75 Things - my.lerner

1 75 Things TO DO WITH your MENTEES:Practical and Effective Development Ideas You can Tryby Linda Phillips-Jones, 8 1 8 9 0 6 0 8 1 0 19 CCC500-00 CCC505-02$ 1-890608-10-6 75 THINGSTO DO WITH YOURMENTEES:Practical and EffectiveDevelopment Ideasby Linda Phillips-Jones, can Try 2003-1997 by Linda Phillips-Jones. All rights reserved. This material may not becopied. See end of booklet for ordering and your mentee have met, startedto get acquainted, and talked in generalterms about what you ll both accomplishduring your mentoring partnership. You ve hadlunch, toured your organization, and talkedabout your job responsibilities.

2 Now what?One of the most dramatic changes inmentoring in the last 15 years is the additionof focus to formal mentoring entails: specific objectives on whichmentees work; scheduled times to meet; aprocess that includes a beginning, middle,and end; agreed-upon ways of giving eachother feedback; and other procedures for youto help each other be successful in yourmentoring roles. Another striking addition isfocused development activities for mentees:effective learning experiences that help themgrow and reach their a typical formal 12-month mentoringprogram, you ll usually connect one ortwo hours per month with your means, in a year, you ll have con-tact only about 12-24 hours a half-dayor day!

3 How can you help change a lifein a day?The Mentoring Group interviewed andobserved hundreds of mentors and mentees,some of whom struggled and even failed andmany who excelled in their partnerships. Thefollowing list is a sample of developmentactivities used by the effective pairs. Theseare Things you can do with your require your active involvement andmight take place during your official mentoring sessions or spontaneously asthey come to mind or become allow you to play the role of learningbroker, where you encourage your menteesto pursue the activities on their own, thenreport back to you with the , in no particular order, are 75 testedactions and activities.

4 You ll see, in shadedboxes, some quotes from mentors andmentees and descriptions that present anactivity in more detail. Read through the list,discuss possibilities with your mentees, andtry the ones that make most sense. 1. Teach your mentees how to get themost from you: what expertise youactually have, why you re mentoringthem, the boundaries you want toset, your pet peeves, and your typi-cal styles of communicating andthinking. 2. Spend time getting to know eachother and building the relation-ship before formally tackling thementees building could includetalking about the relationship, as wellas about your interests and back-grounds.

5 (With youths, it s usually goodto start doing something together, nottalking about the relationship per se.)Take plenty of time to build trust, espe-cially in cross-difference (cross-cultural,cross-gender, cross-style, cross-age,etc.) mentoring Things TO DO WITH your MENTEES 2003 by Linda Phillips-Jones, , The New Mentors and Proteges2like to be/do/own/influence/be with/be remembered for in the next oneto five them a vision-related assign-ment to write down their ideas for dis-cussion with you next time. Have thempicture a perfect week in their lives:Where do they live?

6 What are they do-ing? Who s around them? How s theirfitness/health/appearance? What dothey own? What are people sayingabout them? (If it s too difficult for themto narrow down choices to one set ofanswers, ask them to create two ormore inviting scenarios.)An alternate activity: It s their 45th (or60th or 85th) birthday party. Who s there?As the guests raise their glasses tomake a toast, what are they sayingabout the mentees as persons? Abouttheir accomplishments? to lunch or coffee throughoutyour relationship, and talk aboutnon-work topics: family, hobbies,upcoming vacations, news events,movies, etc.

7 Them to describe the tentativegoals that could be part of theirvisions. Avoid discouraging re-sponses ( You want to go into MAN-AGEMENT?! ), even if you re dubi-ous. Maintain a neutral (or positive)tone and body language. Ask, If youhad x, what would that bring you? Help them take some steps downtheir dream paths and come to theirown conclusions. your mentees to triangulate data about their strengths and theirweaknesses (better called growthareas). 3. Negotiate and come to agreementwith your mentees on your expecta-tions: how you ll work together dur-ing the formal relationship, whereand how often you ll meet, the lengthof the relationship, confidentiality,and other items.

8 4. Urge your mentees to be careerself-reliant, taking responsibility fortheir own development rather thanwaiting for you or others to developthem. Suggest they read (and dis-cuss with you) Cliff Hakim s excellentbook, We Are All Self-Employed. 5. Have mentoring sessions ormeetings every month. These canbe as short as 15 minutes and aslong as a couple of hours, often in-cluding lunch. Schedule these officialtimes on your calendars. 6. Do some of your mentoring by tele-phone. These meetings will usuallybe shorter than in-person sessionsand yet will still need structure.

9 Helpyour mentees manage these meet-ing by arranging times, proposingagendas, and summarizing follow-upactions. 7. At the beginning of your mentoringsessions, enjoy some small talkand ask mentees to give you anupdate on their lives, projects, andobjectives. 8. Offer to tell your career story insome detail. How did you start yourcareer? What changes did youmake along the way? Include highand low points and how these learn-ing experiences helped you. 9. Help your mentees clarify their per-sonal visions what they would3 Sources of mentee skill data can in-clude: comments appearing in their pastperformance reviews, observationsthey ve made about themselves, objec-tive assessments, grades from educa-tional experiences, their managers comments, your observations of themas their mentor.

10 If at least two (and pref-erably three or more) of these datasources point to the same strengthsand growth areas, your mentees canreasonably assume they re accuratesummaries. that your mentees chooseone to three objectives, prefer-ably skills, to work on with you: oneof their strengths (to leverage orbuild upon) and one or two of theirdevelopment/growth areas. the benefits and costsof mentees goals based on theirvalues and own past perfor-mance (rather than goals that com-pare mentees with others values,performance, and achievements). them to at least twopeople who could be helpful to them tips on what to do andwhat to avoid.