Question:

Assessment brief/activity

You have been asked by an organisation which has recently diversified its business to help with the implementation of a coaching and mentoring programme. You have been asked to provide a brief to the executive team on current thinking around coaching and mentoring and some early ideas on how you might support them with implementing a robust programme of coaching and mentoring that meets their current and changing business needs. You have met with the HR department to assess the situation and have discovered that there is no formal coaching and mentoring programme perse. Any coaching and mentoring that does occur is ad hoc. There are no qualified coaches and mentors in the organisation and line managers generally don’t see it as their role. There is a willingness to formalise coaching and mentoring in the organisation but uncertainty about how to go about it. Performance reviews in the organisation have identified the need for employees to develop better customer care and IT skills as a priority.

Activity 1

The executive team have requested a briefing paper as the basis for an initial discussion.

In your brief you should include:

 An explanation of the terms coaching and mentoring, their similarities and differences, their respective purposes and key benefits for different stakeholders.

 At least three different types of coaching and three different types of mentoring that can be implemented in organisations.

 An evaluation of the role of line managers in coaching and mentoring.

 At least five factors that need to be considered when implementing coaching and mentoring.

Activity 2

After your meeting with the executive team, you have been asked to provide them with a summary of your assessment of the current coaching and mentoring arrangements and advice going forward.

In your report you should outline:

 A set of recommendations based on your assessment

 A summary of how you could contribute to the further development of coaching and mentoring in their organisation.

OR

 A witness testimony of how you have supported the implementation of coaching and/or mentoring within an organisation

Evidence to be produced/required

Activity 1

An executive brief of approximately 1,500 words.

Activity 2

A set of justified recommendations and support proposal of approximately 1,500 words.

OR

A set of justified recommendations for the scenario in the assessment brief of approximately 1000 words plus a signed witness testimony of approximately 500 words from a manager who can confirm how you supported the organisation with the further development of coaching and/or mentoring.

All reference sources should be acknowledged correctly and a bibliography provided where appropriate (these should be excluded from the word count).

Solution/Answer:

Activity 1

1.1: Definition and Differentiation of Coaching and Mentoring Concepts

In most instances, coaching and mentoring concepts are adopted interchangeably. This is since they both define the process used by an organisation through active engagement, empowerment and ensuring optimum performance of the staff. Nevertheless, coaching is short-term with mentoring being a long-term relationship. In one of the studies by Stowers and Barker (2010), coaching has been identified as taking a short-time period as a progressive management style with mentoring taking a more extended period.  Further, approaches and outcomes of the processes are significantly varying and dependent on the factors at play. Due to the consistent focus on the significance of the human capital, it is instrumental for an organisation to increase their appreciation of involved concepts of coaching and mentoring and anchoring the program in their operations.

The drivers of the rise in the popularity of Coaching as in (CIPD, 2008) has been illustrated in Figure A. There are some characteristics that has been agreed on coaching in an organization.

• One-to-one developmental discussions which are mentioned below
• Provides people with feedback on both their strengths and weaknesses
• Aimed at specific issues/areas
• Short-term activity, except in executive coaching, which tends to have a longer timeframe
• A non-directive form of development
• Focuses on improving performance and developing/enhancing individuals skills
• Used to address a wide range of issues
• Have both organisational and individual goals
• Assumes that the individual is psychologically healthy and does not require a clinical intervention
• Works on the premise that clients are self-aware, or can achieve self-awareness
• Time-bounded
• A skilled activity
• Personal issues may be discussed but the emphasis is on performance at work

Broadly speaking as views for CIPD coaching is developing the skills and knowledge so that the job performance improves, while leading to achievement of organizational objectives

Coaching, mentoring, counselling and consulting are helping behaviors with differences mainly in the activities involved.

1. Based on how directive the practitioner will be in their approach, and to what extent the person ‘tell’ the individual on how to work out the problems – Figure A 1 – The relationship between coaching style and different types of helping practices.
2. Based on whether the focus is business or personal content – Figure A 2 – Helping activities differentiated by levels of business/personal content
3. Based on who is leading the activity – the individual, the organization or a mixture of both?  – Figure A 3- Coach/mentoring and other approaches: a framework for differentiating.

From the CIPD (2015), some factors necessitate an organisation in actively engaging in the process of mentoring and coaching. Through a focus on a learning and development…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..Please contact our team to receive guidance on the entire assessment based on your organisation

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