Establishing Meaningful Goals in Leadership Development: The VA Coach/Mentor Model

The VA Coach/Mentor Model

Realizing the need to preserve leader knowledge and experience and realizing the importance of leaders having personal development goals, The Department of Veteran’s Affairs (VA) established a program to ensure that all leadership training participants were matched to a trained coach/mentor.  The coach/mentor serves as an experienced resource person and as a catalyst for setting meaningful and achievable personal goals that can be incorporated into a Personal Development Plan for the training course.

At the conclusion of the presentation, participants should be able to answer the following questions:

• What is the rationale for the VA establishing its coach/mentor program to augment leadership training?
• What does “GROW” stand for in the VA coach/mentor model?
• What is the difference between coaching and mentoring?
• What are two important skills needed by coach/mentors?
• What makes a SMART goal?
• What is the importance of leaders having both personal and professional written goals?
• Could a similar program improve employee/leadership development in my organization?

DOOR PRIZE: Dale will give away one copy of two different books: Coaching for Performance by John Whitmore, and The Inner Game of Work by W. Timothy Gallwey.

About the Presenter

Dale R. Johnson, M.S.Ed., VHA-CM, is a graduate of the University of Memphis and serves as an Education Specialist with the VA Medical Center, Memphis. He has also served as an instructional designer and training instructor for the Internal Revenue Service.

Dale is currently the LMS Domain Manager for the VA Medical Center and the coordinator for the facility’s leadership and management development programs and the coach/mentor certification training program.