Teaching is incredibly effective and versatile, so why isn’t it used more?
There is no denying the extraordinary benefits that consulting provides to both businesses and individuals; from increasing personal confidence and motivation, establishing a positive work culture, and increasing employee retention rates within organizations; the positive effects are endless.
Despite this, only 28 percent of small and medium enterprises use consultants, why is this?
Industry Insights and Technologies
The first possible reason why tutoring is not widely used could be down to a lack of understanding of what it is and who can benefit from it. Many tend to be under the impression that mentoring is only useful for those in certain industries such as technology or finance, however this could not be further from the truth.
The flexible nature of Mentoring provides the ability to adapt each program to suit multiple needs. From general support and guidance to teaching specific skills and identifying knowledge gaps, mentoring can equip a mentor with the right resources to enable personal and career development specific to their industry or role.
Finding a Mentor
Another reason that may prevent people from entering the world of counseling is accessibility or finding a suitable mentor or advisor. My own experience of struggling to get involved with counseling allowed me to acknowledge a huge gap in the industry that was preventing people from finding their mentor, and ultimately led me to found PushFar. I wanted to create a platform that was easily accessible to all, so that everyone could get the benefits of the counseling that you have to offer.
Removing barriers to finding a mentor or mentor, even around the world, and raising awareness of the process of getting into coaching, has been my main goal for many years.
Time constraints
For busy people, or those in senior, complex positions, mentoring may seem like an overtime commitment, however, there are many types of mentoring, allowing people to find what suits them and their work commitments.
Virtual counseling can happen anywhere, making it an accessible option and opening the door to a wide range of counseling topics. For example, in specialties where interested parties are geographically dispersed, virtual mentoring overcomes this barrier and makes mentor-mentee pairing possible. Group mentoring is another smart way for one mentor to pass on knowledge and advice to a group of instructors, reducing the time commitment for many instructors.
Types of counseling
A final barrier for people participating in coaching is a lack of knowledge about the range of coaching options. Historically it was thought of as an older, senior member of the organization supervising a younger, younger team member, in fact there is reverse supervision that encourages younger team members to pass on their knowledge, experience and skills. In a similar way, peer mentoring encourages those of similar age and experience levels to take turns acting as mentors to one another. This can be very helpful in creating support programs and learning.
I believe that the reason why teaching is not widely used is because of a lack of understanding of who can use it and how to get involved. Therefore, it should be a priority for organizations in all industries to introduce mentoring as part of their learning and development program, helping to raise awareness of its benefits to all stakeholders.
