“When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.” – Buddha

Question is, how much handholding is sufficient for the employee to grow in their role yet not be reliant on your guidance?

As managers, it is important to note that you are the facilitator of their growth. A teacher can ease the learning journey with his mentoring, but the student has to walk the path himself. You can create opportunities to promote a positive learning environment, but the staff has to be willing to learn and put on his thinking hat.

If you have encountered situations where employees seem “unteachable”, there could be underlying reasons that you may wish to examine. 

Insecure employees are “hard to evaluate, hard to coach, and hard to develop,” says Ethan Burris, an associate professor at the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas, Austin. They may be conscious about how they look in front of others, and this robs them of the chance for self-improvement.

For such employees, what kind of coaching can you provide to boost their self confidence? How can you bring them up to speed without spoon-feeding them? Most importantly, how are you able to deal with your own frustration and still provide effective mentoring? 

Don’t doubt your mentoring skills anymore. Seek help from Wise Hour on how to be an effective facilitator at work.