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Government Case Studies Webinar

AHRI and Art of Mentoring Present: Government Case Studies – Pushing Boundaries in Mentoring Programs Webinar

Mentoring can help achieve organisational goals in performance, engagement, cultural shift, diversity, inclusion, succession planning, leadership, change management and much more.

Here’s what you will learn:
• How ATO and NSW DPIE implemented mentoring and why they are leading the way
• Different types of programs (intergenerational, women in leadership, Indigenous, regional, etc.)
• How to build highly successful programs and implement for various objectives
• Shifting culture, increasing engagement and building the talent pipeline with mentoring

Presented by:

Alison Stott
Assistant Commissioner
ATO People | Learning & Development
Australian Taxation Office

Mathew Paine
Executive Director
Capability & Inclusion
NSW Department of Planning, Industry & Environment

Melissa Richardson
Managing Director
Art of Mentoring

Helping mentoring pairs stay connected

Helping mentoring pairs stay connected

Across the many programs and thousands of mentors and mentees currently connecting via Art of Mentoring’s platform, we have seen two types of responses to mentoring since COVID-19 started.

The first, and most productive, is when mentee and mentor acknowledge that the goal posts have shifted and agree on new goals. Perhaps the mentee has lost employment or has reduced income. Maybe it’s the opposite problem – for many people, workload has actually increased and it may be hard to cope. Hopes and dreams for career advancement may have to be put on hold. We’ve heard heart-warming stories of mentees being helped to adapt under the most extraordinary circumstances by their wonderful mentors. When a crisis hits, having a mentor with whom to discuss challenges can be a much-needed lifeline. We’ve even heard examples of mentees who have provided support to mentors who have in turn lost their jobs.

The second response is understandable, but unfortunate. Some mentees and mentors have been so overwhelmed with current circumstances that they have dropped everything, including their mentoring relationships, for lack of time (or energy perhaps?). Luckily, this group is in the minority.

So how can you keep a mentoring relationship on track when there are a thousand reasons to let it go? This advice is for mentors, mentees and mentoring program managers.

Reach for the oxygen mask
In times of great and continuing change, self-care is so important so that sensible decisions can be made, including whether to continue with mentoring.  Routines and rituals, like a regular body scan or daily walk, can help, so can keeping a journal to record not just what’s happening but how you feel about it. A mentee journal can be useful for later conversations with a mentor. If you’re a mentor, make sure you look after yourself first before you try to help a mentee (remember what they tell you on an aircraft about fitting your oxygen mask before helping another?). If you are a program manager, it might be time to look for some new resources to support the mentors and mentees in your program. If you’re not sure what would be helpful, ask.

Use a compass
We find the Bridges Transition Model incredibly helpful when thinking about how to navigate change. When home isolation was first introduced, most of us would have struggled with having to adapt to working from home and not seeing family and friends. There was a sense of loss that we had to work through. Having come through the Endings phases, the next phase, the Neutral Zone, can be a disorienting time between acceptance that things need to change, and successfully navigating to the third phase, New Beginnings. As we start to transition back to the office, an ‘adapt back to work’ process may well land people right back in phase 1. Ask yourself where you are in this model, and if you are a mentor, consider how you can help a mentee who is back in phase 1 or 2.

It’s OK to change goals
Just because you set a particular goal for a mentoring program, doesn’t mean you have to hang onto it. If priorities have changed, so can your goals. Mentees who decide they don’t have time for mentoring are missing a golden opportunity for support, encouragement and perhaps, dare we suggest, some gentle challenge about how they are dealing with the cards played to them. Program managers and mentors – make sure mentees know they have permission to switch goals.

It’s also OK to reciprocate
Mentoring often becomes a reciprocal arrangement towards the end of a structured mentoring program. With COVID-19 we are just seeing more of this, and earlier in the relationship, especially when circumstances really change for the mentor.

Virtual works, (really!)
We’ve been running virtual programs for over a decade so we’ve seen them succeed, but in fact, virtual mentoring is well researched and proven to be effective. Even though some people prefer face-to-face contact, we know many virtual mentoring relationships can really flourish. Rather than drop out of touch with a mentoring partner, continue the relationship by Zoom, Skype, chat, email, phone. You may need slightly more frequent check-ins to keep momentum, and you may need to experiment with which medium you both prefer. Program managers may also need to check in a bit more frequently when there are no face-to-face all group meet-ups.

We have a webinar coming up dedicated to the topic of Virtual Mentoring – Registrations are now open: https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/8883036211221588237

 

 

 

Webinar – Government Case Studies

12pm to 1pm, 10 July 2020 AEST

 

AHRI and Art of Mentoring Present: Government Case Studies – Pushing Boundaries in Mentoring Programs Webinar

Mentoring can help achieve organisational goals in performance, engagement, cultural shift, diversity, inclusion, succession planning, leadership, change management and much more.

Here’s what you will learn:
• How ATO and NSW DPIE implemented mentoring and why they are leading the way
• Different types of programs (intergenerational, women in leadership, Indigenous, regional, etc.)
• How to build highly successful programs and implement for various objectives
• Shifting culture, increasing engagement and building the talent pipeline with mentoring

Presented by:

Alison Stott
Assistant Commissioner
ATO People | Learning & Development
Australian Taxation Office

Mathew Paine
Executive Director
Capability & Inclusion
NSW Department of Planning, Industry & Environment

Melissa Richardson
Managing Director
Art of Mentoring

AHRI Members will receive 1 CPD point for attendance.
Can’t attend? Simply register your details and we will send you a recording instead.

Registrations are open: https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/3733006210848166672

The Critical Art of Reflection

Reflection is a critical part of the process for mentoring pairs and for people who manage mentoring programs. A skilled mentor offers the mentee a quiet space in which to reflect on issues, on self, on interactions with others, and on systemic issues at play.

As mentors become more experienced, they develop the ability to critically reflect on their own practice and further develop their skills. Reflection can be done alone, or with the help of a supervisor – a highly skilled person who acts as a “mentor’s mentor”. According to Merrick & Stokes[1] the reflective mentor (as opposed to a novice or developing mentor) uses reflection to improve and also starts to employ different mentoring approaches, drawing on other mentors and supervisors.

The reflexive mentor not only critically reflects after mentoring conversations but has the ability to detect and use their own feelings and thoughts in the moment, whilst in a mentoring conversation. This requires a high level of presence and mindfulness. Really masterful mentors can unconsciously pick up on finely nuanced signals from the mentee – reflection in the moment allows those signals to be brought into the conversation and explored.

One helpful habit I’ve developed is to make notes after a mentoring conversation about key points of discussion, to which I add some personal reflection, answering these questions:

  • What came up in the meeting with my mentee that was of consequence?
  • What are my thoughts, insights and reflections about what we discussed.
  • What are my thoughts, insights or reflections about our mentoring relationship?
  • What ideas do I want to raise in the next meeting?

Professor David Clutterbuck offers these further ideas for mentor reflection after a conversation:

  • What questions and comments worked well in helping the mentee’s thinking or building their motivation? What didn’t? Is there a pattern here?
  • How did this session compare with my ideal of myself as a mentor?
  • What do I think the mentee gained from the session?
  • How well did I:
    • Build and maintain rapport?
    • Challenge the mentee’s thinking?
    • Stick to the mentee’s agenda?
    • Exercise my duty of care?

Other useful tools for reflection include models such as Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle which provide a framework mentors can use for self-reflection or to assist  their mentees with their reflection.

 

© Melissa Richardson, 2020

[1] Merrick, L and Stokes, P. (2003). Mentor Development & Supervision: “A Passionate Joint Enquiry”, The International Journal of Mentoring and Coaching

Volume I Issue 1, 09/2003

 

 

Virtual Mentoring Webinar

Social distancing rules have forced many mentoring program managers to convert their mentoring initiatives to virtual formats. We have been managing virtual programs for over a decade. When mentors and mentees cannot meet face-to-face or attend classroom-style training, there are some tricks of the trade to ensure that mentoring relationships are still successful, which they can be.

Team Coaching Virtual Teams

Team coaching virtual teams

Virtual teams have a number of differences compared with co-located teams. On the plus side, their geographical dispersion means that they can draw upon a wider and more diverse pool of talent. It is also easier to maintain 24-hour oversight of issues, if people are in multiple time zones. There is also some evidence that power distance (people’s inclination to defer to someone with greater rank or authority) reduces when using distance media.

On the downside:

  • There is more likely to be conflict within the team – and this may be exacerbated if the team is culturally diverse
  • There are more difficulties in sharing information. “Out of sight, out of mind” means that it doesn’t occur to us to include a colleague unless we communicate with them very regularly on different levels. Virtual teams need string and effective mechanisms to remind everyone to appraise virtual colleagues about technical, tactical and customer information – indeed to put more effort into communicating with them than with co-located colleagues, because the latter pick up a great amount of information through informal conversations. One of the immediate impacts of team coaching is to raise team members’ awareness of the interests and strengths of each of their virtual colleagues.
  • People are more likely to feel isolated. This sense of being left out can be reinforced in virtual meetings, when not everyone shares experiences, or relates to metaphors and mental models, which other members of the team use as conversational shorthand.
  • If some of the team are located at HQ, others may feel that these people’s opinion counts for more than their own and that they are less likely to be listened to – so are less likely to voice opinions.

Preparing a virtual team for coaching

All the normal aspects of contracting with the team, which apply to co-located teams, also apply to virtual team coaching – plus a few more. These include:

  • It’s important to have ground-rules about being fully present in the team coaching sessions. Being on mute is useful to preserve sound quality for those who are speaking, but it allows people to carry on distracting tasks, which would not normally be possible in a face-to-face meeting. The contract should reinforce understanding that listening is more than just politeness to colleagues – it is essential in maintaining the pace and depth of the reflective conversation.
  • Gain agreement on how contrarian ideas will be surfaced and engaged with. The mechanisms, by which constructive dissent is stifled, may differ between co-located teams and virtual teams. In many cultures, for example, it is inappropriate to be the one who usually gets their ideas in first. If a consensus appears to be developing, cultural inhibitors may make people reluctant to push back against it. The technology may promote groupthink, if people are swayed by the first comments in the chat room, so the team and the team coach need to establish clear methods to challenge emerging consensus.
  • Help the team manage the tendency to avoid emotional data, because it is too time consuming and often more difficult to recognise emotional subtexts in a virtual environment. It’s important to establish the expectation that everyone will be open with their emotions as well as their rational analysis. One of the reasons for this is the significant role our emotional brain takes in “rational decisions”.
  • Initiate open discussion about where reflection takes place. In co-located teams, it is generally easier to engage in reflection together, not least because these coaching sessions will have a fair amount of time allocated to them. In virtual team coaching, every minute counts, so most of the reflection has to take place before and after team coaching. This is a fundamental difference in the structure of the team coaching process and the team needs to become comfortable with reflecting on their own then combining their thoughts either during team coaching or in online discussions outside the team coaching session.
  • Encourage the team to agree when would be an equitable time to hold meetings, to avoid some people always having to attend at unsocial hours
  • Newcomers to a virtual team need to feel valued from day one. One-to-one virtual meetings with the rest of the team members, before team coaching, are an essential part of their induction.

Managing the virtual team coaching session

While it is possible to run a virtual team coaching session using email only, it is extremely difficult to make it work! The only plus point is that it can be asynchronous – people can contribute at different times, dipping in and out over a day or more, at their convenience and to fit in with their time zones.  There have been no significant studies comparing this approach with having people together at the same time, but the consensus amongst team coaches is overwhelmingly that the whole team needs to be present and interacting in real time.

Some ground-rules include:

  • Keep sessions short and focused – 90 minutes absolute maximum. This makes it even more important than with co-located teams to dispense with standard meeting formalities, such as minutes of the last meeting, or matters arising. Everything that can be done by email beforehand should be, along with any matter that concerns only some of the team. Given that you have such a short time, it is essential that everyone should feel engaged all through.
  • Encourage social sharing before the coaching session. A short email from everyone, sharing personal highlights at work and outside work, is all it takes.
  • Use the technology to its full. Make sure everyone is visually present, unless bandwidth problems prevent this. Encourage chat room conversations alongside spoken conversations. Run quick, impromptu polls to support the conversation. For example:
    • How energised are we today?
    • How positive do we feel about this?
    • How confident are we in these forecasts?
    • What should be said that no-one has yet said?
    • What are our priorities with regard to this issue?
    • What do you think are the top three risks?
  • Set clear norms about preparation, promptness, interrupting, being in a quiet place, where background noise won’t intrude and so on.
  • Don’t get trapped into Powerpoint presentations that take up valuable time.
  • Do have a clear protocol for decision-making. Check through a poll or the chat room that everyone agrees:
    • That a decision has been made
    • Precisely what it is
    • Who is responsible for what
    • When it is to be implemented
    • When and how it is to be reviewed
  • People who waffle can be a nuisance. Agree with the team how they will manage this. If you try to control this person, you will find that the team keeps looking to you to take charge – exactly the opposite of what you are trying to achieve. An effective intervention, if no-one in the team takes responsibility, is to say “Can I just remind you what you contracted to each other about trying to be succinct?” This emphasises the team’s responsibility for managing the situation, while dropping an obvious hint to the offending team member!
  • Agree a clear protocol for other issues that arise in the coaching session. Put these in a “parking lot” and take a few minutes at the end of the session to discuss how they can start the process of thinking about some or all of them before the next session. Ask them “What is the critical question you want to reflect upon with regard to this issue?” (You can always suggest a question at this stage, if they struggle – or perhaps the homework is to identify that question.)

© David Clutterbuck, 2017

 

Adaptation Mentoring

In this podcast, Art of Mentoring’s Melissa Richardson talks about Adaptation, Mentoring and Wellbeing with workplace wellbeing advisor, Thea O’Connor.

Mentoring is a well-documented practice for supporting people through a transition, typically from study to work or from one career to another.

The unfolding COVID-19 crisis of 2020 requires more than just a transition response. The pandemic has thrown the world’s population into a sudden change on many levels – job loss, social distancing, working from home, forced isolation indoors, with overwhelming media coming at us. We are having to ADAPT, very quickly, to a very different reality. Can others help us adapt more quickly and effectively?

We know that mentoring has positive impacts for both mentors and mentees on affective wellbeing. Having a safe place in which to reflect and untangle thoughts and feelings, as well as plan for the adaptation, could be critical to how well societies adapt. Mentors will supplement, not replace, mental health experts whose services may be overwhelmed.

How can mentors help and what can we all be doing to adapt quickly and well?

Our “Coaching and Mentoring Through Change” training course uses the Bridges Transition Model1 to provide a framework for the phases people experience in a change:

There are three phases. The first job of mentors is to identify which phase they are in themselves. In an ideal world, mentors would have moved to the last phase so they can focus on the needs of mentees. In reality, they may be moving through the phases together with their mentee. Having a conversation about where each party sits is a good start and will build trust.

Reference

  1. Bridges, William (2003) Managing Transitions (2nd) Da Capo Press, Cambridge, MA.

© Melissa Richardson 2020

11 Reasons Why You Should Be a Mentor  

Why you should be a mentor. We often hear the reasons people give for not becoming a mentor.  I don’t have time.  I don’t have the right skills.  My personality isn’t suitable. 

For the most part these are excuses, not reasons.  We all have more time, skills and insight than we think, and, with the right training, anyone can learn to be a good mentor. 

Before you pull out a reason to say “no”, consider first these eleven reasons to say “yes” to being a mentor.  

1. Become a better leader 

Learning how to work with people to whom you don’t have a natural connection, demonstrating patience with those in need of guidance and support, helping people figure out the best path forward: all trademarks of a great leader AND skills honed through mentoring.  The more you work at leadership on a one-to-one basis, the more you’ll improve in larger group settings. 

2. Learn more about your company or profession 

What do you actually know about the challenges, purpose and daily workload of other teams?  Mentoring is a great way to broaden your view and gain insight into what goes on in other areas.  This will equip you to make sounder, more holistic decisions. 

3. Achieve personal career gains 

Just in case you’re thinking that all this talk of leadership and learning is a soft sell, let’s dish up some hard facts.  Between 2010 and 2015 Sun Microsystems studied the career progress of over 1,000 employees.  People who had acted as mentors were SIX TIMES more likely to be promoted than those who didn’t, and 20% more likely to get a raise.  Still think mentoring is a fluffy, feel good thing to do? 

4. Shape the leaders of tomorrow 

Most of us long for a legacy, some stake in the future that says, “I was here.” What better legacy than to be a part of shaping tomorrow’s leaders? 

5. Gain new perspectives and fresh ideas 

Mentoring is a unique opportunity to step outside your normal circle of friends and social media’s echo chamber to gain an intimate understanding of how the world looks through someone else’s eyes.  New perspectives lead to fresh ideas, and who knows where fresh ideas could lead you?  

6. Put your finger on the pulse of a younger generation 

Usually (although not always) mentors end up working with younger mentees, sometimes much younger.  Different generations think and act differently. If you are to be an effective leader, you need to have an understanding of how younger generations see things and where they can make a difference to the organisation.  The intimacy of a mentoring relationship offers a unique insight into these generational differences.  

7. Change someone’s world 

Do you remember a teacher, a coach or a former boss who said or did something that changed the trajectory of your life?  This is your chance to do that for someone else.  Not every mentoring partnership is life changing but we see enough of it to know that every mentor has the potential to instigate surprising change. 

8. Exercise emotional intelligence 

Working one-on-one with a mentee requires you to sharpen your emotional radar.  You will be called upon to gauge the emotional state of the other person and respond with empathy.  Not only is emotional intelligence a key differentiator for career advancement, it can also improve your relationships outside the office. 

9. Strengthen the lessons you’ve already learned 

There is no better way to embed knowledge than through teaching.  You’ve learned the hard way how to hire the right person, raise prices or negotiate a tough contract.  By passing this knowledge on to a novice, you clarify and embed those lessons within yourself. 

10. Improve productivity 

Sharing your insights, learning and networks with younger colleagues helps to grease the organisational wheel.  Stepping up the pace and increasing productivity helps everyone within the organisation – including you. 

11. Feel good about yourself 

Tell yourself all you want that you’re doing it for your resume, but we guarantee you that once you become a mentor, the “feel good” factor will take hold.  There is little more rewarding than knowing you are making a difference to someone else’s life. 

Learn more about our online training for mentors, mentees and program managers and how we can help your organisation design, set up and manage a successful mentoring program.

Goal Setting & Measuring the Impact of Mentoring

A well-designed, well-executed and well-managed mentoring program will be very successful and sustainable.

Done well, mentoring programs enjoy high engagement and participation rates, low dropout rates, high satisfaction and goal achievement. Mentors enrol year after year, and mentees return to mentor others.

But, how can we best measure the impact a mentoring program has, and at what levels should we aim and look for impact?

There are various models used by learning experts to evaluate the effectiveness of training. We have adapted a learning impact model, commonly attributed to Roger Kaufman, “Five Levels for Evaluation of Interventions for Human Performance Improvement” 1 .

Art of Mentoring Model of Evaluation of
Mentoring Program Impact

Level 1: Input
  • Evaluation of Mentoring Resources:
    are they available and how good are they?
  • Evaluation of Mentoring Program Resources:
    do the processes work and are they efficient?
Level 2: Acquisition of Learning    
  • Extent of individual Mentee and Mentor
    learning
Level 3: Application of Learning                                                                            
  • Did Mentees (and Mentors) apply learning?
    What were the outcomes? e.g. goal
    achievement, achievement of unplanned outcomes
Level 4: Organisational
Outcomes                                                              
  • Organisational impact e.g. better engagement,
    retention rates
Level 5: Societal Outcomes
  • Societal contribution of the mentoring program e.g. more women in leadership roles across an industry

Program goals should be set at all five levels and then, progress measured

This model provides an easy framework to assist in setting mentoring program goals at the outset, during the program design phase.

At the very least, we would expect a well-designed mentoring program to identify goals from Levels 1 to 4. Having a goal at Level 5 provides for a highly compelling story for recruitment of mentors and mentees into the program. Mentors, in particular, are strongly persuaded by a higher order reason to contribute their time.

Example Goal Set: Graduate Program

Level 1: Input                                
  • 90% of Mentors and Mentees complete training provided to   them
  • 90% of Mentors and Mentees rate educational materials as     valuable
  • 90%+ consider they were well matched
  • High participant ratings on the delivery of training and the       overall program experience
Level 2: Acquisition of
Learning                                                                                               
  • 90%+ of participants say they achieved some of all of their        learning goals e.g. understanding of organisational structure   and functional roles
Level 3: Application of
Learning
  • 90%+ of participants say they achieved some or all of the outcomes they were looking for / have been able to settle into        the organisation / perform their new role
Level 4: Organisational
Outcomes
  • Faster induction of new hires – able to perform in role faster     than non-mentored peers
  • Y% lower attrition rate amongst new hires / decrease in turnover in first year
Level 5: Societal
Outcomes
  • X% increase in youth employment

What can mentoring do for my organisation?

Research has reported mentoring can deliver benefits such as employee commitment, motivation and retention, higher morale, better working relationships and better leadership.

In a study into formal mentoring programs in Fortune 500 companies2 , the five most frequently cited impacts of mentoring included:

  • Retention (59 percent)
  • Promotion and advancement (35 percent)
  • Satisfaction (35 percent)
  • Morale (29 percent)
  • Productivity and performance (29 percent).

In an often-cited long-term study3 , Sun Microsystems found 25% of participants in a mentoring program had a salary grade change and mentees were promoted 5 times more often than their unmentored peers. Retention rates amongst mentees (72%) and mentors (69%) was favourably compared to the general retention rate across the organisation of 49%. Sun claims to have made $6.7 million in savings in avoided turnover and replacement costs. They also estimate an ROI of more than 1000% on their investment in mentoring.

We observe that organisations that set strong goals, measure frequently against these goals, and adjust their mentoring programs accordingly, record better results and enjoy greater program impact.

We would like to see more organisations measure ROI for their mentoring program investment. This must go beyond just collecting data from program participants. For example, together with the NSW Department of Primary Industries, we are tracking progress of mentees over the years following their participation in the department’s mentoring program for scientists. This includes collecting retention, career path and other data and comparing with the data for their non-mentored peers. We are already seeing impressive results.

 

© Melissa Richardson 2020

1 Levels of Evaluation: Beyond Kirkpatrick. By: Kaufman, Roger; Keller, John M. Human Resource Development Quarterly. Winter 94, Vol. 5 Issue 4, p371-380

2 Hegstad, C D & Wentling, R M. (2004) Human Resource Development Quarterly, vol. 15, No. 4

3 Sun Microsystems Study (2009), downloaded from http://spcoast.com/pub/Katy/SunMentoring1996-2009.smli_tr-2009-185.pdf

Reciprocal Mentoring

In reciprocal mentoring, sometimes known as “co–mentoring”, two people work together through a mentoring process in which they both take on the roles of Mentor and Mentee. This could be done by each participating in both roles, or by each person taking a primary role as Mentor or Mentee, but being willing to exchange roles from time to time.

In the developmental model of mentoring[1], Mentor and Mentee both enter the relationship with an expectation they will be changed by and learn from the experience. To some extent, reciprocal mentoring often happens naturally in a strong mentoring alliance. As mentoring relationships progress, it is not unusual for pairs to report that at times, the Mentee takes on the mentoring role.

In this case, it is useful for the mentee to have been exposed to some of the training often limited to mentors i.e. the foundational skills of mentoring which include active listening, guiding, challenging, asking powerful questions.

[1] Megginson D, Clutterbuck D (1995) Mentoring in Action: a practical guide for managers. Kogan Page, London