Coaching and mentoring: practical methods to improve learning

Coaching and mentoring have developed significantly in recent years. Helping and supporting people to learn more effectively are not new activities, of course, but what is new is the extent to which their power is being harnessed to meet the challenge of our ever-increasing need to take personal responsibility for managing to learn new things in new ways.

The authors of this vital new book on the topic believe that we are in the middle of a revolution of thinking about learning. Clearly demonstrating how recent research suggests that traditional methods need to be adjusted or, in some cases, abandoned in favour of the effective use of coaching and mentoring, this book provides a practical toolkit for such change.

Covering both the theory and practice of coaching and mentoring, ranging from the world of work to education to community action, the book demonstrates how important it is to relate theoretical models to specific situations in order to gain real practical benefits. In a highly readable and accessible style, the authors offer new insights into, and examples of, such issues as matching staff, and fresh ways of giving feedback and asking the right questions. While they provide both best-practice approaches and proven solutions, they also explain that where coaching and mentoring are concerned, simplicity is often the ideal solution. To facilitate this goal they outline 'Seven Golden Rules of Simplicity'.

This practical introduction to an increasingly widely used practice will prove invaluable to anyone wanting to help people to increase and improve their ability to maximize their potential, learn new skills, improve performance and become the person they want to be.