Coaching and Mentoring

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Chris Brooks and I led a lively facilitated discussion last night at AITD’s NSW professional development evening. It was inspiring to hear the level of knowledge and experience in the room. Lots of bright ideas and tons of interpretations, views and ongoing questions.

One of the pervading issues revolved around trying to tease coaching and mentoring apart.  Perhaps one of the great learnings from the evening were:

  • coaching and mentoring are about the learner, not what we call the initiative
  • fundamentally we still need a needs analysis to identify the issue and the best approach
  • mentoring involves coaching conversations and coaching may use mentoring
  • there are more similarities than differences
  • each organisation needs to contextualise their own definition of coaching and mentoring
  • coaching and mentoring need a structure and process to enhance effectiveness
  • evaluation is likely to be soft (eg feedback and observation) unless there are specific outcomes which are measurable
  • the stickability and practicality of the learning is dependent on defining clear outcomes and expectations, the level of commitment of the parties and the capability of the mentor/coach to empower the learner
  • educating the coaches and mentors is critical to the success of the program

In terms of

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Learning and Quality

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On a networking site I belong to there was a great question recently so I thought I’d post the question as well as one of the top answers.

Q

Anyone with experience applying quality principles to the learning process?

Looking for ideas on how quality can be used to reduce time, waste and variability in how people learn.

What I’m looking for are more specific examples such as used Kaizen to reduce classroom time by 20%. Used six sigma to measure learning outcomes. Used lean principles …

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Action Learning

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In my role as President of the NSW Division of the Australian Institute of Training & Development, I am involved in the wide array of learning that takes lace in the adult world, especially at work. I stumbled upon this short paper by Bob Dick and have reproduced it here as it makes quite clear what Action Learning / Research is about. It’s an area which is gaining favour these days especially after the visit by Michael Marquardt. 

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Success is …

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“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful” Albert Schweitzer, 1875-1965 Medical Missionary, Theologian, Musician, and Philosopher “Success is simply a matter of luck. Ask any failure” Earl Wilson, 1907- Newspaper columnist “The key to success is to focus … Read more

Coach yourself

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Here’s a wonderful animation which makes you think of the five big questions that will get you ahead. http://www.fivebigquestions.com/swf/the_5.75_questions07.07.27.swf what’s going well for you? what are you trying to ignore? what’s boring you? how do you want to be remembered? who do you love? So, what next?

Corporate Social Responsibility Demand

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New research has revealed that females are influenced by the way a company approaches its corporate social responsibility (CSR). A poll conducted by The Heat Group found 90% of respondents considered corporate social responsibility when making purchasing and employment decisions. The environment factored in highly as an area of concern for women (37%) and gender … Read more

Leading the Police

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If you’ve ever had anything to do with the Police, either directly or indirectly, you’ll know they have a reputation of being a strong, even closed, culture. The impression many of us have is that leadership is based on toughness, authority and possibly even mateship.

A recent talk I attended validated some of these thoughts. The traditional Police model of leadership is a heroic, male-oriented, command-and control environment.  There are even elements of some policing units being very close to the criminals they chase. The temptation for some police is great. As they say, the brighter the light, the darker the shade.  That kind of culture is supported and encouraged in some quarters.

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Big Issues for HR/L&D

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At this time of the year lots of forecasting occurs. The L&D / HR space is no exception. Unfortunately it seems the predictions haven’t changed much over recent times. What are the top issues we’re dealing with this year?

  • Operating as a key organisational player
  • Finding workable solutions for the skills crisis
  • Changing the fundamentals of organisational life

HR and L&D have been on the fringes for way too long. A number of leading lights in our profession have shone through but not enough of them.

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Change .. or not?

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Read my stars today so thanks to Jonathon Recamier for prompting this post. As always, Jonathon had oblique and cryptic references – this time, to leopards and caterpillars. It got me thinking. In the effort to ‘develop’ ourselves ought we to subscribe to the view that (a) a leopard cannot change its spots, or (b) … Read more

Mentoring program success

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It’s always rewarding to get good feedback. I returned to one of my clients recently to run the inaugral Development Program. On arrival I was met by Richard who advised me reports on the Mentor program were excellent. He was especially pleased his boss, who sat in on the session, was impressed with the program and … Read more