Coaches are more counsellors than they are teachers. A good coach is someone who guides a person and let the other person make his or her own decision. In the case of performance management, the coach is expected to unlock an employee’s potential by helping them set and achieve organizational goals through collaboration, on-job skills development program that ultimately leads to improved performance, job satisfaction and professional success. On the other hand, mentoring is a dynamic and supportive relationship between a more experienced individual (the mentor) and a less experienced individual (the mentee). Mentors are more teachers than they are counsellors. The purpose of mentoring is to facilitate the mentee’s personal and professional growth by sharing knowledge, skills, insights, and guidance. Both concepts signify a social exchange relationship that usually happens in a conducive working environment where there is trust, unity, care, and civility.

Effective coaching and mentoring require specific techniques for providing feedback, setting goals, and facilitating learning, and without proper training, they may struggle to apply these techniques. Moreover, unlimited meetings that take up two thirds of management and supervisors time result in excessive  workloads and responsibilities, leaving them with limited time to dedicate to coaching and mentoring activities. As a result, balancing their own tasks with providing guidance to employees becomes a challenge. Furthermore, some managers avoid giving critical feedback or addressing performance issues due to fear of conflict or negative reactions from employees. This can hinder the coaching process and prevent meaningful growth. In most cases this is caused by lack of trust in relationships due to hierarchy and power dynamics. The hierarchical relationship between managers and employees sometimes creates barriers to open and honest communication.

High performing organizations are intentional in overcoming the above coaching and mentoring challenges because they do not compromise performance. This article discusses ten ways of building managers and supervisors mentoring and coaching skills. The first strategy is strength-based coaching which focuses on employees’ strengths and leverages them to enhance performance. Coaches identify and develop employees’ natural talents and abilities, which can lead to higher engagement and better results. When supervisors and managers know their employee’s ability, they can use them intelligently especially in cross functional teams’ projects and their departmental teams. For example, employees with leadership ability can be included in teams that have been assigned strategic assignments of the organization to provide that leadership. Those with better research and modelling ability can also be included to provide that expertise and achieve organizational objectives. The second strategy is actionable insights which is the process of extracting intelligence from performance data and metrics to come up with continual improvement initiatives that are specific to employee’s performance needs. 

The third strategy is behavioral coaching, this is where the supervisor addresses the behavioral issues that employees are expected to demonstrate in their job, and it can be used to infuse the organizational value system. This means it is a bad practice for organizations to ignore issues related to organizational values and culture. The fourth strategy is performance recognition, good coaches are not only focusing on guiding employees to achieve set performance goals. They also celebrate employee achievements and milestones throughout the year to  reinforce positive employees’ behaviors and motivating employees to maintain high performance levels. The fifth strategy is skills development plans which addresses each employee skills needs. Coaches identify skill gaps, recommend relevant training, and support employees in acquiring new competencies. The sixth strategy is cultivating growth mindset of employees to make them act like intrapreneurs and view challenges and failures as opportunities for learning and improvement. 

The seventh strategy is to create a culture of peer coaching and feedback where employees can coach and provide feedback to each other to build team performance. The eighth  strategy is continuous performance feedback, good coaches provide  regular, specific, and constructive feedback to employees, to foster a sense of improvement and learning. The ninth strategy is continuous improvement that should aim at assessing and refining coaching strategies based on feedback and evolving organizational needs, ensuring that coaching practices stay effective and relevant.