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Mentoring and Coaching

Tiffany Loken
AET/560 Facilitating Change
March 28, 2016
Christine Nortz

Mentoring and Coaching

Mentoring and coaching is immensely important when it comes to job performance. Encouraging and
assisting employees to improve upon their success within the company is a large part of the leadership role. The
example that first comes to mind is with my current organization, The University of Phoenix.
Each Enrollment Representative is responsible for meeting and excelling in 5 competencies. The
competencies range from team involvement to implementing change. However, the only aspects that are
focused upon are how many students are enrolled by each Enrollment Representative each month and how
many referrals they can generate. It is difficult because there is a number of new students each employee needs
to enroll, but that number is never to be written down. Although this number is never written down, it is
discussed almost daily, not in a manner of coaching or mentoring. Leadership will usually ask each employee to
send a report of how many new students and referrals they have each day. If they have not met the requirement,
the reply email simply asks, Why do you feel you have not reached your goal? and that is not coaching.
Employees can get in trouble for not meeting the number, but in written documents it is considered progression.
They also group it with time management, understanding of product knowledge, and being student centric. It is
a bit misleading and there is a lack of coaching and mentoring to improve.
For example, if an employee is not enrolling 10 new students each month, instead of documenting their
neglect to progress students, I would focus on behavior. We would have an open conversation about how the
employee feels about their job, goals, students, professional development, and training.
The University of Phoenix changes so often that employees may not fully understand certain changes or
processes. There can be many reasons an employee is not reaching their on-boarding goal and that needs to be
looked at first. To be effective in coaching and mentorship you must understand where the employee is and not

solely focus on the goal they did not meet. Everyone is a work in progress and the coaching and mentor process
is as well.
I would start by helping them develop on a behavioral level. What are they doing well and what do they
feel they need to work on. Do they understand the product (programs they enroll for) and the process of
enrollment? Are they having trouble with certain populations (international, grad students)? My focus would be
to meet them where they are and create a path for them to start and be with them each step of the way. Through
this process rapport and trust will be built. There will be opportunities for feedback, goal setting and achieving,
communication, and self assessment.
It is nice because each employee has access to how many students they are currently working with and
how many they have enrolled each month. I would start there and have them go through each month from their
point of view. What issues did they have that I can help with and why are students not excited about our
programs. We would begin at basics and do mini trainings together, one on ones at their desks listening to phone
calls, letting them listen to me on calls with students, and helping them every step of the process. I would
celebrate their successes and not focus on the number for a while, see how they do with that and adjust
accordingly. Change agents associated with my plan would be building rapport, gaining trust, getting the
employees buy-in, open communication, productive feedback, goal setting and achieving, and adapting to
change.

References
Spector, B. (2013). Implementing organizational change: Theory into practice (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River,
NJ: Prentice Hall.