Why do business people come to coaching and mentoring?

WHY DO BUSINESS PEOPLE COME TO COACHING AND MENTORING? People go to coaches for many reasons.

Sometimes it is a personal choice - they want to overcome barriers or improve specific skills. More often their employer wants to help their staff grow and develop within the business, and deal with weaknesses that both parties agree require focus. Senior executives will often arrange coaching for individuals who are newly promoted to the Board in order to help them gain the confidence to function at the more senior level.

Mentoring tends to be required where an individual or organisation requires specialist advice and chooses an individual who has long and relevant expereince of the subject in mind. A good example is my own speciality which is Sales Leadership. Paradoxically, a growing trend is to train managers to adopt a more coaching style of management so a Coach can become a Mentor in this particular task (see the later Case Study in this book). With the decline of the industrial base with its traditional command and control style of management, companies are moving towards a style of management which encourages individuals to think for themselves and to feel empowered to do so. Also, individuals are seeing themselves more as free agents than long-term employees and, as such wish to be treated more as individuals and are increasingly resistant to traditional styles of command management. The development of the internet has made both coaching and mentoring much more accessible and more realistically priced. The advent of web conference call platforms such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams have made coaching and mentoring more costeffective and flexible. This so-called “virtual coaching” can be highly effective and efficient; it can reduce travel costs, quickly create a safe learning space online, and sessions can be booked far more conveniently for both parties.