Take Care of Your Mental Health – At Work and Beyond

Mental health is one of the most important aspects of our well-being – and this applies just as much in the workplace. Unfortunately, many people struggle in silence, and the statistics speak for themselves: a full 44% of us feel lonely to some degree, and for many, it has become a challenge to find balance between work and personal life.

So, what can we do to improve our mental health at work? Here are some practical tips:

Set Boundaries
Boundaries are key to avoiding burnout. Know what you can and cannot do, and speak up when things get overwhelming. This is not just to protect yourself but also to ensure that you deliver quality in your work. It’s okay to take breaks!

Establish Stress-Relief Routines
Managing stress isn’t just about what you do when you’re already stressed, but about what you do to prevent it. Find an activity that helps you unwind – maybe yoga, a walk, or music? Having a regular routine for decompressing, especially after a long workday, can work wonders for both your physical and mental health.

Seek Help When You Need It
There’s no shame in asking for help. If things start to get overwhelming, talk to someone. It could be a friend, a colleague, or a professional. Often, putting your feelings into words is the first step towards feeling better.

And let’s not forget – having a mentor or coach can be incredibly valuable when it comes to developing self-awareness and coping strategies for handling work pressure. They’re there to support you and provide advice, whether it’s about goal setting or emotional guidance. So don’t hesitate to seek that extra support.

On this World Mental Health Day, I encourage you to take a few moments to reflect on how you can strengthen your own mental health. And maybe, once you’ve done that, you can call an old friend and give them 8 minutes of your time. You never know what difference a conversation can make.

Listen to my podcast «The talk – by Mentorguru» – in Norwegian to learn more about mental health and tools.

KMP+ House of mentoring – Is mentoring a talent factory?

From my three latest podcast episodes, and my last until the summer.

In the episode we talked about the importance of dialogue, mentoring programmes and the trends and future of mentoring and we do that in three episodes.

And who better to do that with than Kirsten M. Poulsen, with more than 30 years of experience in developing people and organisations, Kirsten is internationally recognized for her knowledge and contribution to the mentoring world, having trained more than 10,000 mentors and mentees with the Mentor+ Approach and the Mentor+Game™. Kirsten founded the KMP+ House of Mentoring in 2000 and she has more than 30 years of experience developing people and organizations. She focus on developing tools and concepts based on research to enhance the quality of organisational mentoring programmes.

KMP+ House of Mentoring serves clients globally delivering high impact programmes leadership & talent Development programmes focusing on mentoring as the vehicle for accelerating, enhancing and ensuring learning – creating effective individual and organizational learning.

6 Undeniable Benefits of Having a Mentor for students

IvyPanda is a student success hub designed to improve the educational outcomes and learning capabilities of students around the world by connecting them with academic experts and by providing highly-efficient self-study services and online tools.

And they have been writing about the impact of a mentor, and they mean that for many students having a mentor is a life-changing experience. Here are some of the advantages of having a mentor from IvyPanda:

  1. It helps set and track individualized goals. Together with a mentor, you can work on setting individual short and long-term objectives and developing an action plan. Such an intentional weekly interaction helps achieve a lot in college, career, and life.
  2. It improves self-awareness and decision-making. An essential component of working with a mentor is self-reflection. If you regularly practice reflection with your mentor, you can assess your strengths and recognize areas for self-improvement.
  3. It allows for constructive and supportive feedback. When working with a mentor, you get helpful and timely feedback that can boost your progress. Having a mentor also creates an opportunity to address any issue quickly and resolve it on the spot.
  4. It offers psychological support. A mentoring relationship is a safe space for you to grow spiritually without fear of judgment and receive reassurance from someone you trust. The opportunity to share your feelings with someone else eases stress and anxiety.
  5. It creates the foundation for a lasting personal network. In many cases, the relationship between a mentor and a mentee remains even after college graduation. In other words, mentoring creates a special bond that you might find helpful throughout your life.
  6. It offers a diversity of perspectives and experiences. College offers plenty of extracurricular activities. You can consult with your mentor to learn more about them and find activities that best fit your needs.

This is a part of an article from IvyPanda see the whole article by clicking on the name.

ChatGPT – Being a mentor for the first time – Part 2

Here is the rest of what ChatGPT means is important when being a mentor for the first time.

  1. Provide constructive feedback

Providing constructive feedback is an essential part of being a mentor. You should provide feedback that is specific, actionable, and relevant. Feedback should be focused on the mentee’s goals and objectives, and it should be delivered in a way that is respectful and encouraging.

  1. Share your knowledge and experience

As a mentor, you are responsible for sharing your knowledge and experience with your mentee. You should be willing to share your successes and failures, and provide advice on how to overcome challenges. You should also be willing to share any resources or contacts that may be helpful to your mentee.

  1. Be patient and supportive

Being patient and supportive is crucial to the success of any mentoring relationship. You should be patient with your mentee as they learn and grow, and be supportive of their efforts. You should also be willing to offer encouragement and praise when your mentee achieves their goals.

In conclusion, being a mentor for the first time can be a fulfilling experience, but it requires patience, dedication, and a willingness to learn. By following these tips, you can build a strong and productive mentoring relationship with your mentee, and help them to achieve their goals. Remember that being a mentor is not just about imparting knowledge, but also about building a relationship of trust, respect, and support.

In the end I will say that I did this just to check ChatGPT, but I have to say its very accurate and reliable don’t you agree?

ChatGPT – Being a mentor for the first time – Part 1

Becoming a mentor for the first time is an exciting and rewarding experience. It means you have an opportunity to share your knowledge and expertise with someone who is eager to learn from you. While mentoring can be a fulfilling experience, it can also be daunting, especially if you are unsure of how to go about it. In this article, we’ll explore some tips on how to be a successful mentor for the first time.

  1. Understand your role as a mentor

Before embarking on your journey as a mentor, it is essential to understand your role. As a mentor, you are responsible for guiding and supporting your mentee to achieve their goals. You will need to provide them with advice, feedback, and guidance to help them grow and develop. You will also need to be patient, understanding, and willing to listen to their concerns.

  1. Set clear expectations

It is essential to set clear expectations with your mentee from the outset. You should establish what you hope to achieve from the mentoring relationship, and what your mentee wants to get out of it. You should also set clear goals and objectives, and establish a timeline for achieving them. This will help to ensure that you and your mentee are working towards a common goal.

  1. Establish regular communication

Regular communication is key to a successful mentoring relationship. You should establish how often you will meet or communicate with your mentee and stick to this schedule. Regular communication will help you to track progress, provide feedback, and address any issues that may arise.

  1. Be a good listener

One of the most important qualities of a successful mentor is being a good listener. You need to be willing to listen to your mentee’s concerns, questions, and ideas. You should also be willing to give them your undivided attention and provide feedback that is constructive and helpful.

See the rest in the next post…

Amazon mentoring program

I read that Amazon had a mentoring program for their employee through Mike Kang in Chronus and his newsletter. The Amazon mentoring team and Mike Chan even had a webinar where they talked about why mentoring is a top priority in Amazon, what types of programs they’re currently running (and for what purposes), how they’re measuring impactful mentoring and how Amazon has scaled its programs to more than 179,000 employees. 

I have earlier (November 2019) write about Amazon and their peer-to-peer mentoring at Amazon work

Watch this fireside chat with Amazon’s Melony Menard, Senior Program Manager, Global Learning and Development, and Carla Love, Program Manager, Global Learning and Development to learn more about:

  • Why mentoring is a top priority at Amazon
  • The variety of programs Amazon is currently running
  • How they’re measuring impactful mentoring
  • How Amazon scales its programs

Visit their website her:

Chronus

Listen to the webinar her, its about one hour:

Webinar

Mentoring is a powerful tool

My mentorblog is all about mentoring — what it is, how it works, how you can learn it and also how you can use mentoring to reach your goal!

Mentoring is a powerful and popular way for people to learn a variety of personal and professional skills. In fact, they say that mentoring is one of the oldest forms of influence. And I have been so lucky to work with mentoring and mentoring program for a lot of years now and find it still fascinating.

Training the mentors

We are so lucky that all the mentors are volunteers and we introduced them to some tools we use, called «The Big Five». Its basically five tools which is important as a mentor, active listening – effective questions – feedback – accountability – recognition.

Its always so funny when we are doing the first excercise, when you are 2on2 and one is telling a story and the other is like a stone face… and after 3 minutes we change. It is a simple excercise to point out the importance of being presence when you meet you’re mentee and also listen actively.

And then they do it all over. but this time they start to ask questions.

After that we went through the program and the plans for this four month.

How to get most of your mentor

It’s a good question and I’m sure everyone already figured out that I am a huge believer in the value of mentors. So I have three simple tip.

  1. Be sure to get the right mentor. Before you find a mentor take the time to find out why you want a mentor and what you think the mentor can do for you.
  2. Have a clear overview over who you are. I like to use SWOT-analyzes from the businessworld, Your strength, your weaknesses, your potential/opportunities and in the end what can stop you for getting to your goals.
  3. Be prepared and joine your mentor in the dance (dancing in the moment). Be prepared for every meeting and try to answer and reflect on everything your mentor asks you.

Is someone having others?

Best Mentoring Blog 2014

 

In 2011 I created a best mentoring blog ranking that got very popular, actually so popular that I wanted to make this an annual event.

The work of finding the best blog is difficult because a lot of them are hiding within the page of the business, but this year I have gotten a lot of help from different groups on www.linkedin.com.

I will reveal the list in the next weeks.