Coaching & Mentoring
Developing others, patience with mistakes, high support and high challenge
Coaching and mentoring is the transition from being a player to being a coach. Early on, your output is your own work. As you scale, your output becomes the capability of your team.
This skill is about spotting unrealized potential and building a system that turns solid contributors into exceptional ones.
Key shift: your job is no longer to be right, but to make others better.
Defining the core pillars
Developing others: moving beyond telling people what to do. Ask questions that lead them to the answer so they build ownership and judgment.
Patience with mistakes: mistakes are tuition. If you fix everything, your team never builds decision making muscle.
High support, high challenge: great mentors are not nice, they are kind. They push people while keeping them safe.
What you should learn
Inquiry based learning: coaching through questions instead of answers.
The GROW model
- Goal, what do you want?
- Reality, what is happening now?
- Options, what could you do?
- Will, what will you do first?
Scaffolding: provide heavy support early, then remove it as competence grows.
The feedback to advice ratio: aim for 70 percent listening and questions, 30 percent guidance.
How to learn it
A. Ask, don’t tell week
Respond to problems with questions only. Force independent thinking.
B. Pull vs push mentoring
Beginners need direction. Experts need autonomy. Adjust per person.
C. Learning reviews
Monthly 15 minute check ins focused only on growth, not output.
D. Study the coaching habit
Learn to coach in the flow of work, not in heavy meetings.
Manager vs coach
| Feature | Traditional manager | Founder coach |
|---|---|---|
| Primary tool | Instructions | Questions |
| Problems | To be fixed | To be learned from |
| Knowledge | Must be smartest | Unlocks others |
| Outcome | Tasks done | People grow |