Tuesday, May 31, 2016

05/31/2016 Professional Development: Mentoring and Coaching for NIMO Employees

One of NIMOs missions is to develop future leaders of Fire and Aviation Management and the Forest Service.  As such, it is important that employees within the NIMO program also take advantage of opportunities to develop themselves into better leaders and/or mentors.  Since the Forest Service already has an active Mentoring/Coaching program in place, the Workforce Development Workgroup has taken on a project to facilitate mentoring and coaching for NIMO employees.

Mentoring will come from within the Forest Service, however may extend beyond the boundaries of the NIMO program.  The mentors will take advisory roles; offering options and career advice based on their experience.  The mentor will work with the mentee to help define and achieve the mentee's career goals based upon a path they both agree to.  The average life span of the mentorship is one year, but can be extended for additional time, if needed.

Coaching is predominately identified as a "learning coach" within the Forest Service.  They are typically outside of the employees work unit and serve as a catalyst for the employee.  They don't offer advice but they let the employee make their own decisions using probing questions that spur the employee to ask and answer all the "right" questions for themselves, regarding how they achieve their career goals.  This, also, has a term of one year, but can be extended if necessary.

Individuals who participate in the mentoring and/or coaching programs are tracked by HRM.  Participation in these programs is also included as part of the employees yearly Performance Appraisal.  The link below provides the workflow process for the Forest Service Training & Employee Development's USDA Mentoring Portal Process Flow.

USDA Mentoring Portal Process

If interested in signing up for the Forest Service Mentoring and/or Coaching, see the following links:

HRM Mentoring Program
HRM Coaching Program

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