Coaching and Mentoring Overview

Business Coaching—An Investment in Excellence

In addition to technological advancement, NASA is committed to excellence in human development and has embraced coaching and mentoring to improve the efficiency, creativity, and capabilities of its employees.

Unlike a consultant or a mentor, an executive coach is not an expert in the client’s field and may never have held a job at their level. The executive coach is an expert in helping individuals:

• Assess their current situation,
• Define goals,
• Target areas to strengthen or improve.
• Create an effective action plan,
• Understand and overcome barriers that may inhibit progress, and
• Hold the individual accountable for implementing the changes and reaching the goals they desire.

In the coaching relationship the individual being coached is the expert in defining what they want and what works best for them. The coach is the objective observer, helping the individual understand where they may have blind spots, habits, or bias that get in the way of achieving their goals. The coach is also the catalyst supporting the individual in taking action, trying new strategies, finding new tools, and holding them to the plan they established.

• Address individual and organizational change,
• Support personal transformation and career role transition,
• Foster or cultivate development of leaders, and
• Facilitate the creation of a learning culture.

A business coaching partnership provides the opportunity for an executive to:

• Strengthen performance
• Identify and leverage core strengths
• Relate more effectively with clients and colleagues
• Organize and prioritize professional responsibilities
• Restore the balance between work and personal life

The NASA business coaching process involves four steps:

1. Selection of a coach.
2. Establishment of a coaching agreement that includes desired goals. This step may also include some initial assessments that serve as a baseline for the executive to assess his or her progress.
3. Coaching.
4. Post-coaching assessments.

To begin the process, individuals should contact he NASA coaching POC at their Center. A listing of coaching POCs can be found at http://nasapeople.nasa.gov/training/coachmentor/

Mentoring—What Is its Primary Goal?

Mentoring can play a key role in developing one’s career. NASA wishes to foster a climate of continuous learning and improvement for its employees through the mentoring process, fostering employee development and professional growth.

In addition, mentoring will:

• Increase communication throughout the organization
• Support succession planning
• Aid in recruitment and retention of highly skilled Civil Service Employees
• Foster career development and acquisition of knowledge and skills, including technical expertise, relationship building, innovation, risk taking, team building, goal setting and coaching
• Build a greater sense of community
• Foster diversity

There are various types of mentoring:

• Supervisory mentoring,
• Situational mentoring:  help just when you need it at the right time;
• Informal mentoring: nurtured over a long period of time;
• Formal mentoring: beginning and end—structured around training, tools, and programs, etc.

Participants commit to meet with each other 2–4 hours a month in a one-year formal mentoring partnership, or in an as needed informal or situational mentoring.

Mentors serve in several roles and have various characteristics—People Oriented, Good Motivator, Effective Teacher/Coach, Achiever, Takes pride in NASA and understands its mission.

Supervisors attend the Joint Orientation Session and meet with mentors and mentees to provide collaboration input & sign-off on the Mentoring Action Plan (MAP).

To read more about the mentoring program, visit http://nasapeople.nasa.gov/training/coachmentor/ and/or call the HQ Mentoring Coordinator, Sherry McAllister on 358-1633.