Some people do things, others help. Both contributions are needed to keep a system running, and also to change it. Where do you fit in?
Doer, you have energy and ideas for great projects. But you lack structure, method, contacts, or support to finish them. You need a resourceful, experienced thinking partner. Where can you find them?
Helper, after a long career, you’ve gained valuable experience. You want to share it with those on similar paths. You’ve found a vocation to help. But how do you do it?
Help, like any activity, has its rules, market, and language.
In the world of professional development help, words are too often misused and misunderstood. Some terms have been overused, losing their meaning. These lines aim to clarify the language of development.
Training
In many business gatherings managers complain about the scarcity of qualified talent. But expecting the education system to provide tailored talent for our company needs seems absurd. The processes and technologies change too quickly and are too specific. Academic training provides a foundation, but companies talent must be developed at work.
In-company training is not a nice-to-have. It is a right for employees and a necessity for companies. Without it, there is no innovation. People are the base of the strategic pyramid, as users of the Kaplan and Norton model know well. This is not new. Henry Ford reportedly said, “If you think it is expensive training employees that might leave, imagine not training them and having them stay.”
In-company training is not a reward; it is done in order to change behaviors.
It is not a a team building event. That is not the main purpose of training, even if it can be fun and motivating.
It ca not be a one-off event. Training needs follow-up support to internalize and update learning. Good training programs often include mentoring and coaching.
Mentoring
In the Odyssey, when Odysseus left for Troy he entrusted his closest friend to take charge of the education of his son, Telemachus. “Teach him everything you know,” was the mandate. That friend was a wise and experienced man called Mentor.
Unlike the trainer, who follows a very specific program, the mentor is there to put at your disposal “everything he or she knows”. Their expertise is yours.
We can expect from a mentor experience, availability, listening, respect for differences and decissions, and a generous commitment to the mentee’s development plan. Their resources include advice, example, readings or models, and even the network of contacts.
The mentee is expected to bring sincere interest, listening skills, openness and, most importantly, to take the lead in the process. It is the mentee who decides what to talk about, sets the agenda, and gives feedback. At first, the question “what do you want to talk about today” may feel like trying to drink from a fire hose. To take advantage of the opportunity, it is important to reflect beforehand on our areas for improvement. When in doubt, we can always ask for feedback on our current reality.
When it comes to putting the idea into practice, we can create mentoring relationships in different formats and contexts:
- Internal mentoring programs in companies, using internal experienced persons to support for the onboarding of newcomers or the development of high potentials
- Mentoring programs for entrepreneurs, organized by business accelerators or public or private organizations supporting start-ups in their first steps.
- There is also the possibility of hiring paid mentoring as part of a training and consulting service, or as a complement to these.
It is also important to recognize the value of informal mentoring. This occurs when a more experienced professional helps us in our first steps, deliberately but without the need for a contract, agreement or plan. It is often over the years that we recognize the role that person played in our professional development. Who doesn’t remember someone we can call mentor retroactively?
Coaching
If the mentor has answers to your questions, the coach has questions for you to answer.
Coaching is a training methodology with in the sports world. It is based on accompanying the client’s progress with a focus on the client’s goals and vision. The purpose is to enable them to make their own discoveries and to implement their own improvement plans. To learn more about the origins and some of its applications, see the previous post coaching the commercial team.
While in mentoring the mentor’s experience is the key asset, in coaching the only experience that matters is that of the coachee. This includes his or her previous experience, as working material, but mainly the experience created during the process.
The coach does not know how to do the client’s work better than the client. They know how to do is to accompany. In this accompaniment process, some of his behaviors will be:
- Ask questions to facilitate reflection
- Listen unconditionally, empathetically, with the ego silenced and the focus entirely on the client’s objectives.
- Put discipline and structure into the analysis of the situation to facilitate discovery, eliminate distractions and blocks, and explore options.
- Provide tools and structure for setting objectives and executing plans.
None of these competencies are developed by intuition or innate people skills. They require many hours of training and supervised practice, and are accredited through demanding reviews by professional organizations. These organizations, such as EMCC or ICF, are responsible for ensuring the prestige of the profession.
When do you need executive coaching? Some situations in which companies usually seek executive coaching for their professionals are:
- before or after promotion to new responsibilities
- in times of profound change
- when there is a need to change
In general, whenever a learning or change process requires a high dose of reflection.
Consulting
Often we use the term consulting as an umbrella covering different services, including training, mentoring and coaching may be on the menu. But conceptually they are clearly differentiated methodologies. It is important for both the client and the consultant to understand the difference and know what is being contracted. While trainers, mentors and coaches help the client to execute, consultants execute themselves. In consulting, the responsibility for the success of a given project rests on the consultant’s shoulders
Motivation, smoke, psychotherapy, neoliberalism
We have reached the end of this review and the word motivation has not appeared once. No, a coach is not a motivational speaker. They will not give you slides with empty phrases attributed to Paulo Coelho. Another day we might talk about motivation and whether that word means anything. For the time being, even though in daily conversation it is continually confused, we are on to something else.
And, interestingly, the word smoke has not appeared either. No, no personal development professional sells smoke. They generate changes which provoke effects so easy to measure that I am reluctant to call them “intangible”: more performance for the company, and more well-being for the people
The word therapy has not come up either. A professional coach would never think of trying to heal a person with dysfunctional situations. It is not their job and they do not know how to do it. It should be unnecessary to specify this, but we do it because the debate comes back to the media from time to time. Some psychology professionals appear worried about a potential intrusiveness that should be impossible because it makes no sense.
And no, personal development at work is not a neoliberal individualistic attitude, as it is sometimes understood from academic environments. Some critics seem to understand that learning how to manage stress, develop resilience and seek maximum satisfaction at work is at odds with recognizing injustices and committing to the collective. As if only through frustration and suffering can we fight to change structural problems. I do not agree. Healthy and fulfilled people are better prepared to change the world and help others. The changes that work usually start from within.