MCE Mentoring & Business Coaching is Different
Even the most accomplished manager can feel alone struggling with difficult issues. The higher up on the corporate ladder you are, the truer this is.
For example, you could be struggling with a high-stake decision and there is nobody that could serve as a “sounding board” for possible solutions. Or you simply don't know what to do anymore to defend your market share against a fast-increasing number of competitors. Perhaps you know in your gut that the processes and metrics in your division are out-of-date, but you are unsure how to go about changing them. Or perhaps you have recently been appointed to a new, more senior position and you feel literally up to your neck with internal and external challenges, not knowing where to start. Or are you simply looking for some guidance on your own long-term career planning… and your current boss does not give you any guidance?
∧A Pragmatic View of Mentoring and Coaching
At MCE, we take a very pragmatic view of what mentoring and coaching can accomplish in a business context.
Rather than focusing solely on the behavioural and psychological aspects of a person´s interactions as a classic coach does, MCE’s purpose is to help senior managers adapt and deal with concrete changes in strategy and their business environment. Our highly experienced Mentors enable managers on a one-on-one basis to successfully take up new challenges and roles by providing them with the specific skills and tools needed to get the job done. Next to that, we support managers to become better leaders, focusing on them individually and showing them how to grow the business through the increased engagement level of their people and teams.
What is the Difference between a Mentor and a Coach?
Often when a manager has an issue or set of issues to struggle with, he or she may feel the need for someone neutral but knowledgeable to help work through the issue, or develop a certain capability. In this case, the organization may assign an individual coach, typically brought in from outside the organization or appointed by HR.
Coaches can be very useful, but most business problems require more of a mentoring approach, and this is where MCE is ideally positioned to help.
What is a Coach?
- Coaching is learning, development and behaviour-oriented. It is about helping you to find your OWN solutions.
- Coaches use techniques like questioning and framing. They don’t advise.
- You are the expert on your situation and your business. The certified coach is not.
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Certified coaches typically have a background in behavioural sciences or communication.
What is a Mentor?
- Mentors are highly experienced people who pro-actively guide you through career points, or specific projects or goals. She or he is a knowledgeable sounding board and advisor.
- Mentors advise, frame, explain, guide. They also question, but they do not rely on this technique alone.
- You are an expert on your situation and so is your mentor.
- Mentors have a business background, experience and expertise in the industry, function and business issues at hand. This valuable business know-how, acquired over decades, is transferred onto the mentee.
The mentoring role, or what can also be called “business coaching”, is typically filled by an older senior manager. Some companies have very good internal mentoring programmes. However, an internal mentor is not always desirable. The company may not have enough senior managers able or willing to make time to mentor. Additionally, there may be political sensitivities. The manager may wish for an unbiased outside expert, or may simply be afraid to admit their insecurities and lack of skills to a senior manager of the company. The need for mentoring may only be temporary. Or maybe the manager who needs mentoring is already a very senior manager who does not feel comfortable seeking mentoring from peers or more junior managers.
MCE Senior Associates: Experienced Senior Managers can Provide Top-quality Mentoring and Business Coaching
MCE Senior Associates have at least 20 years of experience in senior management roles in international organizations. In addition, they are MCE-certified for business mentoring and coaching.
In partnership with you, MCE Senior Associates examine in depth with you what the business issue is, why it is happening and how you can cope with it, starting from your strengths and using the mentor’s business experience and knowledge.
There are three major benefits to working with an MCE Mentor:
- The Mentor brings to the table the specific business and industry experience you need. The MCE Mentor “has been there and done it”, and has successfully dealt with similar issues and challenges you are confronted with today. He or she can help you to make "the jump ahead". For example, if you are moving into a role in which you must work with employee unions and/or work councils, the MCE Mentor should have credible experience in working with unions and work councils. If your new assignment is running a factory, the MCE Mentor should know what it means to run a factory- based on personal, hands-on experience. You would certainly want a Mentor that knows your industry and your market.
- You will benefit from his/her “fresh eyes” perspective. The MCE Mentor is not confined in thinking by your company´s way of doing things, nor does he have any bias. Thus he can easily point out issues and cause-effect-relations that you or your company may have overlooked.
- Related to this point comes the third benefit – the MCE Mentor is completely “yours”. She or he has no political agenda. The MCE Mentor is simply a proven outside expert. His or her sole mission is to help you get the results you need for success.
Classic and simple models, such as the GROW Model, can guide a coaching conversation
Why Work with an MCE Mentor?
Working with a Mentor gives you the opportunity to use a neutral ‘sounding board’, allowing you to analyze the specific change situation or challenge -- in-depth and from an objective angle.
You can discuss and evaluate different options and solutions with the MCE Mentor. He or she will help you to integrate new thoughts, tools, concepts, ideas or views, all resulting in a pragmatic and well thought-through action plan.
Being an outsider, with relevant experience and an open mind-set, the MCE Mentor can challenge your assumptions, and cut through details to get to the heart of the matter. The MCE Mentor can support you in challenging assumptions, generating various options, evaluating each one, and selecting the best options that will produce the expected results and change required. This includes feedback and guidance on how you should lead his or her people in the process of change for implementing any new solution.
How We Work with You
The process for Mentoring and Business Coaching at MCE is flexible to the needs of the organization and individual senior manager who will be coached.
- We always start with your strategic context and your business goals. In some cases, additional goals may be set by a sponsoring executive in the organization
- Upon your request, we begin by recommending an MCE Mentor ideally matched to your industry, function or issue
- An initial meeting takes place in which the senior manager and the MCE Mentor decide if the match is good and whether the senior manager would like to move forward with the mentor
- You, your organization and the mentor agree on the number of mentoring sessions, their frequency, the overall duration and the budget
- As the mentoring sessions take place, adjustments to the process may be made if necessary
- At the end of the process, we review progress on goals and determine whether further steps need to be taken
More complex models, such as this one adapted from Dilts and Bateson, can inform more in-depth coaching.