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HR Professional in New Avtaar: HR as a Coach and Mentor

The Mentor also needs to feel that the discussion and information exchanged is kept confidential. Another requirement is that the Mentor enables the Mentee to move towards greater self-reliance and independence as quickly as possible. This should not be seen as seeking to end the relationship but rather to change it, thus developing a relationship that is more equal and interdependent.

Dos and Don’ts of Mentoring

Do

· Help raise the Mentee’s spirits and aspirations

· Help the person to stand back from the problems of the moment and see work and life in a broader context

· Provide a listening ear, to allow the Mentee to ‘get things off their chest’

· Help the person to think through different options

· Provide information the Mentee may not have gained from other sources

· Give the person feedback on areas like their style, often areas where others don’t ‘bother’ to say

· Give encouragement

· Share experience

Don’ts

· Give lots of advice – you are usually too removed from a complicated situation to know what to do – help the Mentee to come up with their own answers

· Rescue them – it doesn’t help in the long term if you ‘take over’ someone else’s problems, people learn more from dealing with it themselves and have more confidence in the result

· Be judgmental and jump to conclusions

HR as a Coach

In the newer Coaching role, which I am advocating HR professionals pursue, the HR person partners with the manager and focuses specifically on his development. Few internal HR people are working in this arena. Organizations have most frequently hired external Coaches and consultants. But they don’t always need to do so, if HR professionals are prepared to take on this new role. In fact, an HR professional is missing a career enhancing opportunity if she declines to develop these relationships.

Fundamental to the role, according to Christina Zelazek, SPHR, Director of HR at The Mennonite Home of Albany, Oregon, is trust. “An executive might feel embarrassed admitting he needs help or worry that the HR person might tell others in the organization.” To help, she said, “the HR person must be extremely credible with executives. You obtain credibility from how you conduct yourself, from the ideas that you have, and your own political savvy.” Don’t expect to coach unless your credentials, reputation, and standing in your organization are impeccable. The person participating in the coaching has to feel you are looking out for his best interests and maintaining confidentiality at all times.

One of the most important factors the internal HR person brings to the coaching role is her knowledge of the organization, and the impact of the manager within that environment. This is also one of the reasons HR coaches fail to attract internal clients for these new relationships. Beyond the issue of complete confidentiality, the coaching assistance she is providing the executive must contribute more than organizational feedback to help the executive further develop his potential.

What the New Role Entails

HR coaches must be knowledgeable about surveys and other feedback instruments to provide impartial feedback to the manager. Coaching often takes the place of training for individuals who are advanced in their careers. So, the HR professional must be well versed in management and behavioral theory and practices. She must know about and have access to a variety of resources for the executive as well. Goal setting strategies, follow-up organization, and highly advanced communication skills are necessary for the HR coach to succeed. 
As a larger organizational issue, the HR manager can serve as a resource to coordinate and unify the process of coaching. She can monitor the expenditure of resources, check out the credentials of external coaches, and assist with the measurement and determination of results

Coaching Questions

A. What is the goal of this discussion? What goal or activity are you working on?

B. What do you want to accomplish, both short-term and long-term? (The length of time will often affect what can be accomplished.)

C. Are we talking about something you want to produce, or about how you work (an end goal such as completing a product design or a performance goal such as improving your writing skills)?

D. If the goal positive, challenging, attainable, and measurable? (If none of these criteria are met, you should question whether the goal is worthwhile.)

E. What is happening now related to your goal? (Few goals are isolated from other people and plans within the company, and it is important to be aware of what else is happening that will affect your plans.)

F. Who is involved and how do those people view your goal? (Most goals involve other people, and you need to ensure that those people are aware of what you are doing and support your efforts.)

G. What have you done about this so far and what results did your actions produce? (You need to know whether the situation you are discussing is about a future plan or is trying to fix a problem that has already arisen.)

H. What is happening, both inside and outside your group and the company, that will affect your goal? (No one works in isolation, and you need to recognise that other programs and events, both locally and in the larger world, may affect what you are doing.)

I. What are the major constraints to finding a way to move forward? (You cannot overcome barriers to your goal unless you recognise what they are and deal with them.)

J. What options do you have? (Getting the employee to consider alternative actions can not only help to broaden his perspective on the situation, it can also help you discover options that you may not have considered in the past.)

K. What are the costs and benefit of each of those options? (This gets the employee to think through each option in a larger context.)

L. What if …? (If the employee has not considered all of the options you can think of, you can help to expand his thinking by raising other possibilities in the form of “what if …” questions.)

M. Would you like another suggestion? (If the “what if” questions don’t help the employee to consider other options you would like him to consider, ask if he would like another suggestion. It is important to ask the question in this way, rather than imposing your own solution on the employee. Imposing a solution does not help the employee learn. Of course, there are times when you must impose a solution, such as when the employee’s plan will be dangerous to himself or others.)

N. What are you going to do, and when will you do it? (Get the employee to commit to a plan of action.)

O. Will this meet your goal? (If not, why do it?)

P. What obstacles do you expect to face, and how will you overcome them? (This is also a reality test.)

Q. Who needs to know what you are doing, and what support do you need? (Make certain the employee recognises the other parties that need to be involved or who will be affected by his work.)

R. Rate yourself, on a scale of 1 to 10, on the likelihood of carrying out this action. (If the rating is low, why bother continuing with the planning exercise?)

These questions are meant to serve as a guide, not as a fixed list that you must go through in every coaching situation. But using questions such as these will provide surprisingly positive results, whether you are using them with an employee, a peer, or your own manager. I have also used this method very successfully with my teen-aged daughter to get her to consider the thoroughness of her plans and the consequences of her actions.

Coaching your employees will make you a better manager and a more valuable company employee, and can only help you in your own career development.

Conclusion

Coaching And Mentoring are not the same thing. Our results and experience support the conclusion that mentoring is a power free, two-way mutually beneficial learning situation where the mentor provides advice, shares knowledge and experiences, and teaches using a low pressure, self-discovery approach. Teaching using an adult learning versus teacher to student model and, being willing to not just question for self discovery but also freely sharing their own experiences and skills with the protégé. The mentor is both a source of information/knowledge and a Socratic questioner. If I am your coach you probably work for me and my concern is your performance, ability to adapt to change, and enrolling you support in the vision/direction for our work unit.

About Author
Sanjeev Himachali
E-mail: ss_himachali@yahoo.com, sanjeev.himachali@gmail.com
Blog:

You can read my ITES-BPO related articles at http://www.bpoindia.org/research an

Sanjeev (Himachali) Sharma, is a 29 yrs of age from India, having six years of experience in “Human Resource Development”. By qualification, he is Bachelor of Science and Masters in Business Administration. He is also a Motivational and Inspirational writer and speaker.

 

About the Author

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