Coaching, Counseling & Mentoring: How to Choose & Use the Right Technique to Boost Employee Performance

by Florence M. Stone

Coaching, counseling, and mentoring can dramatically improve employee productivity and satisfaction. But there’s a big difference between continuously encouraging employees to do their jobs well (coaching), attempting to fix poor performance (counseling), and helping top performers excel (mentoring). Unfortunately, most managers don’t truly understand how and when to do each. Coaching, Counseling & Mentoring provides helpful tools like self-assessments and real-life scenarios, and gives managers specific, practical guidance on using these techniques to improve the performance of all their people. This updated and revised second edition includes useful scripts for talking to employees about sensitive issues, and new material on topics including working with off-site employees, what to say when an employee denies a problem exists, whether or not to coach temps and part-timers, how to draw the line between the mentoring and supervisory role, and what to do when counseling fails. This is an essential guide for managers who want to build their confidence and skill in getting the most from their people.

Genres: Business, Management

230 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 1998

Reviews

[Khalid S · Rating 2 out of 5]

You can’t get ahead without a staff of top performers today, people who know how to learn, adapt, and stretch. People who solve, rather than create, problems. They can give your company the competitive edge it needs to succeed. They can also be your ticket to advancement.
People really are your most important asset. It’s true.
It’s also true that these same people have more choices today. They don’t have to stay with your company if they don’t feel challenged or ade- quately rewarded. And money just isn’t enough anymore.
So, how do you keep them?
The answer lies in helping them excel. Motivational experts say most people really do want to better themselves, to be all they can be. You don’t have to threaten or force them to improve. But you do have to help them. In doing so, you’ll become a better manager.
This book shows you how to coach, counsel, and mentor your people to success — yours and theirs.
Coaching helps all your people. When you coach employees, you im- prove their ability to do their current jobs and increase their potential to do more in the future.
Counseling, on the other hand, addresses problem performers, people whose bad habits have become chronic. Taking care of people problems when they arise may cost you 10 percent of your time. Seems like a lot. If you don’t deal with them, however, you may find yourself spending 50 percent of your time trying to put out the fire.
Mentoring is reserved for your most talented employees. Work with these people, help them advance, and they will become assets now and al- lies in the future. Ignore them, and they’ll find someone else — maybe a competitor — who appreciates their talents.

[Marcus Goncalves · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author provides a well-established theory in all three subjects, as well as a very good practical advice on how to apply them. A good resource to improve management, leadership, coaching and mentoring skills.

[Marcus Goncalves · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author provides good information, but mostly common sense. He could have gone deeper and provide more details. Good fundamentals though.

[Evan]

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