by Liz Hall
Managing talent, responding to the economic climate and working with youths: these are your key priorities for mentoring this coming year.
Some 18.9 per cent of you cited talent management as your top or second priority, according to the Coaching at Work Annual Readers’ Survey 2011. Coming in second was responding to the economic climate by helping people deal with change, for example- cited by 15.5 per cent of you as a priority. Working with youths was cited as either a top or second priority by 6.8 per cent of you.
At Coaching at Work’s recent conference on 23 November, panellist Aboodi Shabi, said: ”We stand on the brink of a future we cannot know and do not know what to do. We need to be able to help people answer those questions. We’re performing harder and harder and to what end.? There are things bubbling all over the world. I see something that says game over. We have a real crisis to face and young people are facing a future where they are less well-off than their parents.”
Panellist Jennifer Liston-Smith said:“The current crisis is a crisis in leadership .We need upward mentoring from junior people about flexible working and better ways of managing.”
Liston-Smith also responded to a comment from one of the conference delegates, Leni Wildflower, about the lack of funds available to many to pay for interventions such as coaching:
“One of the things we can do is work where the change is taking place, for example, some of the leading investment banks, Citigroup’s diversity programme – because when all this shakes out we are still going to need women in positions in leadership. What we if had a slightly more diverse leadership? Would the same thing have happened if it had been Lehman Sisters? Be part of making the change happen even if you are not saving the world. There’s still money in that sector.”
Other priorities for 2012 include differentiating mentoring from coaching and moving closer to coaching: both were given as priorities by 3.4 per cent of you.
We also asked you to nominate who you think should win this year’s Mentoring Person of the Year Award. We have received some well-deserved nominations but we are still open to more nominations. Criteria include making a contribution to the profession in general, championing mentoring within an organisation, launching or sustaining a trail-blazing initiative, and generosity in sharing knowledge, wisdom and expertise with others. Last year it was David Clutterbuck- who will it be this year? Email me with your nominations at liz@coaching-at-work.com We plan to announce the winners in the March/April issue of Coaching at Work.