Coaching and Mentoring

J. Farrington of the Leadership Turn writes about the "The New Model Leader". Coaching and mentoring are hard and many executives may not have this skill or talent. According the Buckingham and Coffman, if it is a skill it may be learned and trained. However, if it is a missing talent it cannot be taught.

There are basically two options if lacking this skill or talent: If a missing skill, the executive can receive training in order to become more coaching-like. If it is a missing talent, the executive should hire a coach or mentor to receive feedback on what needs to be done. The bottom line is the skill can be learned and integrated eventually without the help of a coach and the talent will need a constant presence in some form. This can be like a counselor that a person visits, a consultant, or someone full time.

The main problem is that many executives have developed habits over the long haul that will be hard to change into a coaching model.