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Mentoring and Coaching Programs 205

• Where there are issues such as shift sharing and sick or vacation
coverage that can be resolved more effectively by pairing employees
than by trying to juggle schedules.
• Where the safety issues in your production line require employees
to look out for each other.
• When employees can benefit from having a co-worker involved in
their day-to-day activities,such as sales calls and quality inspections.
• In acquisitions,mergers,or reorganizations,where two separate
departments are being combined and employees in each need to
learn the other’s processes.
• Where you work closely with your supply chain partners and they
assign some of their employees temporarily to your organization.
• Where you have a long-term consulting program in place and there
are term consultants working in your organization for more than
three months.
• Where employees transfer for medium-term periods to other loca-
tions within your organization.

Executive Coaching
Another form of coaching is termed “executive coaching.” This
is where an external consultant is hired to work with an individ-
ual executive (usually senior) to assist in his or her development.
Adding to the confusion of terminology, this form of coach-
ing is really more like mentoring, in that it usually deals with the
whole of the executive’s development and not just job-related
skills. (Executive coaching
is rarely skill- or job-relat- Executive coaching A sit-
ed.) As the use of external uation in which an external
coaches is not within the consultant is hired to work
scope of this book, the dis- with an executive (usually at the sen-
tinction need not detain ior level) to help him or her develop.
us—but you should be This “coaching” is actually more like
mentoring than like coaching.
aware of the terminology.

Manager’s Checklist for Chapter 11
❏ Mentoring and coaching are an essential part of your rela-
tionship with key employees.