Mentor and Coaching - How can we help? Chris Grady, 25 January 2015 I called this session to explore the value/use/availability of coaching and mentoring for creatives. Grateful for a lively conversation with the following: Jonathan Carr, Bridget Hanley, Anna Mors, Stan Walton, Kitty Martin, Isaac Acheampong (coach), Sue Appleby (and butterfly coach…Amy Golding), Caley Powell. We explored the differences between coaching (asking questions, working with the worried well towards goals), mentoring (giving advice, usually someone experienced in your field) and therapy (looking backwards at a stuck place or part of previous life). There appear to be few coaches known who specialise in the arts and creative practitioners (Amy / Newcastle, and Nicky Raby, Rachel Stevens & Alison Goldie / London are known to me…please add your names if you are a qualified coach in this field, Thanks) Should everyone have a coach. ? - no, but many people in business find it useful. A number of small companies and artists are including mentor/coaching support in their GFA arts council applications and budgets. You can coach yourself - and most of the tools are online and available for anyone. The advantages of having a coach seemed to be a) a person who asks the right challenging question to unlock something and b) someone who is holding you to account for tasks and direction of travel. Two training areas were mentioned Deb Barnard of RD 1st and The Coaching Academy (who run a regular FREE 2 day coaching course in London) We touched on some of the tools of coaching GROW model - goal, reality, options, will do. and the Wheel of Life. Exploring mentors the feelings were: a) It would be great if there were accessible programmes to offer mentors for companies/individual creatives (only the Oval House mentor and CGO Surgeries known to the group). b) Someone who is a couple of years further along the journey as a producer/director or whatever field you are in can be really helpful to highlight some of the challenges. c) An old grey beard can also be helpful because of the range of experience and contacts they may have. d) SOLT/Stage One and TMA have a mentor programme for producers/managers, Clore offers mentors for its fellows, some of the MA and training programmes offer coaching/mentoring. e) Be excellent if the new Directors association also looked at this for its members when the new CEO is appointed. We then talked about some specific personal projects and mentor/coaching support which might be useful. Also touched on the Group Coaching possibilities where a gathering of creatives can spend 2hrs working in private on their own topic/challenge led by a single coach Session came to a nice rounded end with us all having learned a little more. Thanks <br/> Chris [email protected] Tags: directors, coaching, CPD, Producers, mentoring, Directors, Mentoring, producers