t al c onsulting a ccelerating g rowth mentoring tel aviv university november 8, 2007

TAL CONSULTINGACCELERATING GROWTH

MENTORING

Tel Aviv University

November 8, 2007

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AGENDA AND GOALS

• Give general knowledge on mentoring

• Hear and address specific concerns

• Practice relevant skills

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WHAT IS MENTORING?

• Relationship (personal, dynamic)

• More experience / less experience

• Guide, role model, teacher, sponsor

• Knowledge, advice, support

• Toward full membership in profession

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ORIGIN & BENEFITS

• Origin:– Mentor and Telemachus (Homer/Odyssey)– Apprenticeships

• Benefits– Mentee: professional advancement, salary,

professional ID, competence, satisfaction; less stress, less conflict

– Mentor: satisfaction, enhanced creativity, rejuvenation, generativity

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OUTSTANDING MENTORS

• Intentional (selection, investment, process)

• Address career and personal development of mentee

• Combine their excellent knowledge, experience/skill, and attitude

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SUCCESS

Knowledge Attitude

Skill / Experience

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ATTITUDEBUILDING SELF-BELIEF

• Internal obstacles often tougher than external• Universal internal block: lack of self-belief.• Increase through: successes, ownership,

others’ belief, being treated as equal.• One of primary attitudes of mentor: focusing

on potential more than past performance.

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ATTITUDEIDENTIFYING STRENGTHS

• Current emphasis on identifying and leveraging strengths, rather than fixing weaknesses.

• Greatest room for growth is in strength:– Something can do repeatedly, happily, and successfully.– Look for tendencies, yearnings, quick learning, and

great satisfaction.

• Excellent performer rarely well-rounded.• Manage around weaknesses - anything that

inhibits excellent performance:– Get little better, support system, partner, stop.

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ATTITUDESTRENGTHS EXAMPLES

• Achiever• Activator• Adaptability• Analytical• Arranger• Belief• Command• Communication• Competition

• Connectedness• Context• Deliberative• Developer• Discipline• Empathy• Fairness• Focus• Futuristic

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ATTITUDESTRENGTHS EXAMPLES

• Harmony• Ideation• Inclusiveness• Individualization• Input• Intellection• Learner• Maximizer

• Positivity• Relator• Responsibility• Restorative• Self-assurance• Significance• Strategic• Woo

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ATTITUDEAFFIRMATION & ENCOURAGEMENT

• Blend of personal acceptance and professional endorsement, belief in mentee.

• Show unconditional positive regard (listen, interested, ok if errs/fails, nonjudgmental).

• If believe can/can’t – right.

• Many novices question their competency.

• Mentees value encouragement & support. (Prefer high EQ over high IQ in mentor.)

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ATTITUDEEXCELLENCE & PERFECTION

• Expect excellence, not mediocrity.• Most people more capable than think,

and performance in line w/expectations.• Not to expect perfection.• Model both striving for excellence, and

comfort with own limitations.

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KNOWING/MATCHING MENTEE

• Take time to study mentee as any new topic.• Try to determine mentee’s talents and

vulnerabilities, dreams and fears.• Be accessible, listen, communicate.• When possible, good to match traits, talents,

interests, career aspirations, “driveness”.• When possible, informal interaction before

commit to mentorship.• Consider own motivation, avoid mentor

burnout, should be benefits for both.

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PROCESSSETTING THE STAGE

• Plan beginning, change, and ending.

• Importance of clarifying expectations (influence, even if not aware of them).

• Discuss R&R, logistics, goals, communication, overall time frame.

• Discuss relationship boundaries.

• Discussion/negotiation can be more important than specific expectations.

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PROCESSCHANGE & ENDINGS

• Schedule reviews/evaluations.

• Anticipate changes in life of mentorship.

• Address problems.

• Healthy ending.

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YOUR ROLE AS MENTORSPONSOR, TEACHER, MODEL, COACH

• Sponsor: open doors mentee cannot alone.– (Tailored to mentee’s career aspirations.)

• Teacher: instruction, vicarious, self-disclose.– Four learning levels.– Enemies / friends of learning.

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YOUR ROLE AS MENTORSPONSOR, TEACHER, MODEL, COACH

• Intentional Modeling– Invite mentees to observe you in action.– Model ethical/moral, excellence without

perfection, humility, balance, diversity.

• Coaching– Unlock potential to maximize performance.– Help to learn, rather than teach.– Take mentee beyond what know.– Increase self-belief, awareness, responsibility.

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SKILLS FOR CREATING CONTEXT OF GROWTH

• Nurturing creativity (protective setting).

• Thinking environment: – Attention, questions, equality, appreciation,

ease, encouragement, emotion, information, place, diversity.

– Environment to increase awareness, can only change what aware of, increased awareness empowers.

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• Listening:– One way increase awareness, by mentor giving

feedback on what perceive, requires keen listening.– Hearing vs. listening.– Concentration, practice, interest.– Listening as active interpretation, generate meaning.– Perceptual filters.– Truth vs. interpretations/beliefs; respecting viewpoints.– Manifests: nonverbal responses, verbal prompts, no

interrupting, clarifying, reflecting.

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• Questioning:– Powerful questions, discovery vs. interrogation.– Telling saves people from having to think, open

questions increases responsibility.– Questions that require different kind of focus.– Good questions: concise, well-timed,

transparent, nonjudgmental.

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• Positive feedback:– Lets people know what doing right so can do more.– Very motivating.– Must be authentic.

• Corrective feedback:– Sometimes uncomfortable, but absence a disservice.– Consider timing, balance with positive.– Shows caring and creates trust.

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• Narrating growth and development.– Makes implicit explicit.– Mentee’s self-appraisal may be off-track,

creates shift.– Gives big picture view.

• Humor – Laughter wonderfully soothing– Sign mentor is human, approachable.– Reminder not to take self too seriously.

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TAL CONSULTING

[email protected]

052-825-8585

t al c onsulting a ccelerating g rowth mentoring tel aviv university november 8, 2007

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