Information Sharing
Mentoring Plus

My name is Robert. I am the author of a book called Masterful Coaching.. I was wondering how your executive coaching service is going. Specifically how do you find selling it. Are you getting lots of clients or few? Who do you sell too? Whats working about it? What kinds of issues and problems do you have that might make you want to say theres a better way to make a living? By the way I am writing a second book on coaching for Jossey Bass, Simon and Schuster, and am looking for some good coaching stories and examples. Look forward to hearing from you.

Robert

There are many answers to the how and I guess you might know most of them.

We begin our conversation at the intrinsic motivating point (imp - a term coined by us and being considered as part of our trademark set.... we are somewhat impish) i.e. we find out what will motivate our client. This ranges from working with their values set to what is hurting them or their organisation.

We also help them build a picture of their organisation via their CSC (see Corporate Social Capital ) and identify how to harness their hidden talents. This is sometimes combined with a sociological perspective such as the attached Knowledge Technology info.

At present, our major clients consist of one of the "big six" accounting firms, small businesses and community-based organisations.

There is more to tell which I can follow-up with you at a later date. Let me know if this is on track for answering your questions.

Regards
Leigh Kibby

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Quick Questions...

Q. What is a mentor and why is mentoring so important all of a sudden?

I think that it’s an important way for more experienced people to share what they have learned about life and work with others. When I had a mentor, I learned a lot about myself that I tended to ignore. Some of it was hard to take. But, a great deal of what I learned was positive. It’s always good to get another perspective.

Q. How do I find a good mentor? How do you know that you can trust someone with what is important to you? I mean, if I went to my boss and asked him to mentor me, I’d be cutting my throat to tell him about my problems.

When I looked for a mentor, I had a difficult time finding someone that I could trust. When organisations don’t have a mentoring program, you’re left to your own devices. Trial and error can be a bit dangerous. I’d recommend developing a number of relationships with people you respect and see if you can share what’s important to with them. If you feel comfortable telling them little things, then just try telling them a little more about yourself and the things that concern you. If you find someone who seems to listen more than talk and helps you look at your situation in different ways than you are used to, I’d say that person is worth asking to be your mentor.

Q. If I want to mentor someone, do I need any special skills or should I take a course? Who offers training?

I definitely think it’s important to know something about mentoring. There are many good books on mentoring. Most are written overseas, but there are a few written by Australians or written taking Australia’s culture in mind. You do need to be careful of some of the American books. We do things a little differenly here. Every now and then you’ll see a good article in the papers. I keep a file on mentoring and ask people to give me a copy of the materials that they run across.

I think the most important thing is to have good interpersonal skills. You have to be willing to bite your tongue when you’re wanting to give advice. Advice is fine sometimes, but mentoring is about helping someone else find their own answers. I’m not sure if many courses are offered for mentoring on a regular basis. They seem to be very occassional. You might check the articles at this site to see if they have anything to offer. You could do an search of the Internet at the Alta Vista site.

 Q. I’ve been mentored before by someone I worked with. Now our unit is talking about having "formal" mentoring and assigning mentors to people. I don’t know if I feel very comfortable about that. What do other people think?

I wasn’t mad keen on the idea when it was first raised in my organisation. But, we had a training session that explained why it can be important. Sometimes people who need the mentoring the most don’t get it if left to themselves. It can also ensure that the standards in mentoring are keep high and that everyone is on the same page with what to expect and how to handle difficulties.

We were told that the formal program wasn’t meant to do away with the informal mentoring. You might want to clarify that with whoever is responsible for developing the program where you work.

Q. Isn’t your mentor supposed to be the person who helps you move up into the upper levels of management and fight of the bad guys until you get yourself established?

We’ve used mentoring to help people coming into our company at the lower levels. It seems to help get them oriented to the organisation. They don’t spend as much time trying to figure everything out. I’m not sure I like the idea of the mentor being the person who does everything for you. I’ve thought of a mentor more as a person who helps you get your thinking straight and gives you advice about problems you might be creating for yourself. If your mentor does all the work, what do you learn?

I agree with what you said about the mentor helping their mentees check your thinking. I’m not so sure they’re supposed to always being giving advice. I like to think of mentoring as helping people tap into their fullest potential; to be able to see the things that their mentee doesn’t already see in themselves. Of course, if you have figured out a better way to do something, I suppose it doesn’t hurt to let the other person know about it. But, it might be better to help them discover the way for themselves.

Q. Isn’t a mentor someone who just shows you what you’re supposted to do and how to do it well...why would I need a mentor after I’ve learned the skills to do my job?

I guess because you can always learn new skills. But, it’s not just skills that you need. A mentor should also model ways of thinking problems out and how to handle tough situations without losing sight of what is important. They should also give encouragement to people who can’t quite see past their problems. Sometimes I find myself stopping just short of the goal because I think it’s further in the distance than it actually is. It’s been good to have someone point that out to me and help me to look a little closer.

Q. What’s the difference between a mentor and a counsellor? Don’t they both just give advice and tell you what you should do if you have a problem?

I know that my counsellor didn’t give me a lot of advice. She more or less helped me understand what I was feeling and why and how I might like to try to deal with my personal problem. I think that’s part of the difference. A counsellor helps with a personal problem and a mentor helps you look at problems in general to learn how to find solutions. I’m not sure I’m making myself clear. A counsellor helps you with your own problems and a mentor helps you look at the problems that you anyone else might be having at work and helps you figure out ways of meeting the problems or even finding a better way to do something.

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