Free Essay Example - Mentoring and Coaching Reflection

Mentoring and coaching are vital leadership engagements within an organization that seek to facilitate the improvement of organizational performance. Mentoring in an organization entails offering knowledge, expertise, as well as advice to people with less experience (Pask & Joy, 2007). Hence, a mentor is able to leverage the mentees' skills and guide them in the right direction. Therefore, such mentees embrace opportunities for career development and gain confidence to improve interpersonal skills. Conversely, coaching focuses on specific skills to ensure development of certain organizational goals (Pask & Joy, 2007). A coach in an organization plays a vital role in facilitating achievement of organization vision (Ward, 2015). I have witnessed a coach and a mentor in the organization I was attached to. The head of department identified specific goals and prioritized on them, which helped him to identify the right path to achieve them. More importantly, the head of department was concerned with individual growth, interpersonal development, and skill development of his employees. In this regard, the department head coached and mentored his juniors to facilitate individual growth and also achieve organizational success.

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Personnel Management Issues

Personnel management is one of the toughest responsibilities for managers within an organization. Managers, especially in maintenance and engineering institutions, face massive challenges especially in recruiting, training, evaluating, and even motivating employees as their backgrounds tend to be technical (Sims & Bias, 2019). It has been identified that the ability to retain after recruitment and ensure that employees are positively motivated with competitive compensational packages is a major challenge regarding personnel management. Managers may lose their competent employees which can adversely affect the organization (Sims & Bias, 2019). Training in the organization to assist the employees towards their upward mobility within a department is a challenge for the incumbent operations manager as engagement and reactions to the employees can negatively affect interpersonal relationships leading to employee turn offer. Besides, some employees may leave before retirement if they are not assured of retirement procedure and benefits. Such personnel management issues must be addressed to achieve organizational goals.

Mentor's Role in the Organization

Mentors and coaches have numerous roles in an organization to facilitate career development and organizational achievement. In the organization, the coach and mentor head of department played numerous roles in facilitating the career growth of the employees. He understood that the needs of his employees changed overtime. Besides, he engaged in both formal and informal mentoring relationships which could facilitate setting and achievement of realistic expectations hence enabling gaining of a mutual benefit. He could share his skills and experiences which enabled mentees to face similar challenges better. Therefore, there was an atmosphere of trust and confidence to steer the organization forward. Additionally, the head of department coached his juniors by focusing on specific skills as well as developmental goals which could be broken into concrete tasks for completion in a specific time. In some instances, he could choose the right path to prioritize and achieve the set goals. Through coaching and mentoring, the manager was able to facilitate different aspects of running the business successfully.

References

Learningyourdevelopment.com. (2015, August 6). The benefits of mentoring. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=836-noR3DO8

Pask, R., & Joy, B. (2007). Mentoring-coaching: A guide for education professionals. Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill/Open University Press.

Sims, R. R., & Bias, S. K. (2019). Human resources management issues, challenges, and trends: "now and around the corner". Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing Inc.

Ward, M. J. (2015). Fire officer: Principles and Practice (Enhanced 3rd ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett.