International institutions can only operate on a given mandate. Once, I had the pleasure to listen to François Villeroy de Galhau, Governor of the Bank of France. He explained the mandate he was operating on and described the one the European Central Bank has.
He shared how they use the given responsibilities and tasks as a guideline for all the work they could do. It allows them to focus on specific tasks and protects them from becoming active in other fields. The latter is important as these institutions have limited resources but will be confronted with people anxious to see other pressing problems solved.
It doesn’t limit them, as there always is the possibility to ask for a mandate to be adapted to their abilities.
Having a mandate is just as fundamental in a coaching relationship. When a coachee asks for coaching, the mandate will emerge from a clarifying conversation between coachee and coach. It enables the coach to know if he can help the coachee. This expands into coaching itself and is called a contract in transactional analysis. It describes an explicit bilateral commitment to a well-defined course of action as well as a constant verification that one is on course.
The coaching process has to be in support of the client. Thus, there is a regular verification that the client continues to be involved and acts on the change he’s looking for.
In teams, the mandate is a combination of task and authority a person has. The role description is a way to describe the tasks and authority as they are combined in the specific role.
Without care for these boundaries, silos may appear. Teams then start to protect themselves from the activities other teams develop. It results from a fear that they won’t be able to lead their projects as they understand them. In their experience, they see themselves as knowing and able to ask for help when needed. However, they don’t want to fend of help they don’t need or want.
What they react to, is help that isn’t solicited and help that may become overwhelming if not intrusive.
Help needs a receiving hand to be effective.
Whenever humans perceive others to be in need, there is a tendency to step in and offer help. At the same time, seeing others in need easily generates anxiety, it is, with compassion the trigger to bring help. However, whenever it is anxiety, there is also a desire to get rid of it, which is when the wish to help loses track of existing needs or requests.
Felt urgency, adds to a desire to help that may become overwhelming and a need to resolve the anxiety through personal action. The risk then is, that the provided help is displaced or distracts people from the change they need to create.
While anxiety helps trigger the desire to help, it should not command the help. In most cases, there is enough time available to ask if there is a need for help and what it is that will help.
