Mentoring and Coaching - both in Business and in Life

The ability to mentor and coach is critical for excellent leaders (whether they are CEO's or not), or any person for that matter. Whether it is in business or in life, we need to try and help people gain a vision, or gain the ability for self-guidance.  This can be our legacy rather than just how much we grow a business, or how much we have made.

Mentoring and coaching is not about "telling" someone what they can or should do, but helping them to think for themselves to arrive at a decision or conclusion that works for them. The old spiritual saying that goes something like: You can give a person a fish and he will be fed for a day, or you can teach a person to fish, and he will be fed for a lifetime, applies here.

Our efforts can help grow engagement and transparency, help to gain a better idea about succession planning and challenges faced by our employees, and can help to eliminate internal politics, if handled correctly. It is amazing the number of senior executives that have said they leave this activity of mentoring to HR (Human Resources).


As executives, we need to help mentor people to not only replace us, but to be even more prepared for the global challenging markets we are confronted with daily. Being a life coach for others is needed also, given the dynamism ongoing around us and the need for work-life balance.

However, it is a two way street. As we help people, they also need to also help in maintaining the relationship with the mentor or coach through communication and meeting from time to time. Otherwise it feels like one is pulling the load all by oneself.


Putting people in touch with others, recommending training programs, or sending people to conferences, all are methods of helping people grow and become stronger and better people. Many times external perspectives and people can help the other person gain a clearer view of a situation, and many times the mentor/coach also gains some insights in the process.

Hopefully, many people whom we have helped, we were not even aware of helping at the time. How many people have we really helped? This should give us pause to reflect and to reach out.

Related Article:

http://hbr.org/2011/10/the-relationship-you-need-to-get-right/ar/1?cm_sp=most_widget-_-hbr_articles-_-The%20Relationship%20You%20Need%20to%20Get%20Right