Principles Of Coaching, Mentoring And Counseling

By Author: Henry Ford
Total Articles: 189
Comment this article

Coaching is a one on one learning relationship that is aimed at developing knowledge and skills that are related to jobs and hence improve the performance. It is a method of directing, instructing and training people or a person and is aimed at achieving and developing certain goals and skills. It usually involves a continuous flow of instructions, comments and suggestions from the coach to the employee. The coach also provides guided practice. (William, 2004). The popularity of coaching in many organizations has become enormous but the coaching initiatives are in most cases employed on an ad hoc and unmanaged basis. This leads to yielding of disappointing results. Coaching should be an activity that can be done as part of the daily process of management.
Case study on Sergeant Juan Ortiz as a coach
Sergeant Juan Ortiz has been in the police Department for 12 years and as a sergeant for 6 years. He supervises 8 officers.

What I would do as a coach.
.With the 8 officers I have under me, 4 have less than 3 years experience and 2 have been with the department for 6 months. The other 2 have 7 and 9 years ...
... street experience respectively. As we have seen, coaching is a method of direct instructing and training. It may also include motivational speaking, seminars, workshops and supervised practice. The first thing I would do as a coach is to identify the skills and capabilities that are within each officer and find a way of enabling them to use the abilities that they have to their best. I would do this while still upholding the levels of ethics. I would also make a commitment to support the 2 officers who have been in the department for six months. The different level of experience of the officer under me doing the same job would not be a hindrance to me to coach the less experienced officers. I would ensure that our relationship is based on truth, respect, openness, and trust but not one based on fear. I would also involve the more experienced officers in the coaching process. In this regard I would partner one experienced officer with the new officer so as the new officer can learn and gain experience from the experienced officer. I would ensure that the experienced officer does not take the new officer as a junior but as an equal partner. On my part as a sergeant, I would base our relationship with all the officers on equality. The time that the experienced officer will spend with the new officer will depend on the speed that the new officers learn and gains experience. As a sergeant I would come up with a few tests to determine how much the new officer has gained. This would include things like going for patrols with him or her and from that judging his or her moves, responses and reactions.

What I would do as a mentor
Mentoring is a process whereby an employee who is senior takes up an active role in developing employees that are junior to him or her. It usually occurs at the management level or among professionals. The role of the mentor is to provide advice on how the junior employee or colleague can develop the skills, competencies, knowledge and experience that he/she has. This is aimed at ensuring progress and success of the junior in his/her career path. The mentor may also help with providing contacts that are necessary for networking to the mentee (Edmund, 2008). Therefore mentorship basically means a personal development relationship whereby a more experienced person aims at helping a less experienced person. The type of mentoring that I would practice is formal. This is because so far informal mentoring has not yielded any tangible results. As a mentor I know I have a responsibility of shaping the outlook and attitude of the junior officers towards patrols. Therefore I would make a commitment in a caring way so that at the end the junior officers have a positive attitude towards patrols. I would take part in the learning process of the mentee through taking the path of patrols with him or her .In this regard as a Sergeant I would accompany the junior officers for patrols. I will have to sow the seed of patrol in my junior officers. The way it is patrol is not the best line of duty and is therefore not accepted by many junior officers. In this regard I would prepare the officers mentally before they are fully into the field. I will do it in such a way that though they may not accept it now, they will come to be comfortable with it when the situation requires it. I would also use the skill of showing the officers so that they can fully understand the roles and requirements of the field work. in this regard I would use examples to demonstrate what patrol is all about by participating in it when we are together. I would also show them through my behaviors during patrol how they should behave. I would aim at being together with them in the field so as they may obtain useful information, get a good example and also get advice that will come in handy as they progress.

What I would do as a counselor
Counseling can be said to be a process that enables one to sort out the issues and reach a decision (Stone, 1999). As a counselor, I would talk with the officers in such a way that they will be able to create conditions that will enable them enjoy their work of patrol. I would ensure that we exchange opinions and ideas and show them that I am ready for consultations any time that they need me. I would help the officers to feel safe and be free to open up their thoughts and fears. I would listen to them so as to help them develop their thinking. I would not judge them for the common mistakes done in order to make them feel safe and respected. I would pay attention to them to show them that I care. I would put myself in their shoes to enable me view issues and challenges from their point of view. I would also try my best not to argue, belittle their concerns, or dwell on their difficulties. In doing this, I would be aiming at avoiding to hurt them. This is because hurting shuts down the thinking process and any action carried out without thinking have consequences that cause further distress.

What I want to achieve
In doing all of the above I want to increase the efficiency of patrol at Crystal state. I want to reduce the murders, forcible rapes, robberies, aggravated assaults, thefts and burglaries. I believe a well organized patrol together with the residents’ co-operation will help in achieving this.

I also want to reduce the rate of officers moving to other departments that are well paying and that have better benefits. I want to do this by improving my department in terms of efficiency and service delivery because I believe in doing this; I will have a better bargaining power for my officers to receive better payments and benefits. I also want to strengthen this department by empowering the officers under me to gain street experience and skills. In having this, the efficiency of the department will increase. I aim at ensuring the 8 officers work together as a team as I work out on bringing in more officers and retaining them permanently.

The author is associated with

The author is senior writer at https://www.allacademicanswers.com