A Mentoring Model

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HOW MANY HAVE HAD SOMEONE WHO YOU REMEMBER AS A KEY MENTOR IN YOUR LIFE?

Everyone!  We all have a small handful of folks who have really helped shape us:

A Parent, Teacher, Professor, Boss, etc

“Knowledge alone doesn’t qualify us to lead or mentor others….”

“People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care”

“Can’t separate leadership from relationships”

THESE ARE SIMPLE CONCEPTS – BUT THEY ARE VERY HARD TO EXECUTE

IT'S NOT ROCKET SCIENCE – BUT THINGS ARE VERY HARD IF YOU DON’T REMEMBER THESE

A CLIMATE OF MENTORSHIP IS A FUNDAMENTAL ELEMENT OF TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP

The Center for Mentoring Excellence puts it this way:

Mentoring

   Builds leadership competency and Organizational stability

   Promotes shared responsibility and ownership

   Creates openness to learning

   And encourages collaboration across an organization

As managers, It’s worth taking us a look at this. 
So I’ll invite you to apply your thoughts about mentorship to mine, and let’s see what we can learn together.   I’ll be interested to learn from you on this topic!

SEE DO TEACH!

TEACHING IS USUALLY MENTORSHIP IN REVERSE!– If you're humble about it.
IN MY EXPERIENCE, YOU OFTEN LEARN AS MUCH OR MORE THAN THE PERSON YOU ARE 'MENTORING' WHEN YOU TEACH THEM

Mentorship is about personal change

Mentorship is an important key to leadership

FOR A SUPERSIVOR - 
What's the Difference between management and leadership?  Status Quo or Change…

Management: You handle Status Quo activities - well.

Leadership: You lead an organization through Change

A great Supervisor knows the difference and when to be a leader and when to be a manager – nothing is more paralyzing to an organization than a supervisor who gets those two concepts wrong.  We have to know when to lead and when to manage.  Lead through change, but Manage the Status Quo, and know the difference in utility for those very different ocdasions.

Your ability to Mentor and Develop others rests in many ways on your understanding of this concept, because getting it right gives you credibility as a mentor, and getting it wrong destroys that helpfulness.

Every person we meet knows more about something that we do in some way, and we can learn from everyone

“Organizations are going through a great deal of change, [but] we don’t have time to send everyone to classes all the time,” she adds. “I think mentoring is the most efficient way to train new people, to socialize them to the job.” 

Terri Scandura, a professor of management at the School and dean of the UMiami Graduate School, who has been researching mentoring for more than 20 years.

IMPEDIMENT:  ?   
PRIDE

RECIPROCAL – CAN THE TEACHER LEARN FROM THE STUDENT?  OF COURSE HE or SHE CAN!

IT’S A RELATIONSHIP

GEN H– PAKISTAN BORDER  as a personal example

Can we mentor each other?

Can we be mentored by subordinates?

According to The Executive Edge, “mentoring can be as short as a one-hour session or advice you seek only when needed”

In Harvard Business Review – Elisabeth Collins described 360 Reciprocal mentoring this way:

“ Years ago, the usual place to look for a mentor was up the organizational ladder.  But today – your ideal mentor may actually be a network of mentors that includes peers and subordinates.  Think of it as the 360 model of mentoring.”

In Harvard Business Review – Elisabeth Collins describes 360 Reciprocal mentoring this way:

“ Years ago, the usual place to look for a mentor was up the organizational ladder.  But today – your ideal mentor may actually be a network of mentors that includes peers and subordinates.  Think of it as the 360 model of mentoring.”

“It’s not person-to-person, but person-to-people.”

“Mentors are extinct, the models under which they existed are.” 99U Sasha Vanhoven

Formalized and stated, or informal

Set personal goals, and ask them for help on those goals

Realize that every relationship will be different

View every mentoring relationship reciprocal

Wonder how you can help them as well, even as you are learning from them.

All members of a mentoring relationship have teachable knowledge

Leaders:  Recognize and appreciate when you see mentoring occurring

Consider this in year-end evaluations – both the willingness to learn and to teach each other

Realize we can learn a ton from those we lead every day, and they can learn from each other.

None of us are as smart as all of us

No one person has all the right answers

A CLIMATE OF MENTORSHIP IS A FUNDAMENTAL ELEMENT OF TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP

One of the most important roles we have as Supervisors is to facilitate this process by creating a climate and culture of effective mentoring.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.  

Thanks!

                James Jinnette

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