Leadership Effectiveness
Coaching and Mentoring
An experimental and customized leadership development process to build a leader’s capability to achieve short and long-term organizational goals. Pegasus specializes in individual and group coaching for leaders.
Coaching
Coaching is partnering with our clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential. As a coach, we honour the client as the expert in his/her life and work and believe every client is resourceful and has the potential to discover himself. Coaching processes help our clients considerably improve their outlook towards work and life, while improving their leadership skills and unlocking their potential.
Professional coaching brings many wonderful benefits: fresh perspectives on personal challenges, enhanced decision-making skills, greater interpersonal effectiveness, and increased confidence. Coaches also can expect appreciable improvement in productivity, satisfaction with life and work, and the attainment of relevant goals.
Coaching typically begins with a personal interview (either face-to-face or by teleconference call) to assess an individual’s or business’ current opportunities and challenges, define the scope of the relationship, identify priorities for action and establish specific desired outcomes. Subsequent coaching sessions may be conducted in person or over the telephone. Between scheduled coaching sessions, the individual may be asked to complete specific actions that support the achievement of one’s personally prioritized goals. The coach may provide additional resources in the form of relevant articles, checklists, assessments or models to support the individual’s or business’ thinking and actions.
The length of a coaching partnership varies depending on the individual’s or team’s needs and preferences. For certain types of focused coaching, three to six months of working together may be fine. For other types of coaching, people may find it beneficial to work with a coach for a longer period of time.
Mentoring
Mentoring is most often defined as a professional relationship in which an experienced person (the mentor) assists another (the mentee) in developing specific skills and knowledge that will enhance the less-experienced person’s professional and personal growth.
Below are some of the functions of a mentor:
- Works closely with the mentee on a specific issue
- Coaches the mentee on a particular skill
- Facilitates the mentee’s growth by sharing resources and networks
- Challenges the mentee to move beyond his or her comfort zone
- Focuses on the mentee’s total development
Mentoring v/s Coaching
Mentoring is often confused with coaching. Though related, they are not the same. A mentor may coach, but a coach is not a mentor. Mentoring is “relational,” while coaching is “functional.” There are other significant differences.
| Coaching | Mentoring |
|---|---|
| Relationship is often finite and short-term (3-12 months) | Relationship is often long-term, on-going (1-2 years) |
| Coaches are more frequently external to the organisation | Mentors are often found within the organisation |
| Coaches are most often paid for their services | Mentoring is seen as a benevolent and goodwill gesture |
| Goals are clearly identified | Goals not always as clearly identified |
| Action-oriented | Process and relationship oriented |
| Results-oriented | Outcomes are often oblique |
| Relationship is a partner-approach | A mentor is usually higher in the organizational hierarchy |
| A coach may be the same age or younger than the person they are coaching | A mentor is usually older, more senior then their mentee (although peer and reverse mentoring are also gaining momentum) |
| A coach may not necessarily be an expert in the area they are coaching in (i.e. they are expert at coaching the beat out of people) | A mentor is usually an expert the area the mentee is aspiring to achieve in but may not be an expert in coaching the best out of people |
| A coach is not necessarily a mentor | A mentor will usually have good coaching skills |
| Coaches are most often formally trained in coaching | Mentors are not necessarily formally trained although many may be naturally good mentors |
