Coaching and mentoring are powerful ways to develop your leaders and help them achieve their goals. But how do you choose and match the right coaches and mentors for your leaders? In this article, you will learn some practical tips and best practices to make the most of your coaching and mentoring programs.
Before you assign a coach or a mentor to a leader, you need to understand what their needs are. What are their strengths and weaknesses? What are their learning objectives and career aspirations? What are the challenges and opportunities they face? You can use various tools and methods to assess your leaders' needs, such as surveys, interviews, feedback, performance reviews, or self-assessments. The more you know about your leaders' needs, the better you can match them with the right coaches and mentors.
We should never let managerial tendencies overshadow our interpersonal ones. Executive coaches and high profile mentors do little for the burned out PM living paycheck to paycheck, and we shouldn't pat ourselves on the back for simply throwing a mentorship program at the masses. While effective coaching is an incredible force multiplier for general performance, it won't address underlying tangible, structural challenges that a counselor, paid vacation, or raise might do.
Once you have assessed your leaders' needs, you need to define your coaching and mentoring goals. What are the expected outcomes and benefits of the coaching and mentoring programs? How will you measure and evaluate their impact? How will you align them with your organizational vision and strategy? You need to have clear and SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) goals for your coaching and mentoring programs, and communicate them to your leaders, coaches, and mentors. This will help you create a shared vision and direction, and ensure accountability and commitment.
Now that you have defined your goals, you need to identify your potential coaches and mentors. Who are the people who have the skills, knowledge, experience, and personality to support your leaders' development? You can look for internal or external coaches and mentors, depending on your budget, availability, and objectives. Internal coaches and mentors are usually senior leaders or peers who can offer insights, guidance, and feedback from within the organization. External coaches and mentors are usually professionals or experts who can offer a fresh perspective, unbiased advice, and specialized expertise from outside the organization.
The last step in the coaching and mentoring process is to match your leaders with the most suitable coaches and mentors. This is a significant step that can determine the success of your programs. When making the match, you should take into account various factors, such as compatibility, diversity, challenge and support. Interviews, profiles, assessments or trial sessions are some of the methods you can use to find the right fit. It is essential to involve your leaders in the process and consider their input and feedback on their preferences and expectations. Carefully selecting coaches and mentors for your leaders is an investment that will benefit both them and your organization. By following these tips and best practices, you can help your leaders reach their full potential.
Developing leaders is not technical manual, there is not a copy and paste method to apply to everyone. As with all development, an opportunity to fail is an opportunity to learn. Allow the space to fail forward, learn, adapt, and grow. Without that sandbox to fail, you build mediocre leaders rather than cultivate great ones to drive your organization.