About the Workshop

If you are managing professionals with a high level of responsibility, traditional management techniques often don’t make sense. You need to be able to lead, influence, and model the performance you want from these people. Two management approaches-coaching and mentoring-can prove very effective with employees at this developmental level. The objective of this course is to instruct participants in coaching and mentoring techniques that draw even higher performance out of their employees.

Nearly everyone can relate to having had a good coach, but few people express having worked for a great boss. So what is it about coaches that people like and admire? The instructors explain common roles, including teaching, supporting, reaffirming, redirecting, and confronting. Few people like to be managed, but most want to be coached.

The term mentor comes from Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey. When Odysseus, King of Ithaca, departed to fight in the Trojan War, he entrusted the care of his kingdom to Mentor. Mentor served as the teacher and overseer of Odysseus’ son, Telemachus. In the business world, mentoring is considered to be a close relationship in which an experienced person imparts wisdom to a person with less experience. The mentor’s role is considered to be one of a trusted counselor or guide and is not done for personal gain. Many prominent companies, including Microsoft, Intel, and Southwest Airlines, have found mentoring to be highly beneficial and successful. These firms have reported that mentoring has served them well in preparing current and future leaders, retaining high performers, managing collective knowledge, and reducing the cost of learning.

This course explains how to initiate and direct coaching and mentoring programs.

Objectives:

• Identify the key benefits of mentoring and coaching
• Employ strategies for placing employees with mentors
• Select areas where mentors will be most successful in giving direction
• Teach mentors about their role in assisting others
• Undertake approaches for facilitating mentorships in organizations
• Build healthy relationships between the coach and players and between the players themselves
• Benchmark your actions against the Eight Coaching Ethics