8580-501 Undertaking Management Coaching or Mentoring in the Workplace

Unit Overview

8580-501 Undertaking Management Coaching or Mentoring in the Workplace is one of the most important units in the ILM Level 5 qualification in coaching and mentoring. This unit improves the ability of the learners to effectively understand principles that they can use for formal and informal coaching activities within the workplace. The leaders or other stakeholders within the organisation must have the ability to effectively influence the performance of others through coaching and mentoring. This is achieved by setting out an effective plan that they implement in achieving the desired goals of coaching and mentoring within the organisation.

The leader is required to prepare an effective coaching and mentoring program with the client and ensure that they take the learner through identifying different developmental needs and putting efforts to ensure that these needs are met sustainably. Within this unit, the leaders are taught to effectively develop coaching and mentoring programs with one or more clients within the workplace or in other areas of responsibility.

They are guided to effectively understand the developmental needs of the individuals and put in place strategies based on organisational goals and policies to address these developmental needs. The unit has the main aim and purpose of enabling the learner to undertake a workplace management coaching or monitoring program effectively hence building the skills and abilities of the leaders in alignment to coaching and mentoring. This unit is taught in 12 hours of guided learning and contributes 5 credit values towards the completion of the module.

Suitability of the Unit

Mentoring and coaching is a practice that can be pursued by any person. Mentoring and coaching involve both personal and professional capabilities. From the personal perspective; it could include the process of influencing the behaviours or attitudes of the mentee, while from the professional perspective, it involves addressing a specific developmental need that compromises the contribution of the individual to the organisational or team goals and objectives. Therefore, understanding the process of planning and conducting a mentoring session is critical for all individuals with the opportunity to pursue such fields of learning.

This helps to improve their ability to influence others positively and address critical shortcomings, especially within the organisational or team setting.8580-501 Undertaking Management Coaching or Mentoring in the Workplace is, therefore, a unit that is significantly applicable to a large number of people. This unit is designed with the target of managers and leaders within the organisation, especially those in top and middle levels of leadership.

However, the unit provides content that is applicable in boosting personal and professional ability to mentor others. The unit is suitable for junior leaders as well as team leaders within the organisation as it helps them to develop effective mentoring and coaching sessions in their areas of responsibility. Additionally, the private practitioners venturing into the field of coaching and mentoring can use this content to ensure that they are able to positively impact the performance of their clients in the private sector. External consultants and human resource professionals can also use this unit to boost professional capabilities and performance.

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of the unit, the learners should be able to:

• Explain the rationale for coaching and mentoring one or more clients and develop a contract with one or more clients on the principles of mentoring and coaching

• identify the developmental needs and set goals based on organisational, departmental or team goals and policies

• create a plan and program for coaching one or more clients with a minimum of twelve hours of formal coaching activities included

• complete the minimum of 12 hours of coaching and mentoring activities within the program

• conduct a review of the use of different diagnostic coaching and mentoring tools and techniques

• evaluate ability to build relationships based on effective communication techniques that are effective in the coaching and motoring process

• keep records of goals, discussions and outcomes that include the progress towards the accomplishment of goals

• collect feedback on the efficiency and effectiveness of personal coaching and mentoring practice that contributes towards accomplishment of the set goals

• review the coaching or mentoring activity for patterns and personal learning needs and areas of improvement

Key Learning Areas

8580-501 Undertaking Management Coaching or Mentoring in the Workplace helps to develop skills useful for designing and implementing a coaching and mentoring program. Some of the main areas of learning are:

Creating a Program for Coaching

In this area of learning, the main content focuses on the ability to identify effective goals and targets for a mentoring or coaching program. The learners are guided to understand the learning and development outcomes that are intended in various formal mentoring or coaching activities that are being pursued.

Implementing the Formal Mentoring or Coaching Activity

This area of learning focuses on the actual processes of implementing a formal coaching and mentoring activity. The learners are guided on the effective approaches to coaching and mentoring that is coherent and logical. They are guided to understand the models of learning and personality preferences characteristics such as Kolb s learning cycle, Belbin, Myers Briggs, and Argyris’s double learning, among others and identify their use and implementation. Additionally, learners are introduced to models of coaching and mentoring hence improving their theoretical mastery. Learners are guided to effectively plan a mentoring or coaching session and implement it effectively with the guidance of their assessor in supervised practice.

Reflecting on Personal Management Coaching or Mentoring Practice

This area of learning helps the learners to understand the strategies for building effective relationships. The learners are guided to strategies that can be used to encourage openness, honesty and trust throughout the mentoring and coaching activity hence encourage receiving of feedback. The use and completion of a personal reflection log are helped to evaluate social interaction strategies and reflect on the theory and behaviour of the learner as a practitioner.

Wrap Up

This unit focuses on two main forms of assessment to ensure the learner has mastered the content. The first form is supervised practice, and the personal reflective log is filled in the process of supervised practice. This ensures that the learner is able to practically implement learned principles. The second approach is the use of a written assessment to determine the mastery of theoretical principles.