Coaching
Purpose of coaching and how it could be implemented in an organization
Grow model is one of the most used methods of coaching. This model provides one of the simplest and powerful frameworks for coaching process. Through the Grow Model, it is easy for the employees to find their way in case they go astray. Grow model constitutes of three elements which are used in the coaching session. These elements include Goal, Reality, Options and Will. Goal implies that there should be a clear definition of what is to be achieved. It is advisable to have a specific goal and a specific measure of whether the goal has been realized. The aspect of reality implies that it is necessary to analyze the current situation, the past history as well as the future trends. Option on the other hand emphasizes on coming up with new ideas through which the stated goals can be best realized. Finally, it is necessary to make a strong plan for the best action.
The CLEAR model gives another perspective on the things to consider in a coaching session. The initials CLEAR stands for; Contracting, Listening, Exploring, Action and Review. Contracting implies that there is a need to have an open discussion in order to come up with the desired outcomes. This also involves formulation of rules on certain grounds. The aspect of listening implies that the coach need use effective listening with necessary interventions which helps the person being coached to develop an insight and understand a certain situation.
Exploring involves the process of helping the person being coached to understand how a certain given situation impacts on them. This also involves helping the coachee in developing the necessary insight on how future problems can be solved. Action refers to the support which the coachee should be provided with in order to be able to make the necessary moves. Finally, review provides the room where the coach gets the feedback from the coachee on the helpful as well as the difficult parts and how such can be improved in the future.
The coaching process has a number of benefits to both an individual and the organizations. According to Pratt (2004), the coaching process plays a very important role by helping an individual to improve their managerial and interpersonal skills. Coaching also plays a pivotal role in promoting a good relationship between an individual and his or her colleagues. Good relationships are important in improving individual’s productivity. Coaching also promotes self awareness.
Coaching process also plays an important role in an organization. To start with, the coaching process helps employees to solve some of their personal issues which can easily affect their productivity levels. By so doing, an organization improves on its performance. Coaching is also important in supporting those employees who have been promoted on how to handle their new responsibilities. Finally, the coaching process helps in increasing the level of employees’ satisfaction. This promotes employees’ retention in an organization.
Coaching is one of the main learning and development methods used in many organizations. Coaching can be viewed as the practice of directing or instructing a person or a group of people with an effort of achieving certain skill or in order to realize certain goals for an individual. Coaching differs in some aspects from other methods of learning and development.
Coaching is different from the other methods on the sense that it is not generally based on the fact that the coach has direct experience of the formal occupation role of the person being coached (Anonymous, 2011). However, this may be so if the coaching is specific and the skills are focused. This is unlike the other methods like mentoring where a person is expected to emulate a wiser and older person who passes knowledge as well as experience in order to realize opportunities that could otherwise not have been realized.
In every organization, mentoring and coaching processes plays a pivotal role in realizing organization’s objectives. Both coaching and mentoring processes helps in promoting professional growth and provision of skill development. One of the main method through which mentoring and coaching can help in realizing organization’s objectives is by helping the management in leadership and succession planning. The effectiveness of these strategies plays an important role in determining the performance of an organization. These practices also help in promoting improved individual performance. Increased individual performance helps an organization in realizing its goals and objectives. Mentoring and coaching ensures best practice across an organization. By so doing, an organization manages to increase the overall performance across the organization.
There are several options available for developing a coaching culture. The support from the top management plays an important role in developing a coaching culture. In order to have an effective coaching culture within an organization, an organization may examine and amend the scoring system as appropriate. This will help in building a strong coaching culture within an organization. An organization can apply the checklist which will help in determining the total score. Then an organization will take its organization forward.
In-house coaching method of coaching has a number of advantages over hiring a coach from outside. To start with, it is very expensive to hire an external coach. Therefore, by practicing in-house mentoring, an organization manages to improve the total cost. This increases the profitability of an organization. In-door coaching helps an organization especially when an organization is facing tight learning and development budget. Through in-door coaching, the coach may have a good understanding of their coachee and therefore it can be easier to direct their coaching process according to the needs of each individual. This improves the effectiveness of the process.
According to Hallam (not dated), internal coaches usually have less coaching and experience than the external coaches having limited opportunities to advance their skills. External coaches are usually exposed in diverse environments and situations and therefore are more experienced and skilled than internal coaches. Another disadvantage of in-house coaching is that the coaches are not exposed to cross organizational perspective which may be of great importance in assisting them to put the executive’s behavior in the situation that can be considered normal in other organizations. In-house coaches are also tempted to have the perception that the coaching assignments are less important than other duties they perform (Hallam, not dated). As a result, they may assign less time for coaching hence lowering the effectiveness of the process.
Mentoring
The Concept of Mentoring
Mentoring can be viewed as a personal enhancement process where a person facilitates the development of another through processes like sharing of expertise, skills, values, proficiencies or even attitudes (CIPD staff, 2009). Mentoring process plays important roles as it enables an individual learn skills which are necessary in achieving certain goals. Mentoring is also important to experienced individuals because it enables them to improve their performance in certain areas.
The mentoring process is important to every person involved in the process. It has a value to the mentor and the mentee as well as the organizations for which they work. The mentee are able to benefit from the wisdom of experienced and knowledgeable people who had been successful in their line of interest. On the other hand, the mentor gets an opportunity to share what they have with the other people. In other words, the mentors get an opportunity to share their skills and competence with others for the good of an organization. Leithwood & Hallinger (2002) observed that the mentoring process plays an important role in helping organizations to meet their goals.
There are several models of mentoring. One of the common models of mentoring is peer mentoring. Peer mentoring is where the more experiences fraction of a certain group mentors their fellow colleagues. For instance, experienced students from a high school or college may be trained to tutor their colleagues in certain areas. This method of mentoring is one of the most effective as colleagues can freely give advice to each other. However, this method cannot be sufficient when it is applied as the only model. In other words, there is a need to have a senior mentor in order to prepare the people under instruction about to become independent.
This model is one of the most personal and individualized model. This model promotes the development of a close relationship. However, the model suffers from the fact that it offers one sided view and therefore may not exhaust the needs of an individual undergoing through the process.
Another model of mentoring is the multiple mentors. In this case, the mentee passes through the mentoring process from multiple mentors. However, every mentor is supposed to be with the mentee in his or her own time. For instance, a person may have several mentors from different fields. Each mentor provides the mentee with the best quality advice on how to handle specific things.
Mentoring is an important process in developing an individual’s knowledge and skills. Mentoring also plays an important role in helping employees to improve on their performance. This method is therefore suitable when there is need to improve the employee performance in an organization that helps in improving the overall productivity in an organization. However, mentoring cannot be used in short term development. It is only applied for the long term development for an individual.
Mentoring process is of great importance to both an individual and an organization. To start with, mentoring helps an individual in realizing their full potential by recognizing and utilizing their dormant capabilities (CIPD staff, 2009). This contributes in increasing individual’s productivity. In every organization, employee’s productivity levels play a pivotal role in improving the overall performance of an organization.
Mentoring also helps the newly employed employees in acquainting themselves with the company in question. In some cases, employees are required to know about other divisions within an organization. In this case, there is a need for the mentoring process in order to gain such information. Mentoring process is also important in helping individuals to advance their leadership abilities, which contribute significantly in promoting a high level of performance among the employees.
The mentoring plays an important role in determining the success of an organization. To start with, the mentoring process helps an organization in integrating the new employees by enabling them to adhere to the organization’s practices. It ensures that the newly employed employees acquaint themselves within the shortest possible time with an organization’s operations. By so doing, an organization is able to minimize its costs while improving its performance.
Mentoring process also promotes job satisfaction for both the mentor and the person undergoing the mentoring process. When employees are satisfied as a part of an organization, their productivity is improved. This contributes in promoting the overall performance of an organization. In addition, the level of retentions significantly increased when employees are satisfied. Finally, mentoring process promotes a growth environment by promoting a culture of sharing of the business ideas, skills, and other aspects which are necessary in promoting high performance within an organization.
As already noted, the mentoring process plays an important role in all the participating parties. These involve an organization in question, the mentor and the mentoree. In order to have an effective mentoring process, there is a need to consider certain factors before introducing mentoring program in the workplace. To start with, an organization must clarify the goals of the mentoring process before the process commences.
This will help in guiding the mentoring process in order to realize the targeted purposes. Before commencing the mentoring process in an organization, it is also important to ensure that the process is supported from the top management. In case there are contradictions among the management over the project, then the process will be less effective. In order to facilitate the realization of the stated goals, it is also advisable for an organization to formulate the necessary strategies to ensure that all the goals are realized. These factors will determine the success of the monitoring process.
The mentors play a pivotal role in the mentoring relationship. The success of any mentoring process is significantly determined by the performance of the mentor. One of the major roles of a mentor is to ensure that the mentoree achieves the competences and skills which are necessary in realizing their goals. The mentor also has a role of ensuring that the mentoree receives the necessary guidance in order to enable them to find solutions for their own problems. In other words, the mentor should provide the mentoree with a universal tactic, which they can use when posed by different situations. Again, the mentor should act as a role mentor to the people undergoing through the mentoring process. He or she is supposed to show by examples on what they teach to the mentoree to be emulated.
Change
In the contemporary world, the need for change has increased due to the changing environment. Organizational change is one of the major success determinants in an organization. However, a significant number of organizations have been ignoring the importance of change in their operations (Bradley 2010)The successfulness of an organization is determined by the organization’s ability to adopt changes. This is more so in the current business world which is characterized by a very high level of competition. One problem which is associated with inability to adopt changes is loss of contracts and even bankruptcy and other dangerous consequences (Sexton, 2007). An organization must adapt to changes in order to maintain their competitiveness. Otherwise an organization will lose its competitive advantage.
In every organization, change plays a pivotal role in determining its success. To start with, change helps an organization in developing its competitive advantage. For instance, change can lead to reduction of operational costs. As a result, an organization can be able to under price their competitors. Change can also help in improving the quality of products and services produced. Again, this contributes in developing competitiveness.
In order for the change process to be effective, it is advisable for the managers to have initiative to the change. This may imply restructuring the organization, making necessary innovation among others. The initiative may also imply having a merger or acquisition. Each member in an organization must be treated with respect and every person’s idea should be respected. The managers should also have a deep personal conviction in order to fully support the proposed strategies.
There are several approaches which can be used to manage change. On of the main approaches that can be used to manage change is top down- directive approach. In this approach, the autocratic boss is responsible for making the most important decisions in an organization. There is no discussion of the possible options since decision making is left to one individual. There is no openness of ideas in this approach. Therefore, this approach is characterized by a very high level of competition. One advantage of this approach is faster because there is no room for opposition and discussions. Another approach is the action centered approach. In this approach, various solutions to a particular problem are tested. This is based on trial and error techniques. Unlike in the case of directive approach, this approach consumes a lot of time.
In order for the change to take place effectively, there is a need to have enough forces to drive this change. There are both external and internal factors that drive change. There are several internal factors that drive change in an organization. To start with, change is driven by an organization’s urge to change. An organization should also have a general sense that the business can perform better than what it is doing currently. Increased need to facilitate flexibility within an organization is also a major drive to change.
Change is also driven by a need for reorganization in order to have increased efficiency. Some of the external drives to change include the uncertainty of economic situations and therefore a need to have preparation for such uncertainties. In the contemporary market, consumers need for quality services and quality products is increasing. This forces organizations to adopt change. High level of competition is also a major drive to change in order to retain competitiveness.
There are several approaches to change. One of the main approaches is developmental change. This is the kind of change where an enterprise chooses to improve on existing system rather than challenging the existing ideas. On the other hand, transitional change is an approach to change where an enterprise moves from their current system to the projected future. In order to realize this, an organization sets the necessary steps and guidelines that help in realizing their targets. Another approach to change is transformational approach, this approach require more effort and it requires an organization to challenge its arrangements, culture, values, and even the identity of an organization (Stein, 2009). This approach is demanding and is characterized by most conspicuous changes in an organization.
Change in an Organization
When change occurs in an organization, it can develop a mix of various emotions in an organization including fear, resistance, and anxiety (Varelas, 2005). However, changes can never be avoided in an organization. Therefore, it is important for the human resource professional to come up with necessary measures in order to make employees more receptive to changes taking place in an organization. In most cases, the size of a company is closely related with the complexities in the change process. The bigger the company, the greater is the opposition to change due to employees’ alienation.
The human resources have a significant role in promoting changes in an organization. According to Wilson (2005), Human resource is the main agent of change in an organization. Here, both human and non human resource is of great significance for high performance in organizations. However, non human resources like the machines and other equipments that are used in production largely depend on the human resources.
Their performance is largely determined by the human resources who direct the production process. Therefore, the effectiveness of any change in an organization will be largely dependent on the human resources. Therefore, it is necessary to pay attention on the human resources while implementing changes in an organization. However, as already noted, change in an organization is not always welcomed. Therefore, the human resource has a significant role in promoting change in an organization.
One way through which human resource managers can promote changes in an organization is by explaining to the employees how the new changes will look like. Employees need to be informed about the impacts of changes in an organization. It is also necessary to inform employees on how they will benefit from these changes.
Another way through which human resource managers can promote changes in an organization is through motivation. When employees are motivated, they will become more committed to their respective duties because they believe that their hard work is recognized. When their efforts are recognized, employees will get a sense of identity with an organization. They will somehow have sense of ownership of an organization. Consequently, they will be committed to meet the organizational goals. Therefore, when employees are motivated, they will be ready to embrace any change which they believe will contribute to the improvement in the organization’s performance (Jansen, 2004).
When change takes place within an organization, individuals within an organization benefits from the process. Through organizational change, employees undergoes through a learning process as they commit themselves in doing what is expected of, for instance, employees learn new things as they come along with organizational change. They learn new and most efficient ways of doing things which helps in increasing their productivity.
Reference List
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Leithwood, K. and Hallinger, K. (2002). Second international handbook of educational leadership and administration, Volume 1. Netherlands: Springer.
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Stein, P. (2009). Organizational Change Strategies: Developmental, Transitional, and Transformational. Web.
Turner, M. (2011). Classic Models – The CLEAR Model. Web.
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