Stikkord: Mentoring

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I’m ‘growing through other’

I’m so sick of leadership catchphrases. Irritable enough, is also right in the majority!

This morning I met with my mentee. And I was struck by the cliché is actually true: it is developing to be a mentor.

By mentoring, I have to think through how I do things and why. It is a bit embarrassing having to admit it, because I have developed allergies to all the clichés surrounding leadership and leadership development. But «I want to grow the second« it is so true.

A commentary by Catharina Nordlund from Sweden giving in the swedish leadership magazine www.chef.se

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Reverse Mentoring

Based on old paradigm mentoring where a more senior person (in terms of age, position or experience) mentors a junior, reverse mentoring places the more junior person as the mentor.

Usually used when executives need to understand operations or technology that can be shared by shop floor, front-line or tech-savvy employees.

The key to success in reverse mentoring is the ability to create and maintain an attitude of openness to the experience and dissolve the barriers of status, power and position.

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Need YOUR help: European survey about mentoring

Trainifique , the company inspiring leaders worldwide, is conducting a survey to see how mentoring is used to create success in Europe. The results from the research will be published in a book later this year.

Thor-Erik Gulliksen , one of the founding partners of Trainifique, says that mentoring has been around for thousands of years, the first documented mentoring was in the story of Homer in the Odyssey. “We want to see how mentoring is used in 2010, how success is made by asking for advice and using someone who can guide you when you need some direction,” he continues.
You may also participate, just by filling in the quick survey found here . It takes less than 10 minutes.
“We are interested in all use of mentoring, you do not have to be in a leading position right now – you may have been earlier, or you may not have reached this position just yet. Perhaps you had a mentor when you studied, perhaps when you did a career transition. Or, you may have used a mentor to help you gain the success you always wanted. “ Gulliksen says that this is the first European wide survey about mentoring. “We aim to uncover the differences and the similarities of the use of mentoring throughout Europe.”
The results of the survey will be presented the fall 2010, at the Junior Chamber International World Congress 2010 in Osaka, Japan.
You may participate in the survey by filling in the form here !
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What helps leaders and managers to grow and develop – MENTORING DO!

Growing leadership expertise in a short period of time within an organization is a continual challenge. The speed of projects and the speed for innovation have increased so that we are shoving people into positions of management and leadership in an ever-increasing pace. How are they going to learn? But more important, how are they going to be able to quickly apply what they have learned within their organizational culture and business environment? In the past, an individual would learn skills and knowledge through training, education and experience, and the organization could afford to wait around for him/her to come up to speed. But today, organizations need to have their people learn – and be able to apply that learning – more quickly.

Studies have proven that there are limits as to how fast you can drive education and training and have it be effective. Also, due to economic constraints within organizations, many times the problem is not how fast to drive the education and training, but how to even find available dollars and resources to get it to individuals that are destined to lead the organization now and in the future. What can organizations do to help solve this dilemma and assist in the transition between “education” and “experience”? Mentoring can assist.

By definition a Mentor is an individual with the experience, knowledge, and/or skills in a specific content area who is able, willing, and available to share this information with another individual. There is nothing in this definition that denotes that the Mentor must be older, of a higher job grade level, or have been with the organization for a longer period of time. The most important aspect is that the Mentor has “experience”, “knowledge” and “skills” that he/she wants to share with someone who needs them. In many cases, it may not even be the “knowledge” or the “skills”, but the “experience” – the application of that knowledge – that is important.

We have learned that under the direction of the Mentor, the learner is given immediate access to valuable insights and past experiences. Within mentoring relationships, individuals are learning by doing. Individuals are able to practice what they are learning. Another advantage of mentoring to an organization is that it showcases those individuals that have the necessary skills/competencies to coach and develop others. Many times these are the same types of skills/competencies that an organization wants displayed in its leadership. Even individuals that do not wish to take on a “managerial” or “supervisory” role within the organization can satisfy a need to “lead” through a mentoring relationship as well as allowing the organization to tap into a greater pool of talent/skill.

Many times individuals do not get any experience in specific coaching roles until after they have been given the title of “manager” or “supervisor”. This means they are in a reactive mode of learning these skills/competencies. If individuals have the opportunity to learn and practice these skills/competencies as a Mentor before they obtain the title of “manager” or “supervisor”, it is proactive and much better for them as well as the organization.

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5 Benefits of Working with a Coach or Mentor

Being a leader can be a really lonely existence.  Expectations are high and it can often be a real struggle to stay on top of your game and continually deliver great results.
Continuing to develop as a leader has never been so vital not least because of the major challenges facing many organisations right now.

For those at a more senior level working with a coach or mentor is often a great way of continuing to develop.  So what are the benefits?

Benefit 1: Thinking time

The pace at which leaders operate in organisations is often relentless and means that there is little or no time to stand back and take stock.  Being able to stand back from issues and challenges allows you to clearly think through the choices, look at challenges in different ways and ultimately to take better decisions.  And if you are taking better decisions it means better results for you personally and the organisation.

Benefit 2: Ongoing support

Training is great and I have been to many great training courses over the years.  Trouble is most training courses are a one shot opportunity.  What I mean by that is that you go along to the course, leave enthusiastic and an few months later find you are back where you started.  If you are a leader looking to be more effective over the long term you know that it is going to take time.  Having that ongoing support can help you make that sustained change in performance.

Benefit 3: Personal attention

In my experience of working with clients there are often some very specific areas of focus that leaders and managers want to work on.  Sometimes it might be about strategies and tactics that they can apply and other times it might be tackling areas of self doubt or misconceptions.  I also notice that they rarely need to work on all aspects of a particular topic but more on one or two areas.   The nature of the relationship means that it is much easier to tailor the programme to meet specific needs.

Benefit 4: Highly time efficient

I know that when I was in leadership and management roles, creating the time to attend a 2 or 3 day course was often a real challenge.  By comparison finding a couple of hours a month to work with a coach was much more time efficient and effective.

Benefit 5: Return on Investment

Ultimately if you are investing time, money and energy into something the return on what you have invested will be important.  Research into the benefits of coaching indicates that the return on investment is in the region of 500-700%.  Now these numbers might well look huge but let’s take a look at an example.  Imagine you are a senior manager who aspires to be a Director.  Ask yourself what’s the difference in salary and benefits?  In a field like accountancy, the differential between a number one and number two can easily be in the £30-50,000 per annum range.  If you are in the number one job for say 10 years, that could mean an extra £300-£500,000 to your earnings.  So look at your investment in terms of the lifetime value.

Bottom Line – Continuing to develop as a leader is no longer an optional extra.  If you are serious about realising your professional and personal potential, working with a coach or mentor might just be the catalyst.

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How to Get More from Your Mentor

 

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A senior publishing executive at William Morris once told me how baffled she was when an aspiring literary agent asked her to be a mentor. She looked at me and said, "She’s got to make me want to be her mentor. Isn’t she supposed to do something for me?" The answer is a definitive yes.

A mentor can prove invaluable when it comes to providing insight into your organization, inside information about the politics of the place, or just some over-the-shoulder advice about who to work with and who to stay away from. Mentorship, however, is a two-way street — and you’ve got to figure out how to repay the favor and make the relationship work for both of you.

 To read the whole article, click here:

blogs.hbr.org/cs/2009/09/how_to_get_more_from_your_ment.html

 

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Five questions for your resolution(s) in 2010

 Psychology Today recently published five questions that could help you choose your resolution(s) this year:

 

  1. Ask: "What would make me happier?"
  2. Ask: "What is a concrete action that would bring about change?"
  3. Ask: "Am I a ‘yes’ resolver or a ‘no’ resolver?"
  4. Ask: "Am I starting small enough?"
  5. Ask: "How am I going to hold myself accountable?"

It’s interesting that Psychology today tips begin with happiness and end with a question about taking ownership. Sounds a lot like mentoring, doesn’t it? 

 

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Strengthening Your Self-Discovery

Marcus Buckingham is a leadership expert, internationally renowned speaker and New York Times bestselling author of several books, including First, Break All the Rules; Now Discover Your Strengths and Find Your Strongest Life: What the Happiest and Most Successful Women Do Differently.

He’s the founder of TMBC, a management consulting company, and has been hailed as a visionary by corporations such as Toyota, Coca-Cola and Microsoft. He has appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show and Larry King Live and been featured in major newspapers.

What are the best ways for people to discover their strengths?

Marcus Buckingham: It’s ironic that your strengths can be so easy to overlook, because they’re clamoring for your attention in the most basic way: Using them makes you feel strong. All you have to do is teach yourself to pay attention. Try to be conscious of yourself and how you feel as you’re completing your day-to-day tasks. Most of the time, we’re so focused on getting our work done that we don’t really have time to notice how we feel about it.

Read the rest of the article here:

www.successmagazine.com/1on1-marcus-buckingham-/PARAMS/article/917

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Back to AIESEC University Norway

On sunday I am going to the AIESEC University Conference in Oslo, Norway to talk about Mentoring and Coaching.

I will be conducting my seminar «The Big Five», It will be 20 people there and I hope for a trainifique training.

If you are in Oslo, come by and join the seminar, it is in Moltke Moes vei 31 in Oslo. The University in Oslo, Harriet Holters House, right beside Samfunnsvitenskapelig fakultet.

If youre not in Oslo or not coming, then enjoy a good sunday the way you want!

I will post some pictures later.