Do You Need a Trainer, a Coach, or a Mentor?

Anyone, whether working on mainframes or not, can reflect on where in their career they are and what kind of help—i.e., training, mentoring, or coaching—will move them forward their career (and their work-life balance) successfully. But first, consider the differences between a trainer, a coach, and a mentor.

Training, mentoring, and coaching

Let’s take a quick look at the stages a person goes through while learning about anything, including mainframes. The first stage is called unconscious incompetence. This is you on your first day at a new job. You don’t know anything about anything and don’t know what you don’t know! After a bit of orientation, watching and listening, and your first introduction to a work-based training course, you find that you start to achieve conscious incompetence. This is where you gradually realize just how much there is to learn. 

After much work, you reach the next stage of conscious competence. This is when someone asks you a question, and you know there is an answer. You may be able to solve their problem, but you need to concentrate and think about what to do. Or you may be able to look in the right part of the manual. You know what you’re doing, but you do it slowly and carefully to make sure you get it right. 

The final stage is unconscious competence. This is where you know exactly what to do, and then get on and do it. You’re able to do it without really needing to think about it. That’s where you want to be in your career or life.

Training with a Trainer

Training is usually important very early in your career in any job. It could be a video or online training, but, ideally, it would be human-led training so that questions can be answered immediately. It should explain the very basic information you need to do your job.

After the training course, the trainee can go back to work and practice what they’ve learned. Then, at varying times throughout their career, they can attend more training courses and get more in-depth knowledge about specific areas or new software or techniques. 

Whatever type of training a person goes on, the course contents will generally be decided beforehand with only a small amount of variable material. This is because it’s important that each running of a training course covers the same material so anyone attending the course will have the same facts. And, the trainer’s knowledge is (hopefully) passed on to the trainees.

Role of a Mentor

A mentor usually has more experience in doing a particular job than the mentee. They can offer advice when they notice their mentee doing something wrong or struggling and answer questions whenever the mentee has them. They’re completely role-focused in that they help and answer questions about doing a particular role more successfully.

Mentors answer questions about doing a particular role more successfully.

Mentors also pass on knowledge to their mentee, but in a more random and less structured way than a trainer would – and only when required (meetings, typically, aren’t scheduled). If they don’t know an answer, mentors should know where to find the answer.

Sometimes mentors are very senior people with lots of knowledge at the unconscious competence stage. Other times they are people only slightly further ahead in their career, but who understand the kinds of questions that a newer person will ask.

Coaching Toward a Goal

A coach has quite a different role. He or she doesn’t need to know the details about how to do a job. Their role is to help the coachee make decisions about their career and/or issues at work. Coaching sessions usually occur at a fixed time, last for an agreed period of time, and have an agreed number of sessions.

Coaching aims to draw out a person’s potential rather than share technical knowledge.

The sessions have a particular focus, which is usually to achieve some immediate goal. The coaching session should help the coachee improve awareness and set and achieve goals, which, in turn, will improve their performance. Coaching aims to draw out a person’s potential rather than share technical knowledge. It’s reflective rather than directive and develops a person rather than gives them information. It enables them rather than trains them.

Coaching Models

Interestingly, there are a number of successful coaching models. The most important skills that a coach needs to have are active listening, questioning, providing actionable feedback, and facilitating. Let’s look at some coaching models.

GROW Model
The GROW model is, perhaps, the best-known coaching model. GROW stands for:

• Goal setting – sets goals for the session and short and long-term goals
• Reality checking or current reality – questions and explores the current situation and any conflicts
• Options – what alternative strategies or courses of action are available, and what obstacles are in the way?
• Ws –What is to be done, When, by Whom, and establishing the Will to do it (or motivational reasoning behind the progression goal)

Several authors, including Graham Alexander, Alan Fine, and Sir John Whitmore, developed the GROW model. The TGROW coaching model was adapted from the GROW model by Myles Downey in his book, Effective Coaching. The T stands for Topic, which is what the coachee wants to address. This is bigger than the Goal.

ACHIEVE Model
The next acronym on our list is ACHIEVE, developed by Dr. Sabine Dembkowski and Fiona Eldridge. ACHIEVE stands for:

• Assess the current situation – using rapport building, the use of open-ended questions, and active listening, the coach examines every aspect of the coachee’s life
• Creatively brainstorm alternatives – this gets coachees past that feeling of being stuck
• Hone goals – and make sure that they are SMART. (It’s an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Assignable, Realistic, and Time-related.)
• Initiate options – let the client make the suggestions, even if it means sitting in silence for a while
• Evaluate options – sometimes, taking a break before evaluating options can help
• Valid action plan design – concrete steps are planned
• Encourage momentum – encourage and keep on track

OSKAR Process
OSKAR uses solution-focused techniques, which Paul Z. Jackson and Mark McKergow developed. The process has two main thrusts – identifying exceptions to bad things and doing more of the things that work. OSKAR stands for:

• Outcome – what does the coachee want from coaching/what do they want from today’s session?
• Scaling – on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 representing the worst it has ever been and 10 the preferred future, where would the coachee put the situation today? We’ll call that score ‘N’. What would have to happen for them to be N+1? How would they know?
• Know-how and resources – what helps the coachee to be at N? When do they already get a better outcome? What did they do to make that happen?
• Affirm and action – what’s already going well? What is the next small step?
• Review—What did the coachee do to make the change happen? What effects have the changes had?

SUCCESS Model
There’s also the SUCCESS coaching model, where SUCCESS stands for:

• Session planning – what actions will they commit to? What challenges have they faced since the previous session?
• Uplifting experiences – ensure the coachee remembers their successes
• Charting their course – working on a goal
• Creating opportunities – what opportunities exist or can be created to help the coachee move forward?
• Expectations and commitments – how committed is the coachee to their goal?
• Synergy – do the coachee’s feelings match the goal?
• Summary – what did the client get out of the session?

STEPPPA Model
There’s the STEPPPA coaching model, where it’s believed that behaviour is driven by emotion. Therefore, actions are motivated by how emotionally committed people feel to a goal. STEPPPA stands for:

• Subject – what does the coachee want to talk about?
• Target identification – choose a target and keep it in focus
• Emotion – is the goal worth it? How does the coachee feel about it?
• Perception and choice – what does the goal mean to the coachee?
• Plan – what the coachee is going to do
• Pace – measuring progress
• Adapt or act – do something to achieve a goal

CLEAR Model
The CLEAR coaching model was devised by Peter Hawkins, where CLEAR stands for:

• Contracting – establishing the outcomes the coachee wants to achieve
• Listening – active listening to help the coachee understand their current situation and possible solutions
• Exploring – helping the coachee to understand the impact or effect that a situation or behaviour has on their lives. Then challenging the coachee to look at options to resolve the situation or change a behaviour.
• Action – choosing the next step
• Review – looking at what’s been achieved

RAPPORT Model
The RAPPORT model was devised by Seth M. Bricklin as a way to increase emotional intelligence, specifically among executives. RAPPORT stands for:

• Relationship
• Assessment
• Provide feedback
• Plan for action
• Organize change
• Review progress
• Think ahead for growth

SOLVE Model
Dr. Ron Muchnick developed The SOLVE coaching model in his book, Coaching: How to Solve Executive Coaching Issue. SOLVE stands for:

• State the problem
• Observe the problem resolved
• List exceptions
• Verify the plan
• Execute

ARROW Model
The ARROW model is similar to GROW, and it was developed by Matt Somers, author of Coaching at Work. It adds reflection as an important part of the coaching process. ARROW stands for:

• Aims
• Reality
• Reflection
• Options
• Way Forward

Moving a Career Forward

Many other acronyms, books, and models can help in coaching situations. Whatever the goal, support is available to move a career forward and avoid stagnation.