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Coaching & Mentoring

Module: Module 2 — Functional MasteryCode: CM (ADK)Faculty: Prof. Amitabh KodwaniSessions: 2Status: ✅ Drafted

Big idea​

Leadership today is judged less by what you decide and more by how you grow other people who decide well. Coaching and mentoring are the two structured ways leaders do that, and they are not the same: coaching is a short-cycle, goal-specific, performance-focused dialogue using a defined model like GROW (Goal → Reality → Options → Will); mentoring is a long-cycle, career-and-life relationship in which a more experienced person shares perspective and opens doors. Both differ from counselling (therapeutic) and training (instructional). The leader's job is to know which mode to be in for a given conversation — and to ask questions instead of giving answers.

Key concepts​

  • Coaching vs mentoring vs counselling vs training. Coaching = unlocking performance through structured questioning. Mentoring = long-term career guidance from experience. Counselling = therapeutic. Training = skill transfer. Mixing them up kills both relationships.
  • The GROW model. Goal (what do you want?) → Reality (where are you now?) → Options (what could you do?) → Will (what will you do, by when?). The coach asks; the coachee answers and owns the outcome.
  • Active listening and powerful questions. Open-ended, future-focused, non-leading. The 80/20 rule: coachee talks 80%, coach 20%. Pause and silence are tools, not awkwardness.
  • Mentoring relationship lifecycle. Kram's four stages — initiation → cultivation → separation → redefinition. The most effective mentoring is matched on values, not functional area.
  • When to coach vs when to direct. High-skill, high-will employees thrive on coaching. Low-skill or crisis situations need direction — the Situational Leadership II call. Coaching is not the only mode; it's one mode you choose deliberately.
  • Reverse mentoring. Junior employees mentor senior leaders on digital, generational or cultural shifts. Pioneered by Jack Welch at GE for internet literacy in 1999; widely used today for DEI and AI literacy.

Self-check​

A team lead's report is missing a deadline for the third time this quarter. The lead opens the 1:1 with: 'I noticed the report slipped again. What do you think is making this happen, and what would have to be true for it to ship on time next month?' Which coaching practice is being used and which GROW stage are they in?

  • A. Directive feedback — Will stage
  • B. Powerful open-ended questioning — Reality → Options transition (assessing where we are, then surfacing what could change)
  • C. Performance counselling
  • D. Mentoring — cultivation stage
GROW model in one line
Goal (what do you want to achieve?) → Reality (where are you now, what have you tried?) → Options (what could you do?) → Will (what will you do, by when, with what support?). Structure for one coaching conversation.

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Continue learning​

📖Book · ReadThe Coaching Habit (Michael Bungay Stanier)Seven essential coaching questions that fit any 1:1 — the most useful short book for leader-as-coach.📄HBR · ReadThe Leader as CoachIbarra & Scoular on the shift from directive to coaching leadership — with the four GROW-style modes mapped to context.🎙️TED · Watch5 Ways to Listen Better (Julian Treasure)7-minute toolkit on active listening — the half of coaching that's silent.🎓ICF · ReferenceICF Core Coaching CompetenciesThe International Coaching Federation's eight-competency standard — the global rubric for what good coaching looks like.
🪞 Apply it — reflection prompts
  1. Replay your last three 1:1s in your head. Were you closer to 80/20 listening or 20/80? What single change would move the ratio?
  2. Identify one report ready for a stretch goal. Walk through a full GROW conversation on paper before your next 1:1 with them.
  3. Pick one senior leader who'd benefit from reverse mentoring (AI, generational shift, DEI). Who'd be the best junior mentor — and what's stopping you setting it up?

📝 Going deeper. John Whitmore, Coaching for Performance (5th ed., 2017) is the canonical GROW reference; Kathy Kram's Mentoring at Work (1985) remains the seminal academic treatment of the mentoring lifecycle. For practical leader-as-coach, Michael Bungay Stanier's The Coaching Habit is the most useful short book.