How a coach and mentor could have helped me in my early years

When I look back at my early career and life, I recognise how valuable a career mentor or life coach could have been.

What is coaching?

A coach identifies sparks of curiosity and helps turn them into fires.

Coaching for me is about creating awareness. It's about unsettling what's stuck, things we don't notice or belief systems, so ingrained we don't know where they came from. We need the right amount awareness - too much can lead to overthink and inaction -  too little to blind spots and poor choices. I made some poor choices early on.

A coach will not prevent every bad decision but will facilitate goals and challenges by providing support and questioning and help us find the courage to not fear failure, as it's part of growth, and it's how we recover from it that's most important. If we can overcome self-judgement, regret and shame, all negative emotions, then we can recover quicker and be more willing to try again. 

What is mentoring?

A mentor provides more open-ended guidance and knowledge sharing. Mentoring is often a longer term commitment without a pre-determined outcome.

Reverse mentoring is growing in popularity and improves the chemistry between mentor and mentee. If the mentor adopts the attitude that they have something to learn as well, then it builds trust and rapport. An older mentor could learn a lot from a younger mentee on youth culture, digital skills, their view about leadership, personal branding and more. In fact a perfectly symmetrical relationship where both parties are referred to as mentor could be really empowering.

Where are the synergies?

Coaching and mentoring are based on unlocking potential, building trust, listening and feedback and confidentiality.

Young people today are far more self-aware than when I started out in the workplace, but have less disposable income to invest in personal growth, or may feel that they can achieve this online at a fraction of the cost which so much content available including chat bots and other digital tools.

Given that only 13% of managers dedicate time to coaching and mentoring, yet 86% of Gen Z actively seek this kind of guidance, the onus is on organisations' leaders to build coaching and mentoring into their culture.

This requires a rethink about the role of the manager. As a leader, ask yourself

"Do my managers have the time and space to develop their team?"

"Are collaboration patterns and working practices conducive to developing potential?"

"How often do managers have one to ones with their team and how much time is invested in their growth?"

We will soon be launching a diagnostic tool which can interrogate these patterns and behaviours, offering practical insights and a framework to enable cultural change.

If you're interested in being a co-development partner or benefit from being an early adopter, please DM me

How embedded is coaching and mentoring in your organisation's culture?

This post was written by Mark A King. You can follow him here on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markkingbravo/