Development, be it personal or professional, is a process. This means that we can identify distinct areas of development and use this information to better understand what is required.
Cause For Development.
In order to stave confusion, we’ll focus on professional development. Most people are familiar with professional development, in that at some point they have been subject to reviews, one-to-one meetings and monthly “team” meetings.
Once we’ve discovered that there is cause for development, and want to do something about it. We need to consider the reason that development is required. It’s important to note here, that development is an issue concerning skill – not motivation. An incentive does not produce skill, maintain skill, or increase it.
The Flow
As with any process, there is a flow. Meaning that there is a start, a middle and an end. You must rule out steps that are not required, as well as aim to move forward to the next if needed. Decision making is also built in.
Always start from the beginning.
Step one: training
Step two: mentoring
Step three: coaching
Each of these steps are entirely different functions, but for some reason, they get mixed up. In some work cultures, training and coaching are lumped together – but they are distinct. Not only do they operate differently, but they also require independent initiatives to ensure they perform.
Training.
Training is all about acquiring the right skills for the job. New employees need training when they arrive. Old employees need training when a new product, service or process is introduced – or after periods of extended absence.
If an employee doesn’t have the right skills, they need training.
If successful, your fresh-faced employees can come out of that dinky room that’s tucked out the way to engage with their new working environment.
There is loads out there on training, so I won’t go in to it too deeply. Suffice to say, it involves experts transferring expertise. It’s not just about reading the manual and letting them get on with it. Training requires someone that can put energy and life in to what is normally quite dull material and importantly – the heads up on what goes on in the workplace, not in the books.
Mentoring.
Mentoring is all about context. Now that you’ve got your new resource nicely spread out around the office or factory, they are going to need looking after.
You’ll be surprised to hear, that the best mentors are NOT managers! Mentorship is about learning the job, and making sense of all your new-found but completely misplaced know-how. A mentor doesn’t just show you how to do your job, they should you how THEY do it.
Where do the habits come from? Where does the voice of experience come from? Who says, “Don’t worry about that, just give it a kick and it’ll start back up again”? - a mentor that’s who.
Crucially, this tells us something about how to pick a mentor for your new lot. If you don’t want someone to catch certain habits, or you’d rather have your younglings sat away from the naysayers, or if giving it a good kick isn’t actually what you want your new people doing – then make sure you pick someone appropriate for the task.
Personality is also a good indicator for mentors. A friendly voice, and caring smile and a patient disposition go a long way.
Coaching.
Right, now you’ve crossed the Is and you’ve dotted the Ts – no wait, okay you know what I mean. Your employees now know what they’re doing. They have the gist of what they are doing, and they’ve been doing it for a while. Coaching, is all about getting more.
An important thing to remember here, is that coaching is about self-development. It is not the job of the coach to tell someone how to do their job, it’s to ask them if they can do it better. A coach says, “do you have everything you need?”
The role of a coach centres on engagement. Very often, the role is perverted in to one of pushing and cajoling someone in to doing better. This then leads to instigated performance, what I mean by that is – the coach instigates the improvement, not the individual. Consequentially if you remove the coach, you remove the improvements.
Helping an employee engage, is about exploring their intrinsic motivators and using them to encourage internal changes. It’s about saying, “what’s holding your back?” or “what would it take for you to raise your game?”
Coaching is about taking your good, experienced and knowledgeable worker and making them an expert.
Recap.
If you would like to change skill level, you need to train, mentor and coach
If you would like to change behaviour you need to use incentive
Stage one: training
Acquiring basic skills to perform job
Stage two: mentoring
Acquiring experience in using skills in context
Stage three: coaching
Increasing expertise
When you decide an individual needs development, you put them in to the appropriate category. They, either do not have the right skills, thus need training. Or, they are struggling to put their skills into practice, thus need mentoring. Or, they have come to a head with their development and have stopped progressing on their own, thus need coaching.