Coach or Mentoring Reflection - Essay Example

This research begins with the statement that mentoring, or coaching, refers to the training of an individual or a group of people. A single or a corporate entity, with the aim of developing positive outcomes in a mentee, may undertake it. The teachers’ responses to the pre-established questions on the characteristics and types of support offered by a mentor or a coach corresponded with slight differences in the mentor’s approach to the mentoring process. The teachers, for example, agreed that a mentor must be a person of integrity who is honest and ethical in the mentoring process.

They both cited advantages of honesty and morality in the process towards effectiveness. While honesty develops the mentee’s trust and facilitates freedom between the two parties, the mentor’s morality induces the mentee’s confidence. These allow the mentee to express strengths and weaknesses, comfortably, for an effective mentoring process. The teachers also stressed that integrity is core to every mentorship relationship. They also shared a common opinion on the mentor’s passion in the process and they argued that the passion is likely to motivate the mentored party who may associate it with his or her already developed qualities.

One teacher, however, suggested that such passion should be moderately expressed while the other argued for total expression of the mentor’s passion. There was however, a conflicting opinion on whether the mentor should be willing to learn more from the process.  One teacher expressed the opinion that the mentor is a trainer and should learn outside, and before mentoring process. He identified research on effective mentoring skills as an approach towards learning about the mentoring process and pointed out that learning from the process my adversely affect the mentee’s confidence, and the overall effectiveness of the learning process.

The other teacher however supported an open approach that allows a mentor to learn from each process. She identified differences among mentored subjects as an avenue towards learning and argued that published mentoring skills are mere guidelines. Awareness of each mentee and the mentoring environment should therefore be allowed for development of appropriate mentoring techniques. There was however an agreement between the respondents that a mentor be enthusiastic and committed to any assignment that may arise from the process.

This, they argued, facilitates the same characteristics in the mentored parties and promotes effectiveness of mentoring processes (Zachary, 2000). A mentor should further be focused on solving problems and empowering others to capacity by delegating work. A transformational form of influence should however follow this to ensure effective transfer of skills and potentials to the mentee. There were however, conflicting opinion on a mentor’s need to understand reformation and transformational processes.

While one teacher argued that effective mentorship is about influence and empowerment that is attainable through demonstrations, the other teacher insisted on the significance of transformation and reformation processes in molding a mentee to a desired level of potential. They however agreed that a mentor should be a catalyst to motivate development of the mentee’s potentials. They also agreed that a mentor should desire to grow and should be able to identify other people’s interest and to facilitate development of such interests.

He or she should therefore strife for personal excellence while interacting with other people to understand their abilities. A good mentor should also have good communication skills to facilitate understanding in the mentoring process. This is because the skills enable the mentor to communicate objectives to a mentee