Introduction
This week’s MSLD520 blog is about the importance of coaching and mentoring for professional growth and advanced, or as referred to in the syllabus as professional journey.USAF Career
My USAF career as an enlisted airman for the better part of 20 years was a text book example of superb coaching. From the very first day of basic training, the values of the USAF of honor and integrity were taught and there were role models everywhere you could turn your head. Basic training was essentially some coaching of values and the first values test to ensure new hires could meet the basic USAF values. These values have been part of the American military system for over 200 years. Each coachee had to prove they could get up on time, complete tasks as asked to without consternation and meet the minimum physical requirements. In reality from a coachee perspective there sure did seem to be more testing than coaching, but there was definitely elements of coaching.Probably the best example of coaching was marching. Our technical instructor would show us how to stand and attention, parade rest, how to about face and the proper pace to take steps. After basic training, the coaching continued at a technical training school where new recruits who successfully showed they could fit the USAF value mold continued the development journey. The technical training school environment was an extension of basic training, but it was more than that. Technical training was the next step up. We learned about basic electronics and aircraft systems and between the teaching sessions, if we were lucky, the instructor would share some valuable personal stories about his experiences fixing airplanes, how to have a successful career and the obstacles we would likely encounter as we developed our skills. These types of stories (knowledge sharing stories) were shared valuable information “Knowledge sharing stories tend to be about issues and difficulties and how they were dealt with and why the course of action solved the problem.” (Denning, 2011, p. 188).
Often these personal lessons included some self-disclosure. Like the time our instructor told us why it was important to remain acutely aware of where you were at all times and the time he lost track of where he was. The consequence was 8 stitches in the top of his head for not losing track where he was on the aircraft when he stood upright. Because this self-disclosure is task orientated, this type of self-disclosure teaching lesson is more related to coaching then mentoring. “Coaching is task orientated…Mentoring is relationship orientated.” (Management Mentors, 2015, p. 1). Many of the training sessions were also demonstration and performance sessions and the demonstration phase where the instructor would show how the task was to be done is classic coaching. Coaching didn’t stop at the technical training school level, no coaching continued at every level of my enlisted career. Training records were kept to ensure formal and informal coaching methods were used and documented for every task that was performed in a job assignment.
While I’m convinced that the USAF is remarkable at how efficient it coaches airman to progress in a very calculated and incremental method, the opportunity for self-disclosure remains limited. The reason why self-disclosure in my opinion remains limited is that nearly all of the coaching takes place within the organization you belong to. The exceptions are technical training environments and fortunately there is an abundance of these opportunities. As I earned positions of more authority, the focus began to shift away from coaching to one of mentoring that included a more developmental focus such as how treating everyone fairly and enforcing the rules the same for everyone was one of the most important cornerstone rules for a manager.
Civilian Career
As I transitioned from military to civilian life the contrast between the two in regards to emphasis on coaching and mentoring was startling. Truth of the matter is, in civilian life all the companies I have worked for have had no plan to grow their people (whether by coaching or mentoring) into positions of higher responsibility and is probably largely responsible for why I’m still a technical writer 13 years after retiring from the USAF. No coaching and mentoring people to grow them into positions of larger responsibilities only occurs after you make it into an entry level supervisory position and the selection framework, in my opinion, is often rife with questionable selection criteria.My managers are often terrific people know how to mentor and coach. Most from what I have seen have little or no “free-time” to engage in coaching or much of any other interactive leadership activities. I believe this problem to be pandemic throughout many companies or at least the ones I have worked for post military career. A culture of not coaching and mentoring coupled with not delegating and the desire to hold on to power will have a significant impact on growing healthy leadership from within and maintaining a healthy work environment.
Conclusion
The stark difference between coaching and mentoring as it applies to my experience in the USAF versus my experience in civilian life I believe to be related to generating a profit versus not generating a profit. Because coaching and mentoring are often viewed as non-profit related activities and both coaching and mentoring involve power sharing, there is a significant amount of resistance to overcome in business for profit companies. Some companies such as Ford, Amazon and Google are far ahead of the coaching and mentoring game.They do that by continuing to invest in their employees, strengthening their technical and
leadership skills and recognizing them for delivering results that cultivate success. As they
continue to grow their Company, they must also continue to grow the capabilities of their
people. (Yang. 2014, p. 5).
References:
Denning, S. (2011). The leader's guide to storytelling: Mastering the art and discipline of business narrative. San Francisco, CA: Josey-Bass.
Management Mentors. (2015). The differences between coaching & mentoring. [Web log]. Retrieved from http://www.management-mentors.com/resources/coaching-mentoring-differences/
Yang, Y. (2014). Employees management analysis at ford motor company. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 5(10) Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/docview/1628688315?accountid=27203
