Question

1.What is the difference between coaching and mentoring relationships?  In which situations are the different relationships appropriate?

1. Why is feedback important in the development process?
2. What is the “glass ceiling” and how is this relevant to employee development?
3. Why is firing a dysfunctional manager often the least attractive option in dealing with these individuals?

Answer 1

1. Difference between coaching and mentoring relationships

	Coaching Relationships	Mentoring  Relationships
1	Experienced person supports a learner or client to achieve specific personal goals by providing training and guidance.	Experienced or more knowledgeable person advises or trains a less knowledgeable  or inexperienced person.
2	Short term relationship	Long term relationship
3	Aimed to achieve certain goals (for example, an increase in employee management; speech structuring; strategic thinking development).	It puts human relations in the first place (for example, a “mentee” would want to share his life or career way obstacles which do not let him achieve success).
4	can be considered complete after a couple of sessions, taking into account the peculiarities of mentoring – it can last up to a year.	mentoring session, a certain amount of time is needed. This time is used for mutual acquaintance with the participants’ characters and the creation of favorable conditions, where a “mentee” can feel free to share his personal and professional problems with his mentor.
5	purpose is the improvement of personal efficiency and development at work. Either enhancement of the existing knowledge or achieving new ones. Once the trainee acquires relevant knowledge – the process can be considered complete.	Directed at continuous development.  Mentor’s recommendations and methods of learning bring continuous and universal development essence not attaching to any particular place of self-realization.
6	Does not require step by step approach can be established directly for any subject matter.	It is necessary to have the process structured step-by-step. This way, the participants take time to know each other better and realize the strategic nature of the goals and ways to achieve it.
7	Current supervisors at work assume a dominant presence in the coaching process of the trainee due to the fact that they provide feedback on the results of their employee and his missing skills. This information is used for building the interactions.	The supervisor does not take part in the process by means of influence, but can and will provide recommendations to his employee. This approach ensures the independence of mentoring interactions and has a positive impact on the final result.

Summary -

Criterion	Mentor	Coach
Approach	Aimed to the subject (person)	Does not consider the factor of subjectivity, defined by the goal
Interaction structure	No clear staging of the process	Stating a clear staging
Relationship nature	Mutually optimal	Strictly formal (professional)
Influential source	Consciousness	Authority
Expectations (results)	Development	Performance
Activity arena	Life experience	Certain goal

2. In what situations are different relationships appropriate?

Coaching relationships are appropriate when we are focusing on specific task or goal achievement as it is based on enhancing a particular skill set or knowledge base or the trainee or coachee.

whereas

mentoring relationships are appropriate in an environment where we are preparing someone for a particular role or a career path because this kind of relationship focuses on continuous development of the coachee rather than focusing on particular skill set or (knowledge base). This helps the coachee to be prepared for different situations and roles that they may or may not take on or play.

3. Feedback is important part of the development process because one need to know the effectiveness of the approach that is being followed.
If there is no feedback how would we come to know that whether the approach is working or not. And if it is working then to what extent we have been able to achieve the desired changes or result.

Simply put feedback is needed in development process in order to gauge the efficiency of the process as well as to gauge the effectiveness of the result.

4. Glass ceiling-

It is a metaphor used to describe the unseen but impenetrable barriere that prevents deserving people belonging to certain categories (such as minorities, females etc.) from advancing to senior level positions.

The possible existence of a glass ceiling is important from the perspectives of both individuals and their organizations. For example, women and members of minority racial or ethnic groups may find that regardless of their qualifications and talent, artificial glass-ceiling barriers sometimes limit their career advancement opportunities. Moreover, when organizations allow the glass ceiling to exist for women and people of color, these organizations are deprived of the diverse talents and perspectives that women and people of color could bring to critical leadership and decision-making positions. Furthermore, managers who realize that their career advancement is blocked by glass-ceiling barriers may become frustrated and leave their companies to seek better career opportunities elsewhere.

Glass ceiling thus may prevent deserving employees getting their due i.e. them being trained or mentored for senior level jobs and thus arresting their career development.

It provides unfair career obstacles to growth.

5. When dealing with a dysfunctional manager the common sense states that the concerned person should be fired but more often than not this step is avoided due the following factors.

a.Time involved to find and train a replacement.

Having a poorly performing on the team is a time and energy suck. But sometimes the cost and time involved in finding and training a replacement is high and thus a more lucrative option is to work on developing the skills or the existing staff and working on the problematic areas the concerned employees.

b. The employee is a nice person, which makes firing them difficult.

Underperforming employees aren't always lazy, apathetic, or emotionally unhealthy; they may be nice, caring people who just don't have the skill or talent for the job. Nice or not, if an employee is not capable of an A-grade performance, you are doing them and your company a disservice by holding on to them. They are well aware of their ineffectiveness and it most likely concerns and stresses them. If it does not make sense to move them into a position more suitable to their abilities, you've got to let go.

c. Conflict avoidance.

Managers often imagine and fret over conversations that rarely take place during the firing process. It's rare that an employee argues and threatens, but yes, on occasion, they may become emotional to some degree. If you feel conflicted before, during, or after the conversation, just know that it will be short-lived.

d. Hoping the employee's performance will improve.

This one is easy. If you've trained, mentored, and allowed sufficient time for improvement, it's not going to happen.

e.Feeling guilty for not offering better support.

Unfortunately, many business owners fall short in the area of employee training. The time and money you invest in documenting your systems and processes, the more time and money you'll have in the end. If you have truly neglected proper training, you can still remedy the problem. Just one warning: don't confuse your shortcomings with theirs.