When we talk about mentoring, we describe it as a relationship. Coaching still requires a relationship (though often perhaps less intimate and of shorter duration), but we tend to talk about it as an assignment. This difference in language or metaphor can affect subtly the way we think and behave. The word assignment carries with (more…)
In our reading and conversations with coaches, we have identified four types of loneliness: The first and last of these are unhealthy. Even though coaches meet lots of people, they may experience the loneliness of isolation, because as professionals, they must maintain an emotional distance from their clients. If they lack close others, who they...
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It’s evident that a coaching and mentoring strategy – especially if the aim is to create a coaching and mentoring culture – requires the sustained support and energy of an organization’s leaders. In our interviews on this topic with both HR professionals and leadership teams, a number of themes recur frequently enough to warrant inclusion...
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Read More Gaining and keeping commitment from the top to your coaching and mentoring strategy
Cameroon is one of those countries that most people have heard of (largely because it once performed well in the football World Cup), but couldn’t place accurately on a map. So when I was invited to join a small group of coaches and leaders climbing Mount Cameroon on behalf of the charity Village Aid, I...
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When Kathy Kram carried out her seminal research into mentoring at the beginning of the 1980s, she focused on a small number (22) of informal mentoring relationships, taking place within a specific cultural context – educated North Americans. She identified a number of themes that recurred in these relationships and, as she herself has readily...
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Last year I was privileged to assess one of the most well-founded and effective mentoring programmes I have encountered. This programme was not in a sector, where one would normally look for good practice in mentoring. It was in the military and, specifically, in the Royal New Zealand Air Force. People at all levels received...
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It seems that every day, there is another story of organizations, which were once respected, betraying the trust of their stakeholders. The scenes at Fifa (pronounced Thiefa), when staff applauded the boss, who had presided over years of corrupt practice, may have seemed inexplicable, but they demonstrate just how easily immoral and illegal practice can...
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Psychometrics and other forms of diagnostic, such as 360-degree feedback, can be very helpful in getting to know a client and “what makes them tick”. But they take time, often require lengthy analysis and can become somewhat mechanical processes that miss the richness and complexity of “who is this person and how do they connect...
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Read More Getting to know a client: Clutterbuck’s twelve questions
Recent research at the University of North Carolina and elsewhere, into how we perceive emotions reveals that having a name for an emotion is important in both how we experience it and how we cope with it. Academic Tiffany watt Smith at Queen Mary University in London explains that “putting a name to a feeling...
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When a coachee or mentee reveals that they have a serious illness, such as cancer or clinical depression, it can be hard to know how best to react. You want to be sympathetic, supportive and helpful, but you know that your role doesn’t encompass helping them manage their illness. Coaches and mentors in this situation...
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Read More What to do if my coachee/ mentee develops a serious illness