Motivation tip

A good mentor can make the difference in navigating your professional path

Personal development /

This is so thru and what it`s all about. Taylor Lindstrom writes about how mentors can help with career development in San Francisco Chronicle (www.sfgate.com).

 

Taylor Lindstrom writes about how mentors can help with career development and Kathleen Pytleski, senior vice president of Mentium (www.menttium.com), a mentor-mentee matching company, recommends that employees find a mentor who has the skills that they may not already have. "Look for someone who has a skill set you want to develop, someone whose talents you admire. “This person’s a good leader — I want to be a good leader like that”, she says.
 

Because mentors can provide excellent counsel, companies often provide a formal way for junior employees to partner with senior-level staff. However, seeking a mentor within one’s own company has both advantages and setbacks. Read more at: http://www.sfgate.com/cgibin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2008/09/28/JOBSlindstrom.DTL&hw=taylor+lindstrom&sn=001&sc=1000

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The New Style of Mentoring

Mentoring /

 

In many ways, today’s mentoring relationships function quite differently from those of the past.
 
In the traditional style of mentoring, the primary goal was a one-way transfer of a broad range of knowledge or information. The mentor was the authoritarian source of this information, and directed all other aspects of the mentoring relationship. The mentee was a passive recipient and often had little say or control in the relationship. The relationship lasted for a set period of time, and a mentee would have only one mentor. Mentoring would only occur on a face-to-face basis.
 
Today many mentoring relationships have evolved to become more focused on learning. Unlike the traditional model, learner-centered mentoring is a dynamic and two-way relationship that involves critical reflection and full participation by both partners. The mentor assumes a role of a facilitator. The mentee becomes a proactive and equal partner, helping direct the relationship and set its goals. The mentee can also have multiple mentors over a lifetime, and even concurrently. There will still be face-to-face interaction, but mentoring can also occur by telephone, e-mail, or other means.
There is no right way to mentor. Every mentoring relationship is as unique as the individuals involved in it. However, no matter who the individuals or what shape the relationship takes, setting some goals and completing some groundwork can help create a stronger and more productive relationship.
 

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Why Mentoring is Good for the Legal Profession

Leadership development /

Some say that mentoring not only benefits the individuals involved, but also pays dividends for the profession as a whole. F.ex. even laywers who are just starting out at a law firm or lawyers who are moving into a new area of practice can learn from the experience of others through a mentoring relationship.

If you practice in a law firm you likely take for granted the fact there is a confidant down the hall who is instantly and easily accessible if a question arises. If you are a sole practitioner, you will appreciate this is a luxury that you don’t have. Mentoring can help newly called lawyers get a leg up on the incredible amount of learning that lies ahead. Law schools and bar courses simply cannot impart the skills and experience that are critical for practicing law proficiently.
No matter what the background of the participants, a mentoring relationship can accelerate the process through which critical skills are gained and can help prevent mistakes. When individual lawyers more quickly increase their skills to become an integral part of the profession and the administration of justice, the profession itself benefits.

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Mentoring in front of us or behind us?

Mentoring, Mentoring tools, Personal development /

Society today is rediscovering that the process of learning and maturing needs time and many kinds of relationships.

The resurgence of mentoring in almost every occupational field and area of life is a response to this discovery. "Please mentor me," is the spoken and unspoken request
expressed by so many. What do they mean? How do people get into it? …
 
Mentoring is as old as civilization itself. Through this natural relational process,
experience and values pass from one generation to another. Throughout human history, mentoring was the primary means of passing on knowledge and skills in every field in every culture. But in the modem age, the learning process shifted. It now relies primarily on computers, classrooms, books, and videos. Thus, today the relational connection between the knowledge and experience giver (mentor) and the receiver (adept) has weakened or is nonexistent.
 
They are talking more about coaching than mentoring in my country and we have a lot of certifications in coaching, but none in mentoring. Probably is it because mentoring is based on volunteering but in the future we have to get some more structure in the business. Write articles, blogs and use the media. And then we have to make some certification rules. It is a important job.
My shortest training would be a 3 hours training in “The Big Five” and even with little time to practice the tools, the participants was very happy.
So if anyone of you have some stories about mentoring you would like to share, send it to me and I will post it on my blog. Together we can make mentoring better for more people and their careers.

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Some of the big questions in life…

Personal development /

Alan Wilson remembered when he’d been told that her mother’s cancer had spread; she had taken his hand and said:  “Alan, you are my gift to the world,” she had said. “You will make a bigger difference in it than I.”

What else are there to say??? She had a big trust in him, but at the same time you are in the world to make a change, not only to survive…
And Alans sister said: “Just do what you love, and the impact will follow”
It is so beautiful. I say it all the time to my students both in universities and in mentorprogram. Make a change, not only survive…
Read the whole story at (This is a fictional case study with a dilemma facing many ambitious young professionals: How to do well while also doing good.): http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/flatmm/hbrextras/200801/ics/index.html#comment

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How to keep your talents?

Leadership development, Personal development /
Harvard Business Review means that the consulting industry have to start mentoring the talents more than today.

 

After many years with the focus on coaching Harvard Business Review means that mentoring is the next big topic. The consulting business up to the finance crises was “only” thinking about making the money, and not thinking about develop new talents.
 It is about time to put out the word mentoring, the ”new” buzz word. It is almost as it is create just for the purpose to hold the young talents motivated and that they want to stick to their employer.
Frustrated employer ignored are about to quit, finding a new company who appreciate them more. And not only are they leaving, and you must find a new person, but they are leaving with central competence. And therefore is it important to create mentor program inside the company for today’s young talent.

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Trainings in Trondheim

Mentor, Mentoring tools, Personal development /

Some of the adepts in TrondheimAs I told you before I went to Trondheim in Norway to hold two seminars. Both for the participants in JCI Evolutions Mentorprogram for young people in Young Enterprice Norway.

 

On saturday we started at 10 am and were working with strenght, posibilities and SMART-goals up to 16 pm with all the adepts in the program. They were very interesting in the subject and real active all day. This is going to be the platform for further development trough the program and especially for the AM-meetings (Adept and Mentor meetings) every month.

 

Oh I love to meet so many positive and active young people and spend time with them, I actually learn as lot as them.

 

On sunday we started at 11 am to train all the mentors, from businesses around in the county. They were also very positive and active through out the wholde session, working with "The Big Five". Tools for AM-meetings.

 

I look forward t be hearing from the project group next time.

 

 

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