While on the subject of putting a more human face on big companies, let's own up to the fact that many people are skeptical that it is even possible. For the many doubting Thomases out there, let's look at it this way. How many of today's medical students are choosing to specialize in the fields of cosmetic doctoring? Many more than in years past, that's for sure. Putting a human face on a business entity is a lot easier than performing plastic surgery on flesh and blood!

Changing the Corporate Face

Advancing technology in plastic surgery techniques, coupled with runaway vanity, has made human face makeovers the “in” thing. From the hair atop the head to the point on the chin, people are opting to change their looks by rearranging their biological visages. In a similar vein, many businesses, courtesy of today's rapid technological growth, are changing their faces — their reputations — too, by rearranging the ways they manage their people.

Almost Anything Is Possible

True, the technological advances in business are somewhat different in nature from those in medical science, but what they have in common is that they make what was impossible yesterday very possible today. Many businesses, big and small alike, are afforded very little wiggle room in the survival game. And depending on their product or service, and the stiffness of the competition, a face-lift is more often a necessity than a luxury.

Despite the stretching of this analogy, coaching and mentoring can never be perceived as mere cosmetic changes if they are to work effectively. In businesses where coaching and mentoring are seen as more cosmetic than real, they don't produce the results they should and could. Some outfits take bits and pieces of what they believe are coaching and mentoring, but don't lay the proper foundation of good management with integrity, which earns the respect and trust of their employees.

Some companies spout slogans such as: “Coaching begins with an attitude of helpfulness”; “Coaching is asking the right questions, not supplying the answers”; “Coaching requires commitment.” And that's all well and nice. But if these enterprises don't back up the words with credible actions, their attempts at inspiring employees to commitment are seen as ludicrous.

Making the Face-Lift Permanent

So, we can all agree: The coaching and mentoring methodology is anything but cosmetic. It is flexible and varied — always a work in progress — but it represents a permanent managerial face-lift. It's a face-lift that takes tired and worn-out traditional management approaches and turns them into young and sexy management styles befitting the new century and new millennium. For coaching and mentoring to deliver results, they've got to be both permanent and thoroughly applied throughout an organization.

As a coach, you want to appear “young” and “sexy” in managing your team. (Of course this is a metaphor, because coaching and mentoring never discriminate in their embrace of people of all ages and physical attractive-ness.) It's about being vigorous and attractive in your managerial practices and outlook. It's about challenging your employees without appearing overbearing and expecting the impossible. It's worth repeating that both you, as a coach or mentor, and your employees or mentees can substantially benefit from a company's new face in so many positive ways.