Mentor Coaching: Four Things to Look For

Whether you are a new coach, or an experienced one wanting to brush up on your skills, mentor coaching can be an important process in helping to refine our skills and craft. Here are four things to look for in a mentor coaching process:

Compatibility – Is there a good fit/chemistry with the mentor coach? What are you looking for – someone who can encourage you on, stretch you or be a sounding board?

Experience – What is the experience of the mentor coach? Do they bring the type of experience in the coaching realm, and possibly outside the coaching realm that you are looking for? Are you looking for breadth or depth in terms of their experience?

Synergy with your coaching approaches – individual, team, group. I increasingly find more coaches are adding team and group coaching to their mix. In your mentor coaching process, are you looking to also explore the distinctions of how the core coaching competencies look and sound across the individual, team and group coaching realms.

Composition of your learning needs – scenarios, supervision, tricky issues. These can all be valuable parts of the mentor coaching process, as the core coaching competencies are explored. How do you learn best? Individually or in a group mentor coaching process? You may want to consider how you could benefit from a mentor coaching process in a group.

The ICF has also created some really good documentation around what to look for in a mentor coaching process. For an overview click here, and you can check it what ICF recommends for Mentor Coaching duties and competencies here.

Listen in to a quick audio I recorded last summer on what to look for in mentor coach.

What is important for you in the mentor coaching process? What's going to challenge and stretch you to be the best coach you can be?

Have a great week!

Warm regards
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, PCC, CPCC
Author of Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2010)
Looking to complete your mentor coaching requirements? Join me for an upcoming Mentor Coaching Group (10 hours) starting April 24 (Tues 12-1pm ET), June 1 or August 10. 7 hours group calls, 3 hours individual mentor coaching. For ACC renewals, and ACC and PCC portfolio candidates. I also offer 10 hour individual mentor coaching packages as well which can start at any time.
Phone: (416)996-8326