Human Resource Management: Coaching and Mentoring (Essay Sample)

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
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Coaching and mentoring
Coaching and mentoring are two essential aspects of career development. Companies are using both coaching and mentoring to increase the capability and expand the knowledge of their employees. Coaching and mentoring are often performed simultaneously to help workers learn their responsibilities and accomplish their tasks (Gray, 2018). However, they have significant differences. Coaching is practically a conversation wherein the coach teaches the learner whom to do things correctly and adequately (Starr, 2008). Coaching can be formal or casual, depending on the agreement of the coach and the student.
On the other hand, mentoring is more formal because it advises a mentee (Mullen and Klimaitis, 2021). Mentoring is a "more intense relationship" than coaching, wherein the mentor focuses on providing information in a structured format. The mentor provides a step-by-step method to reach a specific direction. Coaching offers support while encouraging the coaches to discover their capabilities and skills. Many learners—especially in the professional field—require both coaching and mentoring because coaching encourages experience while mentoring focuses on applying knowledge. These are important to help the learners understand their purpose and goal following the organization's vision, goals, and objectives. Aside from coaching and mentoring, listening is also vital to leaders, mentors, and coaches. According to (McCarthy 2014), coaches and mentors perform active listening to understand their learners' strengths, weaknesses, skills, and potentials. For example, whenever the learner speaks, mentors and coaches listen beyond what they say. They do not listen to make a reply or comment. Instead, they listen to know the person and make appropriate responses according to how they understand the ideas presented. This paper presents the different perspectives and values of coaching and mentoring to an individual.
Perspective concerning the definition of coaching and mentoring
Coaching continues to attract millions of practitioners across the globe as it evolves to become a vital skill. This fundamental approach stimulates organizational excellence and the achievement of goals within any setting. There is a growing demand among the employees and other stakeholders to integrate the coaching and mentor to spearhead companies’ plans and increase engagement and commitment among the individuals through alignment of organizational and personal goals. However, there are massive disparities regarding the definitions of coaching. The human resource managers and other practitioners are working on the collective or shared definition of the aspect.
According to Ives (2008), definitions of coaching may be purpose or objective-driven. Many credible organizations and authors take distinguished approaches to bring an understanding of the aspect of coaching. There could be varying coaching paradigms, but one thing seems to be shared among the associations and organizations; coaching intervenes in the organization struggling with its performance. It fosters strategic plans through a clear definition of the goals and objectives. The workers are inspired, motivated and engaged. Whitmore (2003, p.97) defines coaching as "Unlocking a person's potential to maximize their own performance. It is helping them to learn rather than teaching them."
On the other hand, Evered & Selman defines coaching as "A means to convey a valued colleague from where he or she is to where he or she wants to be.” Ives, (2008, p.103). Whilst, according to Parsloe & Leedham (2009) note that, “Coaching is directly concerned with the immediate improvement of performance and development of skills by a form of tutoring or instruction”. In addition, Grant (2003 p. 254) states coaching as a "collaborative solution-focused, result-orientated and systematic process in which the coach facilitates the enhancement of life experience and goal attainment in the personal and/or professional life of normal, non-clinical clients.” (Ives, 2008, p.103).
Ross (2018) denotes that coaching is gaining momentum as the sole approach to enhancing companies training and development strategies. The author unravels the critical elements of communities and associations that collaborate to collectively create a standard definition and formalize the implementation of the aspects of the coaching and mentoring to improve the value of the employee and organizations. One of the significant organizations is the Association for coaching, formed in 2002 and had its head office in the United Kingdom. The association is offering credible information because of tit wide range of members across the globe. Association for coaching has thousands of members from more than 60 countries. According to Ross (2018, p.5), the Association of coaching defines coaching as "a facilitated, dialogic and reflective learning process that aims to grow the individuals' (or teams') awareness, responsibility and choice (thinking and behavioral).”
Whilst International Coach Federation is a popular and credible association formed in 1995 and has its head offices in Lexington, Kentucky. Further, the International Association of Coaching was formed in the year 2003. It has members from more than 80 countries. The inflation is highly credible due to the credible approach recommended and the wide range of members. The association defines coaching as "a transformative process for personal and professional awareness, discovery and growth, and the expansion of possibilities” (Ross, 2018, p.5). The association definition of coaching is as follows, “Partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential” (Ross, 2018, p.5).
What is and what is not on coaching and mentoring
Distinguish counselling/ therapy from coaching/mentoring
The spectrum of coaching and mentoring may sometimes be used interchangeably with counselling, but in reality, the two aspects have more differences than similarities. Ross (2018) resourcefully describes coaching and mentoring from the human development approach to distinguish. Counselling and coaching/mentoring share goal similarities. They both aim to create a safe space for individuals to explore who they are and determine personal goals. However, counselling primarily focuses on healing or fixing the individual as expected to provide answers and solutions. There is quite a hierarchy during the sessions. The counsellor ranks higher than the client in terms of skills and knowledge. On the other hand, during coaching or mentoring sessions, the client is in equal partnership with the coach. Status of coach or mentor and the client is nonhierarchical. The client has the resources and answers. They work together strategically to meet predetermined goals (Ross, 2018, p.6).
Distinguish training/on-job learning from coaching/mentoring
Training, by definition, is the transfer of skills and knowledge to an individual. It imparts new knowledge suitable for enhancing proficiency in tasks and responsibilities—the concept is intertwined with coaching since they are hierarchical. Training develops while coaching/mentoring enhance the skills or knowledge (Hastings & Kane, 2018). However, training differs from coaching and mentoring in an ideal number of aspects. First, training targets learning while coaching/mentoring focuses on the development of knowledge. Learning focuses on recruits in a company. They are instilled with the dynamics of organizational performance to be proficient and build on their performance. Still, development focuses on more experienced employees in a company to improve their performance. It focuses more on the weaknesses witnessed in a period (Berg, & Karlsen, 2012).
Distinguish education from coaching/mentoring
Education defines an individual's process to acquire a detailed understanding of the events, concepts, and principles in a particular area of need. Education primary rationale is to instil a sense of reasoning, judgment and understanding of everyday issues. Skills and knowledge from education are pretty broad; thus, coaching is integrated to improve a particular set of skills to improve performance through labour productivity. The most significant distinction between coaching and education is that education is centred on the teacher while coaching is centred on the individuals. The teacher impacts new knowledge and advice, while the coach advises based on the client's level of knowledge.
Arguments for the value of coaching/mentoring to the individual.
Coaching and mentoring foster the growth of a company. The organization performance is primarily based on the impact of the individual employee, which is summed to the overall effect on the organization. Many human resource managers look at the performance of a company through the achievement of the individual. Theeboom et al. (2014) investigate the impact of coaching/mentoring on the crucial elements of overalls outcome in a company. The chosen research approach narrows on the individual performance elements such as skills, work attitude, goal-directed self-regulation and coping. The key findings show that coaching/mentoring is significantly correlated to the aspects of individual performance. Coaching boosts work attitude by relieving work stress and fosters collaboration in an organization. Enhancement of skills improves proficiency while undertaking tasks and responsibilities. Therefore, coaching and mentoring play a vital role in th...