How can coaching and mentoring improve retention rates for technical training?

I am a total advocate for coaching, also because my leadership and team management style is that. Coaching in my opinion offers many opportunities for the other party to increase their sense of self-awareness, time for reflection on their own actions as well as allowing dialogue for feedback and thoughts exchange. All in all, building the trust and rapport in support of each other.

My experience shows that engineers are not used to being coached. In fact, the term itself is what makes them resistant. However, studies and studies show that having a manager who is also a coach has numerous benefits for both the employees and the organization as a whole. The simplest way to incorporate coaching into everyday work is to establish a culture of feedback and goal setting. These two elements will then pave the way for other "advanced" coaching practices, like talking about success, career paths, and achieving personal potential. Start small and aim to broaden the scope in time.

In the Wall Street of corporate training, think of coaching as your real-time stock tip hotline and mentoring as the long-term portfolio manager for your employees' skills. To avoid the training cost rollercoaster and watch your workforce's value soar, treat coaching and mentoring as your savvy financial advisors, not just optional accessories. Embrace these strategies to play the market of employee retention and growth like a pro. Coaching and mentoring aren't optional; they're your secret sauce for turning 'penny stocks' into 'blue chips' of employee retention and development.

We can distinguish between three ways of empowering our coworkers: -Mentoring -Consulting -Coaching Each of these is applicable in different contexts and has its own merits. In simplest terms, mentoring is when an expert shares their own experience and helps the mentee solve the problem, while coaching is not providing solutions directly. Instead, it guides the coachee to find the solution. When a quick solution is needed in a critical project, mentoring may be more applicable than coaching. In contrast, if we want to help someone achieve their potential or eliminate harmful beliefs about their skills and career path, coaching is more suitable.

Remember, in the game of improving retention rates through coaching and mentoring, don't sideline the mentors after training – they're not just cheerleaders; they're your MVPs for the long haul! Think of a way to recognize and reward additional efforts from your mentors and coaches. Don't play around with adding workload without compensation, because you will lose the game.

It is very important to know that coaching (i.e., asking many questions) can sometimes backfire. This may happen in organizational settings if individuals have many problems on their shoulders and come to you for direct help. Asking many questions in this scenario may push them into a more stressful zone and actually not help. In cases like this, direct mentoring or expert advice giving is, in fact, more desirable, as it will help solve the problem faster.

My experience shows that most people resist coaching simply because they never tried it. Having an open conversation about the process and explaining its benefits helps reduce this resistance. In organizational settings, a significant challenge lies in distinguishing when to mentor and when to coach. Using a different approach can have moderate consequences. This comes with experience and time, and it's important to be aware of this distinction.

My experience shows that setting "mini" goals that are clearly measurable very much helps in the process. For instance, if a person has problems saying "no," we can set a goal that until the next conversation, which may be in two weeks, they should say "no" 10 times and log each of these situations. Then, we can go through this and analyze it. New behavior causes new neural connections to be made in the brain, and due to neuroplasticity, it is the best way to change ourselves. This is why I am a big fan of mini behaviorally oriented goals and strongly recommend this approach.