The need for engaged and effective people – a guide to coaching, mentoring by Kristina Ingate, Associate Consultant, with additional reporting by Tim Waldron, Director of Management Consultancy

A defining characteristic of the charity sector is its vision and passion for realising the potential of individuals and the communities in which they live. The Charity Commission recently described the sector’s “personality” as outward facing and inclusive, so it should come as no surprise that engaged, talented and effective people are at the heart of its success. What is surprising is the extent to which many charities struggle to embrace this organisational reality much beyond its inclusion in a values statement.

The challenge of good people management – and managing good people - is underlined by the current economic climate. One of the upsides of the recession is that it is pushing leaders and managers across the charity sector to raise their game, fostering a collective determination to make sure that we emerge from recession more robust and sustainable than when we entered it. This will require renewed focus on organisational mission, vision and values; strategy and policy; stewardship and accountability – a corporate culture of resilience that contributes to an organisation not just surviving but thriving during this turbulent period in our economic history.

Particularly relevant to this topic are the challenges of establishing a clear sense of vision, values and corporate culture which together with a clear strategy ensures organisational sustainability and resilience, and the capability and capacity to deliver. Good people management is of course part of that.

That’s not mere “management speak”. Effective people management demands more than the skillful use of management techniques; it requires a keen appreciation of the environment in which the organisation operates and the demands this places on the people who work to achieve its aims and objectives. It requires investment of time as well as financial resources. It requires honesty on the part of leaders and managers, about their ability and the organisation’s capacity to bring about change, implement new systems and get people to buy into them.

In making use of coaching and mentoring we need to do so in a way which connects with what the organisation is for in the first place and with what we need to demand of the people who work in it over the forthcoming years and months.

Some first steps -performance management and development

The goal of performance management and development is to ensure our organisations are effective and have high quality people management and leadership. So effective performance management must be holistic and aspirational –part of the overall culture of an organisation determined to be the best that it can be.

Responsibility for embedding such a culture is shared between the organisation, its leadership, line management and the individual. The organisation needs the best possible performance from its entire staff to deliver on its vision and mission. The individual needs to offer the best possible performance to further organisational aims and objectives -which will be reflected in his/her personal objectives - in order to flourish, both in the sense of deriving personal satisfaction and attaining career progression. This requires everyone to think about the challenges facing the organisation in the year ahead and what that will require of the individuals in it in order to deliver. Leaders and managers must develop their ability to think about development needs and what will be necessary to empower staff to perform – how to support them, encourage them and give them “permission” to learn from their mistakes.

At the same time difficult situations, inappropriate behavior or under-performance cannot be sidestepped, and the giving and receiving of feedback – both positive and negative - needs to be a natural, normal, feature of the working environment. Not so routine that feedback is ignored, and not routinely delivered in an inappropriate way by managers –there has to be congruence with employees’ expectations about good leadership, trust and empowerment.

The underlying aims of effective performance management and development are to:

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create a culture in which the organisation, its employees and beneficiaries all thrive;

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maintain focus on the organisation’s mission, vision and values; and

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ensure that the organisation has the capacity, capability and sustainability to deliver both short term and long term

Introducing Coaching and Mentoring in Performance Management

Coaching and mentoring have proved increasingly popular ways of developing individuals, both to improve organisational performance and in support of career and personal development. They are not limited to passing on knowledge, but address support, guidance and development, including new ways of thinking and tackling problems. They can be valuable in the managing, and coping with the challenge of, change and the need for innovation. They potentially assist in building the supportive corporate performance culture needed for both individuals and organisations to thrive.

Information on the use of coaching and mentoring must be judged based on survey findings about “coaching” since both are covered by this survey heading. CIPD’s 2008 Learning and Development Survey of organisations across all sectors confirms the continuing use of coaching as a development tool with over two-thirds of organisations reporting some use of coaching. Two fifths of organisations surveyed reported its use for general purpose development; half used it as transition support and 35% to support culture change and organisational objectives. The survey also establishes a clear trend in the use of line managers as coaches (up 53% of cases and down in 5%) although there was a 38% increase in the use of external coaches in 38% and a reduction in about one-fifth. Interestingly it is not regarded as a particularly formal activity with only about 36% of internal coaches having received in-depth training. In general (62%) it is seen as a positive development opportunity not a negative intervention.

In practice the words coaching and mentoring are often used interchangeably, but they are not the same, although there is a continuum. It’s essential to be clear from the outset about these differences, in order to ensure that the expectations of both the individual and the organisation are aligned; it’s not unknown for participants to start out expecting to be mentored and in fact receive coaching and vice versa! In circumstances where the “contract” between participants has not been clearly set out, the intervention is likely to fail. It is also important for all parties to be open and clear about desired outcomes and the anticipated value to the individual and the organisation.

Both coaching and mentoring seek to enable the individual to perform more effectively and improve their capacity to develop, for the benefit of the individual and the organisation. Mentoring is characterised by passing on of support, guidance and advice; it is likely to be more long term and include more scope to discuss personal career development and issues. By contrast coaching is more focused on specific skills development and work performance, is likely to be short term and focused more specifically on work performance. Another area of (less clear cut) contrast on the continuum is that the more senior mentor gives guidance and answers drawing on their own experience, whereas a coach will seek to cultivate new ways of thinking and behaving that allows the individual to come up with the answers and perform more effectively. In practice both of these characteristics will be found in both mentoring and coaching- particularly discussing the value of alternative approaches as part of mentoring.

Where a need for coaching has been identified there are a number of points for the individual and the organisation to consider. Is an external or an internal coach appropriate? If it’s the latter, is the line manager an appropriate person to provide the coaching? If it’s the former, will face-to-face support be most effective or can it be delivered at least partially by ‘phone (by a person specifically trained in providing ‘remote’ coaching), perhaps augmented with email support. Lastly is this a need which might helpfully be met, perhaps in part, by coaching in a group context, maybe via a learning set, especially if the group context provides opportunities for knowledge sharing? If so is there scope, if need be, for this to be delivered in part by phone? The use of “remote” media is growing; especially in the case of group learning with a strong knowledge share component and may be particularly appropriate for charities.

Some organisations have taken the view that creating a “Coaching culture” (Clutterbuck and Meggison) is the way forward for organisational and personal development. Coaching culture is defined as “coaching is the predominant style of managing and working together and where commitment to improving the organisation is embedded in a parallel commitment to improving the people”

A key issue to consider in deciding whether the line manager is an appropriate coach is the “power relationship” between a manager and their staff which will influence the effectiveness of any coaching, perhaps particularly so if the “contract” is unclear or not established or not supported by other sources of development.

Mentoring

Mentoring is classically used as a support for new chief executives and others in “lonely” senior roles. As explained previously it includes the passing on of advice and experience and also provides scope for the discussion of more personal issues as well as specific work performance. It is therefore a helpful development tool for the CEO needing to make the transition into a new role, injecting fresh vision and establishing strategy, handling the challenge of creating effective relationships to implement those changes, and establishing their own credibility –remembering to keep their own needs in balance because being a CEO is a marathon not a sprint.

However it has wider application as the examples below illustrate. It’s also possible to distinguish between two types of mentoring, developmental mentoring and sponsorship mentoring, although this may be to some degree a matter of emphasis. These are summarised below.

Some challenges and dilemmas

Readers of this article are most likely to be in senior positions in organisations, or in trustee roles. They may be considering mentoring and coaching as an approach to support individuals across the organisation to give of their best. The following examples can be used to guide you when considering which intervention will be most effective and valuable for you, your organisation and its employees. They also illustrate some of the potential pitfalls:

-the small, largely volunteer dependent organisation with a charismatic CEO with a controlling presidential style whose senior managers need an external mentor to support them in growing as managers and leaders, and in their effectiveness in working with volunteers and the CEO. Here an external mentor rather than a coach is most likely to be beneficial. As the introduction to mentoring outlines there are likely to be personal challenges, possibly including working effectively with the CEO, and it will require someone external to enable them to perform effectively. However coaching is also likely to be relevant and the continuum mentioned before should be borne in mind.

-the newly appointed technical specialist for whom fast development of the knowledge of the organisation is critical and for whom development of their management skills will also be valuable both personally and for the organistion. Here line manager coaching and potentially another internal coach would be appropriate to support them in developing all round skills and potentially in developing a peer action-learning set.

-the newly appointed CEO where the Chair may be very tempted to act as coach and or mentor but needs to recognise that this will not be helpful as one key area for development will be in establishing an effective mutual working relationship –which may require some tough talking especially if establishing an effective relationship is challenging. The introduction to mentoring describes the potential value of a mentor to a new CEO in general terms. The relationship between CEO and Chair is a critical issue for the organisation and one which will have a profound ripple effect. If it is not going well then the wise CEO will look for external advice and the wise Chair will recognise that this is not all a one way street. (See, for example ACEVO’s guidance for Chairs and CEOs)

-the senior manager who does their staff and the organisation a disservice by failing to think through the organisational challenges ahead and the associated development requirements, (and even worse doesn’t listen to staff who have!) and who cannot recognise the root of the request from their staff to obtain external support beyond any the manager might offer. This underlines the need for the organisation to be robust about seeing development as an intrinsic part of organisational, not just individual performance. It also points up the importance of avoiding the temptation of seeing coaching and mentoring as a panacea (a potential weakness in the concept of a “coaching culture”). The organisation needs to take responsibility for ensuring that the development provided is appropriate, empowering staff in determining what development may be needed and taking an overall view of the strategic challenges that face it and what that means in terms of development.

-the organisation which “buys in” to the idea of creating a coaching culture, but does not develop line managers as effective coaches. There is also a need to consider, at the most senior levels in the organisation how this works in the context of power, accountability, and decision-making responsibilities.

- the potential for coaching and mentoring to develop competencies –particularly behavioural competencies- at the level of the board and the executive team, including relationship skills which blend strong collegial relationships with the ability to provide and make use of supportive challenge. These will be key in ensuring sustainable organisations with a clear sense of purpose, strong values and committed people.

Going forward

As this article explains engaged and effective people are the key to future success. “Getting that right” is essential if we are to deliver on our goal of a sector with the resilience and capacity to deliver on its vision –and come out of the recession in an even better shape to do so. This article provides a management perspective on some of the coaching and mentoring essential within that context.

Further resources and information

www.cipd.co.uk
www.knowhownonprofit.org (free online knowledge share from Cass Business School Centre for Charity Effectiveness)
www.ncvo-vol.org.uk
www.acevo.org.uk
Alred G, Garvey B and Smith R 1998 Mentoring Pocketbook Alresford Management Pocketbooks
Clutterbuck D 2004 Everyone Needs a Mentor; Fostering Talent in your Organisation 4th ed. CIPD Clutterbuck D and Meggison D 2005 Making Coaching Work CIPDMegginson D et al 2006 Mentoring in action: a practical guide 2nd ed London Kogan page
Kenton B and Penn S 2009 Change, Conflict and Community Butterworth Heinemann (in particular chapter 7)