Employees aren’t the only ones who need coaching and mentoring

Over the years I’ve discovered that business leaders spend a lot of their time thinking about how to get the best out of their staff, but ignoring the fact that mentoring and coaching doesn’t begin and end with those at the coalface of the business.

 Yes, all businesses do need to prioritise employee development because a more engaged, better skilled and an increasingly motivated workforce is ultimately good for growth and profitability – doing things quicker, more efficiently and with greater expertise almost always translates into a healthier bottom line.

 That’s not to say businesses that put a premium on staff development always manage to join all the dots.

 Developing people isn’t just about giving them the skills the business needs them to have, it’s also about listening to and facilitating their own ambitions (as long as they align with the objectives of the business).

 But doing any of this effectively also requires the people in your organisation to be well-led and well-managed. And that, in turn, requires those in senior leadership teams to also commit to a process of continuing professional development (CPD).

 CPD has become something of a buzzword (or buzz-acronym, if you prefer) over recent years, but for successful organisations this is a concept that applies to everyone in the business, from the Chief Exec to the newest and most junior recruit.

 Often, self-development is something that managers and leaders in business are inclined to ignore. Partly that’s through a disproportionate (and well-meaning) focus on upskilling their teams, but also because the higher up and organisation we go and the more our own knowledge and expertise is acknowledged and rewarded, the less we believe we need to be coached or mentored to be successful.

 That’s not always driven by ego or vanity – though it can be; usually it’s a misplaced sense that as leaders we are in less need of CPD than the people we employ.

 It’s true that fundamental gaps in knowledge or skills are likely to be more obvious and have a greater impact on an organisation’s productivity and profitability, but any organisation that aims to be successful needs to ensure its most senior executives are also on a personal growth journey.

 The nature of the support that more experienced and senior people need is likely to look different to that received by more junior and less experienced team members – for example, junior employees may need more practical skills (e.g. systems training) while those in the boardroom may benefit from something more conceptual or abstract.

 This is where coaching and mentoring can be a tremendous asset to the organisation because these approaches – which are rooted more in shared experiences, philosophies and principles than in hands-on skills – help to achieve growth in thought.

 Where most systems- or skills-based training is likely to follow what is known as the Instructional method of teaching and is therefore more didactic in its approach, executive coaching and/or mentoring is much more about encouraging the mentee to challenge their own thinking and behaviours around leadership and strategy.

 Many business leaders find coaching and mentoring to be hugely liberating, opening up new avenues of thought that they would not, in all likelihood, have reached on their own.

 So, what is the difference between coaching and mentoring, and what are the benefits of each?

 In simplistic terms, the difference is that mentors tend to be people currently engaged in a similar role, possibly – but not necessarily – in a similar sector of commerce and industry, whilst coaches tend to be professional advisers who apply largely generic principles of business and learning to an individual’s specific circumstances.

 Mentors are extremely useful in helping their mentee to identify and then resolve pain points within the business. These may relate to organisational structure, growth strategies, people policies or simply problem solving.

 They do this by helping the mentee to use their mentor’s experience by applying it (and modifying it where necessary) to their own circumstances.

 Coaches tend to take a more questioning approach to the work they do, using constructive interrogation (Why? What? How?) to encourage the individual to articulate and explore issues and then equipping them with the tools needed to arrive at solutions on their own.

 Mentoring/coaching for yourself as a business leader and your senior team as implementers of policy and practice is just as important to the success of your business as a Microsoft Office course might be to a junior member of your team.

 So, if you’re serious about driving your business forward, you need to spend as much time investing in yourself and your fellow C-suite team as you invest in your more junior employees.

If you’d like to find out how Constantia Consulting can help you to build leadership development into your people strategy, why not get in touch and see how to make the right strategic decisions for your business.