8581-702 Undertaking an extended period of Coaching or Mentoring at a Senior and Strategic Level

Unit Overview

8581-702 Undertaking an extended period of Coaching or Mentoring at a Senior and Strategic Level is one of the main practical units within the ILM Level 7 module. This unit focuses on providing the senior leaders and executive managers within the organisations with the theoretical and practical information that is required to support leadership and management within the workplace. This approaches ensures there is a flow of ideas and approaches to performing different tasks and responsibilities within their specific areas of responsibilities. Executive managers have a role of ensuring that they help to instil the desired culture and approach towards doing things within the workplace.

They can achieve this by pursuing effective coaching approaches within the organisation. This involves being able to relay the clients’ development approaches within the workplace. As such, it is important for executive managers and other leaders within the organisation to pursue the different elements within the workplace that they need to achieve the desired goals.

8581-702 Undertaking an extended period of Coaching or Mentoring at a Senior and Strategic Level is a unit that has the purpose and aim of enabling the learners to develop and improve their performance, under supervision, as management coaches or mentors as well as ensuring that they are effective reflective practitioners. The unit improves the ability of the learner to effectively implement the content that has been learned within the workplace that focuses on achieving desired performances within the workplace. The unit is taught in 20 hours of practical and guided learning and contributes 30 credit values towards the completion of the ILM Level 7 module.

Suitability of the Unit

Mentoring or coaching programs are programs that are designed to give the leaders the ability to influence the practices within the workplace. These are modern approaches to performance management in which the leader takes an active part in facilitating development and growth within the employees or team members. Therefore, 8581-702 Undertaking an extended period of Coaching or Mentoring at a Senior and Strategic Level is a unit that is highly suitable for different stakeholders who are in a position to influence the performances of others within the workplace.

This unit helps to provide the stakeholders in these positions with the guidance and skills that are required to achieve the desired goals and responsibilities in terms of facilitating mentoring and coaching programs. The unit is designed with a focus on executive management within the organisation. This is the senior-most leadership position within the organisation where the individuals have the role of influencing the performances of others from a strategic level. The unit provides senior managers with an understanding of different principles of coaching and mentoring from the senior and strategic levels.

However, the unit is not limited to these groups of individuals. It can be used to effectively influence the performance of others within the organisation, including the middle managers. It provides middle managers with information that is critical to push the ability and performance of the middle managers in their areas of responsibility. The unit is also critical for external consultants who support decision-making within the workplace.

Learning Outcomes

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

• Establish and build an effective coaching or mentoring relationship with the clients at senior/ strategic levels

• Provide an evaluation and discussion of the client’s performance in relation to developing and supporting the needs of the clients based on an agreed contract of mentoring and coaching

• Effectively plan, prepare, undertake and maintain accurate and auditable records of a minimum of one hundred hours of coaching or mentoring individual clients witting the senior/ strategic levels

• Review the development of the client based on support needs and progress towards meeting the organisational goals and objective

• Take part in peer coaching or mentoring as well as other professional coaching or mentoring techniques.

• Justify appropriate levels of supervision for the hundred hours of coaching or mentoring completed in the form of contracts, Logs and / or supervision records

• Collect feedback from clients in evaluating their personal performance as a coach or mentor

• Reflect on feedback to identify weaknesses and strengths

• Conduct self-assessment against coaching or mentoring standards

• Reflect on personal performance as coach or mentor with reference to the evidence and narratives provided

• Provide detailed development action plans for personal and continuous professional development

Key Learning areas

8581-702 Undertaking an extended period of Coaching or Mentoring at a Senior and Strategic Level covers critical areas of study in facilitating understanding of coaching or mentoring from 

a practical perspective. Some of the areas include:

Contracts in Coaching or Mentoring Clients

This area of learning lays the basic principles that are required to promote the performance of executive managers in relation to coaching o mentoring activities. The learners are introduced to the approaches that can be used to create and implement effective coaching or mentoring contracts with clients. They are guided to identify and address the learning needs and goals of the employees in their areas of responsibility.

Implementing Coaching or Mentoring Activities

This area of learning provides the learners with a systematic approach to improving their ability to conduct coaching and mentoring. In this area of learning, the learners are required to implement the skills and theoretical information that has been acquired within the learning process. They are guided to effectively develop and implement plans that are designed to conduct coaching and mentoring.

Networking and Feedback

This area of learning guides the learners to understand the principles of feedback and networking in improving coaching performance. The learners are guided in effective communication styles that can be implemented towards achieving the desired learning goals and objectives. Learners are also guided in understanding approaches to collecting and analysing feedback to facilitate success in improving coaching or mentoring performance.

Self-assessment and Development

This area of learning focuses on developing and evaluation of personal performance. It provides the learners with an understanding of the significance of self-assessment and the approaches that can be used to utilise the information collected from the self-assessment to improve personal performance. The area also helps to create an effective plan for continuous professional development based on the practical experience.

Evaluation

This unit is a practical unit where the learners are required to conduct coaching or mentoring of different clients. The unit is evaluated using supervised practice as the main approach, with the log and documented records of coaching and recording providing support for the abilities of the learners.