A two part series on starting and growing a coaching program in your organization.
What is a great way to help both employees and your leaders grow and develop their communication skills and further help engage employees? A Mentor or Coaching Program.
No matter who you are, there is always someone out there from whom you can learn a thing or two. You’re looking for someone who has faced decisions that you haven’t yet, or navigated a tricky situation that you are now facing.
Establishing a mentor or coaching program is one way you can arm emerging, new and existing leaders with new skills and a support system, to grown as leaders and professionals.
Recently read an article by Lauren Eisenhauer (with Best Employee Surveys), where she gave 5 Tips on how to start and develop such a program. Here are some of her points:
Tip # 1 – Make matches based on actual data. “Surveying your employees to gather data that will allow you to make informed mentor – mentee matches,” she said. Ask them questions about their strengths, weakness, interests, career goals, and communication styles. When you have the data, match participants as best as you can. Ideal matches have similar interests and goals.
Also look to have the mentor with 5-10 years more experience (an experience ‘gap’) from the mentee, so that the mentor can still remember once being in the mentee’s shoes. I have experienced this myself; while in my coaching certification program, we were encouraged to seek someone 10 years older for their wisdom; and also to coach someone 10 years younger, to help the younger person get a perceptive on where they may be going in the future.
Tip # 2 – Don’t exclude anyone who wants to participate. “From the intern to the executive, everyone’s career and growth aspiration should be respected and fostered”, Lauren continues. Starting at onboarding, educate everyone on your mentor / coaching program, how it works, it’s purpose and benefits. True leaders in your organization, shouldn’t have an issue participating as coaches, when given the skills on ‘how to coach’, however it should be optional for them as well.
From my experience, the ‘engaged employee’ is most interested in a mentor – mentee program. On a scale from 1-10, engaged employees are in the ‘sweet spot’ ranging from a 5 – 8 on the scale. These individuals take a situation and want to:
- Take ownership of a situation to get positive results
- Offer solutions / accept responsibility
- Consider the Team’s needs / is resourceful
Strive to have these staff members, be a strong part of your coaching / mentor program.
(Tips # 3 Advertising Benefits + #4 Clearly communicate program + # 5 Emphasize goal setting – next week in series)