Coaching and Mentoring Employees

Both coaching and mentoring enable an organization’s employees to achieve their full potential as valued contributors to their organization. Through coaching and mentoring individuals serving in supervisory, managerial, or leadership positions within an organization play an instrumental role in contributing to the continuing preparation of an organization’s employees to successfully enact their present roles and responsibilities, as well as those roles and responsibilities that they may assume in the future. Those who supervise employees should be prepared to provide job-related coaching for employees that they supervise and at times others within their organization. Coaching involves activities designed to enhance the knowledge and skills of employees. Supervisors benefit from coaching through the enhanced knowledge and skills of their employees, and their resulting increased ability to proficiently enact their roles and responsibilities. Mentoring differs from coaching in that it occurs when experienced individuals—who typically hold supervisory, managerial, or leadership positions—are willing to mentor others through providing valuable career guidance. Both parties to a mentorship arrangement should agree to that arrangement. While there will be times that an individual’s immediate supervisor will agree to be a mentor, that is not always the case.