Guiding and caretaking have to do with providing support with respect to the environment in which change takes place. Guiding is the process of directing another person along the path leading from some present state to a desired state. It presupposes one has been there before, and knows the best way to reach the desired state. Being a caretaker, or "custodian," involves providing a safe and supportive environment. It has to do with attending to the external context and making sure that what is needed is available, and that there are no unnecessary distractions or interferences from the outside.
Coaching is the process of helping another person to perform at the peak of his or her abilities. It involves drawing out another personıs strengths, helping that person to overcome internal resistances and interferences, and facilitating him or her to function as a part of a team. An effective coach observes a personıs behavior and gives him or her tips and guidance about how to improve in specific contexts and situations.
Teaching relates to helping a person develop cognitive skills and capabilities. Teaching focuses on the acquisition of general skills, rather than on performance in specific situations. A teacher helps a person to develop new strategies for thinking and acting. The emphasis of teaching is more on new learning than on refining oneıs performance.
In Greek Mythology, Mentor was the wise and faithful counselor to the hero Odysseus. Under the guise of Mentor, the goddess Athena became the guardian and teacher of Odysseusı son Telemachus, while Odysseus was away on his journeys. Thus, the notion of being a mentorı has come to mean the process of both (a) advising or counseling, and (b) serving as a guide or teacher. A mentor has overlaps with, but is distinct from, either a teacher or coach. A teacher instructs, and a coach provides specific behavioral feedback, in order to help a person learn or grow. Mentors, on the other hand, guide us to discover our own unconscious competences, and strengthen beliefs and values, often through their own example. Mentors are often individuals that have helped to shape or influence our lives in a positive way by ³resonating² with, releasing, or unveiling something deeply within us.
Sponsorship involves creating a context in which others can act, grow and excel. Unlike a teacher, coach or mentor, the skills and resources of the sponsor may be quite different from the person or group that is being sponsored. The sponsor is not necessarily a role model for the individual or group being sponsored. Rather the sponsor provides a context, contacts and resources that allow the group or individual being sponsored to focus on, develop and use their own abilities and skills. Sponsorship is about the development of identity and core values. ³Sponsorship² involves awakening and safeguarding potential within others. It involves the commitment to the promotion of something that is already within a person or group, but which is not being manifested to its fullest capacity.
Awakening goes beyond coaching, teaching, mentoring and sponsorship to include the level of vision, mission and spirit. An awakener supports another person by providing contexts and experiences which bring out the best of that personıs understanding of love, self, and spirit. Like all of the other levels, the skills related to being an awakener must include but transcend all of the other levels. Thus, being an awakener requires the abilities a coach, teacher, mentor and sponsor, but has other dimensions. An awakener awakensı others through his or her own integrity and congruence. An awakener puts other people in touch with their own missions and visions by being in full contact with his or her own vision and mission.
This seminar will provide skills which help and support a person to develop and grow at all of these levels. Participants will learn skills and tools which facilitate each level of support.
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