Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/supervising-or-coaching-whats-the-difference/5015120/
Managers in the corporate business world are now making big investments in training seminars and consultants to help them learn about coaching employees. There is also a whole new field of personal and professional coaches, taking their place alongside the long established professions of vocal coaches, sports coaches, and labor coaches (doulas and midwives). Coaching and mentoring are buzzwords in the early childhood field as well. Does this signal new professional roles for us or just a renaming of supervision strategies for our workforce?My colleague, Constant Hine, suggests that there are distinct differences between training and coaching staff, with the former focused on skills and know-how, while the latter aims at nurturing self-defined goals and passions. Deb Curtis and I make a similar distinction in our book, The Visionary Director, proposing that supervising and training has a focus of upholding standards and managing resources, while coaching and mentoring keeps the focus on the staff person as a learner, working from his or her strengths, learning style, and desired goals. These distinctions are more than a matter of semantics. They represent different attitudes and approaches to helping staff get better at their jobs.
Supervising versus Coaching
Beyond a seminar or two, most program directors ...