Coaching and Mentoring how can SBP help you to help yourself?
SBP run a number of programs to develop you and your staff through coaching and mentoring. These programs include:-
Develop your mangers into effective coaches
Join a group of peers for coaching and mentoring
Obtain coaching and mentoring for your business - targeted at owners and MD's
Provide your senior mangers or key personnel with personal mentoring
However before deciding which program is best for you or your organisation lets investigate what coaching and mentoring actually is.
What are coaches / Mentors?
There are literally thousand of definitions for mentoring and coaching however the ones we like are
Mentoring is:
"support, assistance, advocacy or guidance given by one person to another in order to achieve an objective or several objectives over a period of time" (SOVA)
Mentors are:
"people who through their actions and work, help others to achieve their potential" (Shea, GF)
Coaching is:
Coaching is about getting the best possible return on investment from one of your most valuable assets today - your people
Coaches are:
Experienced individuals who can offer encouragement, support, friendship, confidence and business advice, when you need it.
So as you can see there are only very subtle differences. Typically mentors are for personal development and life fourfillment and coaches are for business activity improvement. We feel that we need to offer both to our clients. Although others will disagree we will use the terms interchangeably.
Why do you need a coach?
Coaching for senior mangers is rapidly being accepted as one of the most effective ways of improving workplace performance.
Managers take on coaches just like successful sports people do - there is nothing 'wrong' with their game, but there is always room for improvement.
The coach's job is to review and challenge styles of dealing with people and strategies for getting things done. Coaching assists managers to become more effective and maintain peak performance for longer. Coaches provide a supportive and objective sounding board, support and honest feedback.
The types of people who would benefit from a coach or mentor include
- Owner mangers of companies
- Senior mangers in a lager company
- Identified key personnel who are identified for bigger roles
- Staff with personal issue or problems
- Senior mangers / owners who are looking for a better work / life balance
- Staff who have performance issue
In a recent survey in the USA of 100 executives who were being coached they found that coaching was worth 6 times more than the investment.
The benefits of coaching an mentoring
For the mentee , mentoring and coaching can improve self-confidence and self esteem, increase motivation, broaden horizons and experience and raise achievements and aspirations. It helps to move people to the next level.
For businesses , mentoring and coaching provides a good opportunity for staff to develop a range of skills. Improve individual performance, improve bottom line performance. Improves the relationships between staff. Improves morale and develops the business.
Why then do people not put in place either coaching or mentoring for themselves or their staff?
- Generally there is a lack of understanding of what coaching can do for individuals and organisations.
- It is seen as admitting a weakness to ask for help. In a recent conversation with an insolvency company we asked why do most companies go bust. The answer is poor management. In other words they wouldn't ask for help. However if top athletes ask for help from coaches then so should managers.
- They don't know who to ask for help - SBP is now the answer
- They don't understand that a managers role is about developing strategy and coaching their staff not doing day to day activity for them.
- They think it costs too much and takes up too much time. Well talk to o us and you will find out that is not the case
- They find it hard to trust others. We can help with these issues.
Some examples of how we have helped mangers and staff develop through coaching.
We have helped to develop a team of change mangers to become lean experts through a mentoring and coaching program. These 5 mangers have now all gone on to be promoted in their company.
We have helped a senior manger in an automotive through providing coaching as and when they need it to develop their company and their people. This is done through regular chats, challenging ideas and providing training and ideas for the business.
We have also taken a business owner and through working with them 2 days per month we have help relive stress and develop the business
