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Center for Leadership Development and Research

 

Leadership Coaching and Mentoring

INFORMATION FOR MBA 1s INTERESTED IN MBA 2 COACHING

 

Know you’re interested? Download the "Letter of Commitment". Don’t delay—we were oversubscribed last year!

Context

OB 362 Leadership Coaching and Mentoring is a two quarter (winter/spring) second year elective taken by students who want to develop themselves as leaders who coach (not as those wanting to build skills as professional coaches). Classes meet twice a week. In addition, each second year student is assigned 2-3 MBA 1’s with whom they meet over the course of the two quarters to provide them with a “practicum” in which they can apply what they are learning. OB 362 has a pre-qualification that ensures the students who have enrolled are committed to and prepared for the course.

Why would you want to do this? What is in it for you?

Continued sense-making, skill development and application:

  • The first quarter generated a lot of experiences and data, far more than can be assimilated in squad development meetings and 2 1:1 sessions with your fellow. A coach can help you continue the learning process.
  • Just as the first quarter was full of experiences and data, the rest of the first year will be as well. A coach can pick up where your squad left off and help you continue the cycle of experiential leadership as well as turn awareness into action.
  • Your mentor/coach will help you deepen your reflection; this will result in you taking the time to incorporate both past feedback (360 data) and more recent feedback (from squad/fellow) into current efforts to improve own skills.
  • Continues the action learning cycle of act / reflect-review / theorize / apply

Structure

  • We all say we will reflect and coach ourselves, but experience shows that without some structure, such as a coach, that rarely happens.
  • Research demonstrates the effectiveness of the heightened commitment, ownership and accountability created by skilled coaching that produces measurable results in leadership effectiveness.

Feedback, support, challenge and encouragement

  • A coach will make sure you don't let yourself off too easily while you're here at b-school; he/she’s top priority is your growth, development and success - only there to help you best figure out how you want to be successful, and to create an action plan to help you get there.
  • Your mentor coach will also encourage you to be responsible for your own success, and to be accountable for what you're able to accomplish.
  • This mentoring/coaching engagement will be specifically customized to you and your unique learning style
  • Your mentor/coach will help you see and investigate the underlying beliefs and assumptions of your habits and actions.

Build a mentor/coach relationship with another 2nd year student

  • Slower pace and deeper dive than Fellow’s Program
  • It’s all about you. Don’t need to share your MBA 2 with 7 others in a group setting
  • Provides you with outside yet knowledgeable ally/source of help to figure out what you can do to practice leadership (as Kent Thiry said one must do)

Other

  • Research shows that people who are coached are 3 times more likely to be coaches. Goleman’s work shows coaching is the most underutilized of the management styles required to be a successful leader.
  • Broaden your social network – short term and as alum
    Pertinent, relevant to where and how you live

Expectations for MBA 1

Commitment to sessions: Our experience with the coaching program tells us that most students gain a tremendous amount from their coaching experience. Those gains come from a commitment to working together with your MBA 2 Mentor/Coach on a regular basis. For that reason, you will schedule five one-hour coaching sessions (roughly one every other week) with your Mentor/Coach per quarter (total of 10 sessions over winter and spring quarters). The five hours of coaching per quarter are mandatory for the 2nd-year coaches to complete for each of their coachees. By signing on to receive coaching, you are committing to participate in the coaching process for two quarters. Failure to meet this commitment will impact the learning process for both you and your coach, and could negatively impact your coach’s grade.

You will schedule all five of these sessions at the beginning of the quarter to ensure that you and your Coach can accommodate these meetings in both of your schedules.

Preparation: As you learned in your Teams and Leadership Lab courses, most meetings are more productive if participants are thoughtful about the meeting topics beforehand. One of the keys to a productive coaching relationship is that you come to each session with a focus, ready to work through specific issues with your coach. To ensure that your Coaching sessions are as productive as possible, you will prepare a Coaching Worksheet before each coaching session and email it to your Coach at least 24 hours in advance of each of your Coaching sessions (templates will be provided to you by your mentor/coach).

Sign up and Deadlines

Download the “Coaching Statement of Commitment”

[icon - pdf] PDF File (0.1 MB)

  • Read and sign
  • Return by Monday, November 3, 5 PM (PT):
    •  MBA2 Coaching Table at the Student Activities Fair on Wednesday, October 29,
    • K2 (lower level of Knight Building),
    • or leadership@gsb.stanford.edu (scan and email)

MBA 1 mentee/coachees will be selected on a first come, first serve basis starting 1:00 p.m. October 29 and ending November 3, 2008, 5 PM (PT).