What are some tips for making your coaching and mentoring sessions more productive?

Before coaching or mentoring, the personal relationship and trust between coach and coachee must be develop. It can be developed by visiting the coachee family members to find the behavers, hobbies, strength and weaknesses.

Goals setting will give you clarity and confidence to deliver your session with excellence. You will have an end in mind and it will keep you focus.

Always come prepared. Regardless of you are a mentor or mentee, please remember to respect the other person's time. Focus on listening and not imposing your thoughts on your mentees. Do not try to clone your mentee to be another you but more important recognize that he/she is a unique individual. Set clear goals and also time frame for the conversation. In addition, ensure there are clear action plans and follow up in the subsequent meetings.

Mentorship mostly results in life time friendships and your mentors in turn become sponsors who speak for you where you are not seated so the first thing is to improve your communication and interpersonal skills before getting a mentor or being a mentee.

During the coaching session, the client is likely to divulge some personal details and most times it is important they trust you enough. Some will withhold this information and will not help you do your job. So, you must ensure they are convinced enough that their personal information is safe with you. Also, you must ensure you create a conducive, non-judgmental, and noncritic environment where the client will feel relaxed to open up.

An example to this is understanding your KLT factor which they must Know you, Like you and Trust you. When you build an active rapport, they will get to know you and your mission, then a sort of likeness will happen, after then, the trust will be built gradually and eventually.

Open-ended questions help to get details on the current situation. Hence, it gives you enough information to work with as a coach. These questions go beyond yes or no, they seek to explore all the intricacies of the situation.

Open-ended questions is a form of active engagement which empowers the participants to pay attention and to become active and creative during coaching and mentoring sessions. Highly recommended.

We are humans and we can't survive without feedback. Feedback helps to know where the coachee should work more on. However, to make it sound good it should be balanced with positive comments as well as highlighting the strength of the coachee and praising them for the things they got or they are getting right. Feedback helps us to grow and become a better version.

True, the GROW model is a good acrostic. However, there are several strategies and structures to adopt based on the uniqueness or peculiarity of your clients or their needs.

Follow up and review are important both to the coachee/mentee and the coach. Leaving your client to themselves after a coaching session will not make your work complete. You need to check up on them to ensure they are still on track and that they have considered all the focal point you highlighted during your session.

Insightful. Follow up and review will also establish your trustworthiness. This will also solidify your relationship with the coachee or mentee.

To maximize the productivity of your coaching and mentoring sessions, follow these key tips: - Define clear goals for each session to maintain focus. - Practice active listening to show understanding and empathy. - Encourage deep thinking with open-ended questions. - Offer honest feedback for continuous improvement. - Create actionable plans with realistic steps. - Ensure accountability by tracking progress. - Provide support and motivation throughout the journey. - Adapt your approach to individual needs and learning styles. - Share valuable resources for personal development. - Maintain a consistent schedule to sustain progress.