Coaching, Mentoring & Tutoring

Robert (Bob) Gurney, PhD

When introducing the prospect of professional development for employees, we can easily become confused with differentiating coaching, mentoring, and tutoring. This confusion may cause people to identify one of the above practices without clearly understanding the intent or purpose of professional development and learning. Failure to understand the differences can lead to results that are disappointing, rather than looking at the organization that created the wrong system of professional development and learning.

Mentoring has similarities to counselling and tends to focus on long term relationship building and involves both professional and personal development. Mentoring is somewhat transformational … more than the acquisition of specific skills or knowledge. Tutoring is when one person accepts a contract to teach and guide another person in a specific subject or prepare for tests/exams – most commonly involving education subjects. Coaching can be linked to teaching, where skills and knowledge are the focal points. Coaches are content experts and help employees learn of specific skills and knowledge. Coaching also draws elements from mentoring (relationship building) and tutoring (teaching).

Goleman, Boyatziz, & McKee (2002) inform us to four Emotional Intelligence leadership styles -visionary, coaching, affiliative and democratic. Coaching, management by delegation and describes leadership that helps people assume responsibility to achieve goals, that leads to the organization’s success. An effective leader (coach) listens one-on-one to employees, establishes personal rapport and trust, and helps employees work out for themselves, how their performance matters and where they can find additional information and resources. Delegation of decision-making authority to the employee within his or her area of responsibility–including the power to make and learn from mistakes–is crucial to the effectiveness of this coaching leadership style. Coaching leadership not only frees leaders from doing work for others, instead, inspires and accelerates innovation and learning at all levels of the organization.

Coaching takes people aside for a discussion to learn their personal aspirations; routinely gives feedback in those terms and establishes stretch assignments to help the employee move toward those goals. Leaders tend to use the coaching style least often, but it provides an outstandingly positive emotional response. “By making sure they have personal conversations with employees, coaching leaders establish rapport and trust. They communicate a genuine interest in their people…. Getting to know people individually is more important than ever.”

The following has been developed from interviews (conducted by the author) with coaches engaged in coaching practices in the workplace. A summary of coaches’ answers to questions are as follows:

Why do you need to understand coaching in the workplace?
We need to understand coaching in the workplace because of the diverse group of individuals. What I mean by this is that, learning and teaching styles will vary among people and as a leader you need to be able to accommodate these individuals. To do this, you will need to obtain a broader knowledge on different competencies in order to provide information to individuals to facilitate them to become successful. Benefits of coaching can lead to life improvements instead of just focusing on the paycheque and status of position in the workplace.

What are some strengths and challenges of coaching employees in the workplace?

Advancement of skills and knowledge can add to the discovery of strengths.
Being inspired to learn and aspire to uncover talents that were unknown.
Finding time to engage in coaching sessions can be a challenge for people.
Many different learning styles are apparent among diverse people in the workplace.
Challenges are also impacted by many different views and definitions of coaching.

How do you lead (coach) coach people in the workplace?

Motivation
Empowerment
Build positive relationships in the work place
Lead by example

What are some tips for coaches working with people who are requesting or in need of help in understanding how to become successful in the workplace?

Get to know employees
Build personal relationships with them.
Understand how they can relate mentally and emotionally.
Never stop building on your own competencies.
Coaching can help one understand that it is a positive experience in their job and can add to improving their position and income potential.
Coaching can contribute to their future job prospects.

What are some real-life cases or scenarios that you have experienced in coaching people in the workplace?

We coach individuals to turn negative behaviour into positive behaviour.
One of my jobs is to coach/train employees on equipment to give them the necessary skills they need in order to be successful and safe.
Coaching has promoted employees taking the initiative to making work activities more efficient resulting in excellence in skills evaluation and recognition from employers.