Importance of Having a Coach or Mentor

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Write a blog entry on the significance, importance, and/or impact of having a coach and/or a mentor to help you in your professional journey.

Professional advancement and progression is a result of many factors. Factors such as formal education, specialized skills, networking, and development for further responsibility. Two of the most notable methods of skills development and professional development occur in the form of coaching and mentoring. Each are valuable in their own right. For example, say that an individual desire to be considered for a specific job or position and they seek the assistance of a professional coach. This coach will assess the individual’s current strengths and weakness and develop a plan of action to close a specific skill-gap over the course of an agreed upon time frame in order to increase the coached individual’s capabilities and skills. “Professional coaching brings many wonderful benefits: fresh perspectives on personal challenges, enhanced decision-making skills, greater interpersonal effectiveness, and increased confidence” (International Coaching Federation, n.d.). Mentoring on the other hand is a relationship driven, experience centric and self-awareness process that can occur over a longer period of time. Mentoring requires a relationship of mutual trust, respect and openness of thoughts, ideas and constructive criticism. “Mentors, by contrast, are role models who have “been there and done that.” They can offer timely, context-specific counsel drawn from experience; wisdom; and networks that are highly relevant to the problems to be solved” Janasz & Peiperl, 2015).

Having served over ten years in the Army, the military structure and constant leadership involvement fostered an environment of productive coaching and mentoring. Within the profession of arms, training is paramount. Each individual learns to master individual task, but most importantly, they learn how their individual efforts and capabilities contributes to collective success. Thus, at every training and learning event, there is always a leader to assist and coach one on to greater improvement. I have benefited from such a system and on countless occasions. The skills mastered improved my ability to be successful, making necessary adjustments and solve complex problems which ensured my achievements throughout my time in service.

However, I believe that as a result of senior leader’s mentorship, my personal and professional development was enhanced beyond becoming proficient in any one specific task. Although acquiring skills is important, through mentorship I was exposed to grater context, concepts, ideas, and how each plays a role in space and time. Furthermore, not only was I beginning to see others qualities and capabilities through a different lens, I began to see my own qualities and capabilities through the same lens. Knowing more about oneself is a good starting point towards improvement and fulfillment. As such, I invested more time and effort towards identify my own strengths and shortcomings. “Getting to know yourself is a lifelong pursuit, and there are no shortcuts to the journey…Learning about yourself means knowing what you want and setting about getting to that destination. That means you do have to do some introspection, but once you’ve settled on a direction: move out” (Addison, n.d.). Moreover, with a high desire for self-improvement in order to become an effective leader and asset to my organization, a plan of action and self-evaluation became a normal practice. Setting goals and reaching milestones are tools I have incorporated into my frame of mind to ensure my direction and efforts are aligned with my personal and professional objectives. “One of the hallmarks of every great leader is each continued to seek to improve themselves. To do that, we need to understand the ways we see ourselves and can improve ourselves” (Addison, n.d.). 

Reaching ones’ professional goals is solely in their hands. There are many tools and resources to assist with skills development and professional growth. Coaching and mentoring are two great means to achieve a higher level of excellence that can improve performance and fulfillment. One must be clear as to their professional desires and the effort there are willing to invest. In either case, a coach or a mentor will have the knowledge, expertise and wherewithal to ensure that the one in need of skills and development is better suited for their desired results.

References

Addison, M. (n.d.) Dynamic Dozen: Know Yourself and Seek Improvement. General Leadership. Retrieved from http://generalleadership.com/self-improvement/

International Coach Federation. (n.d.) Benefits of Using a Coach Retrieved from http://coachfederation.org/need/landing.cfm?ItemNumber=747

Janasz, S. & Peiperl, M. (2015). CEOs Beed Mentors Too. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2015/04/ceos-need-mentors-too