Week 3: Key skills for a mentor or coach

Introduction

Welcome to Week 3 of the course.

Last week you focused on knowing yourself. You considered the importance of self-awareness, a variety of the tools and techniques that can help you to develop it, and the potential obstacles that can get in the way.

This week, you’ll look at other skills that are vital for an effective mentoring or coaching relationship. Understanding what makes a good mentor or coach should give you an advantage when trying to identify the right mentor or coach for you. Many of the skills discussed this week will also be advantageous for the mentee or coachee to develop.

Now watch the following video to introduce the week.

Download this video clip.Video player: mc_1_week3_intro.mp4

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Transcript

NARRATOR

This week, you'll consider what makes a good mentor or coach. Many of the key skills are the same, and you'll look in more detail at three of them. For the mentoring or coaching relationship to work, there must be rapport between the individuals involved. And the ability to build that rapport is a crucial skill. Listening is arguably the most important skill of all. If you feel that your mentor or coach is really listening to you, the rapport between you will grow, and you're more likely to share your thoughts and feelings honestly. Questioning is the third skill you'll explore. Your mentor or coach won't usually tell you what to do about something. But by asking you the right questions at the right time, they can help you to make decisions for yourself. Finally, you'll consider some of the things that can go wrong in a mentoring or coaching relationship, such as poor communication or not committing enough time. Understanding the potential pitfalls will make it easier to avoid them and create a more positive and effective relationship as a result.

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By the end of this week, you will be able to:

• understand what makes a good mentor or coach
• recognise how rapport and trust can be built
• describe the listening and questioning skills that a good mentor or coach will demonstrate.

You’ll start this week with a look at what makes a good mentor and what makes a good coach. As you’ll see, there are many similarities but some key differences.