Coaching & Counseling

In the last byte, we looked at the model of attribution and understood it well. In today's byte, we look at aspects of importance of coaching, counseling.

Managers generally deal with two aspects when they are donning a first level managerial position (and definitely continue as one grows in an organization). The 2 aspects are - managing the workforce to continue the work designated for completion unabated and the second is the dimension individual professional and personal growth of employee reporting to the manager. Given the long contact hours at work, it is found that supervisors and coworkers are more effective in mentoring than assigned formal mentors from higher up in the organization!

What is really unsaid is that the success of mentoring hinges on the presence of openness and trust amongst the parties involved - a stronger trust leads to greater openness and thus to better mentoring. Through these sessions, it is not necessary that only professional problems are addressed, personal dimensions that reduce the employee's performance - viz depression etc could also be addressed. The supervisor in these roles plays a very helpful role in employee's problem solving without being completely involved in the responsibility of employee's problems.