The final role for the coaching leader is that of mentor. Mentoring has a lot of dynamics and sub-competencies and can be the most rewarding of all the coaching related activities.
At it’s core, mentoring is the growing of talent. Growing talent to take your place. Growing talent so you can be more easily promoted. Growing talent to ease your workload and increase team member satisfaction. Growing talent to increase your organizational influence by the promotion and transfer of people you have mentored. Growing talent to create a pool of succession for your organization.
The first mentoring dynamic is finding someone to mentor. This needs to be a collaborative operation. Not everyone you think will be a good successor wants to be mentored. Not everyone who wants to be mentored will be a good candidate for future promotion or advancement. The process needs to be available to all but utilized with only a few at a time. As a rule of thumb, you should only consider directly mentoring two people at any one time. You will have to conduct some courageous conversations with people to both encourage and dissuade participation in mentoring.
The reason that mentoring is done in plural with two people is because stuff happens. People quit. They may not be exactly what you thought they were. You need to have points of comparison and need to have choices when opportunities arise. Placing all of your mentoring stock in one candidate is risky and often backfires.
Identifying mentoring candidates will require you to do a little career counseling. You will need to discover what they want out of this job and their career in whole. What are they looking for and what are their key motivations and satisfaction points. This process is just like hiring for correct fit.
After you have identified a couple of mentoring candidates, the first step is to solidify relationships with them. Discover commonalities, reconcile differences in style and appearances and build bonds on a deeper level. This relationship base will further establish trust and communication comfort which is important in the mentoring process. Get to know the mentoring participants. Let them tell their stories. Know their biography. Both you and the mentored team member must feel good about expression and deeper communication intimacy.
The effective leader now wants to add some quality doses of storytelling. Not of the bedtime variety but the types of stories that reinforce how to be a successful leader. The challenges you faced. Things you have seen. Lessons you have learned. Not related in a I’m-The-Best-Thing-Since-White-Sliced-Bread type of approach but in narrative of lessons and matter-of-fact approach. This is uncomfortable for many leaders but priceless for those being mentored.
After relational and storytelling activities, the leader must begin the process of delegating, empowering and developing the mentoring participants. You must be able to let go of some key tasks, allow the team members to perform them using their techniques and styles and debrief their decisions and performance. Much more about this process in found in the Sheep Breeding Commandment.
Another powerful mentoring tool is job shadowing. This allows mentored participants to gain a feel and firsthand appreciation for higher level jobs and functions. Job shadowing should be done in a programmatic and long –term approach that gives a sustained look at the job.
The other key mentoring piece is to allow mentored team members to act in your behalf and for you at key meetings and during times of your absence. This is an important step of translating their learning from storytelling, delegation and job shadowing into the practical world of acting and performing. During any period when a mentored candidate acts for you, even if it is very brief, a debrief dialog is critical. This dialog is designed to see what went well and what could have been done better. When done in a non-comparing and non-judgmental form, this is a great form of learning for mentored participants.
Mentoring requires a good time commitment. A time commitment that is not always returned in the near term but an investment that will pay dividends to you and your organization for years to come.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Monday Mentor-Week 38-Creativity Dampeners
Before delving into the leadership role in driving innovation, a few comments and notes about creativity.
Creativity can be stymied in individuals and in organizations in a variety of ways. Among the most common dampeners of creativity is a lack of recognition for ideas. When an idea falls on deaf ears and is not acknowledged or validated in any manner, people will not provide creative solutions. Even worse than ignoring an idea, is if an idea is openly besmirched or ridiculed. When that occurs, ideas and creativity will be greatly diminished in the long term and people will be hesitant to ever participate in creative solutions or suggestions.
Other common dampeners include the proliferation of policy and procedure in a company. When all behaviors are defined by the dreaded P and P, there is little room for creative thought. Add a cumbersome process to revise policy and you will have a great recipe for no creativity.
Hyper rigidity is also a contributor to lack of creativity. When there are rules for the sake of rules and adherence to those rules are more important than achievement of results, creativity is diminished. Creativity is not stimulated through sameness.
A final piece of creative dampening is history. History is a poor indicator and predictor of what may work now. Many people look back and remember how something failed previously as an excuse to not try it again. Your history and your organization’s history should never be used to not attempt something anew. After all, people have changed, the environment has changed and it just might work this time around.
Stimulating creativity requires that an organization consistently reminds itself and the team members in the organization of what is really important. Is quality service more important than clocking in at eight? Is performance more important than rigidity? Is the quality of the end product more important than attendance at the mandatory Monday meeting?
Another creativity stimulant comes from a concept linked in this section. Personal change will tend to drive creative though process and stimulate the mind to seek different paths. Trying a new drive to work, rearranging your office and new working hours all stimulate creative thought. Change some patterns and habits and grow your creative output.
Without venturing into the spiritual or metaphysical realms, there are some other creative stimulants like listening to music (softly, of course), getting fresh air and exercise that are effective as well. One of the most overlooked creative stimulants is the gift of time to think. Supervisors, managers and leaders at all levels are very often consumed by their schedule. Things to do. Meetings. Tasks. None of that provides any time to sit back and sit back and think and be creative. The most effective leaders provide themselves some time to reflect, review and be creative. No interruptions, just thinking and being creative.
Creativity can be stymied in individuals and in organizations in a variety of ways. Among the most common dampeners of creativity is a lack of recognition for ideas. When an idea falls on deaf ears and is not acknowledged or validated in any manner, people will not provide creative solutions. Even worse than ignoring an idea, is if an idea is openly besmirched or ridiculed. When that occurs, ideas and creativity will be greatly diminished in the long term and people will be hesitant to ever participate in creative solutions or suggestions.
Other common dampeners include the proliferation of policy and procedure in a company. When all behaviors are defined by the dreaded P and P, there is little room for creative thought. Add a cumbersome process to revise policy and you will have a great recipe for no creativity.
Hyper rigidity is also a contributor to lack of creativity. When there are rules for the sake of rules and adherence to those rules are more important than achievement of results, creativity is diminished. Creativity is not stimulated through sameness.
A final piece of creative dampening is history. History is a poor indicator and predictor of what may work now. Many people look back and remember how something failed previously as an excuse to not try it again. Your history and your organization’s history should never be used to not attempt something anew. After all, people have changed, the environment has changed and it just might work this time around.
Stimulating creativity requires that an organization consistently reminds itself and the team members in the organization of what is really important. Is quality service more important than clocking in at eight? Is performance more important than rigidity? Is the quality of the end product more important than attendance at the mandatory Monday meeting?
Another creativity stimulant comes from a concept linked in this section. Personal change will tend to drive creative though process and stimulate the mind to seek different paths. Trying a new drive to work, rearranging your office and new working hours all stimulate creative thought. Change some patterns and habits and grow your creative output.
Without venturing into the spiritual or metaphysical realms, there are some other creative stimulants like listening to music (softly, of course), getting fresh air and exercise that are effective as well. One of the most overlooked creative stimulants is the gift of time to think. Supervisors, managers and leaders at all levels are very often consumed by their schedule. Things to do. Meetings. Tasks. None of that provides any time to sit back and sit back and think and be creative. The most effective leaders provide themselves some time to reflect, review and be creative. No interruptions, just thinking and being creative.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Monday Mentor-Week 37-The Courage to Say an Honest "No"
Yes. Sure. You bet.
The easiest words to say in the English language. Makes sure that you remain popular. People come to you and you become the “go to person” in the organization. You take on all things asked.
Unfortunately, this is also a very self defeating leadership behavior. What happens when you can’t, don’t have the capacity or should not? Do you still say yes or do you deliver a honest no?
In the simplest form, the honest no needs courage when the boss asks you to take on something that you simply do not have the capacity to handle. In your attempt to please, you take on the project, move around other strategically important tasks to satisfy the boss or do a poor job on everything to just get things done. The better approach would be an honest no delivered to the boss with the explanation why. If the boss persists, you need to make the value decisions to move other things around to do a good job on what you were just given.
More complicated no responses are those delivered to team members. It is easy to grant a little time off, allow a deadline to be moved or accommodate other requests. What takes significantly more leadership courage is to say no and deny the requests when needed. It will harm your short term credibility but it will maintain your long term effectiveness and respect.
The easiest words to say in the English language. Makes sure that you remain popular. People come to you and you become the “go to person” in the organization. You take on all things asked.
Unfortunately, this is also a very self defeating leadership behavior. What happens when you can’t, don’t have the capacity or should not? Do you still say yes or do you deliver a honest no?
In the simplest form, the honest no needs courage when the boss asks you to take on something that you simply do not have the capacity to handle. In your attempt to please, you take on the project, move around other strategically important tasks to satisfy the boss or do a poor job on everything to just get things done. The better approach would be an honest no delivered to the boss with the explanation why. If the boss persists, you need to make the value decisions to move other things around to do a good job on what you were just given.
More complicated no responses are those delivered to team members. It is easy to grant a little time off, allow a deadline to be moved or accommodate other requests. What takes significantly more leadership courage is to say no and deny the requests when needed. It will harm your short term credibility but it will maintain your long term effectiveness and respect.
Monday, September 6, 2010
Monday Mentor-Week 36-Continuous Process Improvement
Continuous process improvement is the process of insuring that procedures, processes and operational elements are always working at peak efficiency and delivering the highest quality product.
Many organizations have implemented elaborate procedures and established committees to insure that they are always improving their processes. This section will describe a simpler method with equally powerful results.
Big time wrestling, boxing and mixed martial arts all utilize a champion/challenger system. Each of these sports (?) have a champion by weight class or experience level or by endorsing agency. This champion has established himself as the current best in the sport.
In order to continue to be the champion, the current title holder must take on challengers. If the current champion wins, that person remains the champion. If the challenger wins, that person will become the champion and prepare to take on new challengers.
The current way in which you do a thing is the champion. It does not have to be a big thing or it can be a very big thing but it is the champion. An innovative approach to continuous process improvement requires you to test a challenger against the current way that you are doing a piece of your business. If a new way or challenger is better, it becomes the new method. If a new way is not better, you stick with the way you are currently doing it.
The best part of this method is the lack of risk involved in the process. If the challenger is not better, you have not abandoned the existing methods. You have just challenged them. The champion/challenger method also insures that you do not engage in change and innovation for change and innovation’s sake.
Many organizations have implemented elaborate procedures and established committees to insure that they are always improving their processes. This section will describe a simpler method with equally powerful results.
Big time wrestling, boxing and mixed martial arts all utilize a champion/challenger system. Each of these sports (?) have a champion by weight class or experience level or by endorsing agency. This champion has established himself as the current best in the sport.
In order to continue to be the champion, the current title holder must take on challengers. If the current champion wins, that person remains the champion. If the challenger wins, that person will become the champion and prepare to take on new challengers.
The current way in which you do a thing is the champion. It does not have to be a big thing or it can be a very big thing but it is the champion. An innovative approach to continuous process improvement requires you to test a challenger against the current way that you are doing a piece of your business. If a new way or challenger is better, it becomes the new method. If a new way is not better, you stick with the way you are currently doing it.
The best part of this method is the lack of risk involved in the process. If the challenger is not better, you have not abandoned the existing methods. You have just challenged them. The champion/challenger method also insures that you do not engage in change and innovation for change and innovation’s sake.
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