Discussion: Coaching and Mentoring Skills

Throughout this course, you have learned how important performance management is for both employees and organizations. You have also explored how important a well-designed performance management program is to ensuring an organization’s success. Part of its success also relies on the ability of the manager to have the skills necessary to effectively work with employees as a mentor (a relationship built on trust, focused on the person and his or her individual growth and career) and a coach (a method of training, focused on an employee’s performance, giving advice, and monitoring progress). Based on a manager’s personal style, there are guidelines available to help with mentoring and coaching employees to successfully meet the short- and long-term objectives in their development plans. These skills will help managers to ensure they are effective in providing the guidance, support, advice, and training necessary so that employees have the confidence to achieve the desired competencies.

By Day 5

Respond to two or more of your colleagues’ postings in one or more of the following ways:

• Ask a probing question, substantiated with additional background information, evidence, or research.
• Share an insight from having read your colleagues’ postings, synthesizing the information to provide new perspectives.
• Offer and support an alternative perspective using readings from the classroom or from your own research in the Walden Library.
• Validate an idea with your own experience and additional research.
• Make a suggestion based on additional evidence drawn from readings or after synthesizing multiple postings.
• Expand on your colleagues’ postings by providing additional insights or contrasting perspectives based on readings and evidence.

CLASSMATE 1 (Dara):

Important Skills

“If a company’s performance management system is to be successful, leaders must exhibit the ability to coach and mentor staff. They must be able to help them to grow in the organization, and perform at the top of their skillset. Employees that are well managed will be more motivated in their roles; they will have higher levels of confidence and self-esteem (Aguinis, 2013). These qualities will lead to better performance and the ability to work through changes that come their way. Employee misconduct is also less likely with an engaged employee who feels supported to be successful (Aguinis, 2013). Another facet of the performance management system is succession planning. Good leaders know how to delegate to their staff, mentoring them to step up when their leader moves on potentially. Operating in this way, I’ve been able to have a significant reduction in my stress levels. I know my staff can handle whatever I need to hand off to them. It frees me up to work on those higher-level initiatives that require my attention (Schraeder & Jordan, 2011).”

CLASSMATE 2 (Machele):

Performance Management Skills

“The successful execution of a performance program depends on the manager’s possession of the necessary skills. One of the skills that managers should possess is coaching skills. This skill enables the manager to actively interact with employees in efforts to influence their performance. The coaching skill allows the manager to direct, motivate, and reward employees with outstanding performance behavior. Active planning is another skill that managers need.

Active planning allows managers to better manage the organization by ensuring new data is continuously used. This enables leaders to spend more time analyzing, provide more profound ideas, and helping drive organizational growth (Aguinis, 2013). Mentoring skills are also necessary for effective performance management as it enables managers to share their experiences with employees for improved performance. This skill allows them to come up with SMART objectives that work for both the employees and the organization. Feedback is a skill that every manager should possess (Aguinis, 2013). Managers need to offer constructive feedback to their employees for them to improve on their performance.”