How Adults Learn
Introduction
Transition is a mental or emotional transformation that people undergo in order to relinquish old methods and welcome new ones. Actually, transition is psychological process that takes place inside a person. Efficient transition is attained through coaching and mentoring of the concerned individuals. This system also includes organizational transformation processes, where major external forces stimulate change.
Mentorship facilitates adequate and reliable change management strategies that ensure that significant and valid changes are implemented in a controlled and systematic manner. One of the aims of change management in an organization is to overcome resistance to change, thus increasing involvement and attainment of organizational goals. Any self-respecting leadership is rooted on coaching and mentoring practices.
Thesis Statement
This study focuses on mentoring/coaching practices that generate unique leadership skills to individuals and organizations. It evaluates the importance of embracing transitional phases by adopting transformational leadership in organizations, and developing insight on individuals’ ways of life. The paper provides several qualities of good leadership framework that should add value to the organization, hence accumulating revenues. The study concludes by highlighting the importance of embracing leadership mentoring in all transitional aspects of life.
Principles of Coaching and Mentorship
Coaching and mentoring are two distinct development methods that nurture individual ability on behavior and performance. Coaching focus on instilling skills for personal development whereas mentorship emphasizes on adding value to individuals through communication. Despite this difference on definition, the two words are used interchangeably since one would remain meaningless in the absence of the other. Both mentoring and coaching are currently focused as the mechanisms for leadership development (Kotter, 1999).
Leadership coaching is a general term that describes specific types of intervention that are applied to individuals or in organizations in order to boost their level of performance. It aims at directing individuals towards achieving a given mutually determined goal. As a result, leadership coaching can stimulate organizational progress by enhancing focus and awareness of doing something. It is about providing support to people who are being coached to reach fuller potentials to work efficiently.
An organization may apply both internal and external coaches in order to reach certain levels of performance. Internal coaches are employees of the company or the organization, whereas external coaches are contracted to work in the organization through mentorship, data evaluation, auditing and analysis work. It is important to note that confidentiality is critical in organization especially when these coaches are familiar with inside and outside of the company. Most mentoring approaches focus on absolute trust among the players in the company, thus creating liveliness and harmonious exchanges between individuals and their mentors (Synnot, 2007).
A toxic or moribund behavior in individuals can be replaced through working together in finding ways to create value-oriented system of doing work. More creative ways generates a positive contagion that affects the degrees of getting to the desired level. Leadership coaching is viewed as iterative process in which people can evaluate new behavior and endorse them, provided they adds hope and enthusiasm in the individuals’ ways of life or the organizational productivity.
Notably, people resist to changes even when leadership coaching/mentoring are meant to help them lessen psychological implications such as pressure, tension and anxiety. Individuals tend to doubt their abilities in doing something new since they are cultured to the old ways of life. When people in a company are driven by fear; a toxic culture may results. However, people are less likely to oppose a given change especially when their anxieties are controlled through mentorship.
Successful transformational leadership implies new ways of doing things. It is founded on innovation, technological practices, as well as change of roles. Mentors create awareness that higher qualifications varies directly with the levels of performance. It is from this perspective that people prefer to add knowledge and skills to their professions in order to become a powerful force in their duties.
Mentoring also helps individuals to remain focused on what is essential for personal success as well as organization growth. Whatever the context, transformational leadership is crucial for evaluating other sphere of life and even facing new challenge in the line of developing own career. Notably, the higher up the ladder a leader climbs, the more he or she is accustomed to limited responsibilities in the organization since much of the work is done through delegating it to the juniors. However, good relationship between the management and the workers is an issue of grave importance since it determines the levels of success. A friendly environment eliminates fear, desolation and suspicion among the workers (Synnot, 2007).
Erik Eriksen Eight Stage Process for Creating Major Change
There are several methods available to comprehending, frame-thinking and initiating a change. Erik Eriksen is one of the prominent thinkers who teach leadership across all areas of human life. He highlights key principles that relates to organization change, hence facilitating achieving the organization goals. These principles of changes ensure that leadership barriers are avoided, and dealt with whenever they emerge. The key leadership traits for creating major change are:
Establishing a sense of urgency- efficient leaders should strive to ensure that they help other members in an organization to see the need of a change and the important of acting on it. Actually, competent leadership is building on aggressiveness at work and the urgency to implement new production strategies within the organization so as to increase the productivity of the company. These objectives are possible only through amending the existing production and marketing strategies, thus building competitive realities. In addition, transformational changes are realized through identification, evaluation and discussion of the potential crises within the organization.
Creating Guiding Coalition- a leading organization is built on collective participation of its members in decision making. This goes hand in hand with team work; an attribute that creates self awareness, seriousness in taking responsibilities and respect to one another. Top management in organization should ensure that there are powerful groups coaching other members on appropriate leadership skills, communication skills, interventions during emergencies, and quality analytical skills.
Team work is an influential way of building organizational integrity, self esteem, exchange of ideas and cordial relationship at work. Indeed, a friendly environment is proportional to the rate of accomplishing a given task within a given period. Sour relationship trails the marketing processes within an organization. Powerful coaching is enough to lead organizational groups to work together in attempts of realizing the set goals.
Developing Vision and Strategy- individuals should clarify how the future will be different from the past by developing realistic visions. Visions go hand in hand with setting attainable goals based on the existing state of social, economic and political matters. Creating vision helps individuals to realize a given change without encountering difficulties as the urgency to attain and implement the change serves as the stepping stone.
It is crucial for individual or an organization to get their vision right. Visionary organizations or individuals cannot be deterred by challenges or complexity behind attaining a given task. This means that individuals should develop appropriate strategies that will be decisive in realizing their set goals.
Communicating the Change Vision- Kotter, (1999) argues that no man’s ideas have ever being the best. In case of an organization, manager should ensure that other members in the organization understand the intended change. This stage involves intensive evaluation of the intended change, synthesis and collaborative implementation. Executive board, marketing and production experts, employees and the surrounding community should held a discussion on the proposed change, facilitating coming up with amicable and coherent solution.
Individuals acquire mentorship regarding crucial matters in order to prevent their intended plans to backfire. Guidance on the key issues is important as it develops a creative and submissive way of attaining a given change. Psychological behaviors such as anxiety and pressure are accommodated, enabling individual to remain composed throughout the transformational period (Whitmore, 2002).
Empowering Far-reaching Actions- decision making is more about taking risks. Whenever individuals plan to usher in a new way of doing thing, abandoning the old ways, they forego many things that had been operational. Risk taking involves disregarding older methods and endorsing new ways. Apparently, individuals should strive to ensure that they remove all the barriers that may seem to prevent them from getting to the desired levels.
In case of an organization, leaders should encourage members to work tirelessly to enhance realization of the set objectives. Where possible, the management should restructure the organizational schemes and create efficient techniques for achieving the required change. Labor force should be integrated to comprise both skilled and non-skilled members in order to enhance infusion of quick, effective and valuable production and marketing processes. In exceptional and delicate levels of the organization, the management should employ qualified staffs who are capable of transforming the organizational to the expected levels.
Generating short-term improvement- Any development starts with making simple wins which matures into large parts. Visible and unambiguous successes boost personal morale of engaging stiffer measures on achieving long term goals. Any success is built on effective planning and collaborative participation of all the stakeholders in the projects. It is crucial to assess the weak points in order to initiate full achievement of the desired goals. Moreover, it is necessary to cement on the strongholds contributing to the development so that they supplement the weaker areas.
Good organizational leadership should embark on processes that improve levels of achievement and add resources on them in order to sustain productivity. The management should recognize individuals who are exemplary in various sectors of the organization. Motivational practices add power and willingness to remain committed in euthanizing the behavior practices of the organization (Kotter, 1999).
Consolidating Gains- After realization of first achievements, Erikson stresses on pressing harder and faster towards making broad gains. This momentum of work ensures that individual cope with complex matters in attempts to reach greater heights. For instance, it would be prudent to enroll in college education after completing high school studies. Interestingly, university education would add value to the knowledge attained. These systematic approach allow an individual to reach academic pinnacle via consolidation of efforts from prior achievements.
More change is realized by increasing credibility to change existing manner of solving issues, restructuring of working framework, and fitting of the policies of work. Further, it is prudent hiring experienced and professional mentors who assist individuals in making solid and workable decisions. These agents hold an important role in determining the success of an individual or a company. A management may acquire information on ways to improve the performance of the organization by gaining insight from auditors and economic analyst (Whitmore, 2002).
Anchoring new methods in the culture- transformational leadership or change of a system is made possible through holding on to the new ways of behavior despite the challenges encountered. Persistence on a given behavior, especially when aimed to replace the old habit, enhances its quick achievement. Subsequently, such behavior becomes part of very culture of the organization or an individual. New methods of work break the boredom, thus adding interest to continue with a given activity. Ever changing means of handling a given challenge score higher than living upon one style of dealing with the issue.
New approaches of work in an organization enhance good performance and setting of pace to work on. This works on cementing the customer-seller relationship, adding the revenues obtained in the company. Still, the management acquires an opportunity to effect management by articulating the new behaviors with the organizational success. Transformative leadership is also effected through implementing new working habits in the organization.
Conclusion
Mentors provide individuals with a safe transitional pace that enables them to remain devoted in realizing their ambitions. In organizational leadership, coaches act as the mirror for the management on what they are, what they need to do, and how to accomplish a given goal. Successful leadership mentors enhance transformational change through creational of transitional space for the stakeholders.
Leadership mentors provide the necessary support to individuals by recommending on the appropriate skills, resources and creative practices that are essential to reach to the next level.
References
Kotter, J. (1999). What Leaders Really Do. Harvard Business School Press, Massachusetts, USA.
Synnot, B. (2007). The Toolbox for Change. Practical Approach. Danjugah Pty, Brisbane,
Australia.
Whitmore, J. (2002). Coaching for Performance: Growing People, Performance and Purpose.
Oxford: Nicolas Brealey Publishing.
