BUSINESS CASE
Mentoring Programs in Organisations
There is a lot of rhetoric claiming “highly effective mentoring programs deliver substantial learning for over 95% of mentees and 80% of mentors”. But is there real evidence to support this and other outcomes for mentees, mentors and their organisations, as a result of mentoring? Find out by downloading the Business Case for Mentoring in Organisations.
The Practice of Mentoring for Associations
SPOTLIGHT ON
The Practice of Mentoring in Associations 2017 Benchmark Report
During 2017, we surveyed almost 150 company and association representatives from across the globe to check in on the landscape of mentoring.
How is it performing?
Where are the cracks? What needs tending?
Access our Spotlight Report to benchmark your own program or raise your awareness, as your association embarks on a mentoring program for the first time.
The Practice of Mentoring for Companies
SPOTLIGHT ON The Practice of Mentoring in Companies
2017 Benchmark Report
During 2017, we surveyed almost 150 company and association representatives from across the globe to check in on the landscape of mentoring.
How is it performing? Where are the cracks? What needs tending?
Access our Spotlight Report to benchmark your own program or raise your awareness, as you embark on a mentoring program for the first time.
Mentoring in Healthcare
Listen to Jo-Anne Moorfoot, Executive Director of the Australian Centre for Healthcare Governance, Art of Mentoring’s Melissa Richardson and Gina Meibusch, as they describe ACHG’s successful mentoring program for hospital CEOs.
Case Study – Mackay Regional Council
Mackay Regional Council
Strengthening leadership capability and building networks
When Alexandra Dobbins, Organisational Development Specialist for Mackay Regional Council, was tasked with supporting the regional and MRC strategies to develop people in the district into leadership roles, she knew creating connection across industry and setting up networks for the future was critical.
Mackay’s regional location, combined with the perception of few facilities as well as the enormous change occurring in the mining industry made it difficult for organisations to attract experienced leaders to the area.
“It’s challenging to plan strategically, when the most valuable resource, people, are the most complex dilemma,” said Dobbins.
Preparing the regional workforce for long-term success and sustainability required bringing together experienced professionals, new recruits, industry and government advocates to infiltrate regional knowledge and cultivate expertise.
Solution links industry across the region
In partnership with Resource Industry Network (RIN), Mackay Regional Council selected Art of Mentoring to implement a strategic mentoring program to develop local leaders.
The goal of the Mackay Mentoring Program is to develop and support the growth of leaders by connecting them across regional industry. The strong influence of the mining industry on the local economy meant that an alliance between RIN, representing leaders from all aspects of mining, its support services and MRC was crucial to opening conversations about the future direction of the region and its resources.
Program builds network of leadership professionals
The Mackay Mentoring Program supports current and aspiring managers, leaders of regional industries and local government to build a network of leadership professionals. Participants are encouraged to share and reflect on professional life in a confidential and non–judgemental environment.
Mentees can explore their careers and skills within a mutually beneficial developmental relationship.
Mackay Regional Council chose to manage the program internally, using the structured framework, training resources, software and support provided by Art of Mentoring.
As recommended by Art of Mentoring, MRC and RIN executed their program with face-to-face formal opening and closing functions, to build momentum and camaraderie from the beginning right through to the end.
To enhance the expected benefits structured mentoring can bring, the Mackay Mentoring Network recruited two cohorts across 2019. MRC and RIN took advantage of the Art of Mentoring Professional Plan enabling access to mentor and mentee online training, a suite of educational resources and communication templates to build and support participants throughout the program.
Participants answered a range of questions to determine the best mentoring match. Matches were based on responses to questions about desired learning outcomes from the program and also geographical and time availability. Once applications closed, the platform algorithms and the weighted questions matched 20 pairs. The software uses an algorithm to draft matches based on multiple choice answers. Human consideration then determines if these matches are sound, based on additional information from free text fields and the knowledge of colleagues and the wider team.
MRC then invited successful pairs to meet at the opening function.
Matched pairs were encouraged to attend face-to-face functions to support a wider networking group. Three face to functions were held: At launch, mid-program and close of program. Pairs also met one-on-one, at mutually suitable times. The suggested timeframe to meet was once every two to three weeks.
Mentoring program achieves 100% advocacy
At the close of the first program in July 2019, four and a half months later, 100% of participants stated they would recommend the mentoring program to others.
Also, 38% said it was one of the best things they had ever done!
Heading into the middle of their mentoring program, common themes emerged from the partnerships. Mentoring pairs were identifying skill gaps, shaping goals and discussing extending relationships beyond program close.
“These are all typical responses from a program that is producing results,” said Art of Mentoring’s CEO, Melissa Richardson.
Come program end, over three-quarters of participants felt the length of the program was just right, with the remainder suggesting it was too short. This aligns with Art of Mentoring’s recommendation that a six-month program can fully foster relationships and achieve set goals.
“(My mentor)…guided me without taking the driving seat. He allowed me to come up with the answers to my own questions.”
Others commented on increased confidence and being challenged to think from a perspective they had not previously considered. Responses such as these embody the power of mentoring done well. To share the success of the program, Mackay Regional Council recorded and uploaded testimonials from happy participants. You can view these on YouTube:
The second cohort commenced mentoring on July 16 with another 20 pairs. This program has twice as many applicants, suggesting strong word of mouth recommendation within the region.
In 2020, Dobbins is considering extending beyond 20 pairs, by widening the scope of eligible member organisations for the program.
“Now that I’m more familiar with the technical use of the platform, increasing numbers will be quite simple, and will add even more value for the participants in terms of experience and diversity,” said Dobbins.
Dobbins says the Mackay Mentoring Program has been very well received and subscribed to at the middle and senior levels.
“[The Mentoring Program] adds enormous value to our Employee Value Proposition and I’ve now been approached by other organisations outside the RIN network and MRC to join the program in 2020. I have had mentors volunteer for both cohorts, just to give back and help grow our region, despite the time commitment. Mentees have been especially grateful for the opportunity, acknowledging the rich input from the diverse cohort of mentors. Almost every match so far, except two pairs have been RIN to MRC, which has added to the diversity of experience,” said Dobbins.
Mackay’s regional workforce is now positioned for long-term success and sustainability. Despite a skills shortage, the MRC and RIN are developing local leaders through expert mentoring and coaching facilitated by Australia’s leading experts, Art of Mentoring.
Art of Mentoring offers the latest in mentoring best practice with a vast range of evidence–based programs, expert consultants, software and world–class resources to support the design and implementation of effective mentoring in your organisation. As a team of client service professionals they strive for 80%+ participant satisfaction.
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Mentee Testimonials:
“It was a great program. It’s definitely a good idea to go in with an open-mind, because your journey doesn’t always go in the direction you may have originally thought it would, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’s been a great experience.”
Melissa Rogers Mentee w Alexandra Dobbins
“I did achieve my goals – I committed to the program and ensured that takeaways from each session were applied in a practical sense.”
Emily Wicks Mentee w Heidi Fagan
“After experiencing the situation of having a mentor, I have realised the importance of a mentor and I would recommend everyone needs one to grow in their professional life.”
Rohith Kallem Mentee
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Mentor Testimonials:
“What a great programme that provides the opportunity for people to connect and deliver business results through connecting with those that are prepared to share their knowledge and experiences. Great programme!”
Heidi Fagan Mentor w Emily Wicks
Art of Mentoring can help any organisation launch, run or evaluate a mentoring program. For more information please contact us.
How ethical mentoring can make a difference
GUEST BLOG
Ethical mentoring can manage reputational risk
It seems every day, there is another story of organisations, which were once respected, betraying the trust of their stakeholders. The scenes at Fifa (pronounced Thiefa), when staff applauded the boss, who had presided over years of corrupt practice, may have seemed inexplicable. Yet they demonstrate just how easily immoral and illegal practice can become such a part of the culture that people rationalise it as normal and acceptable.
Our desire to think well of ourselves can lead us to create narratives that justify the otherwise indefensible. If someone challenges those narratives, we protect our sense of self-worthiness. We position them as immoral, for undermining some greater good, to which we have aligned our own immoral actions. So, in the case of Fifa, those who exposed corruption were seen as attacking the “good work” of supporting football in very poor countries.
The challenge of shifting a corrupt culture
Our individual and collective inability to challenge the morality of our actions and our inbuilt defensiveness, when someone else challenges them, make the task of shifting a corrupt culture very difficult. Getting everyone to sign a pledge of better behaviour in the future doesn’t have much effect on underlying assumptions – the narrative of justification remains in the background and continues to exert a more subtle influence. Over time, without constant vigilance and ethical role models, unethical behaviour re-asserts itself.
The importance of dialogue
Changing the narrative can only happen through dialogue. Not just any dialogue, but dialogue that promotes both introspection – understanding our own core values and how we try to live them – and an understanding and appreciation of wider and different perspectives. Connecting with our own values reinforces our ability to self-police against unethical behaviour. Connecting with wider perspectives helps us question and break free from unethical assumptions we have absorbed from the shared narrative of our immediate working environment.
The role of the ethical mentor
This kind of dialogue doesn’t happen in one-off workshops. It requires a learning context – one where we are open to re-evaluation of our internal and external worlds and how we relate to them. Hence the emerging role of “ethical mentor”.
Ethical mentors come equipped with skills to help people have the learning conversations about difficult issues, along with an understanding of the psychology of ethicality – how we make choices in line with our values. They also typically have an immense store of personal wisdom.
The role of ethical mentors is fourfold:
1. Provide the first line of defence against the corporate reputation damage of whistleblowing.
Genuine whistleblowers typically take their concerns public because they do not feel there are being listened to. An ethical mentor provides an empathetic ear and a resource, through which people can explore a range of options of how to be heard. Typically, the mentor also has a direct link to an organisation’s leadership, who would otherwise often be unaware of unethical behaviour further down the organisation. The mentor can help a whistleblower think through how best to present their concerns, how to gather evidence, where relevant.
Some organisations, especially in the health and social care sectors, are experiencing a different kind of whistleblower – people, who misuse the whistleblowing structures to deflect attention from their own dishonest or incompetent behaviour, or to take revenge for being found out. By and large, these people avoid the ethical mentor, but doing so greatly reduces their credibility.
2. Support anyone in the organisation, who has an ethical dilemma…
…and needs help in thinking through how to manage it. The process, at its simplest, involves helping them:
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- Articulate the problem
- Consider the context
- Consider the implications
- What other opinions/perspectives may be relevant?
- Balance the arguments
- Make a final check
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3. Help people develop ethical resilience.
The ability to recognise ethical dilemmas, become more ethically aware and manage ethical issues in line with their own personal values and the values of their organisation. This tends to be a longer-term learning process than the first two roles.
4. Act as a corporate conscience.
Their exposure to ethical issues at various levels within the organisation and their reflection on these experiences is an invaluable window on the ethical narratives of the organisation. They are able to identify patterns of thinking and behaviour that increase ethical risk and bring these patterns to the attention of the organisation’s leadership, so that remedial action can be taken before reputational catastrophe occurs.
There are still only a handful of organisations, which have formal ethical mentors in place – Barclays, Standard Chartered, Diageo and the UK National Health Service among them – and these are still learning how best to develop ethical mentors. If we are to make a significant difference to corporate morality, however, ethical mentors have a major role to play.
© David Clutterbuck, 2015
coachingandmentoringinternational.org
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Humour in Mentoring
Finding the Funny Side of Mentoring
When asked to describe the mentor or coach they would dread, learners typically refer at some point to the person without a sense of humour. Not surprisingly, mentors and coaches have similar feelings about trying to form developmental relationships with humourless learners. The person who is too intense, too focused, too serious-minded can be very hard work on both sides.
By contrast, when describing their ideal partner for learning dialogue, people typically talk about someone who stimulates them in a positive, light-hearted manner, who empathises while maintaining a positive sense of detachment, and who is able to use humour to break cycles of negative or over-introspection.
So what is it about humour and a sense of fun that is so important to the coaching or mentoring process?
One aspect is the link with creative thinking, which is arguably at the core of developmental dialogue. Humour and creativity are very closely aligned processes – both depend on the unexpected juxtaposition of concepts, visions or language. Consider the following quotation from Arthur Koelester[1]:
The creative act is not an act of creation in the sense of the Old Testament. It does not create something out of nothing; it uncovers, selects, reshuffles, combines, synthesises already existing facts, ideas, faculties, skills. The more familiar the parts, the more striking the new whole.
The mentoring dialogue picks apart the elements of the mentee’s experience and recombines them in similar insightful ways. It’s not surprising, then, that it typically generates good humour and occasional laughter. Seeing oneself and others in new lights is like walking through the hall of mirrors – the strange delight of the incongruous and sometimes grotesque.
Yet humour is much more than a by-product of mentoring. It is also an essential component. It contributes to the building of rapport – it is hard to trust someone you cannot laugh with. It provides a means of giving critical feedback or coaxing the mentee to discuss issues that are otherwise too painful to address. And it enables the mentoring pair to place issues in a wider context.
How to cultivate humour in mentoring?
Among the ways effective mentors bring laughter into their practice are:
- Making it part of the contract/ expectations for the relationship
- Sharing humorous things that have happened to them recently, to relax the mentee
- Looking for the lighter side in difficult situations
- Exploring incongruities
- Developing visual images that introduce an element of the ridiculous into situations, where the mentee/ coachee experiences fear or anxiety
- Giving the mentee/ coachee permission to access their inner child, when it will help them understand their motivations
Of course, humour needs to be used with a light touch, to ensure that mentor and mentee really do address the important issues in sufficient depth. Yet getting to that depth may sometimes be difficult or impossible to do without the lubricating influence of humour. Effective mentors and coaches need the tools to work within the mentee’s humour comfort zone – and that takes sensitivity, flexibility and a willingness to work with the mentee to lead the dialogue into unknown territory.
Some of those tools include:
- Knowing how to detach from the emotion of the moment and consider what alternative emotions might be more helpful
- Being able to point out illogicalities and incongruities with a light touch –raising awareness of them without causing the learner to feel embarrassed or threatened
- Gradually raising the humour stakes by exposing more of the illogicality/ incongruity, or by applying metaphors, which have multiple layers of meaning (for example, “So he thinks he’s the ugly duckling, then?”)
- Using direct questions, such as “Can you see a lighter side to this situation?”
- Encouraging the mentee/ coachee, through Socratic dialogue, to take beliefs and assumptions to their logical, but extreme, conclusions. Almost invariably, this will trigger an excursion into the ridiculous.
Getting the balance right
There has, to my knowledge, been no study (serious or otherwise!) into the role of humour in the developmental relationship. Perhaps it has seemed too trivial a topic, when in reality, it may be a critical antecedent for achieving the relationship purpose. Perhaps a useful analogy is the spice in a meal. It doesn’t take a great deal of spice to turn a bland experience into a gustatory delight. Too much and the dish cloys. Pitching correctly the balance of humour in the relationship – like creating a great recipe – is often a process of trial and error, with frequent sampling.
Watching an effective coach at work recently, I winced when he countered a morose statement by the coachee with an apparently flippant comment, which clearly didn’t find favour with the coachee. Deftly, he turned the situation around, saying: “You are obviously treating this issue much more seriously than I had assumed. What makes you feel it is so serious?” Ten minutes later, the situation was reversed, as the coach responded to a disparaging remark made by the coachee about a colleague, not with an expression of disapproval, but one that was quizzical. “How true do you believe that comment to be?”, he asked.
What this coach was doing was experimenting with humour – both his own and the coachee’s – to maintain a dialogue that was always close to creativity’s edge. It’s a lesson all coaches and mentors can benefit from!
Like to learn more about mentoring? Join our webinars here.
© 2019 David Clutterbuck
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[1] Arthur Koestler (The Act of Creation, 1964)
Employee-Led Mentoring
How to Support Employee-Led Mentoring Programmes
One of the biggest barriers to widespread use of mentoring in organisations is HR time and focus. Lean HR teams in many companies have a wide range of urgent tasks and projects that tend to take priority over deep learning initiatives. Minimum effort solutions, involving matching platforms that put largely untrained mentors and mentors together on the basis of a specific learning need, have a very poor track record of delivering value, beyond occasional transfer of know-how. So, HR professionals frequently take the moral high ground of “if we can’t do it properly, we should wait till we can”. Not only does this lead to long-term postponements of mentoring initiatives, but it often means that when they are launched, they are under-resourced and so less likely to achieve the radical change expected of a well-designed and well-supported programme.
So, how can these companies make mentoring freely available in a cost-effective way without a large input of HR resources? The answer lies in passing responsibility for mentoring away from HR and into the hands of employees.
Building the Foundation for Employee-Led Mentoring
A small but convincing volume of case studies suggests that this is relatively easy to do. The two most obvious ways are to work through business functions in the formal organisational structure and through informal networks.
Business Functions
It is typical in large organisations that each business unit and/or function has its own challenges in addition to those faced by the organisation as a whole. For example, retention may be a problem in IT; helping talented people build reputation an issue in finance functions.
HR Business Partners are (or at least, should be) well aware of these challenges. They also know who in their area of responsibility is particularly concerned about the issue and who is looking to build their reputation outside of their normal job role. The HRBP can choose to be a catalyst or a reagent (depending on how much they are willing to become directly involved) for these people, by:
- Helping them establish a steering group
- Advising on mentoring good practice
- Promoting the steering group to the function’s senior management
- Identifying sources of finance
We recommend that this becomes a regular feature of all reviews between HRBPs and their internal clients.
Informal Networks
The formal and informal networks so essential to an organisation’s functioning are typically under-used as a resource. With appropriate support and encouragement, enthusiasts within these networks can take over most or all of the functions of mentoring programme design, implementation and evaluation. Examples of suitable networks include:
- Diversity based groups (gender, race, LGTB and others) often initiate employee-led mentoring programmes by requesting HR to arrange them
- People introducing new ways of working, such as agile teams, often create informal networks of mutual support
- People in similar job roles – for example, first line managers, or corporate lawyers
- Alumni – for example, people, who have attended the same course or been part of the same action learning set
- Returners to work – for example, after maternity or paternity leave.
Overall, these programmes tend to be more effective and more durable than those driven by HR alone. The people in these networks live and work with the issues they are concerned about, so their attention is less likely to be diverted elsewhere. What they need is support (there is a clear correlation between knowing that the organisation is supportive of the aims of a programme and the quality of the relationships within the programme) and a modicum of financial resources.
A starting point to employee-led mentoring is to identify these existing networks and establish their interest in collaborative self-development. HR can also stimulate the creation of networks, encouraging employees with similar interests to link together. The key ingredients in setting up a network are:
- A small group of enthusiasts, who share a common interest
- A set of standard instructions to help them establish and promote their group’s objectives
- Helping them to find other potential network members (for example, providing a list of everyone with a relevant job title, or simply announcing the formation of the network in the employee newsletter)
- Allowing them to create an online forum and / or have meetings in company space
- Encouraging them to make common learning and development needs known to HR
- Providing them with access to the leadership team, where they can find champions for their cause.
Once a network is established, it can be supported in forming a mentoring steering group in just the same way as within functions or business units.
Creating a Cost-Effective Mentoring Capability
The danger in encouraging a multiplicity of unconnected and uncoordinated mentoring initiatives is that they vary substantially in quality and impact. (For example, it’s common in large multinationals to find programmes with completely different definitions and styles of mentoring.) Yet at the same time, creating an expensive administrative bureaucracy is also undesirable.
Among the simple, practical and low-cost solutions that we have observed in employee-led mentoring programmes are the following:
- A regular six-monthly workshop to train employees outside of HR (HR professionals are welcome, too, but are not the target audience) in the basics of how to design and manage mentoring programmes. Alternatively, this training can be delivered online. Participants can also achieve a formal qualification in mentoring programme management from the European Mentoring and Coaching Council.
- Online training for mentors and mentees through regular series of webinars, open to everyone in the company
- Train the trainer workshops for members of steering groups to develop their own skills to educate and support mentors and mentees
- Online resources to troubleshoot mentoring relationships and enhance the portfolio of tools and approaches mentors can apply
- A network of mentoring programme managers, in which the dominant membership is outside of HR (and hence resourced from other departmental budgets)
- An annual celebration of mentoring, organised by informal programme groups coming together. International Mentoring Day every October provides a useful peg, on which to hang these events
- Although we have discussed the idea with various organisations, none to our knowledge has yet launched an internal award for best mentoring programme. (However, Mentor of the Year awards do happen in some companies)
- Creating a central database of trained mentors, with their areas of interest. Programmes can tap into this resource as needed.
These and other approaches help to distribute the effort and cost of mentoring from HR to the wider organisation. HR can choose whether to organise these activities or simply act as an advisor to a steering group reporting to the leadership team. By encouraging ownership and delivery of mentoring to shift from HR to the business, HR can achieve much greater impact for a lot less effort, much more quickly.
We can help you explore opportunities for employee-led mentoring in your organisation.
Contact us for a strategic business review and training support that will put you on the front foot!
© 2019 David Clutterbuck
Professor David Clutterbuck is one of Europe’s most respected writers and thinkers on leadership, coaching and mentoring. He has written nearly 50 books and hundreds of articles on cutting-edge management themes.
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Helping a Mentee Manage Uncertainty
When Uncertainty Becomes a Barrier
Much as humans generally crave certainty, we have to live with constant uncertainty. It’s how we manage uncertainty that counts. In organisations, uncertain comes in two kinds: prediction uncertainty and decision uncertainty.
Prediction Uncertainty
Prediction uncertainty comes from operating in a VUCA environment, where we know that “best guesses” may turn out badly wrong, because we don’t have enough information, because of constant change and because there may be important factors we simply aren’t aware of.
Decision Uncertainty
Decision uncertainty occurs when we cannot make our own plans, because these are dependent upon others within a chain. (When the chain becomes a loop, with each party dependent on the others, it is even harder!)
There is no simple remedy for either of these forms of uncertainty. The best we can do is be highly flexible in responding to change and to monitor closely the boundaries of certainty and uncertainty. A simple way to approach the latter is to categorise it into four areas:
- Certainty – what we are reasonably or very sure about and can therefore plan for
- Partial certainty – high probabilities, but with some risk factors to any prediction, for which we can plan with contingencies and multiple scenarios
- Uncertainty – what we have limited control over and need rapid reaction plans for
- Chaos – what we can’t predict or plan for, and so for which we need to have very strong radar
How Do I Help My Mentee Manage Uncertainty?
These categories apply to organisations, teams and individuals. A mentor can help mentees think through what lies in each category, how appropriate their current response is, and how they can improve their responses. Two key questions are:
- What process changes do you need to make?
- What mindset changes do you need to make?
Process and mindset changes are typically both required in a robust approach to manage uncertainty. Process changes relate to how you gather and validate information, but also to how you use that information to make decisions. Critical questions here are:
- How can you make better, faster decisions, even when you have less certain data?
- How can you persuade others to do so?
- How can data analytics shift issues up the ladder from chaos towards certainty?
- When is it right to decide not to decide?
Mindset changes relate to how we perceive uncertainty in the first place. Our research into high performing teams internationally reveals a common characteristic in that they welcome and are highly resilient to change. The key to this seems to be how they view change – as an opportunity, rather than as a threat. It’s normal for people to see the downsides of disruptive change before the positives. For example, early studies of the likely impact of Artificial Intelligence forecast massive job losses in the developed economies. Just a few years later, studies indicate that there will instead be more, different jobs created than lost.
Explore this.
Useful issues the coach or mentor can explore with them to manage uncertainty include:
- What opportunities can you see in the uncertainties you are aware of?
- What positive outcomes can you envisage from creating uncertainty? (That is being the disruptor, not the disrupted?)
- How can you increase your change resilience?
It’s helpful to bear in mind that fear blunts our creativity. Mentoring or coaching can help the learner replace fear of change with curiosity about change, by asking questions, such as:
- What are your greatest hopes for the outcomes of this current uncertainty?
- What can you do, alone or with others, to make those hopes more likely outcomes?
- How do you want to be seen in relation to the changes happening? (A blocker, a supporter, or “the calming voice of reason”?)
- How much more effective would you be, if you chose not to worry about what might happen?
Being the calming voice of reason may be healthiest for both the team, or the organisation and for the mentee/coachee. Letting go of their fears and choosing not to worry (for example, by making contingency plans for worst case scenarios) allows them to take a balanced view of the threats and opportunities, they can emerge with a reputation for both enabling change to happen and reducing its negative effects, both during and after the period of uncertainty. So, they enhance their own reputation and at the same time look after their health by worrying less.
Time to start a mentoring program in your workplace? Let us help you.
© 2019 David Clutterbuck, Author and Co-founder of the European Mentoring & Coaching Council
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Helping a Manager Understand His or Her Leadership Style Options
Manager Intervention: Helping managers understand their leadership style options
How a manager behaves in any specific situation depends on many factors, including how much preparation time they have, but the two most significant factors are their general style preference and the range of options they have within their preference. The role of a coach or mentor in guiding manager intervention is to help them become more aware of their preferences and options, so that they can widen the range of responses and select those most appropriate and effective for each situation.
John Heron’s Six Categories of Intervention dates from 1975 and is a practical way to match intuitively the style and the approach to the situation and the individual within it.
He identifies two main styles of manager intervention, each with three sub-styles:
Authoritative
Authoritative style, as the name suggests, describes people, who like to take charge. The three choices they have are:
- Prescriptive – defining for the employee what needs to be done and how (though not necessarily why)
- Informative – drawing on personal experience to show the employee what to do and what to watch out for
- Confronting – challenging their thinking, sometimes aggressively, to help them think independently
Facilitative
Facilitative style starts from the assumption that direct reports know what they have to do and how. The three optional approaches are:
- Cathartic – intervening when they are stuck or frustrated, giving them the emotional support to work through their emotional blockers and finding a solution together
- Catalytic – helping the direct report discover and reflect upon their strengths and weaknesses, using this knowledge to find ways forward
- Supportive – helping the direct report build their confidence, self-esteem and sense of contribution to the team’s work.
How to Guide Your Mentee in Manager Intervention Techniques
The mentor or coach can help by:
- Encouraging the manager to reflect upon their beliefs and their experience of how people react to different styles in different situations
- Asking “What does this direct report need from you right now to perform at their best?”
- Asking: “What might you learn by trying out a different style or different options?”
- Reviewing with the manager his or her experience with these experiments – including feedback from the employee
Read our blog on Negotiating the Balance of Power Between the Team Leader and the Team.
Check out our free webinar series. There’s something for everyone with new topics added regularly.
© 2019 David Clutterbuck, Author and Co-founder of the European Mentoring & Coaching Council
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