasonable precautions to protect your personal information from loss, misuse, unauthorised access, unauthorised disclosure, unauthorised alteration and unauthorised destruction. We use technologies such as encryption, access controls and physical security of the data.

Onward transfer: our website service providers guarantee at least the same level of protection as is required by the relevant principles, and/or they subscribe to the Safe Harbour Principles or is subject to the EU directive or another adequacy finding by the EU.

Data integrity: we only collect personal information relevant to the purposes stated above, and take reasonable steps to ensure that this data is reliable, accurate, complete and current.

10.10 We do not store credit card details nor do we share customer details with any 3rd parties

You agree that you are aware your data is being stored and processed outside the EU and that you do not object to us contacting you for any of the above purposes whether by telephone, e-mail or in writing and you confirm that you do not and will not consider any of the above as being a breach of any of your rights under the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003.
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11.1 The LeadershipZone paper gift vouchers can be exchanged for goods and services offered by The Forton Group Ltd and for coaching services offered by the Leadership Coach.

11.2 Gift vouchers may not be exchanged for cash.

11.3 If the Products purchased online total less than the value of the gift voucher, any balance will be left as a credit for you and will be redeemed against subsequent orders.

11.4 Gift vouchers may not be used to discharge indebtedness on any account issued by The LeadershipZone.

11.5 When redeeming gift vouchers online or over the telephone you will be required to give the serial number of the voucher. This may be used once only. Email gift vouchers must be used in conjunction with the email address to which they were mailed and can only be used online only.

11.6 If you have to return Products you have purchased online using gift voucher/s, then in most instances we will credit your online shopping account against further purchases. This does not affect your statutory rights.

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Money Off Vouchers And Promotional Discounts

12.1 Money-off vouchers and voucher codes are not exchangeable for cash and can only be used once per transaction. Money-off vouchers and voucher codes cannot be used to purchase gift vouchers.

12.2 Money-off vouchers and voucher codes cannot be used in conjunction with any other voucher or voucher code.

12.3 Discounts and promotional discount codes offered by the Website are valid only for use as part of a purchase made via the Website, unless otherwise stated.

12.4 If you return to us for a refund a Product which has been purchased with a money-off voucher, we will refund to you the full price of that item less the value of the voucher used.

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13.1 We operate prize draws from time to time which are governed by relevant Terms & Conditions. When entering any of our contests or prize draws, you provide your name, email address and mailing address. If you win, we will send the prize to the address entered and notify you by email. When you enter a contest or prize draw, you are also included in our newsletter list to receive notice of promotions, specials and new additions to the Website. You may unsubscribe from this news list by following the unsubscribe instructions in any email received.

13.2 Prizes are transferable, to a nominated charity (e.g. as a donation in kind), or to a nominated 3rd party, with our express agreement

13.3 Names of winners or recipients of prize draws will be entered in our publicly-available 'Prize Draw Register' under the Bribery & Corruption 2010 regulations.

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14.1 We warrant to you that any Product purchased from us through our Website is of satisfactory quality and reasonably fit for all the purposes for which products of the kind are commonly supplied.

14.2 We will not accept responsibility for a failure to comply with specific care instructions stated in the Product or within the Product's packaging.

14.3 Our liability for losses you suffer as a result of us breaking this agreement is strictly limited to the purchase price of the Product you purchased.

14.4 This does not include or limit in any way our liability:

(a) for death or personal injury caused by our negligence;

(b) under section 2(3) of the Consumer Protection Act 1987;

(c) for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation; or

(d) for any matter for which it would be illegal for us to exclude, or attempt to exclude, our liability.

14.5 We are not responsible for indirect losses which happen as a side effect of the main loss or damage, including but not limited to:

(a) loss of income or revenue;

(b) loss of business;

(c) loss of profits or contracts;

(d) loss of anticipated savings;

(e) loss of data; or

(f) waste of management or office time however arising and whether caused by tort (including negligence), breach of contract or otherwise; provided that this clause 15.5 shall not prevent claims for loss of or damage to your tangible property that fall within the terms of clause 15.1 or clause 15.3 or any other claims for direct financial loss that are not excluded by any of categories (a) to (f) inclusive of this clause 15.5.

14.6 We will take all reasonable care, in so far as it is in our power to do so, to keep the details of your order and payment secure, but in the absence of negligence on our part we cannot be held liable for any loss you may suffer if a third party procures unauthorised access to any data you provide when accessing or ordering from the Website.

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Events Outside Our Control (Force Majeure Events)

15.1 A Force Majeure Event includes any act, event, non-happening, omission or accident beyond our reasonable control and includes in particular (without limitation) the following:

(a) strikes, lock-outs or other industrial action;

(b) civil commotion, riot, invasion, terrorist attack or threat of terrorist attack, war (whether declared or not) or threat or preparation for war;

(c) fire, explosion, storm, flood, earthquake, subsidence, epidemic or other natural disaster;

(d) impossibility of the use of railways, shipping, aircraft, motor transport or other means of public or private transport;

(e) impossibility of the use of public or private telecommunications networks; and

(f) the acts, decrees, legislation, regulations or restrictions of any government.

15.2 We will not be liable or responsible for any failure to perform, or delay in performance of, any of our obligations under a Contract that is caused by events outside our reasonable control ("Force Majeure Event").

15.3 Our performance under any Contract is deemed to be suspended for the period that the Force Majeure Event continues, and we will have an extension of time for performance for the duration of that period. We will use our reasonable endeavours to bring the Force Majeure Event to a close or to find a solution by which our obligations under the Contract may be performed despite the Force Majeure Event.

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16.1 Intellectual property and right to use

16.1.1 Unless otherwise stated, the copyright and other intellectual property rights in the content on the Website are owned by us or our licensors. Any access or use of the Website for any reason other than your personal, non-commercial use is prohibited.

16.1.2 Excluding free resources made available to you by registration with us, no part of the Website may be reproduced or stored in any other website or included in any public or private electronic retrieval system or Website without our prior written permission.

16.1.3 You acknowledge and agree that the material and content contained within the Website is made available for your personal non-commercial use only and that you may (if necessary to make a purchase of Product(s)) download such material and content onto only one computer hard drive for such purpose. Any commercial use of the material and content of the Website is strictly prohibited.

16.1.4 You agree not to (and agree not to assist or facilitate any third party to) copy, reproduce, transmit, publish, display, distribute, commercially exploit or create derivative works of such material and content.

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The Website may be used only for lawful purposes and in a lawful manner. You agree to comply with all applicable laws, statutes and regulations regarding the Website and any transactions conducted on or through the Website.

17.1 Written Communications
Applicable laws require that some of the information or communications we send to you should be in writing. When using our site, you accept that communication with us will be mainly electronic. We will contact you by email or provide you with information by posting notices on our website. For contractual purposes, you agree to this electronic means of communication and you acknowledge that all contracts, notices, information and other communications that we provide to you electronically comply with any legal requirement that such communications be in writing. This condition does not affect your statutory rights.

17.2 Notices
All notices given by you to us must be given to The Forton Group Ltd., College Farm, Main Street, Willoughby, Warwickshire CV23 8BH. We may give notice to you at either the email or postal address you provide to us when placing an order, or in any of the digital ways specified in clause 17.3 above. Notice will be deemed received and properly served immediately - * When posted on our website, or * 24 hours after an email is sent, or * Three days after the date of posting of any letter. In proving the service of any notice, it will be sufficient to prove, in the case of a letter, that such letter was properly addressed, stamped and placed in the post and, in the case of an email, that such email was sent to the specified email address of the addressee.

17.3 Transfer of rights and obligations

17.3.1 The contract between you and us is binding on you and us and on our respective successors and assigns.

17.3.2 You may not transfer, assign, charge or otherwise dispose of a Contract, or any of your rights or obligations arising under it, without our prior written consent.

17.3.3 We may transfer, assign, charge, sub-contract or otherwise dispose of a Contract, or any of our rights or obligations arising under it, at any time during the term of the Contract.

17.4 Severance
If any part of these Terms shall be deemed unlawful, void or for any reason unenforceable, then that provision shall be deemed to be severable from these Terms and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of any of the remaining provisions of these Terms.

17.5 Waiver
No waiver by us shall be construed as a waiver of any proceeding or succeeding breach of any provision.

17.6 Entire Agreement
We intend to rely upon these Terms and Conditions, and any document expressly referred to in them in relation to the subject matter of any Contract. While we accept responsibility for statements and representations made by our duly authorised agents, please make sure you ask for any variations from these terms and conditions to be confirmed in writing.

17.7 Our Right to Vary these Terms
We have the right to revise and amend these terms and conditions from time to time. You will be subject to the policies and terms and conditions in force at the time that you order Products from us, unless any change to those policies or these terms and conditions is required to be made by law or governmental authority (in which case it will apply to orders previously placed by you), or if we notify you of the change to those policies or these terms and conditions before we send you the Dispatch Confirmation (in which case we have the right to assume that you have accepted the change to the terms and conditions, unless you notify us to the contrary within seven working days of receipt by you of the Products).

17.8 Law
These Terms and the Contracts shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of England and you irrevocably submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England. Any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with the Contracts or their formation (including non-contractual disputes or claims) shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.

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Please call us on 0845 077 2980 Email us at info@thefortongroup.com Write to us at: Customer Services, The Forton Group Ltd.,College Farm, Main Street, Willoughby, Warwickshire, CV23 8BH

Customer Policies: public workshops, masterclasses & training courses

We hope you will be pleased with your purchase, especially when you book your coaching, training or other workshops by phone, email or online. Our aim is to give you clear information about the goods or services before buying.
Contact Point:
The following representative of the Forton Group Limited will be your initial point of contact for your training.

Name: Bob Hughes PCC, Chairman, The Forton Group

Telephone (landline): +44(0)1788 890010

Telephone (mobile): +44(0)7710 105612

Email: bob.hughes@thefortongroup.com

For administrative enquiries, please contact the office on T: +44(0)845 077 2980

Registered Office: College Farm, Main Street, Willoughby, Warwickshire, CV23 8BH

Business registered in the United Kingdom, no. 4389389.

VAT registration number: 849 2968 65

Customer policies
It is the Forton Group's policy to be flexible and supportive of training course participants and coaching clients where possible; however, we do incur costs when booking venues, committing trainers and organising events. It is the Forton Group's policy to set out clearly our policy on course reservations and cancellation costs and not hide in the 'small print'. This policy also covers the Data Protection statement relevant to course bookings, coaching and coach supervision.
Payments
Reservation is a contract and all payments must normally be made four weeks before the course date and/or first coaching session. Payments are accepted by cheque, BACs payment, or Worldpay or PayPal for payment by credit card. A VAT invoice will be issued on receipt of booking, on request ( admin@thefortongroup.com ). If payment is not received by the event date/first coaching session we reserve the right to make an additional charge of £20 per person to cover administration costs and/or cancel the place from course.

Where you are buying our services for yourself rather than for a business you have the right to cancel within seven days of our contract with you. In this case, if you do cancel your order within seven days in writing to admin@thefortongroup.com , you will have your payment returned in full. .
Course Substitutions, cancellations postponement fees and refunds Cancellation by delegates
Places on our courses are limited so we therefore operate a cancellation policy regarding refund.

To cancel a place on our events and courses, notice of cancellation must be given by email to: info@thefortongroup.com Please note that receipt of notification of cancellation will be confirmed - if you do not receive confirmation of cancellation please try to contact us again.

To receive a full refund (minus a £25.00 administration fee) you must cancel at least 28 days prior to the start of the course. To receive a 50% refund (minus a £25.00 administration fee) or where possible a transfer to another event or course you must notify the Events Team at least 14 days prior to the training.

Delegates cancelling less than 14 days before the event will not be entitled to a refund. No refund will be made for non-attendance on the course

Name substitutions can be made at any time before the course without penalty.

For courses which are free of charge, we may ask for a deposit which will be returned upon arrival at the course. Should the applicant not attend the course without following the normal cancellation procedure, we will reserve the right to retain the applicant's deposit.
Cancellation of courses by the Company and changes to course content
Our events and courses are constantly updated and while we will endeavour to deliver the courses as advertised there may inevitably be occasions where we have to change content without prior notice or, in exceptional circumstances, to cancel an event.

In the event of cancellation of a training event by us, we will endeavour to inform all participants four weeks before the course is due to take place, although please be aware that this is not always possible. Delegates will be offered an alternative date, a credit note or a full refund. We are unable to reimburse any other costs that may have been incurred, including flights, accommodation etc.
Occasionally, circumstances will arise which result in the need to cancel, reschedule or postpone an event, due to an unforeseen occurrence or Act of God. When this is the case we shall assume no liability.
Where dates are varied by us, course participants may request a full refund if the new dates are not convenient.
Coaching and Coach Mentoring or Supervision cancellations and postponements
We request that you, as a leader, commit to your coaching, supervision and/or coach mentoring appointments - whether in-person or telephone meetings, as you would to any significant executive commitment.

Subject to availability, your Coach/Supervisor/Mentor may agree to reschedule a meeting with a minimum of 7 days notice for face to face calls or 48 hours for telephone coaching. However, this is not guaranteed and you should check with them at the outset to confirm these arrangements. If less, or no, notice is given then the time is usually lost and you will be charged for replacement appointments
Additional Data Protection Information
Customer details will be held by The Forton Group Ltd for the purposes of customer administration, marketing and research and for venue health and safety requirements, recording participants' attendance at events and future coaching and training events and services. Your data will be treated in accordance with current Data Protection legislation and will not be given or sold to a third party, other than for the purposes of course or coach-accreditation by a third party, for example the International Coach Federation, which accredits the Coaches, Faculty and Coach Training services delivered by the Forton Group.

More details about the International Coach Federation's Privacy Policy here:
ICF policies EU Trading
As a business based in the European Union, we are committed to the Online Dispute Resolution system to resolve problems with goods or services bought online.

You can only use it if you live in the EU and the trader is based in the EU.
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These are the privacy policies for The Forton Group Ltd (TFG) and services provided through these and other Forton Group websites and applications ("our sites") by the Forton Group, which includes The Leadership Coach Ltd., The Forton School of Leadership Ltd. and Forton Global Resources Ltd.

At TFG we collect different types of information about our users for three reasons:

1. To help us to monitor and improve the services we offer

2. To provide secure access to learning materials

3. With user consent, to market services to individuals (delete s) users

The Forton Group does not take paid advertising on its websites. Any advertising you see (for example, on our blogs) is beyond TFG's control.

There may be additional privacy policies that apply to certain services at TFG. Please read these at the time you register or subscribe for these services on these sites.
Our principles

We do our best to protect user privacy through the appropriate use of security technology. This means:

- we ensure that we have appropriate physical and technological security measures to protect your information

- we ensure that when we outsource any processes that (delete) the service provider has appropriate security measures.

We will respect your privacy. You should receive marketing emails only from TFG and, if you choose, from our partners listed on the 'contact us' page of our sites - by you contacting them directly

We may email you occasionally with information or queries about your registration, your subscription account or postings, for example, with event reminders.

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Your Privacy and GDPR

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professional leadership coach training programme

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Power relationships in leadership and coaching

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Part of our job here at the Professional Leadership Coach Training Programme is to share ideas and issues with other training schools and with the International Coach Federation. When our clients, colleagues or network members come up with an issue on which they want clarification, we take it to these calls.

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Yammer is a private social network that helps employees collaborate across teams, departments, and locations.

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If you are responsible for getting the best out of a team of creative professionals, my new e-book on Creative Management for Creative Teams is for you. Feel free to download and share it (here are the terms of the Creative Commons licence).

The e-book is a compilation and revision of my business coaching blog series.

Introduction to the E-book - Why Coaching?

As a creative director, business owner or manager of a creative team, the chances are you already coach your people to an extent - and you may be better at it than you realise. But there's also a fair chance that you have received little support in developing your people management skills.

In the creative industries, so much attention is lavished on creative â€˜talentâ€™ and the products of creativity that vital aspects of the creative process are often overlooked. Such as the massive influence (positive and negative) managers and creative directors have on the creativity of their teams. While many individual managers are doing an excellent job of managing and developing their teams, there is little wider recognition of people management in the creative sector.

Itâ€™s hard to develop a skill that goes unrecognised. And you don't need me to tell you that managing temperamental creatives can be one of the most challenging jobs going.

So how do you meet the challenge? I'm willing to bet that you find most books on management a bit of a turn-off. You've probably left or avoided the corporate world because it's not an environment you feel comfortable with. I know how you feel. As a poet who moved from consulting for large organisations to specialising n the creative sector, I can clearly remember the day I walked into an ad agency and instantly felt at home. Call me superficial, but given the choice between cubicles and suits, or a colourful studio with electric guitars and table football on standby, I know which I prefer.

But creativity needs more than bean-bags and Playstations. And if creativity is your business, you know there's a lot more to it than 'thinking outside the box'. For one thing, you probably have to think inside a few boxes - such as the budget and brief, and your client or audience's tolerance levels. So while you need to encourage blue-sky thinking and risk-taking, you also need to make things happen on time, on budget and to keep the end users happy.

Give people too much creative freedom and they may have a blast working on the project - only to end up frustrated when the client or audience 'don't get it'. But if you play it too safe, your creatives will feel constrained and everyone will be underwhelmed by the final result.

Not an easy balancing act to pull off. Even before you factor in a few creative egos. Plus the fact that creative people are not satisfied with just doing the job - they want to be challenged and inspired on every project, every day. They want opportunities to learn and hone their skills. And if they don't get them in your team, sooner or later they'll start to look elsewhere.

A lot of it comes down to what you say and do with people day-in-day out. How well you listen. What questions you ask. How you deliver tricky feedback. How well you find the right fit between people's talents and motivations and the task in hand. How easily you pick up the subtle signals that alert to you to problems before they blow up in your face. In short, how well you facilitate the idiosyncratic creative process of everyone on your team.

Now 'business coaching' may not sound like the most inspiring activity in the world, but it does offer you an effective approach to managing and developing creative people. It's not a miracle solution, or a step-by-step model, but it provides practical answers to the following questions:

How can you allow people creative freedom while keeping a grip on deadlines and deliverables?

How can you develop people's skills while keeping them productive?

How can you stimulate creative thinking in others?

How can you avoid the temptation to micro-manage people?

Why don't people do what they're supposed to do?

How can you keep people motivated while giving them bad news?

How can you be yourself while adapting to others' needs?

When is it better to keep your mouth shut?

This e-book introduces the core principles and skills of business coaching. It considers the role of the manager and how coaching complements other management styles. It describes the most common model for structuring coaching sessions. It also challenges you to think about coaching as an informal process, in which every workplace conversation becomes a coaching opportunity.

The e-book also touches on ways a coaching consultant can help you and your colleagues develop your effectiveness as a management team - but I don't assume you need a consultant to get started. After all, you've probably done a lot of great coaching already, without necessarily putting that label on it. Hopefully the e-book will raise your awareness of your existing skills and encourage you to do more of 'what works' in future.

Some of the material in the e-book is similar to that found in other books on business coaching (a few of which I recommend in Chapter 13). What is different is my emphasis on the specific challenges facing leaders of creative teams, and how coaching can develop the individual and collective creative talent of a business.

I hope this e-book gives you some food for thought about the challenges you face in managing talented creative professionals - and some ideas that will make your job a little easier and more rewarding.
Download the e-book - Creative Management for Creative Teams

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Free E-book - Creative Management for Creative Teams

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If you are responsible for getting the best out of a team of creative professionals, my new e-book on Creative Management for Creative Teams is for you. Feel free to download and share it (here are the terms of the Creative Commons licence). The e-book is a compilation and revision of my business coaching blog series.

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by ·
The Business Coaching series is now available to download as a free ebook Creative Management for Creative Teams.
In my previous post I answered the question What Is Business Coaching?

Now I'll sharpen up that definition by distinguishing business coaching from some other approaches to learning and personal development.

Coaching is not Training

While training and coaching both promote learning, they do so in different ways:

Training is about teaching specific skills or knowledge - Coaching is about facilitating someone else's thinking and helping them learn on the job.

Training usually takes place off-site or in dedicated classes - Coaching takes place in the office and (when carried out by a manager) can be integrated into day-to-day workplace conversations.

Training is more typically carried out in groups - Coaching is usually a one-to-one process, tailored to the individual's needs.

Training is usually delivered by an external consultant or dedicated internal trainer - Coaching can be delivered by an external consultant or by a manager.

Although they are distinct activities, these two approaches can work very well when used together. One classic obstacle encountered in business education is the difficulty of transferring skills and enthusiasm from the seminar room to the workplace. Coaching is an excellent way of helping people apply what they learn from a course to their day-to-day work.

A research study found that post-course coaching had a dramatic effect on the effectiveness of one taught program - the paper is available here or via Amazon.

Coaching is not Mentoring

There are some superficial similarities between coaching and mentoring, as they are both typically one-to-one conversations aimed at facilitating professional development, but there are also significant differences:

A Mentor is usually a more senior person who shares experience and advises a junior person working in the same field - A Coach is not necessarily senior to the person being coached, and not typically give advice or pass on experience; instead s/he uses questions and feedback to facilitate the other person's thinking and practical learning.

A Mentor is not typically the line manager of the person being mentored, but someone who is available for advice and guidance when needed - Coaching is frequently delivered by line managers with their teams.

Coaching is not Counselling

Again, there may be a superficial similarity in that both of these activites are one-to-one conversations, but their tone and purpose are very different:

Counselli ng and therapy deal with personal problems - Coaching addresses workplace performance.

Counselling begins with a problem - Coaching can begin with a goal or aspiration.

Counselling is sought by people having difficulties - Coaching is used by high achievers as much as beginners or people who are stuck.

Many (but not all) forms of Counselling focus on the past and the origins of problems - Coaching focuses on the future and developing a workable solution.

Next in this series - Different Types of Coaching

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Coaching Is Not Training, Mentoring or Counselling

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by · The Business Coaching series is now available to download as a free ebook Creative Management for Creative Teams. In my previous post I answered the question What Is Business Coaching? Now I'll sharpen up that definition by distinguishing business coaching from some other approaches to learning and personal development.

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diamond coaching model | Leadership Coaching Blog

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Keith Lawrence Miller, Organizational Psychologist, Board Certified Coach (BCC), Professional Credentialed Coach (PCC), with subject matter expertise in executive career & leadership coaching and management consulting supported by a Master of Arts (M.A.) in Organizational Psychology from Columbia University.

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When people think of mentoring, they often think of an older executive counseling a young upstart. The senior leader advises the junior employee on his career, how to navigate the world of work, and what he needs to do to get ahead. But mentoring has changed a lot in the last few decades. Just as the notion of a 50-year linear career with a single company or in one industry is outdated, so is the idea that career advice must come from a wise old sage. The traditional mentor-mentee relationship is not necessarily a thing of the past, but it's no longer the standard. Now, there are many ways to get the information and guidance you need.

What the Experts Say
While the concept of mentoring has changed, the need for career counseling has not. In fact, because most careers take numerous twists and turns in today's world, it's required more than ever. "When I first started studying mentoring in the 1970s it was a much more stable world. There is a lot of chaos in the world of work," says Kathy E. Kram, the Shipley Professor in Management at the Boston University School of Management and author of Mentoring at Work. While mentoring has morphed, our collective thinking on it has not and many held-over myths still prevail. "There are many ways to define mentoring," says Jeanne Meister, a Founding Partner of Future Workplace and co-author of The 2020 Workplace: How Innovative Companies Attract, Develop & Keep Tomorrow's Employees Today. If you are working with the old definition, you may be confused about how to get the advice you need. Below are four myths: knowing the truth about them can help you figure out who to turn to and how.

Myth #1: You have to find one perfect mentor
It's actually quite rare these days that people get through their career with only one mentor. In fact, many people have several advisors they turn to. "In all likelihood, you'd benefit from having more than one developer," says Kram, who prefers the term "developmental network" to mentor. "It's that handful of people who you can go to for advice and who you trust to have your best interests in mind," she explains. This network can be as large or small as you want, and it may even include your spouse or partner. Sometimes it can be helpful to get a variety of perspectives on an issue you are facing. Meister and her co-author Karie Willyerd agree with Kram. "It's not uncommon for people to have many, many mentors," says Willyerd, former CLO of Sun Microsystems and co-founder of Future Workplace.

Myth #2: Mentoring is a formal long-term relationship
Because the world moves fast and people change jobs and careers more often, a long-term advising relationship may be unrealistic and unnecessary. "Mentoring can be a one-hour mentoring session. We don't have to escalate it to a six-month or year-long event," says Willyerd. Instead of focusing on the long term, think of mentoring as something you access when you need it. "It may not be big agenda items that you're grappling with. You don't need to wait until you have some big thing in your career," says Meister. In today's world, she says, mentoring is "more like Twitter and less like having a psychotherapy session."

Of course, the advice and guidance may be richer and more relevant if it comes from someone who knows you well and understands your goals. You still need to build relationships so that when you require advice, you have the connections in place. However, there may be times when you look to people who don't know you as well or at all to get one-off counsel from an outsider's perspective. And in these cases, Willyerd suggests you may want to avoid using the word "mentor" altogether. "You can simply say, 'I'd really like to get your advice on something'," she says.

Myth #3: Mentoring is for junior people
Many people assume that they only need a mentor when they are first starting out in their careers. "We used to think it was people at early stages of their career who needed mentoring, those just out of MBA programs. Now we understand that people at every stage benefit from this kind of assistance," says Kram. In their book, The 2020 Workplace, Meister and Willyerd talk about reverse mentoring in which a more junior person advises a senior person on things like new technology.

The reality is "There are lots of points in a corporate career when you need a mentor," says Meister. Though you shouldn't wait for them to come up, transitions are a particularly good time to seek out a mentor. Whether you are making a career change, taking on a new role, or contemplating leaving a job, advice from someone who has done it before can be helpful. "You may need a mentor when the environment around you is changing rapidly and you haven't had a chance to keep up with the changes," says Meister. "Or as you try to navigate the complexities of your organization," adds Willyerd.

Myth #4: Mentoring is something more experienced people do out of the goodness of their hearts
"It can be an honor to ask someone to be a mentor," says Willyerd. But the respect isn't the only reason people agree to help. Mentoring should be useful to both parties involved. Before seeking out a mentor, think about what you have to offer him. Can you provide a unique perspective on the organization or his role? Do you bring valuable outside information that might help him be successful in his job? Whatever it is, be sure that you are clear with your prospective advisor about what's in it for him. This does not have to be a direct barter. Even the promise of future help, if and when it's needed, can be enough to convince a mentor to give up his time and energy.

So, do you need mentoring?
Now that you have a better understanding of what mentoring can be, do you need it? "The place to start is with self-assessment and find out what are the challenges in front of you right now and why. Then ask yourself, do you have the relational resources to handle those challenges?" says Kram. If the answer is no, it may be time to seek out a mentor or several. Remember that mentoring can take many shapes and forms - the key is to find the right kind of advice from the right person at the right time.
Principles to Remember
Do:

Build a cadre of people you can turn to for advice when you need it

Nurture relationships with people whose perspectives you respect

Think of mentoring as both a long-term and short-term arrangement

Don't:

Assume that because you are successful or experienced in your field that you don't need a mentor

Rely on one person to help guide you in your career

Expect to receive mentoring without providing anything in return

Case Study #1: Using multiple mentors
In January 2000, Soki Choi left Accenture Sweden to start her own company developing applications for mobile phones. A mere four years later, the company was acquired and Soki was left with a large decision about what to do next. Should she take a job with another Swedish telecom company? Should she start another business? "Suddenly I didn't have a natural "next step" in my career," she explains. Since she was a child, she had dreamed of doing medical research, but felt it was too late in life to pursue that path, especially without an MD. However, the desire nagged her. One day that spring, she read a story about Sweden's prestigious research hospital, the Karolinska Institute, merging with the university hospital in Huddinge and decided she had to explore the possibility of a medical PhD. She wanted multiple perspectives on this potential career change, so she sought the advice of three different people.

Her first thought was of Ewa Ställdal, the CEO of a major medical research foundation that she had met several years previously on a delegation trip to the US with the Swedish Ministry of Industry. "She listened and took my thoughts seriously. She then connected me to her research and medical network, and in particular to an entrepreneurial professor in medical management," she says.

Soki also contacted Bjorn Svedberg, the former CEO of Ericsson. She first met Bjorn in her role as a board member of PTS, the National Post & Telecom Agency which advises the Swedish government on telecom and infrastructure planning. Soki respected him and wanted to know what he thought of this potential career shift. "I specifically asked him if he thought it was a good idea to take on PhD studies in the midst of a critical time of my professional career," she says. Bjorn, who was in his 80s, revealed to Soki that he wished he had done what she was considering and he strongly urged her to pursue her dream.

Soki's third advisor was Martin Lorentzon. Martin is only 5 years older than Soki and had a similar career trajectory in that he also left a steady job to start his own company. He had served as a "go-to" person for Soki while she was building her business. "Martin was much more of a direct, operational, and continuous mentor," she said. He also encouraged her to do what she thought would make her most happy.

Soki is about to complete her PhD at the Karolinska Institute. Without the advice and help of her mentors, Soki thinks she would've taken one of the many job offers she had in 2004 and would still be in the telecom field, rather than pursuing her dream.

Case Study #2: When you think you don't need it
After twenty years in the search business, Stephen Wachter founded his own recruiting firm, Osprey One. Two years ago, he felt he was on top of his game: he had some of the largest clients in Silicon Valley, including Google, Yahoo, and Facebook. On a plane headed to the East Coast, he sat next to Susan Robertson, a leadership development consultant. He immediately noticed her because, as he says, they both had "devices falling out of their pockets." They started talking about what they did. Stephen proudly shared his successes, to which Susan asked him, "So, what's your next step?" The question blew Stephen away - he didn't know there was anyplace else to go. He thought he had reached the top of his career ladder and simply had to keep doing what he was doing. "She was very good at getting me to explore my own story," he says of Susan. Talking to her, he realized that there was a next level: both in how he conducted his business and how he interacted with his clients. "I thought about times when I had friction points with my clients and how I would've handled those situations differently in retrospect," he says. Besides, if he stopped developing, the industry would grow without him. "You've got to be part of the newness or the newness will pass you," he explains. Susan and he agreed to be in touch and talk about how Susan could help him stay focused on growing and learning. They continue to have a mentoring relationship today. She has helped him to reflect on who he is and how he is with others. "When you're young, you need someone to show you the ropes. The danger is when you think you've got it figured out."

Case Study #3: Getting help through a transition
As the Managing Director of People Insights, a coaching and consulting firm based in Belgium, Sunita Malhotra helps global companies design and implement mentoring programs. "The only reason I can do that is because of my experience with being mentored," she says. Midway in her career, she took a job working in HR for a fast moving consumer goods company. She had already held several positions in both consulting and sales and marketing, so she wasn't a junior upstart. However, HR was new to her and she knew she was going to need support through the transition. As she saw it, she would need help with three specific things: understanding how HR worked, figuring out how to work in a European office of a global company, and navigating being a women in a male-dominated company.

Sunita looked both inside and outside the company for potential mentors. She asked around and several people recommended a male leader who was the second in command in HR. She approached him and asked if he would support her. "I was pretty direct. I knew he was busy. I was new. I prepared the conversation well." After listening to her request, he agreed. The two met regularly discussing what Sunita was learning but he also shared his experiences, both successes and failures. "He was a very good developer of people," she says. Sunita has since had several other mentors and believes the guidance she's gotten has shaped her career. "If you want a mentor, and one hasn't been allocated to you, do your homework. Know what you want. Know what you don't want," she advises.

This content was adapted for inclusion in the HBR Guide to Getting the Mentoring You Need.

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When people think of mentoring, they often think of an older executive counseling a young upstart. The senior leader advises the junior employee on his career, how to navigate the world of work, and what he needs to do to get ahead. But mentoring has changed a lot in the last few decades.

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In the arts it is an accepted fact that a young person learns the trade best when studying with a master. In business, too, the importance of the mentor relationship for a young person's development has been documented. What has not been clear is how prevalent that relationship is in business and whether it does add measurably to the success and satisfaction of people at work. In this article, the author, who has surveyed top executives mentioned in the "Who's News" column of the Wall Street Journal in 1977, finds that nearly two-thirds of the respondents had a mentor, that the number of these relationships is growing, and that those who have had them earn more money at a younger age and are happier with their career progress.

Ever since the Greek poet Homer's "faithful and wise" Mentor first advised Odysseus, or Merlyn the young King Arthur, wise men have counseled, taught, coached, and sponsored the young. There have been mentors and protégés in philosophy, the arts and letters, the military, and even in professional sports. In the business world, however, the importance and existence of mentors have been largely unheralded.

Only recently have business people and researchers recognized the vital role mentors play in the development of corporation executives. In The Seasons of a Man's Life, Daniel J. Levinson describes the importance of mentors and mentoring during an adult's development. ¹ Levinson observes that mentor relationships occur often in the work setting.

Abraham Zaleznik has described the necessity of a one-on-one mentor relationship in the development of leaders, ² and the chairman and chief executive officer of the Jewel Companies, Donald S. Perkins, has said, "Everyone who succeeds has had a mentor or mentors." ³

Has every successful executive had a mentor? How prevalent are these relationships in business? Is the competitiveness of the working world conducive to the formation of these essentially close, human relationships? When are they most likely to occur? Are executives who had a mentor different from their peers? If they are, in what ways are they different?

In 1977, our firm conducted a study of executives that included questions about relationships between mentors and protégés, in addition to standard questions about compensation, current position, and personal data (see the sidebar). Of the 3,976 men and 28 women executives whose new responsibilities were reported last year, 1,250 or 31% responded to the survey.

I sent a questionnaire to the senior executives whose appointments were announced in the "Who's News" column of the Wall Street Journal in 1977. These announcements are limited to chairmen and presidents of listed and actively traded unlisted companies and privately held companies of at least $100 million volume in sales; to executive, senior, and group vice presidents and vice presidents of the nation's 500 largest industrial companies; and to officers with similar titles in the 15 to 25 largest organizations in nonindustrial fields. Officers of a subsidiary, division, or unit are included only if it is large enough to warrant inclusion on the basis of size alone.

Highlights of Study

The study shows that mentor and protégé relationships are fairly extensive among the elite of the business world, but not every executive has had a mentor:

Nearly two-thirds of the respondents reported having had a mentor or sponsor, and one-third of them has had two or more mentors.

Mentor relationships seem to have become more prevalent during the last twenty years.

Executives who have had a mentor earn more money at a younger age, are better educated, are more likely to follow a career plan, and, in turn, sponsor more protégés than executives who have not had a mentor.

Significantly, although both groups work the same long hours, those who have had a mentor are happier with their career progress and derive somewhat greater pleasure from their work.

The Mentor Relationship

To have a common understanding of the meaning of "mentor," I asked each executive, "At any stage of your career, have you had a relationship with a person who took a personal interest in your career and who guided or sponsored you?" Respondents were asked to indicate the number of such relationships, the periods during which they began (during schooling, military service, work, or another time), and the mentor's position in relation to the executive (such as teacher, professor, friend, relative, immediate supervisor, department or division head, president, or CEO). Respondents were also asked to describe the relationship.

More than 6 in 10 of the respondents answer in the affirmative (see Exhibit I). They average two mentors, nearly all of whom are male. This finding confirms Eugene Jennings' 1967 observation that "many mobile managers become at various times in their career patterns protégés of some highly positioned superior." ⁴

Exhibit I Percentage of executives having mentor and protégé relationships

The great majority of mentor relationships started when the respondents were in their 20s and 30s. Nearly 7 in 10 executives gained a mentor during the first five years (see Exhibit II). More than a quarter became protégés during the second decade of their careers. These findings coincide with Levinson's observation that after about age 40 men merely have mentors because they have outgrown the readiness to be the protégé of any older person.

Exhibit II Period when mentor relationship began

With rare exception, I have found that most executives view the first fifteen years of their career as the learning and growing period. That is the time when they seek mentors. By about age 40, those who are destined for the highest ranks are achieving positions of power themselves, and the need of a career sponsor fades.

It is not particularly surprising that the majority of executives' mentors are older businessmen at the time the relationship begins. Over half the executives had department or division heads as mentors, and nearly half had mentors who were their immediate supervisors. Fully a third had presidents and CEOs act as mentors (see Exhibit III).

Exhibit III Mentor's position when relationship began

While it is encouraging that so many lower and middle managers assume a mentoring role, I find it particularly significant that so many chief executives make and take the time to become mentors to younger managers. Not only is the time of top men at a premium, but also their interest in mentoring must be strong for them to reach down through the ranks to develop a close personal relationship with a younger person. Regardless, many chief executives report feeling that personnel development and management succession are key responsibilities that they cannot delegate and in which they must personally participate.

Although mentoring is commonly thought to be tutorial in nature, executives find career mentors infrequently in academic settings. Few executives report a relationship with a mentor during their education or list a teacher or professor as a mentor. Since senior executives tend to be ambitious and goal-oriented, they are more likely to seek counsel from similar people in their chosen field, rather than from educators who lack experience in business.

Mentors typically have a strong influence on their protégés and their protégés' careers. Respondents characterize the majority of their mentors as having had "substantial" influence. Only 1 respondent in 7 describes a mentor's influence on himself as extraordinary, but 1 in 6 describes a mentor's influence on his career to be extraordinary. Nearly 4 in 10 executives label their relationships as average in influence (see Exhibit IV).

Exhibit IV Influence of mentor on respondent and respondent's career

Interestingly, executives who have had a mentor and who also have had protégés ascribe extraordinary influence to their mentor almost twice as often as those who have had a mentor but no protégé. Respondents who benefit the most from an experience with a mentor seem to feel a stronger obligation to extend mentoring to others.

Despite the high levels of influence executives report their mentors exerted, respondents do not consider having a mentor an important ingredient in their own success. They ascribe higher value to such personal characteristics as the ability to make decisions, motivation, the ability to motivate others, the ability to lead, energy level, the ability to complete assignments, and willingness to work long hours.

Curiously, those who have had a mentor rank luck as more important than having a mentor for their own success, but consider a mentor more important than luck for others' successes.

Mentor relationships in the business world seem to develop into lengthy friendships. Almost half of all respondents who have had a mentor report they still have a relationship with all of their mentors, and a quarter report they still have a relationship with some. Although the remaining quarter has no current relationship with any mentor, these respondents report that the relationship they had lasted a surprisingly long time. Of those relationships which have ended, nearly 4 in 10 lasted ten years or more, and 3 in 10 lasted five to nine years.

Most protégés still have good relationships with their mentors. Nearly 6 in 10 describe the current relationship as "friendly," and more than 3 in 10 describe it as "close." This finding seems to differ with Levinson's observation that "an intense mentor relationship ends with conflict and bad feelings on both sides," but the study did not attempt to measure the intensity of the initial relationship, past feelings (which may well have been tempered by time), or current feelings about mentors with whom respondents have no current relationship.

In ranking the characteristics most important for a mentor to have, respondents give the highest value by far to a mentor's "willingness to share knowledge and understanding." Both executives who have had a mentor and those who have not generally rank desirable traits in a mentor in the same order, but there are some differences.

On the one hand, executives who have had a mentor give higher relative values to the sharing and counseling traits. They also give greater emphasis to knowledge of the organization and the people in it, a mentor's rank, respect from peers in the organization, and knowledge of the use of power. On the other hand, executives who did not have a mentor consider organizational power and upward mobility more important in a mentor.

Our findings tend to bear out Rosabeth Moss Kanter's observations in her study of Men and Women of the Corporation. She finds that sponsors are integral to the informal network of "Indsco," where mentors are dubbed "rabbis" and "godfathers." ⁵

Executives who were once protégés are most likely to become mentors themselves. Overall, nearly as many respondents have had protégés as have had mentors, but more than 8 in 10 of those who did have a mentor also sponsored protégés. In contrast, only 4 in 10 of those who did not have a mentor became sponsors to younger people.

Mentoring & Women Executives

Although female executives constitute a very small proportion of the total (less than 1%), all those responding had a mentor. Women tend to have more mentors than men, averaging three sponsors to the men's two. While women executives had female mentors more often than men did, 7 in 10 of the women's mentors were male. Only 1 in 50 of the men had a female mentor, and practically none of those female mentors were in business.

Our survey findings agree with the conclusions of Margaret Hennig and Anne Jardim, who find in The Managerial Woman that fatherlike sponsors are a necessity for women without family connections to reach top management positions. ⁶

Out of every 10 women respondents, 9 formed relationships with their mentors in the work setting, the majority during the sixth to tenth years of their career. Since that is the period when many women decide to pursue a "career" rather than simply "work," it may be that those who form mentor relationships during these years are the ones who feel they can succeed and thus choose careers.

Proportionately more female than male executives had protégés, but numerically women had fewer protégés. That will probably change in the future for there will be more women executives in line management positions and their opportunities for sponsoring both young men and women will increase.

Trends in Mentoring

James Cash Penney espoused a management philosophy that is an early example of what we would now call mentoring in business. In 1901, he and his backers evolved a system in which the manager-partner of each dry goods store in the chain selected and trained a man who could then be sent out to found another store. Penney believed that the manager who trained good men would profit commercially from the protégé's success and spiritually by guiding others to a good and useful life.

Alfred P. Sloan, Jr. of General Motors, who revolutionized the automobile industry, influenced generations of managers with his management style. The Jewel Companies, as described in HBR, formally assign a sponsor to new employees. However, until recently, in most organizations coaching seldom occurred as the result of a deliberate corporate policy to encourage it. ⁷ That may change.

The younger the executive, the more likely he is to have had a mentor. More than three-quarters of respondents under 40 years of age have had a mentor, but just over half of those 55 and older have had a mentor (see Exhibit I). The frequency of mentor relationships drops consistently as age increases. One reason may be today's complex and fast-paced business environment which puts high demands on managers. To a greater extent than their predecessors, today's young executives seek out mentors from whose experience they can benefit.

For protégés, the picture is somewhat different. Although 7 in 10 of the youngest executives (those under 40) have had protégés and the proportions drop in the next three age groups, 6 in 10 of the group 55 and older have had protégés (see Exhibit I). The resurgence of mentoring after age 55 may reflect older executives' approaching retirement and their greater desire to pass along what they have learned.

As executives respond in kind and extend sponsorship to younger executives, mentoring may also create a "ripple" effect. While on the average executives had two mentors, they sponsor 3.3 protégés. About 1 in 20 protégés is a woman. If this "rippling" continues, many more executives in the future will benefit from the experience of older managers.

Taken together, these findings lead me to believe that the number of these one-on-one relationships has increased during the 1960s and 1970s. As the pace of change in business continues, I think mentoring will become even more important in accelerating the learning curve of young executives.

Compensation & Education

Although executives who have had a mentor are two years younger than the average respondent who did not, they average $118,900 in total cash compensation, somewhat more than the $114,200 of those who had no mentor, and slightly higher than the overall average of $117,200 (see Exhibit V). When they took on their new responsibilities in 1977, they also averaged higher percentage gains in salary, bonus, and total compensation than executives who did not have a mentor.

Exhibit V Total cash compensation (salary plus bonus) in current position by age and mentor relationships

The average increase in salary of executives who have had a mentor is 28.8%, combined with an average 65.9% increase in bonus, for an overall 29.0% rise in total cash compensation. There are no significant differences in perquisites between the two groups.

Executives who have had a mentor are better educated on average than those who did not have a sponsor. Almost half have an advanced degree, and a quarter have an MBA. In comparison, only 4 in 10 of those who had no mentor have an advanced degree and less than 1 in 5 has an MBA. It seems likely that the better educated young executive "on the way up" more frequently either attracts the attention of a superior, or being more appreciative of the value of a sponsor, initiates a relationship.

Career planning also correlates to mentoring. Over the years more executives who have had a mentor follow a career plan than those who did not. Since a previous study has shown that executives who have planned their career steps tend to earn more money, mentoring by itself is not the sole reason for the higher compensation of these executives. However, it seems reasonable to assume that mentors encourage career planning and that the combination of mentoring and planning accounts for the higher compensation of executives who have had a mentor. ⁸

Executives who have had a mentor appear to be slightly less mobile than their peers; 1 in 5 has had only one employer, compared to 1 in 7 of those who have had no mentor. Although just over half of the executives who have had mentors report they were willing to move, close to half report that they are reluctant or that it is impossible for them to move.

In contrast, nearly 6 in 10 executives who have not had a mentor report that they are willing to move, and less than 4 in 10 are reluctant or think that it is impossible for them to move. Only 3% in each group are eager to move.

The most telling difference between these two groups of executives, however, is in the evaluation of their own satisfaction. Half of the executives who have had a mentor report very high satisfaction with their career progress, whereas only 4 in 10 of those who have not had a mentor are as satisfied.

Executives who have had a mentor also derive somewhat greater pleasure from their work than executives who have not. Since both groups devote the same number of hours (on the average, 56 hours) to business each week, I can only conclude that there is a goodly number of executives who could be more satisfied doing that work than they are at present. For at least 20%, having a mentor might make the difference.

A version of this article appeared in the January 1979 issue of Harvard Business Review.

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In the arts it is an accepted fact that a young person learns the trade best when studying with a master. In business, too, the importance of the mentor relationship for a young person's development has been documented. What has not been clear is how prevalent that relationship is in business and whether it does [...]

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The makeup of the global workforce is undergoing a seismic shift: In four years Millennials-the people born between 1977 and 1997-will account for nearly half the employees in the world. In some companies, they already constitute a majority.

That shift may sound daunting to the managers charged with coaching these young workers, who have a reputation for being attention sponges. However, our research into the varying expectations and needs of employees across four generations has given us a more nuanced view of Millennials and uncovered several resource efficient ways to mentor them.

We polled 2,200 professionals across a wide range of industries, asking about their values, their behavior at work, and what they wanted from their employers. The Millennials, we saw, did want a constant stream of feedback and were in a hurry for success, but their expectations were not as outsized as many assume. That's good news for organizations wondering just who will mentor this rising generation. Baby Boomers are retiring, and Gen X may not be large enough to shoulder the responsibility alone. In the U.S., for instance, the 88 million Millennials vastly outnumber Gen Xers, who are just 50 million strong.

Millennials view work as a key part of life, not a separate activity that needs to be "balanced" by it. For that reason, they place a strong emphasis on finding work that's personally fulfilling. They want work to afford them the opportunity to make new friends, learn new skills, and connect to a larger purpose. That sense of purpose is a key factor in their job satisfaction; according to our research, they're the most socially conscious generation since the 1960s.

"Oh, they want total fulfillment?" managers may be thinking. "Is that all?" Yes, Millennials have high expectations of their employers-but they also set high standards for themselves. They've been working on their résumés practically since they were toddlers, because there are so many of them and so few (relatively speaking) spots at top schools and top companies. They're used to overachieving academically and to making strong personal commitments to community service. Keep them engaged, and they will be happy to overachieve for you.

However, they want a road map to success, and they expect their companies to provide it. If you're not careful, grooming them for leadership roles could drain your managers' energy. To help you, we've identified three kinds of mentoring that will prepare Millennials for success without requiring your experienced staffers to spend all their time coaching. While these approaches will work with employees in other generations, too, they're especially effective with Millennials, because they suit this cohort's mobile, collaborative lifestyle and need for immediacy.

Reverse Mentoring

This approach shifts the responsibility for organizing mentoring to line employees, who learn from senior executives by mentoring them. A Millennial is matched to an executive and assigned to teach him or her how to, say, use social media to connect with customers. It's an effective way to give junior employees a window into the higher levels of the organization, so that when the mentees retire, the younger generation has a better understanding of the business.

At Burson-Marsteller, a PR and communications firm with offices in 85 countries, a pilot program of reverse mentoring is bridging experiential divides. The company conducted training for both Millennial mentors and their older mentees, establishing ground rules around confidentiality. "It's difficult not to slip into our traditional roles," says Michele Chase, the managing director of worldwide human resources. "But this arrangement is building relationships. The mentors are getting access to more senior people, and they get to go behind the scenes, so to speak, to see how leaders think and offer insights."

Inevitably, there are times when the older mentees give feedback or advice to their young associates, so in effect, the coaching becomes mutual. The added benefit to the younger workers is a potentially accelerated career track, as the mentoring arrangement raises their profile among senior executives of the firm. And the executive mentees have the opportunity to gain understanding of a segment of their workforce they might not otherwise get to know.

Group Mentoring

Group mentoring is a less-resource-intensive but still effective way of giving Millennials the feedback they crave. It can be led by a more senior manager or can be peer-to-peer, but in both cases, the company sets up a technology platform that allows employees to define mentoring in their own terms.

One tool that can satisfy the thirst for guidance with minimal resources is microfeedback. Think of it as performance assessment for Twitterholics-succinct and nearly real time.

Susan Hutt is now the senior vice president of services and product development at Camilion Solutions, a Toronto-based software company. At her previous job as a senior VP of Workbrain, a San Jose-based software company, she realized she needed to change the way she coached her staff. Millennials made up most of her workforce and, she says, "wanted constant feedback and information on their career progress."

Hutt instituted quarterly reviews and an online, on-demand assessment system that limited feedback to 140 characters. To employees accustomed to instant messaging, texting, and Twitter, the brief advice and suggestions for improvement felt digestible and timely, not curt. The system also allowed them to hear-quickly-from a broad set of people and find out whether they were on the right track. For instance, after an all-hands meeting, an employee could send requests for feedback to five people. "Was it relevant?" they might ask. "Did it cover the content you needed?"

The length limit forces people to think carefully about their responses, and because they must respond so immediately, they're able to provide useful detail. The software involved also collates the responses into a performance dashboard, so employees can track their own private trend lines on skills they are working to improve.

At AT&T mentoring takes place in self-organizing, topic-based groups, which AT&T calls leadership circles. The self-organizing approach allows them to reach far more employees than programs run by HR. Using an online platform, one mentor can work with several mentees at a time-sometimes in different locations-on skills like generating sales leads or leading teams. The circles take advantage of platform features such as community forums, document-sharing spaces, group polling, and calendars that announce events and mentor availability. Since the supporting software has some built-in social-networking capability, mentees are able to connect to others with very little hands-on assistance from HR; peer-to-peer mentoring often starts to take place within a circle as it matures. Managers frequently share mentoring responsibilities within a circle-for instance, three executives might work together to advise a group of nine employees. Face-to-face meetings, conference calls, and webcasts supplement the online coaching.

A Typical Exchange Between a Millennial and His Team Members Using an Anonymous Online Feedback Tool

Millennial: "What's one thing I can do to be more successful in my role at the company?"

Feedback 1: "Hey, it's Joe, your manager: Ask for more feedback from other members of your team."

Feedback 2: "You tend to leave things to the last minute. Plan your time better and start earlier."

Feedback 3: "You cut people off when you get excited about your ideas. It comes across as disrespectful whether you mean to be or not."

Millennial: "Great suggestions, everyone. Will create a space on our team site where I will post early drafts of my project plan and get your input. I'll demo at our next meeting."

BT, the British telecommunications firm, offers another example of group mentoring: a peer-to-peer learning program it calls Dare2share. "We found 78% of our employees preferred to learn from their peers, but little money or attention was focused on this," explains Peter Butler, the head of learning at BT.

Dare2share is a social collaboration platform that allows employees to pass on their knowledge and insights to their colleagues through short (five- and 10-minute) audio and video podcasts, RSS feeds, and discussion threads, as well as through traditional training documents. BT employees can view content on Dare2share and rate each learning module according to its relevance and quality. If they want to learn more about the topic covered by a module, they can connect with the person who posted it and ask for more information.

Though just out of its four-month proof-of concept stage, the program is already producing results: New hires now get up to speed more quickly, and training costs have fallen. Among some executives, Dare2share has become the communication tool of choice. For instance, the CEO of one business unit now uses it to report quarterly results via short videos, which give his message broader exposure.

Anonymous Mentoring

This method uses psychological testing and a background review to match mentees with trained mentors outside the organization. Exchanges are conducted entirely online, and both the mentee and the mentor, who is usually a professional coach or seasoned executive, remain anonymous. The engagement, generally paid for by the mentee's company, lasts six to 12 months. In a typical exchange, the mentee might send a message such as this:
Tomorrow afternoon I'm presenting our Q4 forecast to the board of directors. I am delivering some bad news and am quite nervous. In fact, I'm VERY nervous! Can you help?
The mentor might respond:
I got your message, and you should know that I have done literally hundreds of presentations-of good news and bad. When I have bad news, I like to present a benefit/cost analysis of the news. I have found that quantifying it takes away the subjectivity of the message (and the messenger) and allows all parties to focus on what they can do to fix it. Go there with a mitigation plan, i.e., some potential solutions to your bad news. I have found that boards like to make decisions, so giving them a set of options to choose from is great! Finally, rehearse your presentation with someone. Let whoever is your audience be very critical of you. That way the real experience will be much easier. Good luck, and let me know how it went.
One of the mentors we spoke with is Bob Wall, 64, of Connecticut. Having spent 29 years as a consultant and executive coach, he at first couldn't imagine that anonymous mentoring could work. But once he was matched with a mentee, he was amazed at how well they were paired. "I felt like I had a twin out there somewhere," he told us. "It turned out to be a highly intimate relationship while remaining completely anonymous." In fact, "when the six months was up, it was like losing a dear friend."

We heard from both mentors and mentees that the anonymity was an unexpected boon. Joanna Sherriff, 33, the vice president of creative services at Decision Toolbox, is just such a mentee. "My original thought was that it would be odd, and it was awkward initially," she says. "In the long run, though, I could see why the anonymity was required. I would never have shared with my mentor some of the things I did if he or she had known my identity or my company."

An additional benefit? Time zones don't matter. Sherriff works from her home in Tauranga, New Zealand, and her mentor was in the United States.

An Edge for the Whole Organization

Improving your company's ability to give employees honest, timely, and useful coaching won't benefit just your 20-something workers. When we asked our survey respondents to rate the importance of eight different managerial skills, respondents in all generations placed a high premium on having a manager who "will give straight feedback." And yet when we asked 300 heads of HR to rate their managers' competence in the same eight skills, giving feedback was ranked dead last. Clearly, that's a critical gap companies need to bridge.

All employees want to feel valued, empowered, and engaged at work. This is a fundamental need, not a generational issue. And, though Gen Xers and Millennials openly discuss and even demand more flexibility in their jobs, Boomers and Traditionalists (also known as the "Silent Generation") want it too, even if they are less vocal about it. You can think of the Millennials as pushing for change that all generations want to see happen.

"Am I continuing to learn and grow?" is a question that resonates with employees of all ages. The way your organization helps them answer that question may be your competitive advantage in attracting, developing, and keeping tomorrow's talent.

A version of this article appeared in the May 2010 issue of Harvard Business Review.

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The makeup of the global workforce is undergoing a seismic shift: In four years Millennials-the people born between 1977 and 1997-will account for nearly half the employees in the world. In some companies, they already constitute a majority. That shift may sound daunting to the managers charged with coaching these young workers, who have a reputation for being attention sponges.

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Coaching and mentoring can be effective approaches to developing employees. Both have grown in popularity, with many employers using them to enhance the skills, knowledge and performance of their people around specific skills and goals.

This factsheet offers a definition of coaching and mentoring, distinguishing between the two and emphasising the need to link with overall learning and development strategy. It looks at those typically responsible for coaching, both internal and external to the organisation, and how to develop a coaching culture. Deciding when coaching is the best development intervention is key to harnessing its potential. Lastly, the factsheet considers the central role of line managers, HR and L&D practitioners in managing coaching and mentoring activities.

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This factsheet was last updated by Stuart Haden.

Stuart Haden: CIPD Programme Manager

Stuart builds proposals and designs courses for UK and international clients. He manages the delivery of face to face and digital programmes, continuously refreshing content and producing new products.

A learning and development professional with over 25 years' experience as a facilitator, coach and consultant, Stuart specialises in developing optimal performance with individuals, teams and organisations. Throughout his work he values authenticity, coachability and personal energy.

In 2013 he published his first book It's not about the coach: getting the most from coaching in business, sport and life.

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Coaching and Mentoring | Factsheets | CIPD

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Coaching and mentoring can be effective approaches to developing employees. Both have grown in popularity, with many employers using them to enhance the skills, knowledge and performance of their people around specific skills and goals. This factsheet offers a definition of coaching and mentoring, distinguishing between the two and emphasising the need to link with overall learning and development strategy.

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Summary: Return on investment of Executive Coaching is 570 percent 

Fortune magazine recently reported the results of a poll of executives and upper level managers who had six to twelve months of coaching with a Masters or Doctoral level executive coach (Fortune 2/19/01). 
The executives were asked to give a “conservative estimate of the monetary payoff from the coaching you received”. The survey demonstrated that the recipients valued the executive coaching at six times the cost that their company paid for the service. In other words, a nine-month, $18,000 executive coaching program investment for a VP, was given a rating of being worth six times that -- $108,000. Not a bad ROI at all. 
Sixty percent of the executives in the study were ages 40-49, half held positions of vice president or higher, and a third earned more than $200,000 per year. Seventy-seven percent of the executives reported improved working relationships with their direct reports, 71% with supervisors, and 63% with peers. The executives also cited a marked increase in job satisfaction (61%) and in organizational commitment (44%). 
What do coaches do that brings such dramatic value to you? You and your coach first forge a partnership built around your most important goals. Then your coach helps you identify your strengths and potential blindspots – ideally aided by the use of assessment tools. Next your coach helps you leverage your strengths, grow skills and manage any weaknesses in areas of strategic importance in your career. Your coach helps you be tenacious and undistracted while moving ahead on your most important goals. Finally your coach helps you stay accountable to yourself in following through on your developmental commitments, while at the same time providing support, encouragement and celebrating with you your successes. 
What do you look for in a competent executive coach? Recent studies suggest the importance of advanced training such as a Masters or Ph.D., post-graduate certification in executive coaching, business experience, integrity, high emotional intelligence, comfort relating to top management, political savvy, organizational awareness, flexibility and creativity, the ability to think on one’s feet, and also the ability to give honest, straight forward feedback. 
Examples Of The Roles That Coaches Play 
Listening: Sometimes you need a sounding board for your ideas or aggravations 
Competency Building: An executive coach helps you build a personalized development plan based on your career goals -- and your organization’s business needs 
Accountability: Your coach helps hold you accountable for your action plans 
Encouragement: You might occasionally get discouraged – your coach will know how to keep you motivated 
Celebration: As you have breakthrough experiences your coach can help you recognize your achievement and celebrate your successes 
Receive our Free Executive Summary: "Emotional Intelligence Enhances Revenue: Four Case Examples" and our "Peak Performance Leadership E-Newsletter". The Newsletter includes practical tips to help you have a more successful and satisfying career. 

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"The goal of coaching is the goal of good management: to make the most of an organization's valuable resources." Harvard Business Review

Overwhelming evidence has revealed that for many work has become an unhappy and stressful place to be (1). Engagement is at a dramatically low level. Only between 10% and 30% of employees worldwide are enthusiastic about their work and contribute actively to the success of their organization. The consequences have been disastrous: Big financial losses, high turnover and absenteeism, low productivity and innovation, poor customer service and deteriorating worker health (2).

The good news is that some companies are exploring radically new management styles to improve the situation (3). They realize that we need to move away from top-down command-and-control (4), rigid hierarchies and silo thinking that have dominated traditional management for over a century, towards a more participative and consultative approach, where considerations for workers assume a central place (5). The distant and authoritarian "boss" who inspires fear is no longer viable.

The manager-coach, a more supportive and caring figure, has emerged as a promising alternative.

"Coaching is about connecting with people, inspiring them to do their best and helping them to grow. It's also about challenging people to come up with the answers they require on their own." Ed Batista

Guiding and empowering employees rather than just telling them what to do, providing opportunities for growth, development and autonomy, is not only much more rewarding, but far more productive (Bungay Stainier, 2016; HBR Guide, 2014; Simpson, 2014; Whitmore, 2009).

"More and more top executives are expecting managers to coach their subordinates. In fact, one at Wells Fargo announced that he expects the bank's managers to dedicate fully two-thirds of their time to coaching. What's more, employee surveys we've conducted over the past decade show that subordinates want coaching" (7).

In their Project Oxygen, Google discovered that their employees ranked coaching on top of the most important competencies they want their managers to have. Their emotional intelligence, their involvement and personal relationships with their team, rather than their technical expertise, were their most appreciated strengths (8).

Nestlé is moving forward with coaching in a big way. As Séverine Jourdain, the Head of Coaching at Nestlé, put it: "Our ambition is to fully integrate coaching into our company mindset... and make coaching...the model of our future leadership style (4)."

Using coaching does not mean that managers should no longer direct and supervise their teams, but rather that their management style becomes more adapted to a given situation and responds better to the needs of their team members.

"There are managers who coach and managers who don't. Leaders in the latter category are not necessarily bad managers, but they are neglecting an effective tool to develop talent." Joseph R. Weintraub and James M. Hunt

A number of key ingredients distinguish the coaching function (7; 9; 10; 11; 12). Coaching managers:

-are accessible, approachable and supportive

-establish a caring, positive and personal relationship with each team member

-share and exchange information

-ask open-ended questions, actively listen to employees, empathize with the difficulties they face and respond to their needs

-provide regular, constructive feedback and encouragement

-are open to input from employees and learn from them

-express recognition for their teams' efforts and contribution

-empower employees by focusing on their strengths and fostering autonomy

-build a sense of responsibility and accountability

-work in partnership with their teams to achieve the organization's objectives...
And most of all, coaching, in order to be effective, requires mutual respect and trust.
As is true for other management functions, managers need to be trained and coached to become competent in coaching their team members (7; 9; 12).

"Leaders can learn to be more collaborative as opposed to always being directive. They can learn the skill of helping people to discover solutions rather than always first offering advice." Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman

Coaching both managers and employees represents an investment, but research points to huge returns (3; 4; 6; 7; 9; 10; 12).

Seven of the most critical benefits of coaching are outlined below.
1. Productivity and Engagement
The managers' rapport and the quality of their interactions with employees are among the most important factors affecting productivity and engagement. "A coaching culture is the practice that's most highly correlated with business performance, employee engagement and overall retention (3)".

Regularly dialoging on performance expectations and organizational goals and helping employees define objectives and priorities are critical success factors (13).

The managers' ability to use employees' strengths and offer systematic recognition and encouragement engenders involvement, commitment and the willingness to go the extra mile (13).
2. Well-Being and Job Satisfaction
Good working conditions and close relationships between managers and employees are associated with higher worker morale and lower rates of absenteeism, burn-out and bore-out (13).

A flourishing corporate culture, based on reciprocity between managers and employees - giving, sharing, openness - has an enormous impact on motivation and job satisfaction (13).
3. Attracting, Developing and Retaining Talents
The manager-coach contributes to talent development and retention, as well as to creating a favorable image and reputation of the organization.

Companies rated highly by their employees figure in the lists of the best places to work which in turn attracts talents and qualified workers.
4. Adaptation and Innovation
Coaching seeks to strengthen employees' autonomy and independence, thereby preparing them to adapt to new challenges.

Becoming proactive and anticipating change will become more and more indispensible to survive in our highly competitive economy.

Actively participating in the search for improvements and innovations is now incumbent on all employees and has become a must for all organizations (14).
5. Growth and Development
A coaching culture focuses on unlocking the potential of workers at all levels, striving to stretch their roles and giving them new responsibilities.

This approach corresponds much more than the traditional authoritarian management style to the expectations and preferences of millennials who will soon represent the majority of workers.

Coaching of employees should not be limited to technical skills, but rather embrace a more comprehensive perspective, including personal and social skills, greater awareness and management of emotions, as well as improving interpersonal competencies (6).

"Recognize coaching for what it is: A fantastic opportunity for growth, development, self-insight, and career progression - and an endorsement that the company is willing to invest in you." Ron Ashkenas
6. A More Positive Role for Managers
A personal, caring relationship with team members and helping them grow, constitutes a more rewarding role (9) and will help managers get away from the toxic and stressful boss image. They will become more of a guide to look up to, a resource, rather than someone to be feared.

As team members expand their competencies, managers will be able to delegate new projects to them, freeing time for themselves to assume more strategic tasks and develop their leadership skills.

Working closely with employees and getting regular feedback from them, enables managers to stay abreast of what is going on in their teams and organization and make adjustments and improvements before serious problems erupt.
7. More Success for Teams and Managers
The managers' coaching skills significantly contribute to team building and collaboration. A well-functioning, cohesive team will achieve better business results which in turn will benefit the managers' reputation and career progression.

"When new managers are promoted to supervisory positions, they often think their job is to direct or evaluate people. While directed management is important, it plays a smaller role than one might think. It is the coaching and development role of management that is the most valuable (3)."
Bringing it all together
"To get the best from your employees, you need to be more than a manager, you need to be coach." Michael K. Simpson
We spend over a third of our lives at work. It is critical, therefore, to seek all possible paths to make our workspace as productive and fulfilling as possible. Managers at every level have a major responsibility to contribute to this goal and make it a reality. In line with this vision, empirical evidence points to substantial benefits of coaching: More engagement and wellbeing, unlocking employees' potentials, attracting and retaining talents, better adaptation to change and more innovation, and managers and employees working in partnership to achieve the organization's objectives. Key drivers of successful coaching include a caring and trusting Using effective coaching skills enables managers to empower their teams by focusing on their strengths and enhancing their autonomy. The manager-coach represents a positive role model. Managers are perceived as partners and References supportive figures. Both employees and managers experience more success and benefit in their career progression. relationship between manager and team members, open communication and active listening, regular feedback and recognition, as well as collaborating and learning from each other.
Bungay Stainier, M. (2016), The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever, Box of Crayons Press.

Harvard Business Review (2014), HBR Guide to Coaching Employees, Harvard Business Review Press.

Simpson, M. (2014), Unlocking Potential: 7 Coaching Skills That Transform Individuals, Teams and Organizations, Grand Harbor Press.

Whitmore, J. (2009), Coaching for Performance: GROWing Human Potential and Purpose - The Priniciples and Practice of Coaching and Leadership, Nicolas Brealy Publishing.

1.https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140802162919-15251082-the-high-cost-of-stress-in-the-workplace?trk=mp-reader-card
2. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/dramatic-lack-employee-engagement-worldwide-marcel-lucien-goldschmid?trk=mp-reader-card

3. http://dupress.com/articles/employee-engagement-strategies/

4. http://www.knowitall.ch/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1431&catid=281&Itemid=318

5. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-traditional-management-failing-5-key-factors-goldschmid?trk=mp-reader-card

6. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/emotional-intelligence-key-success-factor-managers-7-goldschmid?trk=mp-reader-card

7. https://hbr.org/2014/06/finding-the-balance-between-coaching-and-managing

8. https://hbr.org/2013/12/how-google-sold-its-engineers-on-management

9. https://hbr.org/2014/07/you-cant-be-a-great-manager-if-youre-not-a-good-coach/

10. https://hbr.org/2015/05/4-reasons-managers-should-spend-more-time-on-coaching

11. https://hbr.org2015/02/how-great-coaches-ask-listen-and-empath

12. http://www.bersin.com/Practice/Detail.aspx?docid=15021&mode=search&p=Talent-Management

13. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/five-key-factors-impact-employee-engagement-marcel-lucien-goldschmid?trk=mp-reader-card

14. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140829165514-15251082-no-organization-can-thrive-without-innovation?trk=mp-reader-card

Marcel Lucien Goldschmid, PhD, Director of MTC

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The Manager-Coach: 7 Critical Benefits of Coaching Employees

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"The goal of coaching is the goal of good management: to make the most of an organization's valuable resources." Harvard Business Review Overwhelming evidence has revealed that for many work has become an unhappy and stressful place to be (1). Engagement is at a dramatically low level.

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"Coaching is helping another person reach higher levels of effectiveness by creating a dialogue that leads to awareness and action." -Brian Emerson and Anne Loehr

"When an employee has the skills and ability to complete the task at hand, but for some reason is struggling with the confidence, focus, motivation, drive, or bandwidth to be at their best, coaching can help." -Brian Emerson and Anne Loehr

In the classic coaching book, Coaching for Performance (2009), the late John Whitmore described numerous benefits of coaching. Included in the list are benefits to the recipient (i.e., the client/coachee) as well as benefits to the team and the larger organization (pp. 156-158):

Improved performance and productivity

Staff development

Improved learning

Improved relationships

Improved quality of life for individuals

More time for the manager

More creative ideas

Better use of people, skills, and resources

Faster and more effective emergency response

Greater flexibility and adaptability to change

More motivated staff

Culture change

A life skill

In the book, Coaching People (McManus, 2006), benefits to the person being coached are (pp. 5-6):

maximizing their individual strengths

overcoming personal challenges/obstacles

achieving new skills & competencies to become more effective

preparing for new work/job roles or responsibilities

improvement in managing themselves (e.g., better time management)

clarifying and working toward goals (e.g., learning about and setting SMART goals)

increasing their job satisfaction and motivation

Benefits to the team and organization include (McManus, 2006, p. 6):

improving the working relationships between manager & direct reports (i.e., employees)

developing & fostering more productive teams

using organizational resources more effectively

Written By: Steve Nguyen, Ph.D.
Leadership + Talent Development Advisor

References

Emerson, B., & Loehr, A. (2008). A Manager's Guide to Coaching: Simple and Effective Ways to Get the Best Out of Your Employees. New York: AMACOM.

McManus, P. (2006). Coaching People: Expert Solutions to Everyday Challenges. Boston: Harvard Business Press.

Whitmore, J. (2009). Coaching for Performance (4th ed.). London: Nicholas Brealey Publishing.

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"Coaching is helping another person reach higher levels of effectiveness by creating a dialogue that leads to awareness and action." -Brian Emerson and Anne Loehr "When an employee has the skills and ability to complete the task at hand, but for some reason is struggling with the confidence, focus, motivation, drive, or bandwidth to be...

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[ NOTE: This post was updated August 2017]

What are the benefits of coaching employees? Harvard Business Review's Answer Exchange offers some great reasons:

When organizations coach employees, benefits to the company include:

Overcome costly and time-consuming performance problems

Strengthen employees' skills so you can delegate more tasks to them and focus on more important managerial responsibilities-such as planning

Boost productivity by helping your employees work smarter

Develop a deep bench of talent who can step into your shoes as you advance in the company

Improve retention; employees are more loyal and motivated when their bosses take time to help them improve their skills

Make more effective use of company resources; coaching costs less than formal training

When employees are coached, they:

Build valuable skills and knowledge they can use to advance in their careers

Feel supported and encouraged by their manager and the company

Experience the pride and satisfaction that come with surmounting new challenges

*Note: For an updated and more comprehensive list of the many benefits of coaching employees, read my 2017 post, "The Many Benefits of Coaching Employees."

Written By: Steve Nguyen, Ph.D.
Leadership & Talent Consultant

Reference

Originally posted on HBR Answer Exchange (now defunct); Adapted from the book Coaching People: Pocket Mentor Series, Harvard Business Press

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NOTE: This post was updated August 2017] What are the benefits of coaching employees? Harvard Business Review's Answer Exchange offers some great reasons: When organizations coach employees, benefits to the company include: Overcome costly and time-consuming performance problems Strengthen employees' skills so you can delegate more tasks to them and focus on more important managerial responsibilities-such as...

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During an economic downturn, a knee-jerk reaction organisations often have is to slash investment in learning and development. But these turbulent times have actually proven to be very positive for the coaching market, with savvy organisations realising that it can help them manage change better, and improve their chances of success when the market picks up again.
According to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), the number of organisations using coaching for line managers has actually risen slightly in the past three years, from 49% in 2009 to 52% in 2012. Furthermore, around 16% of organisations are using external coaches to help them build coaching capability internally.

Robin Pring, UK HR director for brewery company Heineken, discusses coaching in her organisation.

"I've worked in a lot of organisations, and all of them had a culture of respecting people and investing in their continuing development - and one of those routes has been coaching. In a couple of places I worked, there was a culture of manager as coach, with specific development targeted at managers to enable a coaching culture to infiltrate across the business.

"At Heineken, coaching features in many of our development programmes. There is no formal return-on-investment process, but we ensure there's a three-way dialogue between manager, coach and employee so they agree objectives, review them halfway through and have a formal review at the end to see if the objectives been met.

"We prefer to build our own coaching capability, led by the learning and development department. We started to use sport and high performance as a theme in 2011, as we were to be a major sponsor of the Olympics. It was the first time we'd created a real focus on talent and development, so we wanted to take something that was tangible for everyone.

"Our colleagues in Group HR have created a programme called Heineken Global One 2 Learn, which allows people to access a wide range of both functional and leadership development options. We're building functional and leadership academies across a number of specialisms, including HR, which will be added at the end of the year.

"With so many of our staff working in the field, it's a real challenge when you're spread across multiple sites with different roles. In brewery and manufacturing sites, we've installed computers and monitors so everyone has access to learning offerings. I'm a big believer that if an individual requests coaching or feels they would benefit, we would offer it to them at whatever level.

"We're also working on building peer-to-peer coaching. Following on from our leadership programme for senior leaders, we facilitate continuous learning groups to discuss what they have learnt. These have been so successful that they're now facilitating them for themselves.

"Mentoring is important, and we now have 80 managers who are mentors across the business. It's part of how we're embedding coaching and mentoring into the business. We don't want it to be seen as a solution to a problem. It's a positive way of building on someone's potential and performance. Even our graduates have access to a mentor, and at the very top level we use external coaches to help give our leaders a different perspective."

This move towards developing and embedding a "coaching culture" is helping organisations get a better return on investment in coaching and use it to make them more resilient to change.

"It's unsustainable to coach everyone in the organisation," explains John McGurk, adviser in learning and talent development at the CIPD. "The most sustainable model is if the learning and development department is prepared to take on the role and do some of the implementation."
Building resilience
McGurk adds that, while in the past, much of the focus around coaching has been around senior executives, more and more organisations are investing in coaching across multiple levels of seniority. The advantages of this are that managers can then support other employees, and this builds resilience across the business as a whole, helping teams perform better.

This is certainly the case at Heineken, where UK HR director Robin Pring has integrated coaching into many of the leadership and development programmes, and staff at any level can ask for coaching support if they feel it would help them to do their job.

"Organisations with a full end-to-end approach to coaching make it work well. In the companies I've worked at, we would diagnose carefully to ensure [the coaching] meets the needs of the individual - but also that it would bring benefit back into the business," she says. "We look for right match, set clear objectives at the start and review whether we've met them at the end."

Organisations are also becoming more demanding of coaching providers to demonstrate that they can deliver against specific business goals, according to James Brook, co-founder and director of training provider Strengths Partnership: "Organisations are being more savvy in terms of the coaches they bring in and their processes - there are a lot more checks and balances to ensure it's delivering value."
Worth the investment
For some, however, this can be a difficult conversation, as in the past coaching has often been an ad-hoc investment and organisations might not have applied the same sort of evidence base they would to other major investments. According to the CIPD's September Coaching: the evidence base report, this is because much of the evidence for coaching so far has been based on "advocacy, rather than enquiry"; that is, organisations tend to invest based on descriptive case studies of where coaching worked in other companies, rather than more rigorous investigations.

Dale Kirk, principle consultant at Thales Training and Consultancy, says: "Too many organisations still think 'coaching is a good thing, so let's invest in it', or focus on cost or speed of response. What they need to be looking at is business impact, whether the coaches understand their business and their situation."

Many of the organisations successfully using coaching, he adds, have moved away from focusing it on individuals and have become "organisational advocates", where whole teams and departments share the benefits of coaching.

Chris Rogers, managing consultant at organisational development consultancy ASK, agrees: "Coaching has not traditionally been seen as a tool to deliver a business impact quickly. Too often it's seen as an individual, remedial approach designed to help someone who has a problem."

Where it is seen as a positive force for change, on the other hand, it tends to be more effective.

More and more learning and development and HR professionals are now asking coaching providers to "kick-start" a programme that creates that organisational shift towards a coaching culture.

"We focus on self-sustaining aspects of coaching," says Kirk. "Our input will be high at first, and then the organisation takes it forward." In Heineken, for example, groups that have attended leadership programmes share what they've learnt through peer-to-peer coaching sessions.

As with any major investment, the key is to link the goals of coaching programmes to other business goals and review progress regularly.

"Companies that are embarking on internal coaching programmes are aligning it with the business," concludes McGurk. "When it's just a cosy conversation, it's divorced from other issues, so it won't be as effective."

For more information on learning and training, take a look at Personnel Today's free buyers' guide on the topic.

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The benefits of embedding coaching into your organisation - Personnel Today

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During an economic downturn, a knee-jerk reaction organisations often have is to slash investment in learning and development. But these turbulent times have actually proven to be very positive for the coaching market, with savvy organisations realising that it can help them manage change better, and improve their chances of success when the market picks ...

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Coaching - it's a no brainer. Benefits for the individual, improved business performance and return on training investment, and a positive, impactful occupation for the coach

This month's blog focuses on the benefits of coaching for everyone involved in the process. If you've been considering a career-change, then read on for evidence of the positive impact coaching can have on individuals and on coaches. If you're a manager or business owner, you'll find reasons in this article to adopt a coaching approach to management. If you work in HR or L&D, this blog will provide the starting point for a business case to invest in coaching and coach training.

Benefits for individuals: Improved self-confidence, self-esteem and career prospects

The benefits of being coached are well documented, with individuals reporting increased self-confidence, improved work performance, better relationships, and more effective communication skills (see more of the benefits in my download here). In a professional context, individuals who are coached benefit from a constructive, confidential environment where they can explore different approaches to challenges they are facing, are involved in creating practical solutions and held accountable to make positive change through regular coaching sessions.

Benefits for coaches: Positive, happy clients / colleagues is very satisfying

For many people, having a positive impact on others is a key reason for training to be a coach, but your reasons don't have to be entirely altruistic. The skills you learn when you train to be a coach will have a positive impact on your own life as well as the people you choose to coach. Being able to listen with curiosity, reflect with accuracy, question effectively and provide constructive feedback are skills that could transform your own work and home life. A career as a professional coach is also very flexible and can be arranged to suit your requirements.

Benefits for organisations: Coaching has a positive impact on results

The wider organisational benefits of encouraging a coach-led approach to management are also compelling. Training managers to be coaches helps them to:

Listen effectively and actively

Truly engage their team members

Adopt an approach to improvement which builds upon the positive "what's already working well" rather than starting from the negative "what's wrong?" standpoint

Reduce and eliminate the limiting beliefs of their team

Champion and believe in the individuals in their team

Often these benefits are felt much wider than just directly by the individuals involved in the process. People who have been coached effectively report increased psychological well-being, are more productive and tend to adopt a similar approach when managing their own teams. A workforce that feels valued and engaged and is encouraged to approach problems with a fresh perspective, is likely to suffer less from attrition and be more able to cope with change in the fast paced environment we all inhabit today.

You might be considering coaching in a work context to get the most out of your team, thinking about a career change and looking into becoming a coach or looking for something to help give your business a competitive edge and to maximise your return on investment on training. See below a proposed learning pathway to explore the steps to becoming a professional/expert coach and download this month's pdf (sign up below) for a summary of the business case and benefits of training yourself or members of your business in coaching skills.

Visit this section of my website for more information about upcoming courses and do get in touch to discuss your coach training needs.

Download my coaching benefits pdf here.

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Coaching - it's a no brainer. Benefits for the individual, improved business performance and return on training investment, and a positive, impactful occupation for the coach - The Lazarus Consultancy

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Coaching - it's a no brainer. Benefits for the individual, improved business performance and return on training investment, and a positive, impactful occupation for the coach This month's blog focuses on the benefits of coaching for everyone involved in the process.

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1: it puts the learner at the centre of the learning: coaching focuses on the learner's needs, and how they want to address those needs. Coaching tends to assume the learner has the answer. Coaching 'draws out' learning - instruction 'puts it in'

2: it is engaging and involving - for both parties: the learner is active, rather than passive, and therefore more likely to engage their brain. The coach too, needs to be alert and focused throughout. Their is no hiding place for either party...!

3: it adapts easily to the learner's preferred learning style and strategy: a good coach wll use a style that suits the learner - which is easier to achieve on a 1-1 basis than for a large training group

4: it encourages greater understanding and ownership: coaching involves the learner, who tends to generate the ideas and solutions. So the learner understands the solution, and how it was arrived at. Creating the solution, they are also more likely to carry it through

5: it allows the learner the satisfaction of getting there themselves: of discovering the solution, rather than being told

6: it can be very cost effective: it can be quick, and because it addresses the individual's specific issues or needs, is very efficient, with no 'waste'

7: it encourages innovation: under an instructional model, the received wisdom simply continues to be passed on; under a coaching approach, each individual has the opportunity to come up with their own solution, which might be different - and better - than previous solutions. If Einstein is right, in that we cannot solve today's problems using today's thinking, then coaching is more likely to generate the new ways we need

8: it is developmental and satisfying for the coach: coaching requires a high order set of skills, so can be developmental; it also can provide a lot of satisfaction - helping someone to get there themselves

9: it is a more flexible, responsive approach to development: training programmes typically happen every so often, and might not be at the right time or place for the learner. Coaching is more flexible and easier to arrange, so can be made available as and when required

10: it is an appropriate management style and culture: these days, most staff respond well to a coaching style of management - from problem solving to tackling performance issues. It is a more collaborative, less hierarchical approach, where the staff member is valued and supported, rather than directed and controlled

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Top 10: Benefits of coaching... - Effective Training and Development

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1: it puts the learner at the centre of the learning: coaching focuses on the learner's needs, and how they want to address those needs. Coaching tends to assume the learner has the answer.

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Benefits of Coaching | Institute of Coaching

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The Personal Benefits of Coaching The personal benefits of coaching are as wide-ranging as the individuals involved. Numerous clients report that coaching positively impacted their careers as well as their lives by helping them to:

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What are Coaching and Mentoring?

Both coaching and mentoring are processes that enable both individual and corporate clients to achieve their full potential.

Coaching and mentoring share many similarities so it makes sense to outline the common things coaches and mentors do whether the services are offered in a paid (professional) or unpaid (philanthropic) role.

Facilitate the exploration of needs, motivations, desires, skills and thought processes to assist the individual in making real, lasting change.

Use questioning techniques to facilitate client's own thought processes in order to identify solutions and actions rather than takes a wholly directive approach

Support the client in setting appropriate goals and methods of assessing progress in relation to these goals

Observe, listen and ask questions to understand the client's situation

Creatively apply tools and techniques which may include one-to-one training, facilitating, counselling & networking.

Encourage a commitment to action and the development of lasting personal growth & change.

Maintain unconditional positive regard for the client, which means that the coach is at all times supportive and non-judgemental of the client, their views, lifestyle and aspirations.

Ensure that clients develop personal competencies and do not develop unhealthy dependencies on the coaching or mentoring relationship.

Evaluate the outcomes of the process, using objective measures wherever possible to ensure the relationship is successful and the client is achieving their personal goals.

Encourage clients to continually improve competencies and to develop new developmental alliances where necessary to achieve their goals.

Work within their area of personal competence.

Possess qualifications and experience in the areas that skills-transfer coaching is offered.

Manage the relationship to ensure the client receives the appropriate level of service and that programmes are neither too short, nor too long.

Useful definitions

The common thread uniting all types of coaching & mentoring is that these services offer a vehicle for analysis, reflection and action that ultimately enable the client to achieve success in one more areas of their life or work.

Here are some published definitions we particularly like...

Coaching is...

"a process that enables learning and development to occur and thus performance to improve. To be a successful a Coach requires a knowledge and understanding of process as well as the variety of styles, skills and techniques that are appropriate to the context in which the coaching takes place"

Eric Parsloe, The Manager as Coach and Mentor (1999) page 8. Eric is a respected author and Director of the OCM

Mentoring is...

"off-line help by one person to another in making significant transitions in knowledge, work or thinking"

Clutterbuck, D & Megginson, D, Mentoring Executives and Directors (1999) page 3. David Clutterbuck & David Megginson are both founder members of The European Mentoring and Coaching Council and highly respected authors, academics and consultants in the mentoring arena.

The difference between coaching and mentoring

As can be seen above, there are many similarities between coaching and mentoring! Mentoring, particularly in its traditional sense, enables an individual to follow in the path of an older and wiser colleague who can pass on knowledge, experience and open doors to otherwise out-of-reach opportunities. Coaching on the other hand is not generally performed on the basis that the coach has direct experience of their client's formal occupational role unless the coaching is specific and skills focused.

Having said this, there are professionals offering their services under the name of mentoring who have no direct experience of their clients' roles and others offering services under the name of coaching who do. So the moral of the story is, it is essential to determine what your needs are and to ensure that the coach or mentor can supply you with the type and level of service you require, whatever that service is called.

See also Finding the right service

Business coaching & mentoring

Organisational development, changes brought about by mergers and acquisitions as well as the need to provide key employees with support through a change of role or career are often catalysts, which inspire companies to seek coaching or mentoring.

At one time coaching and mentoring were reserved for senior managers and company directors, now it is available to all as a professional or personal development tool. Coaching and mentoring are also closely linked with organisational change initiatives in order to help staff to accept and adapt to changes in a manner consistent with their personal values and goals.

Coaching & mentoring, both of which focus on the individual, can enhance morale, motivation and productivity and reduce staff turnover as individuals feel valued and connected with both small and large organisational changes. This role may be provided by internal coaches or mentors and, increasingly, by professional coaching agencies.

Coaching and mentoring programmes generally prove to be popular amongst employees as coaching achieves a balance between fulfilling organisational goals and objectives whilst taking into account the personal development needs of individual employees. It is a two-way relationship with both the organisation and the employee gaining significant benefits.

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

Executive Coaching & Mentoring

There is a great deal of overlap between business and executive coaching or mentoring. Many people will offer either service, but there is a growing body of professionals in the UK who are calling themselves executive coaches and mentors and are differentiating themsleves in the marketplace. The key differences between business and executive coaching and mentoring are that Executive coaches and mentors typically...

Have a track record in professional and executive roles

Work exclusively with the 'high-flyers' or with those who have potential to be a high flyer

Work at board or CEO level within high profile or 'blue-chip' organisations

Offer total confidentiality

Work with potential 'captains of industry' and high profile business leaders

Performance Coaching and mentoring

Many coaching clients will seek coaching or mentoring for performance enhancement rather than the rectification of a performance issue. Coaching & mentoring have been shown to be highly successful intervention in these cases. When an organisation is paying premium rates for development services, performance is usually the key pay-back they are looking for. Even if an executive or manager receives support in balancing work and home life, it will be with the aim of increasing their effectiveness and productivity at work and not for more altruistic reasons.

Performance coaching derives its theoretical underpinnings and models from business and sports psychology as well as general management approaches.

Skills coaching & mentoring

Skills coaching has some commonalities with one-to-one training. Skills coaches & mentors combine a holistic approach to personal development with the ability to focus on the core skills an employee needs to perform in their role. Skills coaches & mentors should be highly experienced and competent in performing the skills they teach.

Job roles are changing at an ever increasing rate. Traditional training programmes are often too inflexible or generic to deal with these fast moving requirements. In these instances one-to-one skills coaching allows a flexible, adaptive 'just-in-time' approach to skills development. It is also possible to apply skills coaching in 'live' environments rather than taking people away from the job into a 'classroom' where it is less easy to simulate the job environment.

Skills coaching programmes are tailored specifically to the individual, their knowledge, experience, maturity and ambitions and is generally focused on achieving a number of objectives for both the individual and the company. These objectives often include the individual being able to perform specific, well-defined tasks whilst taking in to account the personal and career development needs of the individual.

One-to-one skills training is not the same as the 'sitting next to Nelly' approach to 'on the job training'. What differentiates it is that like any good personal or professional development intervention it is based on an assessment of need in relation to the job-role, delivered in a structured (but highly flexible) manner, and generates measurable learning and performance outcomes. This form of skills training is likely to focus purely on the skills required to perform the job function even though it may adopt a facilitative coaching approach instead of a 'telling' or directive style.

Personal coaching & mentoring

Personal or 'life coaching' servcies have grown significantly in the UK, Europe and Australia over the past decade. Personal coaches may work face-to-face but email and telephone based relationships are also very common. These coaches and mentors operate in highly supportive roles to those who wish to make some form of significant change happen within their lives.

Coaches offer their clients a supportive and motivating environment to explore what they want in life and how they might achieve their aspirations and fulfil their needs. By assisting the client in committing to action and by being a sounding-board to their experiences, coaching allows the individual the personal space and support they need to grow and develop. The coach's key role is often is assisting the client to maintain the motivation and commitment needed to achieve their goals.

In many cases personal coaching is differentiated from business coaching purely by the context and the focus of the programme. Business coaching is always conducted within the constraints placed on the individual or group by the organisational context. Personal coaching on the other hand is taken entirely from the individual's perspective.

How do coaching and mentoring compare with related professional services?

Is coaching just therapy by another name?

Coaching is not necessarily 'therapy' by another name although the key theoretical underpinnings, models and techniques found their origins in the field of psychology and associated therapies like gestalt & cognitive behavioural therapy which have broad ranging applications in both organisational and personal contexts.

The key difference between coaching and the therapies is that coaching does not seek to resolve the deeper underlying issues that are the cause of serious problems like poor motivation, low self-esteem and poor job performance. Coaching and mentoring programmes are generally more concerned with the practical issues of setting goals and achieving results within specific time-scales.

Coaching and mentoring is generally commenced on the premise that clients are self-aware and 'whole' and have selected coaching or mentoring because they do not require a therapeutic intervention. It is possible for someone who has underlying issues to experience success within a coaching context even if the underlying issues are not resolved. If, however, a client becomes 'stuck' and the coaching or mentoring programme is not achieving desired results, then a psychological or therapeutic intervention may be necessary for the client to move forward and achieve their goals.

Coach & mentor training programmes which are typically quite short are not aimed at qualifying coaches to conduct an assessment of whether someone may be in need of a therapeutic intervention, rather than a coaching or mentoring one. This is driven in part by the professional restrictions and barriers that have traditionally been placed around psychology and the therapies, but is mostly due to the fact that psychological assessment is a complex process that does require specialised training. Professional coaches & mentors do, however, stay ever alert to the possibility that a client may have or may develop issues or problems for which coaching or mentoring on it's own, is not sufficient.

Client progress is always monitored and coaches and mentors watch for signs which may indicate that a client requires an assessment by a trained therapist. Some coaches will on-refer a client to an appropriate therapist if this is felt to be useful. Other coaches will conduct a coaching programme in parallel with a therapeutic intervention.

Most coaches & mentors are keen to maintain the professional boundaries between coaching & mentoring and the traditional therapies and will collaborate with therapists when a client requires this form of intervention.

The traditional therapies, psychology and counselling and their relationship to coaching

Contrary to popular belief, therapy is not 'backwards focused' and does not conform to the stereotype of spending 20 years attending weekly sessions to discuss childhood experiences. See A Guide to Psychology and its Practice for a more realistic & modern view of what clinical psychology and the therapies have to offer.

Therapy is, if anything, an extension of what happens in a coaching relationship, it is forward focused and aimed at life improvement or enhancement. It is about moving on and breaking free from problems and issues that have held people back and prevented them from getting all they can from their lives. Another popular misconception is that in order to undergo therapy one must be 'crazy' or 'neurotic' which is not the case.

Therapy is also time-limited and based on an assessment of needs. It is quite rare now to encounter therapies that involve open-ended interventions that last for many years. Therapists are highly trained, with 4 years of full-time undergraduate training followed by 1-2 years full-time post-graduate study and from 3-5 supervised full-time practice before being considered 'qualified'. Therapists, counsellors & clinical psychologists must usually engage in professional 'supervision' for the whole of their career to ensure that a high standards are maintained. Psychologists who apply therapeutic approaches are also ethically and professionally bound to work with clients only if measurable value can be demonstrated, this means that if people do not actually NEED therapy, it is not ethical for providers to continue providing the services.

Because of this relationship between coaching and psychology & the therapies, some professionals offering coaching services are, in fact, therapists, counsellors or psychologists. This means it is possible to offer the appropriate level of service depending on immediate needs and client preferences.

It is increasingly common for the titles such as 'positive' or 'coaching psychology' to be used make it easier for clients to find service providers who take a psychological focus within their work as a coach. For an explanation of coaching psychology as an area of practice see www.coachingpsychologist.net/WhatIs/Index.php

Anyone seeking life improvement, and who is willing to work at the deeper issues could benefit from contracting a coach or mentor who does have a traditional therapeutic background in the first instance. If the client is not sure what type of service would benefit them the most, they should be encouraged to secure a professional assessment by an appropriately qualified provider.

In some countries such as the UK, there is goverment regulation in place for psychologists. A small number of restricted titles have been identified by the Govt for the purpose of ensuring that the public can be assured that any professional using these titles is appropriately registered under the regulatory framework.

Titles restricted by the UK Goverment to protect the public include Clinical Psychologist, Counselling Psychologist and Occupational Psychologist. More general terms like psychologist, therapist and counsellor are not restricted titles, so anyone is able to use thee to market their services. The titles 'coaching psychologist' and 'positive psychologist' are, for example, not
restricted. As this is the case, when selecting a coach or mentor with therapeutic, counselling or business focused psychological skills it is important to ensure they are registered with an appropriate regulatory body. In the UK, titles for the profession of psychology are regulated by the Health & Care Professions Council www.hcpc-uk.org.

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Everything you ever wanted to know about coaching and mentoring

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What are Coaching and Mentoring? Both coaching and mentoring are processes that enable both individual and corporate clients to achieve their full potential. Coaching and mentoring share many similarities so it makes sense to outline the common things coaches and mentors do whether the services are offered in a paid (professional) or unpaid (philanthropic) role....

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Podcast 128: Coaching - It's a culture thing by CIPD

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Over the past twelve months performance management practices have come under close scrutiny with some high-profile organisations including Deloitte and Accenture scrapping their annual performance reviews, instead implementing a more fluid system of ongoing, timely feedback.

To transition to this type of new system successfully, however, organisations must ensure that their people are equipped to give and receive more regular feedback and, crucially, that their culture is one in which coaching, mentoring and other forms of continuous feedback can thrive. 

In this episode we talk to Chris Britton and Nebel Crowhurst from River Island and Rhonda Howarth Nestle about why coaching is an integral part of performance management in their organisations. They offer practical advice on developing coaching capabilities and embedding them into the business. We also explore the psychology of coaching wit ex England cricketer and founder of Sporting Edge, Jeremy Snape.

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Coaching is a form of development in which an experienced person, called a , supports a learner or client in achieving a specific personal or professional goal by providing training and guidance. The learner is sometimes called a coachee. Occasionally, coaching may mean an informal relationship between two people, of whom one has more experience and expertise than the other and offers advice and guidance as the latter learns; but coaching differs from mentoring by focusing on specific tasks or objectives, as opposed to more general goals or overall development.

The first use of the term "coach" in connection with an instructor or trainer arose around 1830 in Oxford University slang for a tutor who "carried" a student through an exam. The word "coaching" thus identified a process used to transport people from where they are to where they want to be. The first use of the term in relation to sports came in 1861.

Historically the development of coaching has been influenced by many fields of activity, including adult education, the Human Potential Movement in the 1960s, large-group awareness training (LGAT) groups (such as Erhard Seminars Training, founded in 1971), leadership studies, personal development, and various subfields of psychology.[need quotation to verify ] The University of Sydney offered the world's first coaching psychology unit of study in January 2000, and various academic associations and academic journals for coaching psychology were established in subsequent years (see Coaching psychology § History).

Coaching is applied in fields such as sports, performing arts (singers get vocal coaches), acting ( drama coaches and dialect coaches), business, education, health care, and relationships (for example, dating coaches).

Coaches use a range of communication skills (such as targeted restatements, listening, questioning, clarifying, etc.) to help clients shift their perspectives and thereby discover different approaches to achieve their goals. These skills can be used in almost all types of coaching. In this sense, coaching is a form of "meta-profession" that can apply to supporting clients in any human endeavor, ranging from their concerns in health, personal, professional, sport, social, family, political, spiritual dimensions, etc. There may be some overlap between certain types of coaching activities. Coaching approaches are also influenced by cultural differences.

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

The concept of ADHD coaching was introduced in 1994 by psychiatrists Edward M. Hallowell and John J. Ratey in their book Driven to Distraction. ADHD coaching is a specialized type of life coaching that uses techniques designed to assist individuals with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder by mitigating the effects of executive function deficit, which is a common impairment for people with ADHD. Coaches work with clients to help them better manage time, organize, set goals, and complete projects. In addition to assisting clients to understand the impact ADHD has had on their lives, coaches can help clients develop " workaround" strategies to deal with specific challenges, and determine and use individual strengths. Coaches also help clients get a better grasp of what reasonable expectations are for them as individuals since people with ADHD "brain wiring" often seem to need external "mirrors" for self-awareness about their potential despite their impairment.

Business coaching is a type of human resource development for executives, members of management, teams, and leadership. It provides positive support, feedback, and advice on an individual or group basis to improve personal effectiveness in the business setting, many a time focusing on behavioral changes through psychometrics or 360-degree feedback for example. Business coaching is also called executive coaching, corporate coaching or leadership coaching. Coaches help their clients advance towards specific professional goals. These include career transition, interpersonal and professional communication, performance management, organizational effectiveness, managing career, and personal changes, developing executive presence, building credibility, enhancing strategic thinking, dealing effectively with conflict, facing work challenges and making swift and sound decisions, leading a change and building an effective team within an organization. An industrial-organizational psychologist may work as an executive coach.

Business coaching is not restricted to external experts or providers. Many organizations expect their senior leaders and middle managers to coach their team members to reach higher levels of performance, increased job satisfaction, personal growth, and career development. Research studies suggest that executive coaching has positive effects both within workplace performance as well as personal areas outside the workplace, with some differences in the impact of internal and external coaches.

In some countries, there is no licensing required to be a business or executive coach, and membership of a coaching organization is optional. Further, standards and methods of training coaches can vary widely between coaching organizations. Many business coaches refer to themselves as consultants, a broader business relationship than one which exclusively involves coaching. Research findings from a systematic review indicate that effective coaches are known for having integrity, support for those they coach, communication skills, and credibility.

In the workplace, leadership coaching has been shown to be effective for increasing employee confidence in expressing their own ideas. Research findings in a systematic review demonstrate that coaching can help reduce stress in the workplace.

Career coaching focuses on work and career and is similar to career counseling. Career coaching is not to be confused with life coaching, which concentrates on personal development. Another common term for a career coach is " career guide".

A Christian coach is not a pastor or counselor (although the coach may also be qualified in those disciplines), but someone who has been professionally trained to address specific coaching goals from a distinctively Christian or biblical perspective.

Co-coaching is a structured practice of coaching between peers with the goal of learning improved coaching techniques.

Dating coaches offer coaching and related products and services to improve their clients' success in dating and relationships.

Financial coaching is a relatively new form of coaching that focuses on helping clients overcome their struggle to attain specific financial goals and aspirations they have set for themselves. Financial coaching is a one-on-one relationship in which the coach works to provide encouragement and support aimed at facilitating attainment of the client's economic plans. A financial coach, also called money coach, typically focuses on helping clients to restructure and reduce debt, reduce spending, develop saving habits, and develop fiscal discipline. In contrast, the term financial adviser refers to a broader range of professionals who typically provide clients with financial products and services. Although early research links financial coaching to improvements in client outcomes, much more rigorous analysis is necessary before any causal linkages can be established.

Health coaching is becoming recognized as a new way to help individuals "manage" their illnesses and conditions, especially those of a chronic nature. The coach will use special techniques, personal experience, expertise and encouragement to assist the coachee in bringing his/her behavioral changes about while aiming for lowered health risks and decreased healthcare costs. The National Society of Health Coaches (NSHC) has differentiated the term health coach from wellness coach. According to the NSHC, health coaches are qualified "to guide those with acute or chronic conditions and/or moderate to high health risk", and wellness coaches provide guidance and inspiration "to otherwise 'healthy' individuals who desire to maintain or improve their overall general health status".

Homework coaching focuses on equipping a student with the study skills required to succeed academically. This approach is different from regular tutoring which typically seeks to improve a student's performance in a specific subject.

Coaching is applied to support students, faculty, and administrators in educational organizations. For students, opportunities for coaching include collaborating with fellow students to improve grades and skills, both academic and social; for teachers and administrators, coaching can help with transitions into new roles.

Life coaching is the process of helping people identify and achieve personal goals through developing skills and attitudes that lead to self-empowerment. Life coaching generally deals with issues such as procrastination, fear of failure, relationships' issues, lack of confidence, work-life balance and career changes, and often occurs outside the workplace setting. Systematic academic psychological engagement with life coaching dates from the 1980s. Skeptics have criticized life coaching's focus on self-improvement for its potential for commercializing friendships and other human relationships.

Relationship coaching is the application of coaching to personal and business relationships.

In sports, a coach is an individual that provides supervision and training to the sports team or individual players. Sports coaches are involved in administration, athletic training, competition coaching, and representation of the team and the players. A survey in 2019 of the literature on sports coaching found an increase in the number of publications and most articles featured a quantitative research approach. Sports psychology emerged from the 1890s.

A vocal coach, also known as a voice coach (though this term often applies to those working with speech and communication rather than singing), is a music teacher, usually a piano accompanist, who helps singers prepare for a performance, often also helping them to improve their singing technique and take care of and develop their voice, but is not the same as a singing teacher (also called a "voice teacher"). Vocal coaches may give private music lessons or group workshops or masterclasses to singers. They may also coach singers who are rehearsing on stage, or who are singing during a recording session.

Since the mid-1990s, coaching professional associations such as the Association for Coaching (AC), the European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC), the International Association of Coaching (IAC), and the International Coach Federation (ICF) have worked towards developing training standards. Psychologist Jonathan Passmore noted in 2016:

While coaching has become a recognized intervention, sadly there are still no standards or licensing arrangements which are widely recognized. Professional bodies have continued to develop their own standards, but the lack of regulation means anyone can call themselves a coach. ... Whether coaching is a profession which requires regulation, or is professional and requires standards, remains a matter of debate.

One of the challenges in the field of coaching is upholding levels of professionalism, standards, and ethics. To this end, coaching bodies and organizations have codes of ethics and member standards. However, because these bodies are not regulated, and because coaches do not need to belong to such a body, ethics and standards are variable in the field. In February 2016, the AC and the EMCC launched a "Global Code of Ethics" for the entire industry; individuals, associations, and organizations are invited to become signatories to it.

With the growing popularity of coaching, many colleges and universities now offer coach training programs that are accredited by a professional association. Some courses offer a life coach certificate after just a few days of training, but such courses, if they are accredited at all, are considered "à la carte" training programs, "which may or may not offer start to finish coach training". Some "all-inclusive" training programs accredited by the ICF, for example, require a minimum of 125 student contact hours, 10 hours of mentor coaching and a performance evaluation process. This is very little training in comparison to the training requirements of some other helping professions: for example, licensure as a counseling psychologist in the State of California requires 3,000 hours of supervised professional experience. However, the ICF, for example, offers a "Master Certified Coach" credential that requires demonstration of "2,500 hours (2,250 paid) of coaching experience with at least 35 clients" and a "Professional Certified Coach" credential with fewer requirements. Other professional bodies similarly offer entry-level, intermediate, and advanced coach accreditation options. Some coaches are both certified coaches and licensed counseling psychologists, integrating coaching and counseling.

Critics see life coaching as akin to psychotherapy but without the legal restrictions and state regulation of psychologists. There are no state regulations/licensing requirements for coaches. Due to lack of regulation, people who have no formal training or certification can legally call themselves life or wellness coaches.

A 2004 survey of 2,529 ICF members reported that 52.5% work part-time as coaches and earn US$30,000 or less, while 32.3% reported they earned less than $10,000 per year.

A 2016 survey by the ICF, reported that of 53,000 professional coaches, most operated in America. They reported an average income of US$51,000 with some specialist coaches reporting earning $100,000 or more.

1. ^ Passmore, Jonathan, ed. (2016) [2006]. Excellence in Coaching: The Industry Guide (3rd ed.). London; Philadelphia: Kogan Page. ISBN 9780749474461. OCLC 927192333.

2. ^ Lines, David; Evans, Christina, eds. (2020). "A Meta-Analysis of Coaching: Re-tracing the Roots and Re-analysing the Coaching Story". The Global Business of Coaching: A Meta-Analytical Perspective. Routledge Studies in Human Resource Development. New York: Routledge. ISBN 9780429884917. ... Brock (2014: 116-119) identifies that coaching draws on the knowledge bases of adult education. ... Neither Brock (2014) nor Grant (2005) establishes a causal link between adult education and the emergence of coaching. However, they both acknowledge the importance and relationship of different theories and knowledge bases to the work of a coach. This surfaces the practice of adopting established knowledge bases from the professions that existed prior to coaching.

3. ^ Stelter, Reinhard (2012). A Guide to Third Generation Coaching: Narrative-Collaborative Theory and Practice [Tredje generations coaching - En guide til narrativ-samskabende teori og praksis]. Dordrecht: Springer Science+Business Media (published 2013). p. 2. ISBN 9789400771864. The history of coaching and coaching psychology can be traced back to two key roots: Sport psychology and the Human Potential Movement.

4. ^ Brock, Vikki G. (2018). "The Roots and Evolution of Coaching". In English, Susan; Sabatine, Janice Manzi; Brownell, Philip (eds.). Professional Coaching: Principles and Practice. Springer Publishing. pp. 13-14. ISBN 9780826180094. Several sources of connections that set the stage for coaching are: ... Large Group Awareness training (LGAT) was the culmination of the shift to an awareness and responsibility perspective. Participants left meetings with limited support structures to change, though they had declarations, commitments, and enthusiasm.

5. ^ Hallowell, Edward M.; Ratey, John J. (2011) [1984]. Driven to Distraction: Recognizing and Coping with Attention Deficit Disorder from Childhood Through Adulthood (Revised ed.). New York: Anchor Books. ISBN 9780307743152. OCLC 699763760.

6. ^ Knouse, Laura E.; Bagwell, Catherine L.; Barkley, Russell A.; Murphy, Kevin R. (May 2005). "Accuracy of Self-Evaluation in Adults with ADHD: Evidence from a Driving Study". Journal of Attention Disorders. 8 (4): 221-234. doi:10.1177/1087054705280159. PMID 16110052. S2CID 40724893.

7. ^ Blackman, Anna; Moscardo, Gianna; Gray, David E. (2016). "Challenges for the theory and practice of business coaching: a systematic review of empirical evidence" (PDF). Human Resource Development Review. 15 (4): 459-486. doi:10.1177/1534484316673177. ISSN 1534-4843. S2CID 152097437.

8. ^ Stern, Lewis R. (2004). "Executive coaching: a working definition" (PDF). Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research. 56 (3): 154-162. doi:10.1037/1065-9293.56.3.154. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 July 2015.

9. ^ Jones, Rebecca J.; Woods, Stephen A.; Guillaume, Yves R. F. (June 2016). "The effectiveness of workplace coaching: a meta-analysis of learning and performance outcomes from coaching" (PDF). Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology. 89 (2): 249-277. doi:10.1111/joop.12119.

10. ^ Gyllensten, Kristina; Palmer, Stephen (July 2005). "Can coaching reduce workplace stress?". The Coaching Psychologist. 1: 15-17. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.465.4855.

11. ^ "Definition of Christian Coaching" (PDF). christiancoaches.com. Christian Coaches Network International. October 2017. Christian coaching is an approach to the practice of professional coaching-whether focused on personal or professional growth-that integrates the biblical worldview when working with clients to recognize their potential and effect personal change.

12. ^ Collins, J. Michael; Olive, Peggy; O'Rourke, Collin M. (February 2013). "Financial Coaching's Potential for Enhancing Family Financial Security". Journal of Extension. 51 (1): 1FEA8.

13. ^ "Health Coaches & Health Coaching: Definition, Qualifications, Risk and Responsibility, and Differentiation from Wellness Coaching" (PDF). National Society of Health Coaches.

14. ^ Nieuwerburgh, Christian van (2012). Coaching in Education: Getting Better Results for Students, Educators, and Parents. Professional Coaching Series. London: Karnac Books. ISBN 9781780490793. OCLC 778418798.

15. ^ Neenan, Michael (2018). Neenan, Michael (ed.). Cognitive Behavioural Coaching: Distinctive Features. Coaching distinctive features. New York: Routledge. doi:10.4324/9781351188555. ISBN 9781351188555. OCLC 1012616113.

16. ^ Grant, Anthony M. (2005). "What is evidence-based executive, workplace, and life coaching?". In Cavanagh, Michael J.; Grant, Anthony M.; Kemp, Travis (eds.). Evidence-based Coaching, Vol. 1: Theory, Research and Practice from the Behavioural Sciences. Bowen Hills, Queensland: Australian Academic Press. pp. 1-12. ISBN 9781875378579. OCLC 67766842.

17. ^ Grant, Anthony M.; Cavanagh, Michael J. (2018). "Life Coaching". In Cox, Elaine; Bachkirova, Tatiana; Clutterbuck, David (eds.). The Complete Handbook of Coaching (3 ed.). Los Angeles: Sage Publications. ISBN 9781526453112. The roots of contemporary life coaching appear to emerge from humanistic traditions of psychology (e.g. Maslow, 1954) and the practices of the Human Potential Movement (HPM) .... One of the key influences were the Erhard Seminars Training or EST programmes developed by Werner Erhard (Kirsch & Glass, 1977). These were marketed as personal transformation, and as such can be considered as drawing on the same social impetus that later gave rise to life coaching. ... psychology as an academic discipline and a helping profession tended to be associated, at least in the public's mind, with mental illness and the treatment of distress, rather than the promotion of well-being. Psychology did not truly engage with life coaching until the pioneers of commercial life coaching in the USA, such as Thomas Leonard, had raised the profile of life coaching and life coach training during the late 1980s and early 1990s. However, at this time life coaching was still viewed by many as being faddish, theoretically incoherent, new-age and more of a network marketing opportunity than a solid theoretically-grounded helping modality.

18. ^ Nisbet, Matthew C. (May-June 2020). "Tony Robbins Next Door: Personal Coaches Are The New High Priests Of Self-Help". Skeptical Inquirer. Vol. 44, no. 3. Amherst, New York: Center for Inquiry. Archived from the original on 26 November 2020.

19. ^ Yossi, Ives; Cox, Elaine (2015). Relationship Coaching: The Theory and Practice of Coaching with Singles, Couples and Parents. Hove, East Sussex; New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0415737951. OCLC 881498486.

20. Griffo, J.M., Jensen, M., Anthony, C.C., Baghurst, T. and Kulinna, P.H., 2019. "A decade of research literature in sport coaching (2005-2015)". ^ International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching, 14(2), 205-215. doi:10.1177/1747954118825058

21. ^ Wildflower, Leni (2013). The Hidden History of Coaching. Coaching in practice series. Maidenhead: Open University Press. p. 38. ISBN 9780335245406. OCLC 820107321. ... sports psychology ... has a history going back to the 1890s in America. ... By 1920 Germany had a specialized College of Physical Education, whose founder, Robert Werner Schulte, wrote a book called Body and Mind in Sport. The universities of Moscow and Leningrad had departments of sports psychology by the 1930s.

22. ^ Baldwin, Claire; Chandler, Genevieve E. (February 2002). "Improving faculty publication output: the role of a writing coach". Journal of Professional Nursing. 18 (1): 8-15. doi:10.1053/jpnu.2002.30896. PMID 11859488.

23. ^ Jefferies, Diana; Johnson, Maree; Nicholls, Daniel; Lad, Shushila (August 2012). "A ward-based writing coach program to improve the quality of nursing documentation". Nurse Education Today. 32 (6): 647-651. doi:10.1016/j.nedt.2011.08.017. PMID 21982050.

24. ^ Gardiner, Maria; Kearns, Hugh (September 2012). "The ABCDE of writing: coaching high-quality high-quantity writing". International Coaching Psychology Review. 7 (2): 247-259.

25. ^ Grant, Anthony M.; Cavanagh, Michael J. (2011). "Coaching and Positive Psychology: Credentialing, Professional Status, and Professional Bodies". In Sheldon, Kennon M.; Kashdan, Todd B.; Steger, Michael F. (eds.). Designing Positive Psychology: Taking Stock and Moving Forward. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 295-312. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195373585.003.0019. ISBN 9780195373585. OCLC 610144651.

26. ^ Passmore, Jonathan; Mortimer, Lance (2011). "Ethics in Coaching" (PDF). In Hernez-Broome, Gina; Boyce, Lisa A. (eds.). Advancing Executive Coaching: Setting the Course for Successful Leadership Coaching. The Professional Practice Series. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. pp. 205-227. ISBN 9780470553329. OCLC 635455413. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 December 2020.

27. ^ Iordanou, Ioanna; Hawley, Rachel; Iordanou, Christiana (2017). Values and Ethics in Coaching. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. ISBN 9781473919563. OCLC 948548464.

28. See ^ "Table 17.1 The different levels of accreditation provided by different professional bodies", in Passmore (2016, p. 298), for a comparison of different coach accreditation options offered by the AC, EMCC, IAC, ICF, and other professional bodies.

29. ^ Guay, Jennifer (16 January 2013). "Millennials Enter Growing, Controversial Field of Life Coaching". . Archived from the original on 31 July 2018.

30. ^ Morgan, Spencer (27 January 2012), "Should a Life Coach Have a Life First?", The New York Times.

31. ^ Grant, A.M. & Zackon, R. (2004). Executive, workplace and life coaching: Findings from a large scale survey of International Coach Federation members. International Journal of Evidence-based Coaching and Mentoring, 2(2), 1-15.

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Coaching is a form of development in which an experienced person, called a , supports a learner or client in achieving a specific personal or professional goal by providing training and guidance. The learner is sometimes called a coachee.

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Managers and leaders are critical to the success of a business, and so are effective coaching skills. Consistent coaching helps with employee onboarding and retention, performance improvement, skill improvement, and knowledge transfer. On top of these benefits, coaching others is an effective method for reinforcing and transferring learning.

While there are many important leadership skills and competencies, coaching is central to improving the performance of entire teams.

"Organizations with senior leaders who coach effectively and frequently improve their business results by 21% as compared to those who never coach."

- Bersin by Deloitte

So when it comes to coaching your team, what's your strategy? We've identified 7 key skills and competencies that play a role in choosing a method of coaching for employees:

Ask good questions.

Great questions lead to great answers, and great answers lead to great conversations. As a manager or leader, it is critical that you develop strong relationships with your employees. This will help you determine if your employees are curious, have the capacity to perform and improve, and have a positive attitude.

Take a positive approach.

You should always try to maintain a positive outlook on things, even in tough situations. A positive attitude toward situations will help both you and the person you're coaching respond and react in a way that fosters positive change.

Listen and empower.

Coaching requires both encouragement and empowerment. Managers must work with employees to build one-on-one relationships that result in improved performance.

Your employees are likely to have a lot of input, questions, and feedback. It's important for them to know you care enough to listen to what they have to say, and encourage them to share their opinions.

Know how to guide conversations.

This is where communication skills and emotional intelligence really come into play. Managers must guide conversations both by asking questions and listening, not by giving directives. Employees learn and grow the most when they uncover the answers themselves.

Commit to continuous learning.

Make a commitment to improve your own skills and competencies. If you're not continuously learning, why should your employees? Lead by example and your team will follow.

Show that you are interested in their success (why wouldn't you be?). Ask questions about where they see their career going, or how they see their role evolving in the company. Even if they don't have a plan laid out yet, these questions will make them think about their career and what they want to accomplish within the organization.

Show your employees that you don't just want them to do better so you look better, but that you're actively interested in their career, accomplishments and professional success.

Coach in the moment.

Learning is best when things are occurring in the moment. If an employee comes to you with a question about a process or protocol, use this opportunity to teach them something new.

Most people learn best by doing, so coach as you go! If you're busy at the moment, try to schedule some time for later that day. They will appreciate that you took the time to show them how it's done, and they can now coach others who have the same question.

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7 Coaching Tips for Your Managers and Leaders

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Managers and leaders are critical to the success of a business, and so are effective coaching skills. Consistent coaching helps with employee onboarding and retention, performance improvement, skill improvement, and knowledge transfer. On top of these benefits, coaching others is an effective method for reinforcing and transferring learning.

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Stonebridge Associated Colleges Distance Home Learning | Blog

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The purpose of coaching and mentoring is to develop employees and help raise an organisation to greater heights

While there may be some similarities, coaching and mentoring people are two different styles. The goal of both revolves around supporting the development of an individual in the workplace in order to build a stronger team. However, the approach to achieving results, the type of development and the relationships between the parties, is slightly different in both cases.

The Manager as the Mentor

Mentoring is often a longer relationship between someone who's experienced, the mentor, and the less experienced, the mentee or junior employee. Mentors will often give advice and actually show the mentee what to do and how to do it. If you are a manager, It is your role to help your employees understand for example, the "unwritten rules" within the organisation.

The focus is on developing the mentee professionally, where the mentee is in charge of the agenda and reaching out to the mentor as needed. In the mentor and mentee relationship, the mentor is the expert with experience showing the mentee how to do some specific tasks.

The Manager as the Coach

By providing encouragement, guidance and support, the manager can help employees learn and improve their work performance. In order for the manager to be effective in this task, he or she needs to have a strong presence and coaching skill. Your role as the manager/coach is to know when to listen, ask powerful questions and give feedback as needed.

Coaching typically has a set time frame and is more structured in nature with regularly scheduled meetings. This often involves focusing on developing goals and meeting specific needs of the coachee at the time.

There are different coaching and/or mentoring methods out there, but the two very effective methods are GROW and STEPPA, which are also known as coaching models.

The GROW model is a simple yet powerful tool for structuring coaching interventions:

G First, we establish the goal. This is about deciding where do we want to be

R Then, we examine the current reality

O After that, we explore all the options of how can we get to the goal

W Finally, we establish the Will. This is where we ask ourselves if we are willing to make the changes that need to be made to get to where we want to be

In the STEPPA model:

S Subject is where we identify the issue facing the coachee

T Target those goals and make sure they're achievable

E Emotion is the most motivating and demotivating factor in any coaching relationship

P Perception and Choice is where the coachee's perception is widened as the coach questions and challenges them

P Plan and Pace is the stage where the plan leads to the target

A Adapt or Act is where we put the plan into action. We remain flexible to meet the needs of the coachee.

Effective coaching and mentoring requires a customised growth plan that fits the individual trainee. Whichever method is used, the thing to keep in mind and remember, is the success of the coachee. You may can learn to become confident in coaching and mentoring within your management role, by enrolling on a ILM Level 3 Certificate in Coaching & Mentoring course with Stonebridge.

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While there may be some similarities, coaching and mentoring people are two different styles. The goal of both revolves around supporting the development of an individual in the workplace in order to build a stronger team. However, the approach to achieving results, the type of development and the relationships between the parties, is slightly different in both cases.

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We share our expertise on leadership, business skills and more. Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

By Kelli Richards
We hear a lot about coaching and mentoring - for good reason. As Zig Ziglar famously said, "A lot of people have gone further than they thought they could because someone else thought they could." The words "coaching" and "mentoring" are often treated as if they're interchangeable, but they're not.

No matter your stage, both mentors and coaches can be valuable resources. What's the difference between the two? How do you know which is needed?
Making the Distinction
Traditionally, mentors were assigned within a company to help employees learn the ropes. In the entrepreneurial world, mentors act as advisers, compensated or not.

Mentors are successful people who share their hard-won wisdom to provide insight and guidance as an entrepreneur encounters challenges along her journey. They typically function in a reactive capacity, responding to issues as they arise. Mentors may not have expertise in the mentee's field, but they understand how to navigate business in general.

Coaches, on the other hand, often have expertise in the same field as the people they're helping. They're usually trained and certified as coaches, possessing strong process management skills.

Coaches are brought in to help CEOs or entrepreneurs anticipate and tackle specific industry challenges. They're prescriptive and proactive by nature, actively participating in strategizing and co-creating successful outcomes with their clients.

While a mentor/mentee connection is open-ended and can span decades, the more formal coaching relationship is used to address specific issues - and after a particular challenge has been addressed, both parties typically move on. A hybrid scenario sometimes develops in which the coach/mentor role blurs. Certain issues are handled in a coaching construct, but the relationship is so strong that both parties opt to continue working through long-term challenges and opportunities.

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What's the Difference Between a Coach and a Mentor?

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By Kelli Richards We hear a lot about coaching and mentoring - for good reason. As Zig Ziglar famously said, "A lot of people have gone further than they thought they could because someone else thought they could." The words "coaching" and "mentoring" are often treated as if they're interchangeable, but [...]

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It's understandable that you might think mentoring and coaching are similar or even the same thing. But they're not. Both warrant consideration in the workplace. Here are five differentiators that we think are important.

But be sure to download our FREE white paper that discusses the complete list of differences (all 25 of them!) between coaching and mentoring.
Differentiator #1:
Coaching is task oriented. The focus is on concrete issues, such as managing more effectively, speaking more articulately, and learning how to think strategically. This requires a content expert (coach) who is capable of teaching the coachee how to develop these skills.

Mentoring is relationship oriented. It seeks to provide a safe environment where the mentoree shares whatever issues affect his or her professional and personal success. Although specific learning goals or competencies may be used as a basis for creating the relationship, its focus goes beyond these areas to include things, such as work/life balance, self-confidence, self-perception, and how the personal influences the professional.
Differentiator #2:
Coaching is short term. A coach can successfully be involved with a coachee for a short period of time, maybe even just a few sessions. The coaching lasts for as long as is needed, depending on the purpose of the coaching relationship.

Mentoring is always long term. Mentoring, to be successful, requires time in which both partners can learn about one another and build a climate of trust that creates an environment in which the mentoree can feel secure in sharing the real issues that impact his or her success. Successful mentoring relationships last nine months to a year.
Differentiator #3:
Coaching is performance driven. The purpose of coaching is to improve the individual's performance on the job. This involves either enhancing current skills or acquiring new skills. Once the coachee successfully acquires the skills, the coach is no longer needed.

Mentoring is development driven. Its purpose is to develop the individual not only for the current job, but also for the future. This distinction differentiates the role of the immediate manager and that of the mentor. It also reduces the possibility of creating conflict between the employee's manager and the mentor.
Differentiator #4:
Coaching does not require design. Coaching can be conducted almost immediately on any given topic. If a company seeks to provide coaching to a large group of individuals, then certainly an amount of design is involved in order to determine the competency area, expertise needed, and assessment tools used, but this does not necessarily require a long lead-time to actually implement the coaching program.

Mentoring requires a design phase in order to determine the strategic purpose for mentoring, the focus areas of the relationship, the specific mentoring models, and the specific components that will guide the relationship, especially the matching process.
Differentiator # 5:
The coachee's immediate manager is a critical partner in coaching. She or he often provides the coach with feedback on areas in which his or her employee is in need of coaching. This coach uses this information to guide the coaching process

In mentoring, the immediate manager is indirectly involved. Although she or he may offer suggestions to the employee on how to best use the mentoring experience or may provide a recommendation to the matching committee on what would constitute a good match, the manager has no link to the mentor and they do not communicate at all during the mentoring relationship. This helps maintain the mentoring relationship's integrity.
When to consider coaching:

When a company is seeking to develop its employees in specific competencies using performance management tools and involving the immediate manager

When a company has a number of talented employees who are not meeting expectations

When a company is introducing a new system or program

When a company has a small group of individuals (5-8) in need of increased competency in specific areas

When a leader or executive needs assistance in acquiring a new skill as an additional responsibility

When to consider mentoring:

When a company is seeking to develop its leaders or talent pool as part of succession planning

When a company seeks to develop its diverse employees to remove barriers that hinder their success

When a company seeks to more completely develop its employees in ways that are additional to the acquisition of specific skills/competencies

When a company seeks to retain its internal expertise and experience residing in its baby boomer employees for future generations

When a company wants to create a workforce that balances the professional and the personal

Remember, download our FREE white paper on coaching vs. mentoring, which has the complete list.

Want to receive helpful articles like this one, straight to your inbox? Join our email list by clicking on the newsletter sign-up box on the right.

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The Difference Between Coaching & Mentoring

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It's understandable that you might think mentoring and coaching are similar or even the same thing. But they're not. Both warrant consideration in the workplace. Here are five differentiators that we think are important. But be sure to download our FREE white paper that discusses the complete list of differences (all 25 of them!)

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Coaching and Mentoring | Factsheets | CIPD

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Identify ways to apply coaching and mentoring principles as part of an overall learning and development strategy.

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The differences between coaching and mentoring

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The differences between coaching and mentoring

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Put simply, coaching is a process that aims to improve performance and focuses on the 'here and now' rather than on the distant past or future.

While there are many different models of coaching, here we are not considering the 'coach as expert' but, instead, the coach as a facilitator of learning.

There is a huge difference between teaching someone and helping them to learn. In coaching, fundamentally, the coach is helping the individual to improve their own performance: in other words, helping them to learn.

Good coaches believe that the individual always has the answer to their own problems but understands that they may need help to find the answer.

Coaching is unlocking a person's potential to maximise their own performance. It is helping them to learn rather than teaching them.

John Whitmore, in Coaching for Performance.

The 'Inner Game'
No discussion of coaching would be complete without mention of Timothy Gallwey and his insights into the 'inner game'.
Gallwey's book, The Inner Game of Tennis, revolutionised thinking about coaching. He suggested that the biggest obstacles to success and achieving potential were internal, not external. His insight was that coaches could help individuals to improve their game by distracting them from their inner dialogue and, in particular, the critical voice that said "Not like that! Concentrate on your hands! Angle it differently!".

By distracting that inner voice, the body could take over. It turns out that often the body has a very clear idea of what to do when internal dialogues are suppressed. Gallwey used the example of asking people to focus on the height at which they hit the tennis ball. This activity has no relevance in itself, but the simple act of focusing on it distracted the inner voice and enabled the capable body to take over. The individual relaxed and their tennis improved immediately.

Gallwey's real insight was that this didn't just apply to tennis, but that individuals generally did have the answers to their own problems within themselves.
The essential part of coaching, then, is to help people to learn to silence that inner voice and allow their instincts, or their subconscious, to take over. Sometimes that means distracting it, and sometimes it's about exploring the 'worst case scenario' and removing the fear.
The Competence Cycle Model of Learning

One useful model for learning is the Competence Cycle, a four-stage model that can help you identify your competences:

1) Unconscious Incompetence

You don't know that you don't know about something.

A good example would be a child who has never seen a bicycle, or has no idea that any language exists other than their own.

2) Conscious Incompetence

You have become aware that you lack a particular skill.

An example might be the child who has seen other children riding bicycles, or heard someone speaking another language, and therefore wishes to learn.

3) Conscious Competence

You have learned how to do something, but you still need to think about it in order to do it.

An example would be the child who can ride a bicycle but falls off if they stop watching where they are going.

4) Unconscious Competence

You have learned how to something so well that it has become hard-wired into your brain.

You no longer have to think about how you do it, but just do it. In fact, if you think about it too hard, you may not be able to do it.
Coaches need to identify the stage at which an individual is at to use the right sort of language to help them move to the next stage. After all, it's difficult to try to improve a skill if you don't know that you lack it.
The Differences Between Teaching, Coaching, Mentoring and Counselling
Although teaching, coaching, mentoring and counselling all share some key characteristics and skills, they are nonetheless quite different and it's important to be aware of the differences.
Teaching and Training
Teaching and training involve an expert teacher who imparts knowledge to their students.
Although the best teachers will use participative and interactive techniques, like coaching, there is very definitely an imbalance of knowledge, with the teacher as expert knowing the 'right answer'.

See our page: Teaching Skills for more information
Coaching involves the belief that the individual has the answers to their own problems within them.
Coaching

The coach is not a subject expert, but rather is focused on helping the individual to unlock their own potential. The focus is very much on the individual and what is inside their head. A coach is not necessarily a designated individual: anyone can take a coaching approach with others, whether peers, subordinates or superiors.

' Coaching' is one of the essential leadership styles identified by Daniel Goleman (see our page on Leadership Styles for more and take our 'What Sort of Leader are You?' self-assessment to find out how well-developed your coaching leadership style is).

The key skill of coaching is asking the right questions to help the individual work through their own issues.
Mentoring is similar to coaching. There is general agreement that a mentor is a guide who helps someone to learn or develop faster than they might do alone.
For more on questioning, see our pages on Questioning Skills.

Mentoring

In the workplace mentors are often formally designated as such by mutual agreement, and outside of an individual's line management chain. They usually have considerable experience and expertise in the individual's line of business.
Counselling is closer to a therapeutic intervention. It focuses on the past, helping the individual to overcome barriers and issues from their past and move on. Here, the focus may be either internal or external. The differences between these various 'learning methods' can be summarised as:
A mentoring relationship usually focuses on the future, career development, and broadening an individual's horizons, unlike coaching which tends to focus more on the here and now and solving immediate problems or issues.

See our further pages: What is Mentoring? and Mentoring Skills for more information.

Counselling
Many 'coaches' will recognise significant overlap between their role and that of a teacher. This may be particularly true of sports coaches, who are often highly skilled in their particular sport and looking to hone the technique and skills of their athletes.
For more about the role of the counsellor, see our pages: What is Counselling? and Approaches to Counselling.

Learning Method:

Coaching

Mentoring

Counselling

Aim:

Improving skills

Developing and committing to learning goals

Overcoming psychological barriers

Objective:

Raising competence

Opening horizons

Building self-understanding

Based on the work of: Clutterbuck, D. & Schneider, S. (1998)

A Coaching Spectrum
You can think of this as a bit like the nine levels of delegation (and for more about this, see our page in Delegation Skills). It does not actually matter to anyone else what level of delegation of coach leadership you use-as long as it works for you and the person being coached. It doesn't matter whether coaching is used in sport, life or business, the good coach believes that individuals always have the answer to their own problems. They just need help to unlock them.
It may therefore be useful to look at both coaching and teaching as on a spectrum.
The Skills You Need Guide to Coaching and Mentoring
As a coach, there will be times that you are very much led by the person being coached. These times are likely to be in the majority, especially for coaching at work.

However, there may also be times when you are the expert, and imparting information. Examples might include on the meaning of a psychometric test, or best practice in a particular area where you have some knowledge. For sports coaches, it might also include making a decision about when a particular activity is safe and why.

Conclusion

The term 'coaching' means many different things to different people, but is generally about helping individuals to solve their own problems and improve their own performance.

Further Reading from Skills You Need

Coaching and mentoring require some very specific skills, particularly focused on facilitating and enabling others, and building good relationships. This eBook is designed to help you to develop those skills, and become a successful coach or mentor.

This guide is chiefly aimed at those new to coaching, and who will be coaching as part of their work. However, it also contains information and ideas that may be useful to more established coaches, especially those looking to develop their thinking further, and move towards growing maturity in their coaching.

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Put simply, coaching is a process that aims to improve performance and focuses on the 'here and now' rather than on the distant past or future. While there are many different models of coaching, here we are not considering the 'coach as expert' but, instead, the coach as a facilitator of learning.

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What are Coaching and Mentoring?

Both coaching and mentoring are processes that enable both individual and corporate clients to achieve their full potential.

Coaching and mentoring share many similarities so it makes sense to outline the common things coaches and mentors do whether the services are offered in a paid (professional) or unpaid (philanthropic) role.

Facilitate the exploration of needs, motivations, desires, skills and thought processes to assist the individual in making real, lasting change.

Use questioning techniques to facilitate client's own thought processes in order to identify solutions and actions rather than takes a wholly directive approach

Support the client in setting appropriate goals and methods of assessing progress in relation to these goals

Observe, listen and ask questions to understand the client's situation

Creatively apply tools and techniques which may include one-to-one training, facilitating, counselling & networking.

Encourage a commitment to action and the development of lasting personal growth & change.

Maintain unconditional positive regard for the client, which means that the coach is at all times supportive and non-judgemental of the client, their views, lifestyle and aspirations.

Ensure that clients develop personal competencies and do not develop unhealthy dependencies on the coaching or mentoring relationship.

Evaluate the outcomes of the process, using objective measures wherever possible to ensure the relationship is successful and the client is achieving their personal goals.

Encourage clients to continually improve competencies and to develop new developmental alliances where necessary to achieve their goals.

Work within their area of personal competence.

Possess qualifications and experience in the areas that skills-transfer coaching is offered.

Manage the relationship to ensure the client receives the appropriate level of service and that programmes are neither too short, nor too long.

Useful definitions

The common thread uniting all types of coaching & mentoring is that these services offer a vehicle for analysis, reflection and action that ultimately enable the client to achieve success in one more areas of their life or work.

Here are some published definitions we particularly like...

Coaching is...

"a process that enables learning and development to occur and thus performance to improve. To be a successful a Coach requires a knowledge and understanding of process as well as the variety of styles, skills and techniques that are appropriate to the context in which the coaching takes place"

Eric Parsloe, The Manager as Coach and Mentor (1999) page 8. Eric is a respected author and Director of the OCM

Mentoring is...

"off-line help by one person to another in making significant transitions in knowledge, work or thinking"

Clutterbuck, D & Megginson, D, Mentoring Executives and Directors (1999) page 3. David Clutterbuck & David Megginson are both founder members of The European Mentoring and Coaching Council and highly respected authors, academics and consultants in the mentoring arena.

The difference between coaching and mentoring

As can be seen above, there are many similarities between coaching and mentoring! Mentoring, particularly in its traditional sense, enables an individual to follow in the path of an older and wiser colleague who can pass on knowledge, experience and open doors to otherwise out-of-reach opportunities. Coaching on the other hand is not generally performed on the basis that the coach has direct experience of their client's formal occupational role unless the coaching is specific and skills focused.

Having said this, there are professionals offering their services under the name of mentoring who have no direct experience of their clients' roles and others offering services under the name of coaching who do. So the moral of the story is, it is essential to determine what your needs are and to ensure that the coach or mentor can supply you with the type and level of service you require, whatever that service is called.

See also Finding the right service

Business coaching & mentoring

Organisational development, changes brought about by mergers and acquisitions as well as the need to provide key employees with support through a change of role or career are often catalysts, which inspire companies to seek coaching or mentoring.

At one time coaching and mentoring were reserved for senior managers and company directors, now it is available to all as a professional or personal development tool. Coaching and mentoring are also closely linked with organisational change initiatives in order to help staff to accept and adapt to changes in a manner consistent with their personal values and goals.

Coaching & mentoring, both of which focus on the individual, can enhance morale, motivation and productivity and reduce staff turnover as individuals feel valued and connected with both small and large organisational changes. This role may be provided by internal coaches or mentors and, increasingly, by professional coaching agencies.

Coaching and mentoring programmes generally prove to be popular amongst employees as coaching achieves a balance between fulfilling organisational goals and objectives whilst taking into account the personal development needs of individual employees. It is a two-way relationship with both the organisation and the employee gaining significant benefits.

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

Executive Coaching & Mentoring

There is a great deal of overlap between business and executive coaching or mentoring. Many people will offer either service, but there is a growing body of professionals in the UK who are calling themselves executive coaches and mentors and are differentiating themsleves in the marketplace. The key differences between business and executive coaching and mentoring are that Executive coaches and mentors typically...

Have a track record in professional and executive roles

Work exclusively with the 'high-flyers' or with those who have potential to be a high flyer

Work at board or CEO level within high profile or 'blue-chip' organisations

Offer total confidentiality

Work with potential 'captains of industry' and high profile business leaders

Performance Coaching and mentoring

Many coaching clients will seek coaching or mentoring for performance enhancement rather than the rectification of a performance issue. Coaching & mentoring have been shown to be highly successful intervention in these cases. When an organisation is paying premium rates for development services, performance is usually the key pay-back they are looking for. Even if an executive or manager receives support in balancing work and home life, it will be with the aim of increasing their effectiveness and productivity at work and not for more altruistic reasons.

Performance coaching derives its theoretical underpinnings and models from business and sports psychology as well as general management approaches.

Skills coaching & mentoring

Skills coaching has some commonalities with one-to-one training. Skills coaches & mentors combine a holistic approach to personal development with the ability to focus on the core skills an employee needs to perform in their role. Skills coaches & mentors should be highly experienced and competent in performing the skills they teach.

Job roles are changing at an ever increasing rate. Traditional training programmes are often too inflexible or generic to deal with these fast moving requirements. In these instances one-to-one skills coaching allows a flexible, adaptive 'just-in-time' approach to skills development. It is also possible to apply skills coaching in 'live' environments rather than taking people away from the job into a 'classroom' where it is less easy to simulate the job environment.

Skills coaching programmes are tailored specifically to the individual, their knowledge, experience, maturity and ambitions and is generally focused on achieving a number of objectives for both the individual and the company. These objectives often include the individual being able to perform specific, well-defined tasks whilst taking in to account the personal and career development needs of the individual.

One-to-one skills training is not the same as the 'sitting next to Nelly' approach to 'on the job training'. What differentiates it is that like any good personal or professional development intervention it is based on an assessment of need in relation to the job-role, delivered in a structured (but highly flexible) manner, and generates measurable learning and performance outcomes. This form of skills training is likely to focus purely on the skills required to perform the job function even though it may adopt a facilitative coaching approach instead of a 'telling' or directive style.

Personal coaching & mentoring

Personal or 'life coaching' servcies have grown significantly in the UK, Europe and Australia over the past decade. Personal coaches may work face-to-face but email and telephone based relationships are also very common. These coaches and mentors operate in highly supportive roles to those who wish to make some form of significant change happen within their lives.

Coaches offer their clients a supportive and motivating environment to explore what they want in life and how they might achieve their aspirations and fulfil their needs. By assisting the client in committing to action and by being a sounding-board to their experiences, coaching allows the individual the personal space and support they need to grow and develop. The coach's key role is often is assisting the client to maintain the motivation and commitment needed to achieve their goals.

In many cases personal coaching is differentiated from business coaching purely by the context and the focus of the programme. Business coaching is always conducted within the constraints placed on the individual or group by the organisational context. Personal coaching on the other hand is taken entirely from the individual's perspective.

How do coaching and mentoring compare with related professional services?

Is coaching just therapy by another name?

Coaching is not necessarily 'therapy' by another name although the key theoretical underpinnings, models and techniques found their origins in the field of psychology and associated therapies like gestalt & cognitive behavioural therapy which have broad ranging applications in both organisational and personal contexts.

The key difference between coaching and the therapies is that coaching does not seek to resolve the deeper underlying issues that are the cause of serious problems like poor motivation, low self-esteem and poor job performance. Coaching and mentoring programmes are generally more concerned with the practical issues of setting goals and achieving results within specific time-scales.

Coaching and mentoring is generally commenced on the premise that clients are self-aware and 'whole' and have selected coaching or mentoring because they do not require a therapeutic intervention. It is possible for someone who has underlying issues to experience success within a coaching context even if the underlying issues are not resolved. If, however, a client becomes 'stuck' and the coaching or mentoring programme is not achieving desired results, then a psychological or therapeutic intervention may be necessary for the client to move forward and achieve their goals.

Coach & mentor training programmes which are typically quite short are not aimed at qualifying coaches to conduct an assessment of whether someone may be in need of a therapeutic intervention, rather than a coaching or mentoring one. This is driven in part by the professional restrictions and barriers that have traditionally been placed around psychology and the therapies, but is mostly due to the fact that psychological assessment is a complex process that does require specialised training. Professional coaches & mentors do, however, stay ever alert to the possibility that a client may have or may develop issues or problems for which coaching or mentoring on it's own, is not sufficient.

Client progress is always monitored and coaches and mentors watch for signs which may indicate that a client requires an assessment by a trained therapist. Some coaches will on-refer a client to an appropriate therapist if this is felt to be useful. Other coaches will conduct a coaching programme in parallel with a therapeutic intervention.

Most coaches & mentors are keen to maintain the professional boundaries between coaching & mentoring and the traditional therapies and will collaborate with therapists when a client requires this form of intervention.

The traditional therapies, psychology and counselling and their relationship to coaching

Contrary to popular belief, therapy is not 'backwards focused' and does not conform to the stereotype of spending 20 years attending weekly sessions to discuss childhood experiences. See A Guide to Psychology and its Practice for a more realistic & modern view of what clinical psychology and the therapies have to offer.

Therapy is, if anything, an extension of what happens in a coaching relationship, it is forward focused and aimed at life improvement or enhancement. It is about moving on and breaking free from problems and issues that have held people back and prevented them from getting all they can from their lives. Another popular misconception is that in order to undergo therapy one must be 'crazy' or 'neurotic' which is not the case.

Therapy is also time-limited and based on an assessment of needs. It is quite rare now to encounter therapies that involve open-ended interventions that last for many years. Therapists are highly trained, with 4 years of full-time undergraduate training followed by 1-2 years full-time post-graduate study and from 3-5 supervised full-time practice before being considered 'qualified'. Therapists, counsellors & clinical psychologists must usually engage in professional 'supervision' for the whole of their career to ensure that a high standards are maintained. Psychologists who apply therapeutic approaches are also ethically and professionally bound to work with clients only if measurable value can be demonstrated, this means that if people do not actually NEED therapy, it is not ethical for providers to continue providing the services.

Because of this relationship between coaching and psychology & the therapies, some professionals offering coaching services are, in fact, therapists, counsellors or psychologists. This means it is possible to offer the appropriate level of service depending on immediate needs and client preferences.

It is increasingly common for the titles such as 'positive' or 'coaching psychology' to be used make it easier for clients to find service providers who take a psychological focus within their work as a coach. For an explanation of coaching psychology as an area of practice see www.coachingpsychologist.net/WhatIs/Index.php

Anyone seeking life improvement, and who is willing to work at the deeper issues could benefit from contracting a coach or mentor who does have a traditional therapeutic background in the first instance. If the client is not sure what type of service would benefit them the most, they should be encouraged to secure a professional assessment by an appropriately qualified provider.

In some countries such as the UK, there is goverment regulation in place for psychologists. A small number of restricted titles have been identified by the Govt for the purpose of ensuring that the public can be assured that any professional using these titles is appropriately registered under the regulatory framework.

Titles restricted by the UK Goverment to protect the public include Clinical Psychologist, Counselling Psychologist and Occupational Psychologist. More general terms like psychologist, therapist and counsellor are not restricted titles, so anyone is able to use thee to market their services. The titles 'coaching psychologist' and 'positive psychologist' are, for example, not
restricted. As this is the case, when selecting a coach or mentor with therapeutic, counselling or business focused psychological skills it is important to ensure they are registered with an appropriate regulatory body. In the UK, titles for the profession of psychology are regulated by the Health & Care Professions Council www.hcpc-uk.org.

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Everything you ever wanted to know about coaching and mentoring

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What are Coaching and Mentoring? Both coaching and mentoring are processes that enable both individual and corporate clients to achieve their full potential. Coaching and mentoring share many similarities so it makes sense to outline the common things coaches and mentors do whether the services are offered in a paid (professional) or unpaid (philanthropic) role....