We talk so much about how important it is to have a mentor, but Dana thinks (and we agree) that we should also talk about important it is to BE a mentor – at any stage in your career. Who can you mentor to help you develop the important “coaching” leadership skills that will help you motivate and develop the people who work for you and with you? – InPower Editors
Back in the old days no one needed a “mentor” because apprenticeships ensured that younger folks learned the ropes at the knees of the oldsters. Now it’s call mentoring, and having people willing to mentor you – give you friendly feedback that can help you be more effective in your organization – can absolutely help you develop your career and executive presence.
But mentoring is becoming well known as a critical skill in any leader’s bag o’ tricks as well. Why? Because the more we learn about adult learning and management styles that help employees contribute to their full potential, the more we understand how good mentors can coax greater ability and talent out of the workforce.
So this means that we should all learn how to BE a good mentor even while we’re learning from the mentors helping us out too. But what does this look like? Here’s how L.B. put it in a coaching session:
“[My mentor] doesn’t tell me what to do. We talk about what I want to do and she helps me to see possibilities. I think one of her SIMPLEST best practices is, allowing me to be me, and just molding rather than recreating.”
In many ways, a mentor is also a coach in the sense that a mentor lets their mentee do the thinking and work that provides the kind of feedback and “safe space” to help the mentee think through their experience at deeper levels. You don’t have to be “trained” to be a coach to be a good mentor, but you do need to develop the skill.
Here’s a short video on this topic, explored in more depth in the InPower Coaching Community.
