Comments on: How to Get the Right Help at the Right Time in Your Career! http://blog.dilipsaraf.com/2010/06/how-to-get-the-right-help-at-the-right-time-in-your-career/ Transforming Lives!! Sun, 29 Jan 2012 06:40:19 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Alva Coodey http://blog.dilipsaraf.com/2010/06/how-to-get-the-right-help-at-the-right-time-in-your-career/comment-page-1/#comment-520 Alva Coodey Thu, 23 Sep 2010 12:00:05 +0000 http://blog.dilipsaraf.com/?p=383#comment-520 Thanks for providing this great article. See my very own! Thanks for providing this great article. See my very own!

]]> By: Ravishankar Gundlapalli http://blog.dilipsaraf.com/2010/06/how-to-get-the-right-help-at-the-right-time-in-your-career/comment-page-1/#comment-232 Ravishankar Gundlapalli Mon, 21 Jun 2010 14:37:09 +0000 http://blog.dilipsaraf.com/?p=383#comment-232 Dilip - Excellent insights into various avenues available to those aspiring to advance in their careers. I believe that Mentoring is a Continuum - where a protege establishes trust in a mentor and taps into the latter's wisdom and experience to steer his or her career. A Career Coach on the other hand is transactional like you so beautifully differentiated. It is quite possible that a Mentor can play the role of a Career Coach, and likewise, a Career Coach can play the role of a Mentor. So, the terms Career Coaching and Mentoring could therefore be applied to the kind of interaction based on the context. Career Coaches provide transactional strategy, Mentors provide directional inspiration and clarity. By transaction, I mean 'a clearly defined target.' - When the transaction is clear and the protege needs clarity of thought and a clearly defined strategy to win in that transaction, the interaction can be termed as Coaching. (Dilip Saraf: Sometimes, the transaction is fuzzy and the career coach can bring clarity through the dialoging process) - When the exact transaction is not clear and the protege is kind of unsure where to go next and needs 'directional clarity and inspiration', the interaction can be termed as Mentoring. (Dilip Saraf: When a "transaction" is in the picture, it is more a career coach than a mentor who can better help, even when that is not clear. A mentor is good at showing the general direction to the mentee and then the mentee can process that further and then approach the career coach.) When a protege is younger, say high school, college or first few years in a career, it would be best to let the interactions be 'mentoring-like' - to inspire and provide direction. In such early years, it is best for the mentor to 'ignite the genius within,' and let the protege pursue a path that is closest to protege's heart and innate talents (Dilip Saraf: This should work in all phases of one's career, but you are right; early clarity can be leveraged for much more impactful and quick results.) As the path becomes clearer to the protege, the interactions can be more 'Coaching-like' - to provide tools to get to the next milestone with a specific strategy. Aspirants therefore must have access to one or more experienced individuals who can provide 'directional inspiration as mentors' and 'transactional strategy as coaches.' (Dilip Saraf: Yes, that would be ideal!) Dilip – Excellent insights into various avenues available to those aspiring to advance in their careers.

I believe that Mentoring is a Continuum – where a protege establishes trust in a mentor and taps into the latter’s wisdom and experience to steer his or her career. A Career Coach on the other hand is transactional like you so beautifully differentiated. It is quite possible that a Mentor can play the role of a Career Coach, and likewise, a Career Coach can play the role of a Mentor. So, the terms Career Coaching and Mentoring could therefore be applied to the kind of interaction based on the context. Career Coaches provide transactional strategy, Mentors provide directional inspiration and clarity. By transaction, I mean ‘a clearly defined target.’

- When the transaction is clear and the protege needs clarity of thought and a clearly defined strategy to win in that transaction, the interaction can be termed as Coaching. (Dilip Saraf: Sometimes, the transaction is fuzzy and the career coach can bring clarity through the dialoging process)

- When the exact transaction is not clear and the protege is kind of unsure where to go next and needs ‘directional clarity and inspiration’, the interaction can be termed as Mentoring. (Dilip Saraf: When a “transaction” is in the picture, it is more a career coach than a mentor who can better help, even when that is not clear. A mentor is good at showing the general direction to the mentee and then the mentee can process that further and then approach the career coach.)

When a protege is younger, say high school, college or first few years in a career, it would be best to let the interactions be ‘mentoring-like’ – to inspire and provide direction. In such early years, it is best for the mentor to ‘ignite the genius within,’ and let the protege pursue a path that is closest to protege’s heart and innate talents (Dilip Saraf: This should work in all phases of one’s career, but you are right; early clarity can be leveraged for much more impactful and quick results.)

As the path becomes clearer to the protege, the interactions can be more ‘Coaching-like’ – to provide tools to get to the next milestone with a specific strategy.

Aspirants therefore must have access to one or more experienced individuals who can provide ‘directional inspiration as mentors’ and ‘transactional strategy as coaches.’ (Dilip Saraf: Yes, that would be ideal!)

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