1. For Optimum Performance
Mentoring and Coaching

2. Objectives
 At the end of this session you will be able to:
 Identify the differences between coaching and mentoring and
know when to use which
 Determine the characteristics of a good coach
 Identify the elements of a good coaching session in order to
implement them
 Establish the importance of communication in the coaching
process and
 Identify how to give feedback to coachees

3. Content
 What is Coaching & Mentoring
 Characteristics of a Good Coach
 Key steps in coaching for optimum performance
 Elements of a good coaching session
 Communication skills for effective coaching

4. Session 1
What is Coaching & Mentoring

5. What is Coaching?
Coaching is a process of helping another individual realize their inner
potential, delivering fulfillment to both the individual and the
organization.
 ‘TO COACH’
 Comes from the root meaning‘to bring a person from where they
are to where they want to be’
“Coaching is the art of facilitating the performance,learning and
development of another”
Myles Downey
Effective Coaching

6. Coaching is NOT…
 Leading
 Managing
 Instruction
 Mandating
 Disciplinary
 Giving advice
 Offering opinions
 Coaching is not mentoring.
 A mentor is usually long-term, while a coach is for immediate
performance issues.

7. Coaching vs. Mentoring
 Coaching helps all your employees or team members
 When you coach employees, you improve their ability to do
their current jobs and increase their potential to do more in the
future.
 Mentoring is reserved for your most talented employees.
 Work with talented people, help them advance, and they will
become assets now and allies in the future.
 Ignore them, and they’ll find someone else — maybe a
competitor — who appreciates their talents.

8. Coaching vs. Mentoring
 Mentoring is for your exceptional employees, people who show
promise but need help to become top performers.
 As a mentor, your responsibilities are to
 represent the company’s values,
 give pep talks,
 offer instruction about your company’s political structure,
 influence decision makers to help your mentee, and
 provide contacts and resources
 A mentoring relationship shortens your employees’ learning curve
and increases productivity.

9. Faith left a secretarial position to sign on as administrativeassistant to Dan, head of purchasing.
Faith had been unhappy with her previous job because she hadn’t felt appreciated.Dan
recognized Faith’s potential.Her professional track record,although mostly clerical,indicated
she was capable of taking on more responsibility than the administrativeassistant position
required.He started assigning projects that gave her an opportunity to stretch her potential and
each time,Faith excelled.
Pleased with her progress,Dan offered to help Faith advance in her job. In effect, he became her
mentor.He promised to put her in charge of several projects of her own, assignments that
would make her more promotable in the future. He identified several skills she would have to
develop to handle the work and offered to help her if she encountered difficulties.
Faith was delighted. She agreed to meet with Dan on a regular basis to provide updates on her
work and accept feedback.And she set about acquiring the skills she needed.The mentoring
relationshipgave Dan time to work on other projects as Faith increasingly took on work he
didn’t have time to do.As a result,he was able to complete a reorganizationplan for his
department,saving the company $100,000.For her part,Faith became an increasingly skilled
worker.At one point, she uncovered a vendor scam that would have cost the division more than
$50,000.When, two years later,Faith accepted a job in other city, Dan helped her get the job.
This time, though, she was management.(COACHING, COUNSELING & MENTORING By Florence M. Stone)
How MentoringWorks

10. Why is it important to coach?
 Your organization’s success depends on developing
employees!
 Coaching is a key factor in attracting and retaining the best
employees
 Employees are inspired to work to their greatest potential
when they are given support and encouraged to develop their
skills
 It prepares both the employee and the organization for the
future

11. The new approach to coaching
 The new approach to coaching operates on the premise that
 Everyone can be “developed” through coaching
 Employee development is every managers’ responsibility and
every employee’s responsibility as well
 Moving employees through new challenges strengthens their
professional abilities
 Development more likely means informal, on-the-job ways of
learning

12. A manager’s role in coaching
 As a Manager/Supervisor, your role as a coach is to:
 Guide your employees by helping to match their skills, interests, and work
values with job opportunities.
 Conduct frequent discussions of developmental needs.
 Give timely and specific feedback about an individual’s performance against
established expectations.
 Provide opportunities for coaching, when necessary.
 Act as informal teacher by being conscious of the behaviors and attitudes you
model.
 Work with your employees to draft individual development plans and follow
through to achieve them.

13. Session 2
Characteristics of a Good Coach

14. A good coach
 To be a good coach, you must believe that
 people want to do well on their jobs,
 people want to grow professionally.
 Your role is to help them gain the skills, abilities, and knowledge
they need to increase their potential and improve their
performance.

15. A good coach
 A good Coach Does Not Need…
 To be right
 To be the expert
 To know the “right” answer
 To be in control
 To “fix” it
 To heal it or make it better
 You don’t have to know a lot about what you are coaching your
subordinate on. Coaches are effective because they leverage the
individual’s own knowledge, talents and expertise, not their own.
 This is not about instructions or advice

16. A good coach
 A good coach knows when to coach…
 During performance reviews
 As part of performance assessment, particularly when you realize that the
subordinate has a particular challenge or problem, either work related or
not.
 As part of a team setting
 Usually to generate buy-in for all team members
 Individually
 As a formal or informal one-on-one conversation with an employee to get
to know their career plans in order to support them more effectively
 In conjunction with set tasks
 When delegating a task to an employee

17. A good coach
 A good coach knows when not to coach…
 When your task is to manage or lead, not coach
 When the person is not willing to be coached
 In order for coaching to be successful, the other person needs to be
willing to participate in the process. If they are not, there is no buy in
and it may be unsuccessful
 Coaching is successful when the individual or team being coached is
successful at attaining a higher level of performance.

18. A good coach
 It is not the coach who “wins”.
 Coaching is not a role for anyone expecting a high level of
recognition or accolades. Coaches are only successful if those
that they are coaching are successful…in that way, it is like
living through someone else’s actions.
 A good coach knows when not to coach…
 When the employee is a problematic one – persistent
underperformer
 In this instance you need to counsel. Counseling addresses problem
performers, people whose bad habits have become chronic and affects
their performance on the job or the performance of the team.

19. A good coach
 Must know how to ask the right questions without making people
feel uncomfortable.
 You need to be able to get information from them to help you make
decisions about what their real career path is and the skills they should
acquire in order to be successful.
 Listen well to their answers.
 Pay as much attention to their body language and nonverbal signals as to
what they’re saying.
 Talk frequently with your employees.
 You’ll be in a better position to detect morale problems and observe
employees who are ready to take on more responsibility.

20. A good coach
 Become a good teacher.
 This means being able to assess what employees need to learn as well as
being able to train them.
 Give feedback.
 When your people do something well, tell them.When they make mistakes,
give them corrective feedback in a positive manner. Suggest improvements
that let them know you believe they are capable of doing the work right

21. Some Do’s and Don’ts of Coaching
 Like an athletic coach, you need to motivate your people. But
your responsibilities go far beyond giving pep talks.
 Start with your behavior.
 Be a role model for excellence.Take your own advice, and your staff will
be more likely to emulate your actions. Managers who tell their people,
“Do as I say, not as I do,” quickly lose the respect of their employees.
 Encourage their growth by creating a positive environment.
 Build rapport with your employees. Point out their strengths and note any
improvement in performance.Treat their mistakes as learning
opportunities;never threaten them.

22. Some Do’s and Don’ts of Coaching
 Make sure people understand how their jobs tie into the
company’s overall strategy and mission.
 Clearly explain what you expect of them.
 When you conduct performance appraisals, be specific about
what each individual can do to improve.
 Write down their development goals and recommend training programs
and resources that will help your employees achieve those goals

23. Some Do’s and Don’ts of Coaching
 Don’t
 Make implied promises.
 Don’t promise to reward added effort with a raise or promotion if you
can’t deliver.
 Change from coach to autocrat.
 Be consistent in the way you treat your employees: Once a coach, always
a coach. If you change styles in mid-stream, your employees won’t trust
you.
 Be impatient.
 If you have to, patiently repeat those instructions a tenth time. Deal
calmly with dumb mistakes. Losing patience sends a message to
employees that you think they’re stupid and erodes their self esteem.

24. Some Do’s and Don’ts of Coaching
 Focus on attitudes.
 Rather than calling someone lazy, you might say,“You don’t lend a hand to
other workers and have been seen reading a newspaper when coworkers
need help.”This calls attention to behavior that can be changed.
 Ignore the problem.
 Don’t allow little problems to grow into big ones. Deal with them as they
arise

25. Opportunities for Coaching
 As Managers/Supervisors, you need to constantly be on the look
out for opportunities to provide coaching to your employees.You
could:
 Conduct formal performance reviews
 Have informal coaching conversations with employees
 Have on-the-spot work progress discussions
 Follow up on a training session
 Help an employee to implement a work improvement idea
 Work with an employee to meet job standards or to manage their job better

26. Acknowledging employee differences
 As a Coach, you need to acknowledge that each
employee is different in terms of personality, behaviour
and characteristics
 Differentiating allows you to:
 Appropriately address performance expectations.
 Draft suitable developmental plans.
 Help direct reports manage their careers.
 Build a better foundation for your organization’s success.

27. Session 3
Key Steps in Coaching for Optimal
Performance

28. Steps in coaching
 Coaching employees and teams is the most critical role of a
manager/supervisor in business today.
 The success of the employees, team and organization depend on
the coaching ability of the manager/supervisor.
 There are various techniques, styles and approaches available for
coaching
 We will look at two approaches
 The GROW Model
 The Coaching Discussion Approach
Source:Coaching Discussion Approach by Pam Martin

29. Steps in coaching
 For whatever approach you might use, coaching is usually
done within the context of a meeting/session between the
coach and the employee.
 Such a meeting will provide both parties with the ideal forum
to hold an objective discussion.

30. The GROW model
WILL
What will you do next…?
What could stop you moving forward?
How will you overcome this?
How can you keep yourself motivated?
When do you need to review progress?
Daily, weekly, monthly?
What do you need from me?
OPTIONS
What could you do to move
yourself just one step forward…?
What are your options…? How
far towards your objective will
that take you…?
REALITY
What is happening now that tells
you…? Describe the current
situation… What made you realize
that you need to do something
different?
GOAL
What do you want to move forward on…?
What can we achieve in the time
available…? What would be the most
helpful thing for you to take away
from this session?
TOPIC
Tell me about…
What would you like to think/talk
about…?
T
G R O
W
Source: Skills for Life Improvement Program/(CfBT)

31. The GROW Model
 Key steps
 G – GOAL:What do you want?
 Establish the Goal
 First, you and the employee need to look at the behavior that you want to
change, and then structure this change as a goal that s/he wants to achieve.
 Make sure that this is a SMART goal: one that is Specific, Measurable,
Attainable, Realistic, andTime-bound.
 When doing this, it is useful to ask questions like:
 How will you know that your employee has achieved this goal? How will
you know that the problem or issue is solved?
 Does this goal fit with his/her overall career objectives? And does it fit with
the team's objectives?

32. The GROW Model
 R – REALITY:What is happening now?
 Examine the Current Reality
 Next, ask the employee to describe his current reality.
 This is an important step:
 Too often, people try to solve a problem or reach a goal without fully
considering their starting point, and often they're missing some
information that they need in order to reach their goal effectively.
 As your team member tells you about his current reality, the solution may
start to emerge.

33. The GROW Model
 O – OPTIONS:What could you do?
 Explore the Options
 Once you and the employee have explored the current reality, it's time to
determine what is possible – meaning all of the possible options for
reaching the objective.
 Help the employee brainstorm as many good options as possible.Then,
discuss these and help them decide on the best ones.
 Offer your own suggestions in this step. But let your team member offer
suggestions first, and let him/her do most of the talking. It's important to
guide them in the right direction, without actually making decisions for
them

34. The GROW Model
W –WILL:What will you do?
 Establish theWill
 Finally, decide on a date when you'll both review progress.This will
provide some accountability, and allow the employee to change his
approach if the original plan isn't working

35. Coaching discussion approach
Open
Clarify
DevelopAgree
Close
The Coaching DiscussionApproach has three components:
•The Five Coaching Guidelines,
•The Key Principles of Coaching and
•TheTwo Process Skills
The five coaching guidelines

36. Coaching discussion approach
 In the Opening step the key is for the manager to clearly communicate
the purpose and importance of the discussion.
 Clarify,the manager presents all relevant information, issues, and
concerns as well as related facts and figures.
 Develop, gets the employee involved by collaborating to create
solutions.
 Agree, specifies actions, timelines and resources to achieve the solutions
 Close is a final chance to check that both you and the employee are clear
on agreements, next steps and commitments. It is also an opportune
time for the manager to voice his/her confidence in the employee.
 Three of the guidelines:
 Clarify, Develop, andAgree form a cycle that can be repeated as often as
necessary to meet the outcomes of the discussion

37. Coaching discussion approach
 Another component of the Coaching discussion approach are the
key principles of coaching. In order for the process to be
successful the key principles must be a part of the process and
embedded in the discussion.
 The five key principles of coaching which need to be incorporated
in all coaching sessions are:
 Maintain or enhance self-esteem
 Listen and respond with empathy
 Ask for help and encourage involvement
 Share thoughts,feeling and rationale
 Provide support without removing responsibility

38. Coaching discussion approach
 The two Process Skills that help to ensure the success of the Coaching
Discussion approach are checking for understanding and making
procedural suggestions.
 Checking for understanding is a way to confirm that both the coach and the
employee have the same understanding of what has been discussed during
the session.The most effective way to check for understanding is to
summarize the information in the form of a question and then request
confirmation or correction.
 Making procedural suggestions is an effective way to keep the coaching
discussion process on track, by identifying problems in the process itself and
resolving them quickly.A good example of this technique is "We seem to
have several resources available, let's narrow our options down to two."

39. Coaching discussion approach
 The final key component of the Coaching Discussion Approach is
the Behavioral Communication Questions.
 If the following questions are answered during the coaching
discussion, the likelihood of the employee being willing and able
to perform the agreed-upon behavior is greatly increased:
 How is this relevant to what I do?
 What,specifically, should I do?
 How will I be measured, and what are the consequences?
 What tools and support are available?
 What's in it for me?
 The key to the success of any coaching session is two-way
communication combined with open and honest dialogue.

40. Session 4
Elements of a Good Coaching Session

41. Elements of a good coaching session
 What makes coaching successful?
 Four essential components have been identified as being crucial
for a coaching session to be successful.
 1. Clarity
 Ultimately, nothing will happen until you gain laser-like clarity on the
issue or goal.Total clarity before continuing.
 2. Confirmation
 As a coach ask questions and repeat answers for confirmation
Confirm the real deal or go back to step 1.

42. Elements of a good coaching session
 3. Communication
 Communication is achieved when all the parties involved in the
communication process understand clearly what is being said
 When parties are on the same page
 Effective communication is critical to a successful coaching session
because once we state our desires or intentions to other people, we
have a much greater chance of success.
 4. Commitment
 Create an immediate action--something that will happen today
 Commit to an action that will happen today.Without a commitment and
follow-up, it's easy to feel good about the session and still have
nothing happen

43. Elements of a good coaching session
 When conducting a coaching session to provide positive
feedback…
 Describe the positive performance result or work habit using specific details.
 Solicit your employee's opinion of the same behavior.
 Ask the employee to identify elements that contributed to success (adequate
time or resources, support from management or other employees, the
employee's talent and interest in the project).
 Discuss ways in which you and the employee can support continued positive
results.
 Reinforce for the employee the value of the work and how it fits in with the
goals of the work unit or department.
 Show your appreciation of the positive results and your confidence that the
employee will continue to perform satisfactorily.
 If appropriate, document your discussion for the employee's file.

44. Elements of a good coaching session
 When you conduct a coaching session to improve performance…
 Describe the issue or problem, referring to specific behaviors or
expectations.
 Involve the employee in the problem-solving process to identify the
problem.
 Brainstorm and write down possible solutions.
 Decide on specific actions to be taken by each of you to correct the
problem.
 Agree on a follow-up date.
 Document key elements of the session.
 Give one copy to the employee and place another in the employee’s file.

45. Elements of a good coaching session
 If your coaching session is conducted to address poor work habits
such as continued lateness
 Describe in detail the poor work habit observed.
 Say why it concerns you, in terms of its specific impact on the department.
 Ask why it occurred and listen non-judgmentally to the explanation.
Describe the need for change and ask for ideas.
 Discuss each idea and offer your help.
 Agree on specific actions to be taken and set a specific follow-up date.
 Document key elements of the session. Give one copy to the employee and
place another in the employee’s file.

46. Session 5
Communication Skills for Effective
Coaching

47. Coaching communication
 Coaching is a two-way process
 coach-employee, employee-coach
 Clear and consistent messages will facilitate understanding and avoid
miscommunication
 Open questions will glean more information
 eg.What do you think about the team’s new approach?
 Not‘Do you think the team’s new approach is a good one’
 Good feedback
 positive and corrective
 Active listening shows interest and will enable you to obtain
additional information from your employee
 Non-verbal communication
 eg.Voice expression, is as important as verbal communication

48. Giving feedback
 Feedback should be:
 positive, constructive and corrective
 clear and concise
 delivered as soon as possible after the action for
which it is being provided
 Use the‘feedback sandwich’ approach:
Positive feedback (what they are doing well)
Corrective feedback
Positive feedback (actions for improvement)

49. Giving feedback
 Plan what you intend to say to your employees, and be sensitive to your
emotional state at the time.
 This will help you keep personal frustration out of your remarks.
 Be patient.
 Just because you know how something is to be done, doesn’t mean your
employees do.Where possible, show them how the job should be done.
 Be specific, not general.
 Telling an employee to be more customer focused is too vague. Instead, you
might say something like, “I was disappointed that we didn’t do a customer-
focus group this quarter.We need to hold these meetings every quarter in
order to keep up with customers’ needs.”
 Focus on behavior that can be changed.
 You’ll only frustrate employees if you identify shortfalls they cannot change

50. Active listening
 Stop – Pay attention and don’t interrupt
 Look – Make eye contact and get onto the same level as the person
 Listen – Focus on what the person is saying
 Respond – Restate what has been said and use open questions to
prompt for further information

51. Communication barriers
 Different perceptions of words and actions
 Only hearing what you want to hear
 Using jargon
 Not responding to questions
 Judging too quickly
 Looking for personal agendas
 Allowing emotions to blur the message
 Assuming‘I’m right’ and not being open to other views
 Asking antagonising questions