Why coaching/mentoring is important?

Someone recently asked me, "Describe your past experience working with a mentor/coach, What specifically did the person do to coach you? What did you find most helpful in that instance?

This took me back almost 25 yrs, reminded me of a person who helped shape my career. While there are many others, but the first one is a special one!

One of my first mentors/coaches earlier in my career was a very senior person in the organization. He was someone who has done both technology and management and hence understood the nuances of coaching/mentoring.

The story with him starts like this, I was in Bay Area and He was in Chicago, he was supposed to call me for an interview and he did at 8 pm my night. I was watching a movie and was a little skeptical to talk but I continued. When I asked if 10 pm is a good time for him, his answer was "Oh! my wife just went into labor, so I have about 30 min!"

When I joined the organization, he was so busy that there used to be a line outside his office and I had to walk about 15 min from another building to talk to him every time. Initially, it was difficult to get his time. Back then we never operated with scheduled meetings and calendars etc. Even after getting time, few minutes, he would quickly point to solutions or directions and move on. Eventually, after few more meetings, when he saw potential in me, I guess he probably felt that there are some activities he can offload himself. He started giving me few small tasks. 

I remember initially it used to be a few issues/bugs in the newly built system. For one of the issues, it took me 3 days to crack it and that was the first time he shook my hands. Then there was a feature, eventually more features. There was more challenging work, production/field issues that were thrown at me. Slowly these changed into more futuristic ideas to implement bigger systems allowing a move from development to architecture etc.

I started quickly turning around work, which made him worry about the quality of it, and once he mentioned to me "Do not work just to impress me". I was a little disappointed by that and the next day when I talked to him about this, he immediately apologized and said "I was thinking about that last evening while driving back home. That was the wrong thing to say!"

He made sure he shared success always and ensured I get visibility in the eyes of higher management. He continued to motivate me by giving timely feedback, acknowledging the work I do. Once he told me "we need to duplicate you!", at that time it is such a great thing to hear from him, but later I realized what he meant by that, which made me built a few more like me as well!

His communication style, his patience with everyone, and going to a level where people will understand what he is saying were simply admirable. His vision, looking ahead of the curve were traits which people admired about him. Again, he was someone who was at a very high level, but he could groom people around him, he made them better engineers. 

The biggest aspect of his coaching style was that he trusted people and he gave freedom to them to find their own space!

People make organizations successful. And what makes people successful? The capacity of leaders to get the best out of them.

In truth of the matter, coaching and a coaching mindset are key to making your organization more productive.