It is a widely held belief that mentoring enhances job performance and career advancement. Not surprisingly, successful people are often asked who their mentors were.

Many organizations point with pride to formal mentoring programs as evidence of their desire to help individuals achieve their career goals. The more enlightened companies, typically those on the list of the best companies to work for, understand that if an employee's whole life is working better, the employee is more productive, and that's important to the bottom line. Many organizations have a shortage of mentors within the ranks of management. The pressures of our fast-paced world often do not allow senior managers to build a relationship with junior managers or provide the time required to help them develop their potential. Therefore, coaches are frequently drawn from the outside world. The objective of outside coaching is to provide that missing link, to offer employees guidance and support with business and lifestyle matters.

Statistics complied by the International Coach Federation in Angel Fire, New Mexico indicate that for the amount of money that an organization typically spends to send a worker to an off-site conference, that same person could have a coach for a year. The results from coaching are usually much more dramatic, affecting everything from productivity to team building and job satisfaction. When employers are willing to invest in coaching it sends a message to the employee that implies "you are a valuable asset." This encourages worker loyalty and improves overall employee retention.

Tina Carey and Associates have developed a coaching program that is uniquely designed to meet the needs of individuals and organizations that wish to thrive and prosper in this era of rapid change.

ORGANIZATIONAL HEALING

The purpose of this program is to teach leaders how to transform employee fear and anger into positive organizational results (i.e. maintaining and/or exceeding productivity during transitions). These tools are ideally suited to organizations facing downsizing, acquisition or potential closings, as well as for the survivors of crisis or change. The process focuses on the Leadership Team and Supervisory staff. This program combines both classroom time and on-site observation in the work place.

Participants build skills in:

• Four key elements of success - Communication, sensitive listening and understanding, planning and positive intent.
• Refocusing the organization on stakeholder needs.
• Providing daily goals and measures of success for the workforce.
• Rebuilding trust and a sense of community within the organization.

The program is composed of four modules. Each module includes a four-hour class session and a full day of hands-on observation and feedback within the workplace.

PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT: SETTING PERFORMANCE GOALS

• We have developed a simple, down-to-earth process to help leadership teams develop performance goals and annual objectives for their organizations. The two half-day sessions include activities to:

• Define and set areas of principle activities and responsibilities with measures of success.
• Define and set annual goals and objectives with measures of success.
• Set timetables and regular review periods
• Identify key clients for each activity, responsibility, and goals.
• Identify and implement both the short-term tactical goals as well as the long-term strategic goals for the organization.

The process is designed to help managers integrate their goals into the overall goals of the corporation, into the team as a whole, and to cascade related goals down into the ranks of their employees.

STAKEHOLDER MODEL SENSING PROCESS

Most employee survey processes, by design, encourage employees to complain. The blind survey process provides emotional feedback with little or no actual data. Stakeholder Model Sensing, on the other hand, is a unique employee sensing process that goes beyond the normal "venting" process by leading groups of employees into a place of becoming part of the solution rather than just victims of their situations.

The Stakeholder Model process includes:

• Identifying who the stakeholder groups are for your organization.
• Developing and defining needs for each of those groups.
• Determining which of those needs are being met.
• Targeting which needs are not being met.
• Developing employee-driven suggested action plans to improve results.