Kategori: Mentor

Articles about the mentor. How to be a mentor, which tools to use, what´s in it for me and other stuff.

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Maybe you didn´t know this either…

For the next tip from things you maybe know about mentoring is number two here:

Certainly, mentoring calls upon interpersonal skills and communication styles that are highly valued in today’s leaders.
Mentoring a professional colleague can be stimulating and energising. It challenges you to reflect and discuss new perspectives and ideas.
So mentoring offers an opportunity for mentors to develop attributes that will benefit them professionally.
However, I believe that mentors can gain as much, if not more than those that are mentored,
from the relationship and the reward is much greater than personal satisfaction or a career advantage.

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When running a mentoring program, it is important to…

When having a running program it is important to have contact with all the participants. And especially in the start of a program. A short phone call or maybe an email to both the mentee and the mentor, just to get information about the first mentee/mentor meeting and the match. It is important for the participants because they feel taken care of and we can lure out if it´s something wrong.

Not wrong maybe but if it´s a good or bad match or maybe if the mentee isn´t prepared or maybe the mentor is talking to much. Maybe the mentors isn´t that clear as a mentor and the meeting is almost as an information meeting.

I have no been sitting for two days and having those calls. And I am loving it!!!

They have all sort of feedback, but they all are saying something like: I love my mentor, the mentor is great, It is great meetings and very useful discussions. And the mentor is telling me about their great mentee and how they are running the meetings and using case.

In these two days I have only experienced one mentee who was not that satisfied with the mentor. But through the conversation we concluded two important things for the mentee for the next meeting. Number one: Be prepared and number two: have some concrete to talk about before the meeting. It could be the leader role, budgeting, new as a leader or other things. And when we said goodbye the mentee the mentee thanked me for the feedback and the little mentoring I have done.

As a coordinator for mentoring programs this is important, you can´t have your mentees and mentors living their own lives between the start and the ending of a program.

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Just Do It!

Think now of one thing that will make you successful. Write it down and ask yourself what feelings it will allow you to achieve this (eg. To be promoted will make me proud, confident and happy).

Decide to feel the emotions instantly!

RIGHT NOW! JUST DO IT!

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Creating Your Character

Is it like an Artist Creating a Sculpture?

Jim Rohn means that and in his latest newsletter he write some about it. Here is what he said:

Could creating your character be likened to an artist creating a sculpture? In my opinion, I believe that character is not something that just happens by itself, any more than a chisel can create a work of art without the hand of an artist guiding it. In both instances, a conscious decision for a specific outcome has been made. A conscious process is at work. Character is the result of hundreds and hundreds of choices you make that gradually turn who you are, at any given moment, into who you want to be. If that decision-making process is not present, you will still be somebody. You will still be alive, but may have a personality rather than a character.

Character is not something you were born with and can’t change, like your fingerprints. In fact, because you weren’t born with it, it is something that you must take responsibility for creating. I don’t believe that adversity by itself builds character and I certainly don’t think that success erodes it. Character is built by how you respond to what happens in your life. Whether it’s winning every game or losing every game. Getting rich or dealing with hard times. You build character out of certain qualities that you must create and diligently nurture within yourself. Just like you would plant and water a seed or gather wood and build a campfire. You’ve got to look for those things in your heart and in your gut. You’ve got to chisel away in order to find them. Just like chiseling away the rock in order to create the sculpture that has previously existed only in your imagination.

But do you want to know the really amazing thing about character? If you are sincerely committed to making yourself into the person you want to be, you’ll not only create those qualities, but you’ll continually strengthen them. And you will recreate them in abundance even as you are drawing on them every day of your life. Just like the burning bush in the biblical book of Exodus, the bush burned but the flames did not consume it. Character sustains itself and nurtures itself even as it is being put to work, tested, and challenged. And once character is formed, it will serve as a solid, lasting foundation upon which to build the life you desire.

What is your opinion? How did you create your character?


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Power Dialogues

As a mentor it is important to have the «right» questions in the mentoring session and to become even better at it you can attend a training or a seminar at The Option Institute.

Their seminar «Power Dialogues» is  the fundamentals of their core system for personal change. The Option Process® Dialogue is a non-judgmental, non-directive system of questions designed to enable people to uncover and discard hidden beliefs which fuel emotions of unhappiness and ineffective behaviors. It is a process which people have been using for more than 35 years to overcome life crises large and small.
Additionally, for those of you who are looking to master this technique and begin a fulfilling career helping others, this course is the first step.

Half of the program will focus on helping you to implement the attitude of an Option Process Mentor. (The Mentor is the person asking the questions.) This attitude consists of being incredibly present with the person speaking, totally accepting them and everything they say, not having an agenda for what they think, feel, or decide, and creating a sense of deep caring about the person. Not surprisingly, this attitude, once mastered, has enormous benefits in many aspects of life outside of the Dialogue as well.

The other half of the program will focus on enabling you to grasp the fundamentals of the questioning technique itself. You will have the opportunity to practice doing Dialogues in real time and get feedback and assistance.

In PowerDialogues you will learn to:

Always be equipped for any crisis – yours or someone else’s

Engage a powerful attitude at will where you are unshakably comfortable, relaxed and caring

Be the resource for others that you always wished you could be

Understand yourself much more deeply, and make significant personal changes by unearthing and shifting your own beliefs

Take the first step toward creating a career helping others

You can read more here, at their own we page: http://www.option.org

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Train the Mentors

Some mentoring programs simply introduce the mentee for the mentor and leave them to «get on with it».

But people need to know what is expected of them, how to go about it and why it is important and as the coordinater of the program you need to be confident they have the skills for mentoring.

The purpose of training is to enable mentors and mentorees to establish effective relationships. Because it´s not the same to manage people at work and to have a mentee. You have to build a relationship and trust on a short period of time.

And as a mentor you need the right communicating styles and techniques for applying the mentoring process.

No, as Ann Rolfe in Mentoring Works says: Effective mentoring results from a set of attitudes, behaviors, skills and motivation. Training, complemented by ongoing support and follow-up, significantly increases your return on investment. That’s how a mentoring program works.

I always train the mentors in my program and I use my training “The Big Five”, which is the five most important tools/techiques for the mentor to use in the 1-on-1 meetings.

The five tools are:

  1. Active listening
  2. Effective questions
  3. Feedback
  4. Be responsible
  5. Recognition

Under the whole the participants sit two and two and train on the tools. I don´t believe in a training where the trainer talks all the time and the participants sit and takes note. Everything is gone in the minute they walk from there.

So to be a good mentor you must practice, practice and practice…

 

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How to enter a room

The Magazine Entrepreneur have an article in their latest issue about how to enter a room. This is not only for networking or meetings but also for us mentors. When you say yes to be a mentor in a mentoring program you will the first time come in this situation. You are new as a mentor (or new year, new mentee), all the mentee are new and you go into the room for the opening assembly.

Watch the video and get tips.

(This video has been removed by the user.)

 

The tips from the video:

1. WHEN people introduce themselves, say their names back to them or take a mental note. But try to keep their names in your head. Saying a person’s name back to them 20 or 30 minutes after you’ve met them suggests graciousness and respect, and it will endear you to them.

2. DO NOT give out business cards before the meeting begins. Because it makes you look like a blackjack dealer.

3. LOOK everyone in the eye for, like, a millisecond longer than is comfortable.

4. Don’t carry yourself in a way that could be described as «jaunty.»

5. IF there are fewer than six other people in the room, shake everyone’s hand. If there are six or more, shake approximately five hands, and then nod amiably to the rest. The shaking of hands can get out of hand.

6. At no time say, «Let’s do this!»

7. NO fist bumps.

8. DON’T talk about anything that isn’t pleasant, such as how much traffic you were just in or how hot it is or how you have a cold.

 

Good luck!

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GROW-model of mentoring

To support the information on managing the mentoring process, the following GROW model can be used to develop a practical approach to the mentoring session.

The model will help the mentor prepare for the session, and will provide a useful structure to the discussion. A number of questions have been provided at each stage of the model,
however they are suggested questions only, and it is important to adapt them to your own style to ensure an effective mentoring session. Each mentoring session should work through each part of the GROW process.

The GROW mentoring model will help the mentee to identify career goals, and options to move towards their goal, and importantly to discuss what might need to change to
allow this to occur.

GOALS – REALITY – OPTIONS – WRAP UP

Do you use this tool or maybe you have another tool you use. Please shear them with us.

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Giving is better than receiving

Giving/Sharing/Generosity

It’s best to start the discipline of generosity when the amounts are small. It’s easy to give ten cents out of a dollar; it’s a little harder to give a hundred thousand out of a million.

Giving is better than receiving because giving starts the receiving process.

Here’s what is exciting about sharing ideas with others: If you share a new idea with ten people, they get to hear it once and you get to hear it ten times.

Sharing makes you bigger than you are. The more you pour out, the more life will be able to pour in.

Somebody says, “Well, I can’t be concerned about other people. About the best I can do is to take care of myself.” Well, then you will always be poor.

What you give becomes an investment that will return to you multiplied at some point in the future.

Only by giving are you able to receive more than you already have.

«Vitamins for the Mind» is a weekly sampling of original quotes on a specific topic taken from The Treasury of Quotes by Jim Rohn.