Faculty Development Plans

As an executive and leadership coach, my mission has always been to drive systemic transformation—whether in the corporate boardroom or the academic classroom. It was an absolute privilege to bring these coaching methodologies to the Malaviya Mission Teacher Training Centre (MMTTC) at Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC). Under the aegis of the Malaviya Mission Teacher Training Programme by the Ministry of Education, Government of India, I facilitated three specialized sessions focused on blending executive-level communication, digital thought leadership, and human-centric coaching frameworks for higher education faculty. Educators are the ultimate architects of our future talent pipeline. By embedding core coaching principles into their pedagogy, they can unlock immense potential in the next generation of leaders. Here is how we applied a coaching lens to these three key sessions: 🔹 Empathy and Active Listening (June 24, 2026)  • The Coaching Approach: Shifting from traditional lecturing to a coaching mindset. We explored how active listening and deep empathy establish psychological safety, allowing students to thrive and take ownership of their development. 🔹 LinkedIn and Instagram for Thought Leadership (June 26, 2026) • The Coaching Approach: Delivered as part of the 13th Online Short Term Programme on Digital Empowerment. I worked with faculty on strategic personal branding, helping them position their research, scale their impact, and show up as powerful digital thought leaders. 🔹 Counselling & Coaching Basics for College Faculty (July 8, 2026) • The Coaching Approach: Equipping educators with foundational coaching and counseling toolkits. This session focused on navigating complex student dynamics, asking powerful questions, and guiding students through critical academic and career transitions. A heartfelt thank you to Dr. Alok Kumar (Director, MMTTC-SRCC), Dr. Kanika Gandhi, and Ms. Latika Bajetha for the seamless coordination and warm invitation. And an immense thank you to the participating faculty members for bringing such high-energy engagement and deep insights to the room! Whether it is anchoring CXO development, refining board governance, or empowering institutional educators, coaching remains the single most powerful tool for sustainable growth. --- 👋 Let’s Connect: If you are looking to elevate leadership capability, drive culture transformation, or integrate systemic coaching into your organization, let's talk. Regards Aditya Sisodia S Vision Consultants 🌐 Website: www.coachsisodia.com  🏆 Aditya Sisodia | ICF‑MCC™ & ACTC™ | Executive & Leadership Coach #ExecutiveCoaching #LeadershipDevelopment #ExecutiveCoach #SystemicCoaching #FacultyDevelopment #SRCC #ThoughtLeadership #ActiveListening #SVisionConsultants

Early in my career, I thought leadership meant knowing what to do and showing people how to do it. I was wrong. What I could not figure out was when to coach, when to mentor, and when to guide. I often used the wrong approach at the wrong moment. Sometimes I gave advice when someone needed space to think. Often, I asked questions and held expectations when the person genuinely lacked the knowledge or experience to be successful. I usually focused so narrowly on the individuals I was leading that I failed to help them see the larger system, the longer horizon, and the people affected by our decisions. It took me far too long to understand that these are three distinct leadership disciplines. >> Coaching engages and empowers the individual. We coach when the person has the potential, knowledge, and capacity to discover the answer. Through questions, reflection, accountability, and goal setting, we strengthen autonomy and awaken creativity. The coach does not take the steering wheel. The coach helps the person learn to steer. >> Mentoring installs knowledge and leverages experience. We mentor when experience is necessary. We mentor when stories, frameworks, pattern recognition, and lived lessons can shorten the learning curve. Mentoring is not simply giving instructions. It is transferring understanding in a way that helps another person make better sense of what is going on. The mentor shares experiences and transfers knowledge effectively. >> Guiding changes the perspective from “me” to “we.” We guide when the decision must connect to a larger purpose, a longer time horizon, or a wider community of people. Guiding builds empathy, reveals interdependence, and helps people understand how their choices affect the trust, loyalty, and advocacy of others. The guide helps us see beyond ourselves. Each discipline is valuable on its own and there is a right time for each. Coaching without mentoring, however, can leave people repeatedly rediscovering knowledge that already exists. Mentoring without coaching might create dependence and suppress autonomy and volition. Coaching and mentoring without guiding can produce highly capable individuals who optimize for themselves while unintentionally weakening the whole. Leadership is in the intersection. It is where all of these behaviors converge. It requires the judgment to know when to evoke an answer, when to offer one, and when to widen the frame entirely. I wish I had understood this earlier. I would have talked less. Listened differently. Shared experience more intentionally. And spent far more time helping people connect their goals to the human beings around them. Leadership is the ability to move between all three in service of trust, loyalty, and advocacy. Coach the person. Mentor the capability. Guide the perspective. I hope this is helpful. If it is, save it, share it, repost it and help me get the word out.

Most leaders don’t know whether they need a Coach or a Mentor. This post will answer all your queries. In senior teams, I often see a dangerous assumption: that coaching and mentorship are interchangeable. They’re not. In fact, choosing the wrong one can quietly stall your growth, dilute accountability, or even fracture team trust. Here’s the difference: Mentorship is wisdom transfer. It offers lived experience, guidance, and storytelling. It helps you avoid landmines and see the road ahead. Coaching is perspective expansion. It uses structured questioning, reflection, and non-directive space to help you generate your own clarity and strategy. Both are valuable but only when applied with intention. So how do you know what you or your team actually need? Here’s a quick diagnostic I use inside leadership workshops and 1:1 coaching: 👉 You need mentorship when: You’re stepping into a role you’ve never held before You want pattern recognition from someone who’s done it You’re looking for a roadmap, not just a mirror 👉 You need coaching when: You’re making high-stakes decisions with no obvious answer You’re experiencing tension between options, identities, or priorities You want to develop your own clarity, not adopt someone else’s The best-performing teams build internal mentorship networks to pass on culture, context, and lessons learned. And they embed external coaching to challenge thinking, surface blind spots, and realign behaviors at the top. What most leaders miss is this: Coaching upgrades your thinking. Mentorship accelerates your direction. Together, they compound performance. In every workshop I lead with C-suite teams or high-potential leaders, I combine both disciplines with precision. Some moments call for direct insight. Others call for space and stretch. Because if all you have is advice, you risk creating dependency. And if all you have is reflection, you risk spinning in thought. High-performance leadership requires both: Mentors who’ve walked the path and Coaches who challenge how you walk it If you're leading a team that’s growing fast but feeling friction, I help organizations install the right support system across coaching, mentorship, and performance alignment. Let’s build a team that doesn’t just perform but evolves. #ExecutiveCoaching #Mentorship #LeadershipDevelopment #CultureTransformation #ScalingLeadership #HighPerformanceTeams

A great mentorship program can produce a great faculty culture. Last Friday, we hosted Katharine Stewart who showed us what that looks like. Here are 4 of my favorite takeaways: First, Katharine is what I would call a “faculty whisperer.” She’s a phenomenal expert on faculty careers, leadership, and professional development. She spent the day on our campus talking about mentorship and finding purpose again for mid-career faculty. Here are my 4 takeaways from her Mastering Mentorship workshop: 1️⃣ Mentoring is about relationships. ↪ It sounds simple, but don't confuse it with: 🚫 A way to onboard new people 🚫 Helping with the tenure and promotion process 🚫 Getting the other person to “do something” 🚫 Assigning two people together to check a box for your chair, dean, or provost. - Don't assume all faculty are natural mentors. Help set up a system that defines the relationship and builds trust. 2️⃣ Mentoring needs structure. ↪ Define the expectations: - How often do we meet? - What does accountability look like? - What are our ground rules? ↪ Define the goals: - What are your goals for YOURSELF in this relationship? - What are your goals for the OTHER Person? - Ask the other person what their goals are for you. 3️⃣ Mentoring needs boundaries (It’s not therapy). - What do you do when a topic comes up outside your expertise or responsibility? - How will we handle personal matters? - What are our expectations about confidentiality? ↪ Discussing these topics ahead of time builds trust and gives both of you a plan. 4️⃣ Mentoring doesn’t have to be just 1-on-1. ↪ No one is an expert on everything. (Think of it like a doctoral committee) - So, expand your mentorship network as areas of growth come up for you or the other person. - You can have mentors for different areas of expertise, challenges seasons of life, or opportunities. These were great workshops for all of us to: - Break our routine - Be in the same room and build relationships - Zoom out on what we do If you’re thinking about bringing in a guest to work with your faculty, I'd highly recommend Katharine! My only issue....how did we not get a picture together?! 😀

I'm excited to share NCFDD's new white paper, “Redefining Mentoring in Higher Education," written in collaboration with Harvard's Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE). The paper explores the current effectiveness gap that exists in faculty mentoring and offers a new mentoring model that drives retention, productivity, and career satisfaction.  It combines NCFDD's 15 years of mentoring best practices, coaching, and tools with COACHE's research-backed data from over 160,000 faculty over 14 years. At this unprecedented time of uncertainty in higher ed, mentoring is more important than ever.  It can be a game changer in improving faculty success, career progression, and impact, but only if it’s approached and implemented differently. We'd love to begin a new conversation on mentoring with academic leaders, faculty development professionals, and faculty.... Many thanks to our friends and partners at COACHE. R. Todd Benson, Ed.D.Deborah RuizJeannie Kim. Also shout-out to our NCFDD team: Kimberly Cotzias, Dianne Rich, Megan Sherwood, Zachary Monroe. CC: Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU), American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), POD Network in Higher Education, Council of Independent Colleges https://lnkd.in/gVCy3Qa5