Procrastinating or procrastination, is typically a repeating cycle with four stages: Putting off something we aren’t positively motivated (energised) to do Feeling guilty Reduced self-esteem and self-efficacy Reduced energy, which makes us more likely to put things off Coaches and mentors can help clients break the vicious cycle of procrastinating by firstly helping them to […]
How Mentoring Can Facilitate Acquisition
The immediate aftermath of an acquisition poses a number of major challenges. While many of these challenges relate to integration of systems and structures, the people challenges are often the most difficult and long lasting. In particular: Ensuring that senior level talent does not leave. Headhunters target merger situations, because the uncertainty causes people to […]
Coaching: How Much Should Line Managers Give Direct Reports?
Coaching: it’s a natural assumption that the more coaching and mentoring a line manager gives his or her direct reports, the greater the positive impact on performance and engagement. In reality, however, according to a study by Gartner[1], there is very little correlation. The study suggests instead that quantity of coaching is much less important than […]
Why Boards Can’t Let #MeToo Scare Them
Why Boards Can’t Let #MeToo Scare Them Off Diversity Mentoring Recent research by Art of Mentoring showed a marked increase in the percentage of men who are nervous about working alone with women in a post #MeToo world. No doubt there are also board members and executives with growing concerns about the perceptions of men […]
MENTORS: Help Your Mentee Thrive
MENTORS: How to Use Positive Psychology to Help Your Mentee to Thrive Over the last two decades a new branch of psychological study has taken academia, education and workplaces by storm. Known as “positive psychology”, it is basically the study of what makes life worth living. Rather than focusing on helping the sick to “get […]
Coaching and Mentoring as Conversations About Context
Coaching and Mentoring as Conversations About Context If coaches and mentors rarely, if ever, offer advice, what do they do? They offer context. Context is “relevant information, which the learner does not hold, but which may have a significant effect upon the quality of the decisions they take”. Context might include: Feedback the learner hasn’t […]
What Do Mentees Fear Most?
What do mentees fear most? A mentor enters a mentoring relationship knowing she has skills and knowledge to share with her mentee. Naturally this makes the mentor feel pretty good. Not only is she a decent and generous person, willing to share her expertise; she is also a person of value, having expertise worth sharing. […]
Separating Out Sponsorship and Mentoring
GUEST BLOG Various studies have demonstrated conclusively that sponsorship and mentoring are different, largely incompatible relationships [1]. Attempting to combine them leads to reduced impact in terms of both career and personal developmental outcomes for a number of reasons, including: Mentees are less open and authentic, because they want the sponsor-mentor to present them to […]
How Mentors Can Exercise, Use and Apply Emotional Intelligence
How mentors can exercise, use and apply emotional intelligence By Sonja Feil, Client Development Consultant & Sophie De Haan, Psychology Intern Thomas International The concept of Emotional Intelligence was devised by Peter Salovey and John D. Mayer, and popularised by the author Daniel Goleman in the early 1990s. The theory states that just as people […]
Getting value for money from your mentoring investment
Are you getting value for money on your investment in mentoring? You’d expect most companies with established mentoring programs to give an unequivocal yes, but the reality is that most organisations don’t know. So here are some basic indicators to consider. Highly effective mentoring programs: Deliver substantial learning for at least 95% of mentees and at least 80% […]