Page 16 - Workbased Training COREL test 8.cdr

4. Mentoring

Coaching does not require design. Coaching can be conducted almost
immediately on any given topic. If a company seeks to provide coaching to a large
group of individuals, then certainly an amount of design is involved in order to
determine the competency area, expertise needed, and assessment tools used, but
this does not necessarily require a long lead-time to implement the coaching
program. Mentoring requires a design phase in order to determine the strategic
purpose for mentoring, the focus areas of the relationship, the specific mentoring
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models, and the specific components that will guide the relationship, especially the
matching process.
The trainee's immediate manager is a critical partner in coaching. She or he often
provides the coach with feedback on areas in which his or her employee needs
coaching. This coach uses this information to guide the coaching process. In
mentoring, the immediate manager is indirectly involved. Although she or he may
offer suggestions to the employee on how to best use the mentoring experience or
may provide a recommendation to the matching committee on what would
constitute a good match, the manager has no link to the mentor and they do not
communicate at all during the mentoring relationship. This helps maintain the
mentoring relationship's integrity.
e. Workplace diversity
Workplace diversity is an issue that has increasingly become a talking point in many
businesses. Although some managers may feel legally compelled to create a
diverse workforce, others may see the strategic benefits of having a broad range of
types of employees. Understanding the complexity of diversity issues may help
you manage your company's workforce. In order to explain the term diversity, it is
important to understand that diversity directly affects the workplace – and with
increasing significance. The term diversity includes an understanding and
acceptance of the fact that people have individual characteristics, which make
them unique from each other, particularly when comparing individuals in a group.
These characteristics may include race, ethnicity, gender, religion, political
ideologies, sexual orientation, age, physical abilities or socio-economic status.
These characteristics also may include life experiences and cognitive approaches
toward problem solving.
Since the workplace is filled with people, the differences that each unique person
brings to a company directly affects what takes place within the company. Many
aspects of the company – from production to marketing to corporate culture – are
4. Mentoring influenced not only by diversity but also as to how the diversity is perceived
company-wide. To those outside the company, that company may seem as if it is
made up of many types of people. However, if the differences are creating discord
and frequent turnover, then that company is not using its diversity to leverage the
business to its advantage.

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