30.7.2014

Lekcja 17: Coaching i mentoring

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Lekcja 17: Coaching i mentoring

Pewnie nie raz spotkaliście się już na gruncie polskim z angielskimi terminami "coaching" oraz "mentoring". Co
właściwie one oznaczają? Czy się czymś różnią? Poniżej znajdziecie przydatne informacje, które przybliżą wam
oba te pojęcia.

Probably even in Poland you came across those English terms: "coaching" and "mentoring". What do they mean
actually? Are they really different things? Below you will find useful information that will introduce you to both of these
concepts.

Coaching began in the late 80s and 90s of the twentieth century and developed fast, creating various schools and
specializations in the process. In coaching there is no place for coercion. If the recipient feels the need for self-
accomplishment and has sincere motivation, it can bring the expected results, but only then. John Whitmore, pioneer
and founding father of coaching has defined it as "unlocking a person's potential to maximise their own performance".
In coaching the focus is on the development of specific skills and know-how, so that the coachee is better prepared to
face the challenges of personal and professional life, achieve better results in business and beyond. Coaching is
also indispensable for the development of good leadership and communication style. Services of a coach are used to
better understand oneself, make changes, achieve goals, learn new, more effective ways of thinking and acting, raise
work efficiency or in general get better results. In summary, coaching is a method of personal and professional
improvement, which assumes that we already have everything we need to achieve our life goals. One only needs to
learn how to use these resources in an appropriate way.

There are different types of coaching, such as sports coaching or life coaching, but most often it is used in the
professional sphere in the form of career coaching, team coaching and management coaching, in order to make it
easier to face professional challenges or current tasks, to change beliefs and attitudes that are needed for further
career development, to enhance creative planning, to make changes in the organization and to tackle difficult
situations. In corporate terms, one-on-one coaching is considered to be the most effective form of learning and
development. It is far from cheap, though, and it is difficult to predict the actual benefits. Finally, it requires a lot of time
if it's to be successful.

Coaching is very often confused with mentoring. A mentor is a person who, using his or her experience, skills and
practical knowledge, provides advice, guidance and feedback, all truly invaluable when working on personal and
professional development. It is usually someone older and much more experienced. Mentoring meetings are
conducted as confidential talks, held over a long period of time. From the point of view of the organisation, costs of
mentoring are generated by a dedicated mentor's (usually a

manager

) time and commitment. It allows the company

to enjoy three key benefits: development of human resources by broadening the mind of employees, transfer of
internal company knowledge and keeping of the most important and valuable people in the company. Moreover,
mentoring builds positive relationships and helps increase job satisfaction, and obviously contributes to mentee's
development. The serious drawback it presents is a risk of emergence of informal favoritism systems.

Coaching and mentoring are excellent development tools, but only if they are properly implemented and adapted to
given circumstances. Both are aimed at professional development and continuing support in the career path.
However, coaching is mainly focused on current issues, while mentoring is a long process, focused on career
planning and development in the long term.

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