HRI
mentor mania
Trust, curiosity and belief make mentoring work Increasingly, organisations are identifying mentorship and coaching as key factors in an employee’s career growth plan, and there is now a need to create cultures that promote both.
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BY THANDO PATO o, what is the power of mentoring and coaching? And is there a difference between the two? The HR Indaba Conversation Coaching Resilience examined this topic in detail.
According to Yvonne Mosadi, HR director at Heineken South Africa, both mentoring and coaching are tools to develop people and accelerate their growth. “Coaching, however, is a short-term intervention and is useful when developing someone who is struggling with certain aspects of the job. A coaching process is not a talent situation, but rather helping someone tap into themselves to find solutions to their current challenges. Coaching is often used by leaders to overcome and involves an external party providing a service,” she said. Yvonne added, “Mentorship on the other hand is all about talent. It’s about identifying people in your organisation who you want to grow, and pairing them with a mentor. The mentor is
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someone experienced and knowledgeable who will impart technical and soft skills and help them build relationships that will take them to the next level of their career. Unlike coaching, mentoring can be done internally.” Terms like EQ, emotional intelligence and self-awareness have become part of KPAs, as organisations look for well-rounded individuals who have technical and soft skills. Bongani Phakathi, executive of human resources and public affairs at Assore, said soft skills are hard to master but equally important in understanding and harnessing, because the workplace is complex and ever changing. “When you start your career, your technical skills are dominant but as your career progresses, you start focusing on developing career skills like becoming a better team player or improving the function of a team. And that’s about emotional intelligence and that’s where mentorship and coaching can play a role and help you evolve,” he explained.
