Holistic Mentoring and Coaching to Sustain Organizational Change and Innovation

Collaborative problem solving, creativity, innovation, and continuously improved performance outcomes are the normative expectations for organizations in the early 21st century. At the same time, workers seek not only equitable compensation for their efforts, but also opportunities for professional growth and development as well as acknowledgement and valuing of their contributions. As a result, more than ever, leaders face the challenge of creating learning organizations, communities of practice, and systems that promote the full potential of each worker, while attaining or exceeding organizational expectations and goals. An integrated, holistic model of mentoring and coaching consisting of four well researched theoretical frames is described: strengths based leadership, Emotional Intelligence, courageous conversations, and Appreciative Inquiry. The rarely acknowledged, imperceptible, but significant and indelible, neurological and biochemical links that connect the theoretical frames as well as the impact of self-efficacy beliefs and the thoughts and emotions of both mentor/coach and mentee/coachees are discussed. Recommendations for practice and implementation are presented.