subject: Coaching and Mentoring: their role in career enhancement and Organization Development [print this page] Coaching and Mentoring: their role in career enhancement and Organization Development
Coaching and Mentoring: their role in career enhancement and Organization Development
By Agaba Herbert
Definitions of coaching mainly group around learning and development linked to performance improvement and coaching to facilitate personal growth and change. A helping relationship formed between a client who has managerial authority and responsibility in an organization and a consultant who uses a variety of behavioral techniques and methods to assist the client to achieve a mutually identified set of goals to improve his or her professional performance and personal satisfaction and consequently to improve the effectiveness of the client's organization within a formerly defined coaching agreement. (Kilburg, 2000) in (Bluckert, 2006). Business coaching is a more generic term and refers to any coaching activity that takes place in an organizational setting. In that sense it isn't confined to working with executives, senior managers, or business owners. The term business coach' is therefore more fitting.
Coaching and mentoring are gradually more used chiefly for specialized development, to indicate a optimistic change in persons and to encourage the transfer of knowledge and comprehension from the coach / mentor to the individual. Organizations find coaching and mentoring highly valuable for the career growth of their employees so coaching and mentoring has been applied by many entities in their organizational practices. The coach / mentor plays a pivotal role in transferring knowledge to the individual and helps the person in enhancing his personal and professional growth. The following reasons explain the importance of coaching and mentoring to the people who are conducting it: Increased job satisfaction, strategic thinking, professional development, problem solving, among others.
For the mentoring program to be successful, it is important that the employee and the supervisor agree on the mentoring support to be offered. Furthermore, managers should include the employees when determining the mentoring program. Also, the employee's engagement is critically important when determining the appropriate mentoring candidates. (Crawford, 2010)
At the workplace, coaching and mentoring is used when the management finds that there are working individuals who need to enhance their potentials to perform better in their jobs and to be more productive. There may be skills that need to be strengthened, lapses in working behavior and issues with performance output corrected at certain employees. Once this is assessed, these employees will be recommended for coaching. The coaches are usually the supervisors and managers. The company may even have a delegated coach for that particular department. http://www.exforsys.com
Organizational Development
The center of attention on Organization Development is constructed on the organization's capacity to evaluate its existing functioning and to achieve its goals. It is oriented towards the entire system, the organization and its part in context of the larger environment that affects them.
The relationship between career enhancement and organizational development
In order for one to enhance his/her career needs to learn new ideas, innovations and be able adapt to change. Just like individuals depend on organizations for their own survival, organizations also depend on individuals for their growth and development. In here, coaches/mentors will help individuals to learn from their new environment and enhance their talents, skills, relevant for both the current job and future assignments. Mentoring and coaching processes will make sure that the person improves on his/her skills in order to enhance his/her career and for organizational development. Effective coaching will actually make your job easier and enhance your career by: Overcoming performance problems, developing employee skills, developing employee skills, increasing productivity, creating promotable subordinates, improving retention, fostering a positive work culture. (Luecke & Ibarra, 2004). These processes with their varying degrees of formality are important because they involve a learner in a workplace in association with another more expert or more experienced worker who has a role to play in the development of a learner's knowledge and skill and learning related social interactions and relations. (Smith and Sadler-Smith, 2006)In conclusion, there are standard processes and sets of procedures for coaching and mentoring programs based on best practice; there is a collaborative atmosphere in the workplace wherein professional learning is productive and individuals have the willingness and commitment to develop and improve themselves. The pivotal processes of mentoring and coaching are: active relationships, teaching-learning process, career and personal development process, among others.References Bluckert, Peter (2006) Psychological dimensions of executive coaching. Open University Press, Berkshire.Brockbank, Anne & Ian McGill (2006) Facilitating reflective learning through mentoring & coaching. Kogan page limited. London and New YorkCrawford, Curtis J. Manager's Guide to MentoringMC Graw-Hill WisconsinEugne Sadler-Smith & Peter J. Smith (2006) Learning in organizations: complexities and diversities. Routledge, New YorkLuecke, Richard Herminia Ibarra, (2004) Coaching and mentoring: how to develop top talent and achieve stronger performance Harvard Business School Publishing corporationhttp://www.exforsys.comhttp://www.articlesbase.com/career-management-articles/coaching-and-mentoring-their-role-in-career-enhancement-and-organization-development-4301964.html
