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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Wants to help grow successful small businesses in America?

For all my American readers out there, want to do some volunteering as a mentor? SCORE is a nonprofit association dedicated to helping small businesses get off the ground, grow and achieve their goals through education and mentorship. They have been doing this for nearly fifty years.

They provide:

  • MENTORS who share their expertise across 62 industries
  • Confidential businessCOUNSELING in person or via email
  • Free business TOOLS, templates and tips online
  • Inexpensive or free businessWORKSHOPS (locally) and webinars (online 24/7)
Because of their work they are supported by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), and thanks to their network of 12,000+ volunteers, they are able to deliver services at no charge or at very low cost.
This is a fantastic organization with over 12 000 volunteers helping entrepreneurs in over 340 chapter across America.
Here is one of the success stories.

Off Broadway Dance Company

Owners Pat Balderas and Geri Messer created Off Broadway by purchasing the Manhattan Dance Company in 2011, and they have been growing steadily ever since. They maintain their studio in the Common Space in order to keep costs down and fees low. Many of their students are working women, who attend class on evenings and Saturdays.

Owner/Founder
Geri Messer & Pat Balderas
My Location
Common Space 1700 N Reynolds Rd Rm 207

Toledo OH 43615

United States
How SCORE Helped

The adults taking tap dance lessons at this studio located in the Common Space are often also the stars in performances given throughout the community.  Their big event is the Annual Showcase staged each year at the Maumee High School Performing Art Center.  

These folks are serious about tap dancing; most of them attend two or three lessons each week, and progress from “beginner” to “advanced” under the guidance of the area’s finest teachers.   This makes Off Broadway unique in the Toledo area.

Pat and Geri had the help of SCORE mentors Dennis Snell and Alan Messer, who have guided them in their growth and in planning for the future.  Space will soon become an issue; there were two classes each week when they started (with 30 students), and the walls are now bulging with eight classes (and 55 students).

Adults range in age from 22 to 72, and most look forward to participating in the Company’s performances. They have an extensive community outreach program, going to nursing homes and the like.  But they also are becoming well known as performers at various functions in the area.  And that Annual Showcase attracted 700 paid attendees last year!

Pat and Geri emphasize that we are “all adults taught by adults; this is not an exercise class; we don’t dumb it down; this is really a professional operation.” But they are quick to say that not everyone wants to be a performer, and others who are interested in learning the skills of tap dancing are certainly welcome!

Go to their excellent web site: www.offbroadwaydancecompany.com for more information. 

 

If you want to know more, read more success stories or maybe become a mentor, click here
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How do You find a mentor

 

I read a lot on the internett and have a lot of RSS about mentoring, a lot of things is a repeat from others, but some of it is new thoughts.

In december 2013 I received an email from Michael Hyatt and he is an interesting original thinker about leadership, and he was explaining about finding a mentor. Not only in writing but also in a podcast.

I am a huge fan of other peoples opinion and therefor I want to post it here, not the whole article, but highlights.

He starts the post like this: To be brutally honest, your chances of finding a mentor are slim and none.

I don´t agree of that, but he raise an interesting point in the next. When he says that the problem is the narrow definition of mentorship.

He the comes with four levels of mentoring:

  1. Virtual Mentoring: Read blogs and books, listen to podcasts, and take online courses.
  2. Group Mentoring: Go to live conferences, join membership sites, or participate in group coaching.
  3. Peer Mentoring: Find like-minded peers and be intentional about forming friendships with them. You can also join a mastermind groups.
  4. Personal Mentoring: Invest in a coach or find a volunteer mentor.

Further I love his last sentences in the blogpost:

Even if you eventually find a mentor (according to the traditional definition), you’re cheating yourself by not doing what you can now to learn and grow.

Instead of focusing on what you don’t have—a one-on-one, traditional mentoring relationship—focus on what you do have: more opportunities than ever before in history to learn and grow. If you simply expand your definition, you will find mentoring opportunities everywhere.

I could´t said it in a better way. Go and read the blogpost here

 

Michael Hyatt is the author of Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World (Thomas Nelson). It is a New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestseller. Recently, Forbes magazine named me one of the Top 50 Social Media Influencers of 2013.

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Dance in the moment

I have posted some posts now about powerful questions, but it is also important to that good questions are one thing. But what if you use your time with the mentee to prepare the next questions and not listen properly to what your mentee is saying?

A great coach taught at a University and their Coaching Certificate for many years and he found that students were ever eager for the right «powerful question.» It became a mild obsession among some of them to have just the right, the perfect, the well phrased question that would tip a coaching conversation to depth and value. And he too had long sought those powerful questions – and still do.

Over time he began to notice that some of these emerging coaches were missing whole chunks of critical dialogue – they were talking past treasured clues that the clients were freely giving up. But they had great questions!

He began challenging the coaches to forget their «powerful questions,» to risk asking stupid questions or, when right, to ask nothing at all and remain still in silent expectation.

There are times when focusing on the best question distracts us from attending to the wealth of data being provided in the coaching interaction. Of course there are terrific questions to prompt the coaching dialogue – dozens have been listed. His greatest task is to be curious – to make efforts to be present to the exchange. When he pull that off he find that the questions he was seeking are inherent in the conversation, He do not require to remember or think of a question.

I was also like the students who wanted to have all the powerful questions ready for every mentee/mentor session. But what happened, well I could´t use them because the mentee respond differently than I had thought of. But after more experience I find myself starting to go with the flow, or dancing in the moment…

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The 4 Steps to Finding Your Voice

“One word expresses the pathway to greatness: voice.
Those on this path find their voice and inspire others to find theirs. The rest never do.”
Stephen R. Covey

 

I read an article on Stephen R. Covey`s blog and wanted to share some of the wisdom from him about mentoring. Read this short story and learn from one of the best.

I think if you care about people genuinely, you listen to them and observe them; because this is more than just hearing them speak, it is observing them-observing where their excitement is, where their enthusiasm is; observing where you sense they have potential. Sometimes it is very powerful just to say to them in sincerity, “I believe you have great potential in this area. I see real strengths in you that you may not see in yourself, and I would like to create an opportunity for you to use those strengths and to develop this potential. Would you be interested in that?” Most people are so flattered by someone who sincerely cares for them and affirms their work and potential that they are moved and inspired by that kind of input. It’s very powerful and it can make all of the difference, particularly with people who grow up with a confused lifestyle, bad modeling, and basic education. Often they have no clue as to what life is about or what they are about until someone becomes a teacher to them-a mentor, a confirmer, and a coach. This kind of mentoring is becoming increasingly important in education, in relationships, and in work environments. It can make all of the difference as to whether a person takes a higher road to his or her own voice or a lower road to where he or she is swallowed up by the priorities and voices of others.

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How to screw up a mentorship!

In my experience people are afraid to screw up the mentorship even when I always tell them that it is actually difficult to do so. If you think mentoring is mysterious and difficult, it will be. There are no rules, except to always stay in full-attention listening mode. Sometime you teach, sometimes you mentor and sometimes just talk or spend time together.

About the only time to screw the mentorship up is

  1. Don´t meet often
  2. When you meet, don´t listen
  3. Don´t keep your promises

That will do it!

Any additional thing you may do, even the clumsiest effort that keeps your mentee´s best interests squarely in focus will spell sucess. If you are in a mentoring program there will always be a coordinator who will help you if you feel that you need it.

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Do you ever doubt yourself?

Here are some tip from the Danish coach Sofia Manning (Sadly this is only in Danish: http://www.sofiamanning.com/).

When in doubt about anything, ask yourself: What is it about? What am I to doubt? How does it feel to be in doubt? What is doubt positive intention? How will the doubt help me?

Ask then: What is the opposite of doubt for me? (eg trust) What do I trust? How does it feel to be trusted? What is confidence, positive intention? How will you trust to help me?

Then ask the warmest place in you (eg your heart) With all my love for myself and others, what do I know or remember me on right now? How does it feel?

The task to you will be:

Look at your question with new eyes. As something that perhaps will always be there as a part of you.
And try to give your doubts a break. And see if the answer does not show up anyway …

This is a very important step when you are designing
your best year ever!

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Design Your Best Year Ever

When asked what has been the biggest secret behind any success the answer many times is: a system for designing, following through and achieving big goals.

Darren Hardy have been writing about every step in this program, and now in the middle of december it is time again. PLAN YOUR 2012 WITH THIS.

Darren H. have studied the process of setting and achieving goals vigorously for more than 20 years now. And have spent tens of thousands of dollars attending seminars, reading books, listening to audio programs and interviewing super-achievers on how they do it. After much of his own real-world trial, error and achievements, he synthesized all this knowledge and experience into a system he has used for herself.

How?
The key is properly inciting your creative power, revving up your inner drive and channeling your focus over a sustained period of time.

Based on 20+ years of refined study, practice, and execution, Design Your Best Year Ever outlines the specific plan that SUCCESSmagazine Publisher Darren Hardy developed for himself, synthesizing hundreds of books, seminars, trials, errors, and victories into the best and proven strategies on how to design, execute, stick to, and achieve big goals.

LEARN THE INSIGHTS THAT CAN ALTER YOUR FUTURE!

  • Learn to avoid the fatal mistake most make in setting goals. You might be setting yourself up to fail, even before you get started.
  • Go from goal setting to goal achieving. Discover the “magic factor” that makes the big difference in obtaining your goals.
  • Find out how to invoke your creative power to attract the people, circumstances, resources and guidance you need to achieve your wildly ambitious goals.

It’s a simple and easy-to-execute formula, yet incredibly powerful and effective in moving you toward achieving your dreams. Now is the ideal time to begin refining the most important life-skill there is—one that will design and create your Best Year Ever!

This could be a very good tools to have when planning 2012, good luck with the great plans. And good luck in 2010!

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The next tip is about relationship

The last tip for now is:

Mentoring is a unique relationship.
It is like other relationships, yet unlike other relationships.
It is personal and professional.
It is at once intimate, caring even loving yet dispassionate, calm and neutral.
It creates a safe space for both the mentor and the one mentored to open themselves to discovery.

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Did you know it brings status to be a mentor?

For my third tip it is come to the mentor and status, read more here…

Mentoring brings with it a certain status and respect.
Mentors are recognized as wise men and women, with knowledge and experience worth sharing.
Whether they know it or not, choose to use it or not, mentors are mavens who have influence,
link into networks and can leverage knowledge.
This, however, is not the secret that enriches the lives of those who mentor or are mentored.

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How is your self-confidence

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are certain things you dream of doing – asking your boss for a raise or promotion, finding a new job, getting up on stage to sing or perform a comedy routine, or writing a novel or book – but you never take the steps toward actually doing them because you’re afraid of what will happen if you try.

Does any of this sound familiar?

If it does, maybe you should try Brian Tracy and his Science of Self-Confidence program, maybe that could be exactly what you need to overcome your fear and achieve success in every area of your life.

Look her for more information: Self-Confidence, her I come…