Advanced Professional

Development
DMS
Improving personal and professional
skills
Level 7
 Introduction
• Managers spend much time counselling
employees. The process of counselling employees
demands careful use of a manager‘s
communication skills.
• Some counselling requires advanced training in
psychology and clinical behaviour and should not
be attempted by someone without that training.
• However, some counselling tasks in an
organizational setting takes on a form of ―helping‖.
Managers must recognize when counselling tasks
fall within their ―helping‖ realm and when
counselling should be conducted by professionals.
 Counselling Skills
• In organizational counselling, managers cannot make
decisions for employees; however, they can help
employees to make their own decisions. As a ―helping‖
situation from which both the individual and the
organization can benefit, counselling in an organizational
setting is a communication tool of significance.
• Some counselling in an organization involves helping
employees with personal problems that are indirectly
related to their work in the organization. An employee
may need a ―sounding board‖, that is, someone to listen,
as problems are easier to bear when someone listens.
• As problems are alleviated, an employee‘s productivity
improves. Additionally, an indicator of a good
organizational climate is when employees confide in
 Approaches to Counselling
• Directive counselling involves taking the
initiative and actually suggesting solutions.
• The possible consequences of various
courses of action are outlined and a range
of actions are considered.
• Here, the counsellor charts a path towards
the correct decision.
 Approaches to Counselling
• Indirect Counselling assumes that only the
counselee is capable of defining
accurately his or her problems the most
effective way of getting to the heart of a
difficulty is to encourage the other party to
discuss the issue at length.
• It presupposes that solutions to problems
will not be implemented unless counselees
wholeheartedly accept their implications.
 Coaching and Mentoring Skills
• A coach is a person who facilitates
experiential learning that results in future
oriented abilities. . . . [A coach] refers to a
person who is a trusted role model, adviser,
wise person, friend, mensch, steward, or
guide—a person who works with emerging
human and organizational forces to tap new
energy and purpose, to shape new vision
and plans, and to generate desired results.
A coach is someone trained and devoted to
 Coaching and Mentoring Skills
• Mentoring has been defined recently as ‗a
relationship between two people with
learning and development as its purpose‘
(Megginson andGarvey, 2004: 2).
• In addition, Megginson and Garvey state
that mentoring is primarily for the mentee,
as ‗the mentee‘s dream‘ (Caruso, 1996) is
central to mentoring.
 Coaching and Mentoring Skills
• Coaching and mentoring are processes that
enable both individual and corporate clients
to achieve their full potential.
• Coaching and mentoring share many
similarities.
– Facilitate the exploration of needs, desires skills
and thought processes to assist the individual in
making real, lasting change.
– Use questioning techniques to facilitate
 Coaching and Mentoring Skills
• The individual own thought processes in
order to identify solutions and actions
rather than takes a wholly directive
approach.
• Support the individual in setting
appropriate goals and methods of
assessing progress in relation to these
goals.
• Observe , listen and ask questions to
understand the individual‘s situation.
 Coaching and Mentoring Skills
• Encourage a commitment to action and the
development of lasting personal growth and
change.
• Ensure that individuals develop personal
competencies and do not develop unhealthy
dependencies on coaching or mentoring
relationship.
• Encourage individuals to continually improve
competencies and to develop new
developmental alliances where necessary to
achieve goals.
 Coaching and Mentoring Skills
• Possesses qualifications and experience
in the areas that skills-transfer coaching is
offered.
• Manage relationship to ensure the
individual receives the appropriate level of
service and that programmes are neither
too short, nor too long.
 Coaching and Mentoring Skills -
Summary
• Mentoring enables an individual to follow in the
path of an older or wiser colleague who can
pass on knowledge and experience and
otherwise out-of-reach opportunities.
• Coaching on the other hand is not generally
performed on the basis that the coach has
direct experience of client‘s formal occupational
role unless the coaching is specific and skills
focused.
 Five Areas of Coaching and
Mentoring
• Business Coaching and Mentoring
– Organisational development changes brought
about by mergers and acquisitions as well to
provide key employees with support through
change of role or career are often catalysts
which inspire companies to seek coaching and
mentoring.
– Coaching and mentoring are often linked with
organisational change initiatives in order to help
staff to accept and adapt to changes in a manner
consistent with their personal values and goals.
 Five Areas of Coaching and
Mentoring
Business Coaching and Mentoring
• Coaching and mentoring programmes
generally prove to be popular amongst
employees as coaching achieves a balance
between fulfilling organisational goals and
objectives while taking into account personal
development needs of individual employees.
It is a two way relationship with both
organisation and employee gaining significant
benefits.
Executive coaching and mentoring
• The key differences between business and
executive coaching are:
– Have a track record in professional roles
– Work exclusively with ‗high flyers‘ or those
who have the potential to be a high flyer
– Work at board or CEO level with high profile.
– Offer total confidentially
– Work with potential ‗captains of the industry‘
and high profile business leaders.
 Performance coaching and
mentoring
• Many coaching clients will seek coaching or
mentoring for performance enhancement rather
than the rectification of a performance issue.
• When an organisation is paying premium rates for
development services, performance is usually the
key payback they are looking for.
• Performance coaching derives its theoretical
underpinnings and models from business and
sports psychology as well as general management
principles.
 Skills coaching and mentoring
• Skills coaching has some commonalties
with one to one training.
• Skills coaches and mentors combine a
holistic approach to personal development
with the ability to focus on the core skills of
an employee needs to perform their role.
• Skills coaches and mentors should be
highly experienced and competent in
performing the skills they teach.
 Skills Coaching and Mentoring
• Job roles are changing at ever increasing rate.
Traditional training programmes are too inflexible
or generic to deal with those fast moving
requirements.
• In these instances one to one skills coaching
allows flexible, adaptive ‗just in time‘ approach to
skills development.
• Skills coaching programme are geared specifically
to the individual, their knowledge experience,
maturity and ambitions and is generally focused a
number of organisational and individual objectives
 Personal Coaching and Mentoring
• Personal or ‗life coaching‘ is growing
significantly in the UK, Europe and Australia.
• Personal coaches may work face to face but
email and telephone based relationship are
common.
• These coaches and mentor separate operate
in a highly supportive roles to those who wish
to make some form of significant change
happen within their lives.
 Personal Coaching and Mentoring
• Coaches offer their clients supportive and
motivating environment to explore what
they want in life and how they might
achieve their aspirations and fulfil their
needs.
• By assisting the client in committing to
action and by being a sounding board to
their experiences coaching allows the
individual the personal space and support
they need to grow and develop.
 Personal Coaching and Mentoring
• Personal coaching is differentiated from
business coaching purely by the context and
the focus of the programme.
• Business coaching is always conducted within
the constraints placed on individual or group by
the organisational context.
• Personal coaching on the other hand is taken
entirely from the individual‘s perspective.
 Advanced Professional
Development
DMS
Improving personal and professional skills
Level 7
Lesson 2
 Multitasking
• Multitasking – switching back and forth between
activities of varying complexity – within
workplace and household.
• Today‘s lifestyle is very hectic and involves
trying to handle a number of situations at the
same time and facing the consequences of
failing to do so effectively.
– Using mobile phone while driving and losing control
of car, increased anxiety, a sense of being
overwhelmed by various demands, physical and
mental burnout and depression.
 How to better manage time while
multitask
• Determine what is important for success in your
personal and professional lives and what constitutes
exceptional performance. Know what is expected of
you then set goals and plans that will lead you to that
success.
• Use an activity journal to evaluate your use of time
and energy levels at different times of the day. This
will give an insight of what time is worth and which
tasks should be avoided , dropped or delegated.
• Maintain an appropriate diet, rest and sleep regime
so that you can spend more time performing well.
• Control distractions that interfere with effective work
by letting colleagues or family members when you not
want to be disturbed .
 Leadership Skills
• Leadership is the key quality that all managers
need to develop, irrespective of whether they
are leading a small team of just two or three
people, or leading a major corporation.
• Leadership involves using a whole range of
skills, attitudes and behaviours. The way in
which people perceive leadership varies from
person to person, and from organisation to
organisation.
 To be an effective leader means
that you need to possess:
• Knowledge - e.g. knowledge of business in
general and their own business in particular,
strategy, processes and procedures.
• Understanding - e.g. understanding of people
and of working relationships.
• Skill - e.g. specific professional and job skills
as well as managerial skills such as
communication, negotiation, organisation and
so on.
• Sound common sense - perhaps the most
 Definition of Leadership
• 'Leadership is about a sense of direction. It is knowing
what the next step is.‗ (John Adair)
• 'Leadership means winning people's hearts and minds.'
(David Gilbert-Smith, Leadership Trust)
• 'Leadership is concerned with building bridges and
setting a new agenda.‗ (John F Kennedy)
• 'Leadership and management are in many respects the
application of common sense, though this needs to be
combined with humility and a willingness to recognise
your own fallibility and that of others. Good leaders
acknowledge their mistakes.‗ (Sir Colin Marshall,
Chairman of British Airways)
 Leadership Skills
• All leaders will show similarities in their attitudes towards
their tasks or the people with which they interact.
They will endeavour to ensure that a task is completed to the
necessary standards within the constraints of time and
budget. They will also make sure that relationships with the
people involved are built and maintained in such a way that
everyone working on the task performs to the best of their
ability.
• A leader will, often subconsciously, make a decision between
paying greater attention to the task (and less attention to
people and relationships) or greater attention to people and
relationships (and less to the task). This will determine the
style of leadership adopted. A number of theories have been
developed, which deal with this interaction.
 Theories of Leadership
• Tannenbaum and Schmidt (1958).
This theory deals with the Autocrat to Democrat Model,
and suggests that leaders operate between the two
established extremes of an authoritarian leader and
subordinates working with complete freedom.
• Douglas McGregor (1960).
The 'Theory X and Theory Y' Model. Here managers are
divided into two categories. Theory X managers believe
that employees are lazy and unwilling to work.
Therefore, they need to pushed to achieve. Theory Y
managers, however, believe that employees are keen to
do well and show interest in their activities. They
respond well to praise and respect from others.
 Theories of Leadership
• Kerr and Schriesheim (1974).
The Ohio State Leadership Model introduces the
concept that leaders initiate structure, whilst considering
their employees' needs.
• Blake and Mouton (1964, 1978, 1984).
The Managerial Grid suggests that leaders show either
concern for people or production.
• John Adair (1984).
The leadership role can be split three ways: achieving
the task, building the team and developing the individual.
• Hersey and Blanchard (1988).
Situational Leadership incorporates the ability of leaders
to follow either task behaviour or relationship behaviour.
Different approaches to leadership
 Theories of Leadership
• There are three keys aspects to the role of the
leader and their specific responsibilities:
1. Achieving the Task
2. Building and Maintaining the Team
3. Developing the Individual
• Adair has suggested that the six key leadership
functions arise from this.
1. Planning.
2. Initiating.
3. Controlling.
4. Supporting.
5. Informing.
6. Evaluating.
These are shown in Figure and are derived from Adair's functional approach.
A summary is of functions of a leader
Characteristics of Effective Leaders
– Create a vision.
– Develop plans and strategies.
– Define standards.
– Set priorities, objectives and goals.
– Encourage excellence.
– Establish responsibility and accountability.
– Promote communication and disseminate information.
– Make the best use of resources - including time and
people.
– Lead from the front and set an example.
– Motivate others to unite and work together to achieve a
common goal.
 Leadership styles
• The role of leadership in management is largely
determined by the organisational culture of the
company. It has been argued that managers'
beliefs, values and assumptions are of critical
importance to the overall style of leadership that
they adopt.
• There are several different leadership styles
that can be identified within each of the
following management techniques. Each
technique has its own set of good and not-so-
good characteristics, and each uses leadership
in a different way.
 Leadership styles
• The Autocrat
• The autocratic leader dominates team-members, using
unilateralism to achieve a singular objective. This approach
to leadership generally results in passive resistance from
team-members and requires continual pressure and direction
from the leader in order to get things done. Generally, an
authoritarian approach is not a good way to get the best
performance from a team.
• There are, however, some instances where an autocratic
style of leadership may not be inappropriate. Some situations
may call for urgent action, and in these cases an autocratic
style of leadership may be best. In addition, most people are
familiar with autocratic leadership and therefore have less
trouble adopting that style. Furthermore, in some situations,
sub-ordinates may actually prefer an autocratic style.
 Leadership styles
The Laissez-Faire Manager
• The laissez-faire manager exercises little control over his
group, leaving them to sort out their roles and tackle their
work, without participating in this process himself. In general,
this approach leaves the team floundering with little direction
or motivation. Again, there are situations where the laissez-
faire approach can be effective.
• The laissez-faire technique is usually only appropriate when
leading a team of highly motivated and skilled people, who
have produced excellent work in the past. Once a leader has
established that his team is confident, capable and
motivated, it is often best to step back and let them get on
with the task, since interfering can generate resentment and
detract from their effectiveness. By handing over ownership,
a leader can empower his group to achieve their goals.
 Leadership styles
The Democrat
• The democratic leader makes decisions by consulting his
team, whilst still maintaining control of the group. The
democratic leader allows his team to decide how the task
will be tackled and who will perform which task.
• The democratic leader can be seen in two lights:
– A good democratic leader encourages participation and
delegates wisely, but never loses sight of the fact that he
bears the crucial responsibility of leadership. He values group
discussion and input from his team and can be seen as
drawing from a pool of his team members' strong points in
order to obtain the best performance from his team. He
motivates his team by empowering them to direct themselves,
and guides them with a loose reign.
– However, the democrat can also be seen as being so unsure
of himself and his relationship with his sub-ordinates that
everything is a matter for group discussion and decision.
Clearly, this type of "leader" is not really leading at all.
 Leadership styles
• The Charismatic Leader
• This concept originally described by House (1976), uses the
term charisma to describe the characteristics which enable
leaders to exerciser influence over others by charm and force
of personality.
• In this sense the leader has the ability to motivate individuals
to the extent that they are likely to do and achieve more than
they usually would. In addition, the attitudes, beliefs and
values of the leader are adopted by the individual.
• However, whist they are clear benefits associated with being
part of a team led by a charismatic leader; the down side is
these types of people are often not risk adverse and they
may be prone to unpredictable, obsessive an overly focused
behaviour.
• There are also some who, whilst possessing a charismatic
leadership style, have used this for selfseeking reasons and
to ultimately manipulate others.
Charismatic Leaders
 Leader v Manager
• It is useful at this stage to make the distinction between a manager and a
leader, and thereby avoid any unnecessary confusion. There are many other
approaches to management. A selection of different concepts is listed here:

• Management by Coaching and Development (MBCD):

Managers see themselves primarily as employee trainers.
• Management by Competitive Edge (MBCE):
Individuals and groups within the organization compete against one another
to see who can achieve the best results.
• Management by Consensus (MBC):
Managers construct systems to allow for the individual input of employees.
• Management by Decision Models (MBDM):
Decisions are based on projections generated by artificially constructed
situations.
• Management by Exception (MBE):
Managers delegate as much responsibility and activity as possible to those
below them, stepping in only when absolutely necessary.
 Leader v Manager
• Management by Information Systems (MBIS):
Managers depend on data generated within the company to help them
increase efficiency and inter-relatedness.
• Management by Interaction (MBI):
Emphasizes communication and balance of male/female energy as well
as integration of all human aspects (mental, emotional, physical and
spiritual), creating an empowered, high-energy, high-productive
workforce. [Management
style developed by Barbara Taylor and Michael Anthony]
• Management by Matrices (MBM):
Managers study charted variables to discern their interrelatedness,
probable cause and effect, and available options.
• Management by Objectives (MBO):
The organisation sets overall objectives, then managers set objectives
for each employee.
• Management by Organizational Development (MBOD):
Managers constantly seek to improve employee relations and
communications.