Mentor as Coach

Mentor as Coach

by Kristen Truman

As a mentor you have a magnificent opportunity to encourage learning, enhance professional socialization and transform any experience into deep learning. You are skilled and knowledgeable and have placed yourself in a position to transfer your knowing into a learning opportunity for others. You are the ultimate witness and facilitator of growth and development.

As a coach you are an expert inquirer who facilitates self-discovery by encouraging reflection and by bringing active attention to a situation. Coaches ask powerful, purposeful questions. They are curious about what they will find and assume the answers will come and be uniquely meaningful to each individual. By facilitating reflection, you help Mentees generate awareness of their behavior or performance which will likely produce a change in behavior.

Knowledge is created by interpreting our experiences. Think of a time when a parent or a teacher told you what to do. Did you say, "That worked for you but it won't for me"? Did you resist, only discovering a year later that they were right? Have you ever said to someone, "they will have to learn it on their own"? These are examples that indicate that people want to find their own meaning. Adults learn best through self-discovery and you, the Mentor as coach, can facilitate this self-discovery through a process of reflection.

Guiding reflection with open ended, insightful questions allows your Mentees to access their own creative thoughts, previous experiences and wealth of internal and external resources. Simply inquiring about something meaningful and providing time to reflect can change behavior and enhance learning regardless of your Mentees level of skill and development. Inquiry and reflection are appropriate following new learning, celebrations of success, unexpected emergencies, and difficult conversations. Here are some examples of questions you can ask your Mentees about any given experience to encourage reflection:

• What did you notice about the situation?
• What did you notice about how you responded to the situation?
• What went really well?
• What would you do differently?
• What was the main learning here?
• What are you taking away from this situation?
• How will this situation change your practice in the future?
• Where else can you apply this new information?
• How does this experience relate to others?

Questions like these shift the power to the learner and give them a new awareness without having to defend their choices. The Mentor as coach assumes that learning is a process and that we are all on a learning journey, with every experience having significance that is unique to each individual. Every mistake is to be respected as an opportunity to reflect and consciously make changes in behavior and thinking.

As a Mentor you have many opportunities to teach new skills or transfer new knowledge. When you know that a learner has already been taught the essential information, consider using the reflective process to deepen the learning.

I challenge you to respect the self discovery process, honor each person's ability to find the answers within them or to use their resources and create a safe place for learners to explore their experiences. Be curious, inquire and facilitate their learning with open ended, purposeful questions that encourage them to reflect on their experience. This is where deep learning happens. For them AND for you…

Whitworth, L., Kimsey-House, H. Sandahl, P. (1998), Co-Active Coaching. New skills for coaching people toward success in work and life, Palo Alto CA; Davies-Black Publishing.

Kolb, D. (1984). Experiential Learning: Experience as the source of learning and development. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

Meizrow, J. and Associates (2000). Learning as Transformation: Critical perspectives on a theory in progress. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass

Kristen M Truman RN, MS is an Associate Certified Coach. She is currently the NCCA President.

You can find out more on her website at www.pulplifecoaching.com. You can email her at kristentruman@yahoo.com or call (970) 481-2909.

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