8581-703 Reflecting on Your Own Ability to Perform Effectively as a Coach or Mentor Practising at a Senior Level

Unit Overview

8581-703 Reflecting on Your Own Ability to Perform Effectively as a Coach or Mentor Practicing at a Senior Level is one of the main units within the ILM Level 7 module. This unit covers critical information that the leaders need to build an understanding o the role of reflecting on their performance as a coach or mentor within the workplace. Leaders at the senior or strategic level within the organisation must be able to effectively conduct personal evaluations and assessments to determine their ability to handle various elements in their practice.

This involves being able to identify areas of strength and those of weaknesses that require more development in terms of continuous professional development. This helps them to pursue activities that are effective in improving their performance and contribution to the process of improving contribution as mentors or coaches within their organisations and areas of responsibility. 8581-703 Reflecting on Your Own Ability to Perform Effectively as a Coach or Mentor Practicing at a Senior Level is a unit that helps the senior leaders to build this knowledge.

This unit helps the leaders to develop effective and suitable behaviours revolving around reflecting on their ability and practice as a coach or mentor practising at the junior levels within the organisation. The main purpose and aim of this unit are to help the learners, who are practising or potential executive managers, to effectively receive their ability to perform well and effectively as a coach or mentor within the senior levels of the organisation. The unit is taught in 21 hours of guided learning and contributes 5 credit values towards the completion of the ILM Level 7 module.

Suitability of the Unit

Reflecting on the personal ability to perform effectively as a mentor or coach is critical for any individual placed in a position where they are required to influence the performance of others through coaching and mentoring. This involves the leaders who are required to ensure that they influence the staff or team members in their areas of responsibility. A leader must be able to understand the impact that they have in achieving this goal. This involves being able to identify the strengths that they have in supporting such practices as well as their weaknesses in association with such practices.

As such, 8581-703 Reflecting on Your Own Ability to Perform Effectively as a Coach or Mentor Practicing at a Senior Level is a suitable unit for leaders within the workplace as it helps them to build desired standards of behaviour and practice in alignment tot eh set coaching goals and objectives. The unit is designed to meet the learning needs of the senior managers. The unit provides the leaders with the understanding of the theoretical principles and practical skills that they require within their senior-level context.

It helps them to understand the communication skills that they need as well as the emotional intelligence required to achieve the desired levels of performance within the workplace. The unit is also suitable for middle managers who are looking at venturing into senior leadership and management within the workplace. The unit can also be pursued by private mentors and coaches providing mentorship and coaching activities to senior managers within the workplace.

Learning Outcomes

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

• Review their communication skills, emotional intelligence and ability to build effective relationships in diverse social and cultural environments

• Review their ethical and moral values, beliefs, attitudes and personal integrity, as well as assess the impact that they have on their coaching or mentoring relationships

• Review their competence to support the growth of capability, development and improved performance in others

• Analyse the impact of clients' roles, positions, organisational contexts and cultural attributes in affecting the coaching or mentoring relationship in practice

• Understand the client’s personalities, characters, value systems, knowledge, skills and experience and their effectiveness in the coaching or mentoring relationship

• Develop a personal profile that shows personal coaching or mentoring approach, practice and the context within which we are operating, including contract/ code of practice and other supporting paperwork

Key Learning Areas

8581-703 Reflecting on Your Own Ability to Perform Effectively as a Coach or Mentor Practicing at a Senior Level focuses on improving the ability of the leaders to influence others in different areas of practice by positively impacting their professional engagements as a coach or mentor. The unit covers critical areas of learning that include:

Personal Abilities in Coaching or Mentoring at Senior Level

This area of learning helps the learners to understand their personal abilities as a coach or mentor. The area helps them to understand the skills and proficiencies that are required to pursue the required standards of coaching or mentoring. The area of learning also helps to build the ability of the learner to effectively influence others by ensuring that they understand the needs and embrace the diversity that is exhibited among the clients. This understanding is critical in boosting the performance of the leader as a coach or mentor.

Client’s Personal Characteristics and Organisational Context

This area of learning focuses on providing the basic information and background that the learner can use to better understand their clients. It helps them to understand factors that arise due to the emotions, culture, value systems and attitudes of the client that could affect the coaching and mentoring activities. In this area of learning, the learners are guided to develop effective approaches and strategies that they can use to overcome the challenges that they face in coaching or mentoring the learners in this field hence creating efficiency in the process. They are guided through models and practices such as characteristic psychosocial models that help them to improve their performance in the coaching or mentoring activities.

Reflective Learning

This area of learning helps the learner to develop the ability to effectively reflect on their position as an effective coach or mentor. The learner is guided to understand approaches that they can use to develop their personal coaching and mentoring profiles. They are also guided to understand the process of contracting, codes of practice and the role of using and completing personal reflection logs in improving performance.

Evaluation

Upon completion of the unit, the learners are required to complete an evaluation. This includes a written assessment which determines the mastery of both theoretical and practical information within the coaching or mentoring context.