mentoring circle™ programme and facilitators’ manual_en.pdf · nlp for facilitators ......

MENTEE – Mentoring, Networking and Training for European

Entrepreneurs

Proj.no: 2014-1-PL01-KA202-003383

MENTORING CIRCLE™ PROGRAMME AND FACILITATORS’

MANUAL

1 Produced by Inova Consultancy Ltd.

Contents

Overview of the Mentoring Circles ™ ..................................................................................................... 2

Recruitment Process ............................................................................................................................... 3

What are Mentoring Circles ™? .............................................................................................................. 4

Mentoring Circles ™’ Purpose and Methodology ............................................................... 4

Mentoring Circles ™ - Underpinning Philosophy ............................................................... 5

Outline of Mentoring Circles ™ Content ................................................................................................. 8

The Facilitation Process – Introductions: Building Rapport .................................................................. 10

The Facilitation Process – Managing Expectations: Professional Distancing ....................................... 12

The Facilitation Process – Contracting & Developing Ground Rules: Honesty ..................................... 13

Developing Ground Rules .............................................................................................. 15

The Facilitation Process – Active Listening ........................................................................................... 18

NLP for facilitators ................................................................................................................................ 18

What is NLP? ............................................................................................................... 19

NLP Communication Model............................................................................................ 20

Distortions – Changing Meaning .................................................................................... 20

Generalisations ............................................................................................................................. 22

Deletions ....................................................................................................................................... 22

Utilising Values in the Real World ......................................................................................................... 23

Detailed Overview of Mentoring Circles Process .................................................................................. 24

Working through the Manual for Entrepreneurs ................................................................................. 27

Closing meeting ..................................................................................................................................... 39

Annexes ................................................................................................................................................. 41

Bibliography .......................................................................................................................................... 41


Overview of the Mentoring Circles ™

As part of the MENTEE Project (Mentoring, Networking and Training for European

Entrepreneurs), two series of Mentoring Circles™ will be carried out in four consortium

countries. An initial pilot will take place from 01.09.2015 to 30.11.2015. Following this, any

adjustments necessary will be made, and adaptations to suit both the target audience and

local needs will be made. A second pilot will be run from 01.01.2016 to 31.03.2016 in order

to test how effective the modifications prove to be with the target group.

Mentoring Circles ™ will be carried out by the following partners:

INnCREASE Sp z o.o.(PL)

Quality Program SAS Di Nicola Martulli & C (IT)

Mentortec Servicos de Apoio A Projectos Tecnologicos SA (PT)

Knowl (GR)

Mentoring Circles ™ E-learning tools will be developed by:

• Vitale Tecnologie Telecomunicazioni - Viteco S.r.l.

Each Mentoring Circle™ will consist of 5-10 mentees (new, potential and aspiring

entrepreneurs with priority given to those who have participated in the EYE programme) who

are thinking of starting up in business or are open to considering running a business as a

career option. There will be a different facilitator per pilot (ideally experienced and inspiring

entrepreneurs) who will facilitate the group in each country, following the attendance of the

“Training the Trainers” workshop in Sheffield, UK held by Inova Consultancy in September

2015.

Each Mentoring Circle™ pilot will meet for three sessions (as a minimum), it is expected that

the length in between sessions will be agreed upon by each Mentoring Circle™ separately as

this depends on group availability. Each session will last approximately three hours and should

take place in a room where participants are able to contribute in confidence. At the end of

each piloted Mentoring Circle™ phase there a dissemination event should be held by each

partner to showcase results and enable participants to meet existing entrepreneurs.

Depending upon the number of learners in a Mentoring Circle™, the style becomes more or

less directive by the facilitator. For example, for a bigger group with more than seven learners,

more tools will be used with more direction from the facilitation. In a smaller group with seven

or fewer learners, fewer tools would be used and greater use of the time-slots method to

discuss and question over individuals’ issues. This facilitator’s guide aims to guide the MENTEE

Mentoring Circle ™’s facilitator through both approaches.


After each session, participants will complete an evaluation form and the facilitator will write

up their working notes from the facilitator’s perspective in their own facilitators’ log. In

addition, during the first session participants will complete a skills profile evaluation. The

facilitator will keep all evaluation forms at the end of each session. At the end of the third or

final session, participants will complete a second skills profile evaluation and a final outcome

evaluation form. Following this the participating partner will write up a summary report in

English which summarises the individual evaluation forms per session, the final outcome

forms and their own facilitator’s notes/experiences as per the template given in Annex I: Pilot

Summary Report Format. The report should contain interesting quotes from participants and

audio files/photos of the Mentoring Circle ™ where possible. This summary report should be

approximately 5-10 pages A4, the first should be sent to Inova by December 4th 2015 in order

to be collated into an interim summary report in January 2016. The second should be sent to

Inova by 8th April 2016 in order to be collated into an overall summary report in May 2015.

Recruitment Process

As with any programme it is important to start as early as possible with the recruitment process; this not only ensures that the appropriate number of participants are enrolled but also gives the facilitator an opportunity to shortlist candidates who are truly motivated to participate in the programme. It is beneficial to put into action a variety of recruitment tools, some suggestions are listed below: - Contact with EYE organisations as identified in your Stakeholder Database - Posters in Careers Services or Chambers of Commerce - Social Media outlets - Unemployment offices - Word of mouth, for instance by utilising your current networks - Sharing details with your Needs Analysis participants - Advertisements in local newspapers - E-blasts It is important to log and evidence the recruitment procedures that you carry out. This information is required for the partner piloting reports and will help create an understanding of how the procedures can be adapted in the future. who would consider it. Potential participants should be asked to complete an application form, of which there is a template in Annex II: Application Form, however individual partners may also wish to create an online form for ease of collection.


What are Mentoring Circles ™?

This guide has been produced to give facilitators’ knowledge of Inova Consultancy’s approach

to the Mentoring Circles™ and to outline our recommended process for working with

Mentoring Circle™ groups for the MENTEE project.

We recognise that starting or being in the early stages of a business can be a daunting

prospect, especially for those for whom it is a new prospect and have not yet gained strong

sustainable networks. Inova has developed a unique group mentoring process which brings

together skilled facilitation using action learning techniques, coaching and mentoring,

combined with career development/self reflection tools. In order to support entrepreneurs

with increasing their career options and in order to foster the associated entrepreneurial

spirit, the Mentoring Circles™ methodology has been adapted and will be piloted for MENTEE.

In a Mentoring Circle™, a facilitator works with approximately 5-10 beneficiaries (5 aspiring

entrepreneurs) in a group setting. The programme blends group discussion and the individual

airing of issues, reflection, goal setting and personal action planning. Mentoring Circles™ are

led by skilled facilitators with expertise in action learning or by facilitators who have been

trained in the methodology by Inova Consultancy directly.

Mentoring Circles ™’ Purpose and Methodology

Mentoring Circles™ enable an individual to share their problems, issues, opportunities

and challenges with others.

Mentoring Circles™ provide a safe yet challenging environment where ideas for

starting a business can be explored and tested.

Possible options for action can be generated and discussed.

The individual is helped to find the next steps forward in furthering their idea to start

up in business.

Encouraging development of self-reflection and self-belief.

There are also other benefits of participation:

Opportunities to network with other wanna-be entrepreneurs facing similar issues.

Opportunities to make new contacts and expand their networks.


Mentoring Circles ™ - Underpinning Philosophy

Mentoring Circles™ are learner led and learner focused. The concept of a Mentoring Circle™

is built on the process of learning as a journey which requires that the individual can be helped

to reveal what they need to know, that some knowledge is already within and needs to be

brought forward, and that shared knowledge and learning from others can be valuable. The

focus is very much on questioning to reveal insights - whether this is through group

discussions, completion of exercises and guided questioning from other participants. For

example, through guided questioning sections within a Mentoring Circle™, participants take

it in turns to have a time slot to talk about their problem or opportunity and the other group

members offer questions. The questioning is about discovery, trying to understand more fully

any underlying issues which it would be fruitful to explore further. Thus the focus is on

questioning rather than advice giving. Similarly when completing exercises regarding self-

development or self-reflection, participants are encouraged to question their responses and

to support other group members in questioning why they responded to an exercise in a

certain way. This process strengthens the development of self-reflection. The two models

below (Action Learning Process and Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle) are useful in further

explaining the purpose and process of Mentoring Circle™.


Fig 1. Action Learning Process

Fig 2. Kolb’s Experiential

Learning Cycle (1975)

Mentoring Circles™ - Facilitation Aims

Mentoring Circles™ are generally facilitated in a fairly non-directive manner; however each

facilitator will have their own style which may be more or less directive. It may be necessary

to use a more directive approach when appropriate e.g. when an individual might be about

to undertake risky or damaging actions which can be foreseen. As mentioned previously, the

Start -Present your challenge, problem,

issue or your question

Set members question you constructively to challenge views and

understanding, perceptions, assumptions

Insight? New understanding, ideas on taking

action?

Test out taking action in the workplace

Bring results back to set- what

worked/what didn’t? Why?

Mark learning, draw conclusions, define learning

from experience.


size of group dictates the level of direction required. Larger groups tending to be led in a more

directive fashion than smaller ones.

We would expect the learning process to feature some of the following exploration for

participants:

Exploration of what may cause particular conditions or consequences; reviewing

decisions or actions and reveal how this has led to the current situation. Could

problems have been avoided? What are the implications if a similar situation occurs

in the future? What have they learned from this situation?

Examining their own thinking that led them to believe something or act in a certain

way. Is a decision built on fair assumptions? Have assumptions been tested?

We can also learn from mistakes; Argyris (1993) suggests that learning occurs

whenever errors are detected and corrected.

The facilitation should also be future focused and solution focused. It is useful to

assist members in predicting possible outcomes. Have they taken everything into

account? What is the back up or contingency plan? Have they considered all the

options in a situation?

Your facilitation will explicitly get people to commit to goal and action plans, report

on their own progress, redefine goals and review outcomes.

The facilitation should also involve awareness of group dynamics and group process;

this may occasionally require that the facilitator may have to intervene to protect

someone’s time, to keep issues on track when challenge may be causing distress,

when someone is perhaps using power inappropriately or behaving in a way that

frustrates or blocks the group’s learning.

Participants might wish to experiment with behaviours in the Mentoring Circle™ (with

the agreement and support of their colleagues) and obtain feedback. Perhaps a

member would like to be more assertive and offer more suggestions in group settings

or develop the confidence to disagree with people.

Encourage group members to be creative, to work outside comfort zones and to

maximise opportunities.

Contracting: defining an agreement with the Mentoring Circle™ members about roles

and responsibilities in order that a) you can best facilitate: b) they can get most out of

the process in a climate which is conducive to learning. Agreements need to be


revisited frequently and rules of operation need restating at the start of each session.

The following section on Contracting outlines this process in more detail.

Outline of Mentoring Circles ™ Content

Session indicative content Suggested tools/exercises MEETING 1

Preliminary contracting (p12)

Personal introductions-your introduction about

the project (including handing out of

Entrepreneurs’ Manual) and Mentoring Circle™

member introductions

Introduction to Action Learning principles (p5)

Administration and materials signatures on

attendance record, check agreements signed,

show and explain the Entrepreneurs’ Manual

pack

Completion of skills profile evaluation (tool 1)

Go through examples - approach, difference

between advice giving, using questions, turning

questions into statements, outline way of

working

Ground rules agreement (p15)

Exploration of issues (p24 – Describe current

Issues)

Goal setting and action planning

Summary of actions and learning

Session evaluation form to be completed

Ensure you have agreed next session, date,

time, venue (may be prescheduled)

Encouragement of participants to use the

online community to check goal progress in

between sessions

As a facilitator you should keep notes of the

sessions and how you feel they went as your

own learning log and to improve the

methodology

Tools can be used as and when the facilitator feels it is appropriate.

What does a typical entrepreneur look like? (tool 2)

Mind maps and ideas generation (tool 3)

Wheel of Life (tool 13)

Clover of Skills and Passions (tool 15)

3 years from now (tool 16)


MEETING 2

Re contracting- checking agreement on ways of

working

Progress review: discussion of successes,

difficulties with each member this can be as

part of their set time or going round the room

depending on number of attendees

Articulation of new challenges and

opportunities for each participant as above

Exploration of issues as in previous meeting



Session evaluation forms to be completed

Ensure you have agreed next session, date,

time, venue (may be prescheduled)

SWOT Analysis (tool 4)

Entrepreneurial Resilience (tool 5)

Goal Setting (tool 7)

Mapping your Goals (tool 10)

Reflecting Back (tool 11)

MEETING 3

Re contracting - checking agreement on ways of

working

Progress review: discussion of successes,

difficulties

Articulation of new challenges and

opportunities

Exploration of issues as in previous sessions



Complete skills profile evaluation (discussion of

outcome in comparison to the one completed

during session 1 )

Evaluation forms

Exchange contact information, agree any

further informal networking or use of the

online community

What are your motivators to start up? (tool 6)

Reality Check – Moving Ideas to Action (tool 9)

Don’t Just have Goals – ACT! (tool 12)

Business Pitch (tool 14)

Just for fun: Quick Quiz (tool 8)


The Facilitation Process – Introductions: Building Rapport

a) Your personal introduction

This will probably include:

Your name.

Personal history, how you got to where you are in life-focused on yourself as someone

in business who has perhaps participated in some form of company placement

programme and therefore role model to the group members

Fields you have worked in, career trajectory

Professional qualifications if relevant, credibility to be able to facilitate.

How you like to work, anything in particular that you value e.g. openness, honesty,

sharing.

Explain your role- process expert rather than technical expert.

Finally give the Manual for Entrepreneurs to all members. Ensure all attending have

signed the attendance sheet and mentoring agreements have been signed.

b) Engaging Mentoring Circles™ members introducing themselves to one another

This need only be brief at this initial stage. It can help to give people a framework to contain

their introduction and a set time e.g. two minutes per person.

Write headings on flipchart paper and ask them to summarise their introduction by

asking the following:

Name.

Background (only what they are comfortable sharing – perhaps previous jobs,

interests etc).

Business idea.

Three key challenges you face when thinking about starting up in business at the

moment.

What you want to get out of attending the Mentoring Circles™.

It is also useful to check any prior exposure of participants to action learning or coaching and

mentoring, and to introduce the concept of developing self awareness and self-diagnosis as

an important part of being involved in Mentoring Circles™.


c) An introduction concerning Mentoring Circles ™

Explain how Mentoring Circles™ work; that they provide a facilitated space where individuals

can complete tools, share discussions and have a dedicated time slot each to present their

issues, problems and opportunities. Through questioning, the group members help them to

gain more insight into their situation; the aim is to help them find ways forward in taking

purposeful action.

The method works because it places the learner to the centre of the situation; it works in real

time on live issues of importance to the individual. It integrates any theoretical learning with

real experience; it’s about action and implementation.

The benefits of this action learning approach are:

It enables you to generate more insight into the situation you are facing, perhaps

helping you to generate more options and solutions.

It tests assumptions on which your plans are built.

It enables you to reality check plans, ideas and solutions; are they appropriate,

comprehensive and appropriate to your context?

By bringing more brain power to look at issues, you have more opportunity to spot

issues which you haven’t already thought of; it can help expose blind spots. Your

colleagues may help you look at potential consequences or outcomes; they may help

you generate more innovative and creative ideas or find new ways to approach

situations.

It offers a way of constructively challenging your ideas, in order to help you develop

them to maximise your chance of success

d) Establish the meeting process; give a model for how each meeting will work.

The general process of what happens in a Mentoring Circle™ is as follows:

Each Mentoring Circle™ has a trained facilitator who helps shape the sessions. You meet for

4-5 hours. Each person has allocated time to use to explore an issue they are facing or

complete tools as guided by the facilitator. The facilitator will help participants develop action

plans and goals to go forward and test out new ideas or implement solutions. Participants


then bring issues back to the Mentoring Circle™ next time it meets. Mentoring Circle™

colleagues can help hold individuals to account, give them confidence to push themselves out

of their comfort zone. After each time period they will report back to the Mentoring Circle™

to review their achievements, difficulties and success. Learning is about being resilient in the

face of difficulty. Participants may not achieve everything that they set out to achieve,

however they will be encouraged to review difficulties and learn from them and find ways

forward or new paths for action.

You may wish to refer them to the diagram of the action learning model or draw one of your

own on a flip chart.

The Facilitation Process – Managing Expectations: Professional

Distancing

e) Communicate expectations about evaluation.

It is a requirement of participating in the MENTEE programme that Mentoring Circles™

members agree to take part in evaluation. There are many materials provided to enable this

to happen in the Entrepreneurs’ Manual (evaluation section).

At the end of all Mentoring Circles™, evaluation forms are required. It is helpful if you can get

them completed at the end. The response rate is not as good if you allow people to take the

form home. Allow ten minutes at the end of the session for them to be completed.

f) Communicate needs regarding administration procedures: initial contract signing, attendance register, evaluation materials.

At meeting 1 there is a requirement for the following administration for the programme:

Provide each participant with 2 Mentoring Circles™ agreements, ask them to read

them and sign and date both. The participant retains one for their records. One copy

is kept by the facilitator.

At the start of each meeting participants are asked to sign in on the attendance

register. This is an important record for the administrators and provides evidence to

funders that the event has taken place. Please retain it and return to Inova. If possible

please also record the session and take photos if participants agree to this. The


summary report of the Mentoring Circles™ once completed should also be sent to

Inova.

g) Elicit any expectations the group members have of you as facilitator.

This will vary according to your facilitation style and experience, but you might check the

following:

What level of challenge are people comfortable with?

What experience do they have of self-regulating in a group and therefore how much

do they expect you to intervene?

What would be a useful role for you regarding time keeping, enabling time to be

shared?

Do they require group or individual feedback from what you observe of behaviour in

the group?

Do individuals have any particular requirements or sensitivities?

h) Exchange any expectations you have of them in terms of contribution or behaviour or the way meetings run.

It is worth reiterating your expectations about confidentiality.

What do you expect about openness and honesty?

What level of awareness do you expect people to aspire to?

What are your expectations about people being responsible for what they find useful

and unhelpful in the group and asking for help?

Attendance; explain any expectations you have regarding attendance, informing of

non-attendance, timekeeping, communicating with you or others if there are

problems, getting messages to one another in emergencies.

Explain your expectations about doing work between meetings whether that is

logging progress, reflecting, preparing for next sessions.

The Facilitation Process – Contracting & Developing Ground

Rules: Honesty


Contracting

Block (1981) suggests that a contract with a client is a social contract and is developed to

enable the consultant or facilitator to have equal power with the client. It forms an explicit

agreement about expectations of one another of the respective parties and develops detail

about how they are going to work together.

The facilitator needs to develop an informal contract and way of working with the

participants. The concept of action learning and Mentoring Circles™ needs to be explained.

Each new Mentoring Circle™ will begin with a contracting element which will be described in

detail here.

Preliminary Contracting Overview

A structured contracting session to start off the first meeting would include:

- Your personal introduction as facilitator.

- Engaging Mentoring Circles™ members introducing themselves to one another.

a) An introduction concerning MENTEE project, Mentoring Circles™, how they work, why

this methodology has been chosen.

b) An introduction to the theme: women & business

c) Establish the meeting process; give a model for how each meeting will work.

d) Communicate expectations about evaluation and commitment

e) Communicate needs regarding administration procedures: initial agreement signing,

attendance register, evaluation materials.

f) Elicit any expectations the group members have of you as facilitator.

g) Exchange any expectations you have of them in terms of contribution or behaviour or

the way meetings run.

h) Develop ground rules.

i) Introduction to the method and ways of working, trying out the method.

i) Develop ground rules.

Developing ground rules with each new Mentoring Circle ™ is a crucial way of ensuring that

the group starts off working in a way that fits with the methodology. Potential issues to

discuss as part of developing ground rules could include:

Confidentiality and respecting others’ intellectual property

Attendance and commitment

Use of time


Questioning and levels of challenge

Giving feedback

Respect

Communication style

Different types of ‘helping’ in the group- what people would prefer. What helps? What

hinders?

You may have different approaches to developing ground rules. Feel free to use your own

ideas.

We will outline two examples of methods used to develop ground rules.

Developing Ground Rules

Method 1

Write up a list of bullet points/questions on the flip chart headed ground

rules:

Invite a brief discussion around each theme and invite

people to articulate their thoughts around topics. Write

up any additional items, checking all the time that

everyone feels able to sign up to what has been agreed.

Probe to check that issues resonate with all participants.

Pick up on any body language or discomfort that might

suggest there is covert disagreement. Summarise the

consent. This flipchart can then be taken by the facilitator

to the following sessions.

Method 2

Write up the following question on a flip chart headed Ground Rules:

Confidentiality and respecting others’

intellectual property/ideas

Attendance and

commitment Use of time

Questioning and levels of

challenge

Giving feedback

Respect

Communication style

What helps?

What hinders?

What are we prepared to do to help us work together?


Invite a brief discussion around the above question. Invite people to share their thoughts

around topics. Identify themes and agreement. Write up notes, checking all the time that

everyone feels able to sign up to what has been agreed. Probe to check that issues resonate

with all. Summarise the consent. Check your list in the guidance to see all angles have been

covered. Introduce new ideas if anything has been missed.

A Mentoring Circle ™ agreed ground rules might look something like this:

At the end of session one, type up the flip chart rules agreed and e-mail them around to each member

of the group and keep a copy for the final summary report of your Mentoring Circle™. Print off a copy

and keep it in your file to refer to. You may need to re-contract around ground rules if issues arise

during the work. Check if people are happy with giving one another consent to e-mail one another

and share e-mail addresses with one another. This is not usually a problem at all. You can also

disseminate other ways of keeping in touch in between meetings in the email e.g. the MENTEE

platform.

j) Introduction to the method and ways of working, trying out the method.

GROUND RULES EXAMPLE

We are prepared for any questions and value being challenged and pushed.

Be open and honest with one another, face the reality, what’s happening now, don’t gloss over problems.

Be open if we are not comfortable with level of challenge.

We will take individual ownership and take action in between sessions.

We will be open to new ideas, criticisms, and will articulate what is working and not working.

We will develop trust to combine and offer creative ideas to one another.

Respect one another’s ideas and don’t take them, seek permission if developing ideas- partnerships are possible.

Protect reputations and promote one another.

Be ourselves, be authentic.

If not able to attend because of illness we will phone Inova and get a message through to the facilitator/ group as early as possible.

A special request from Sue: she is not very assertive and would like to be invited to articulate her thoughts more. If she is not being assertive she welcomes feedback.


In your first session you need to give people experience of trying out the method and draw

attention to:

The role of the presenter and conventions- e.g. asking for input

The focus on questioning rather than advice giving; an exercise or examples may be

needed to communicate how to question and how to avoid advice giving.

During your first session you will need to outline not only the general process of working but

the behavioural elements of your role and the roles of participants.

Explain that the Mentoring Circle™ and way of working is learner led and therefore presenter

led. The ‘presenter’ is the person speaking explaining their issues in their time slot. The

presenter is encouraged to state what they need and to regulate contributions from others if

too directive or unhelpful.

If input is required the presenter is expected to initiate it, asking for input from others when

required. Ensure that people understand your definition of ‘advice giving’, in its unhelpful

sense of directing the presenter towards a particular way of thinking or course of action. .

Look for sentences starting with:

‘Have you thought about….?’

‘Have you tried…?’

‘You could try…..’

Also explain how statements may be focused on a questioner’s experience when the focus

should be on the presenter.

‘When I managed the restaurant we used to….’

‘When I worked as a Manager in London I always found …’

Give examples of how advice can take the presenter’s time and be detrimental to personal

learning, bypassing an opportunity for the presenter to learn and explore for themselves.

Explore unhelpful comments such as:

‘If I were in your situation I’d…..’

However also give an example of when advice, if asked for, might be constructive.

Example

A presenter might ask for advice about contacts.


‘I’m looking for a recruitment agent in my local area. Does anyone know one to

recommend?’

This may be appropriate; it may help them to save time finding a new agent. However also

offer caveats. Each individual would need to take responsibility and check out the credibility

of people personally by asking for proof of qualifications and testimonials. They would be

expected to make a judgment for themselves concerning competence; the Mentoring Circle

is not a substitute for professional advice. Sometimes learning from others’ experience can

provide a useful shortcut. You might wish to explain about your role in offering support and

challenge and how it is boundaried within the specific meetings.

The Facilitation Process – Active Listening

Communication among people consists of speaking and listening. In the long run one-way communication will create dissatisfaction for the speaker, who will need feedback from the listener. All participants of the Mentoring Circle™, in addition to the facilitator, are expected to partake in active listening, a key mentoring characteristic, this enables the presenter to fully immerse themselves in the thinking process and feel valued by their audience. The four main forms of verbal communication are listening, speaking, reading and writing. These are in the order in which we learn them as children. They are also in the order in which we tend to use them: on average, listening (45%), speaking (30%), reading (16%) and writing (9%). You can develop your active listening skills by: - Empathising with the speaker by being sensitive to their emotions - Checking your own understanding by asking questions at the end to clarify issues - Avoiding assumptions or stereotypes - Summarising to demonstrate your interest - Reflecting back - Avoid ‘jumping in’ and interrupting - Asking open ended rather than probing questions - Accepting alternative view points, think back to the “old/young lady” exercise - Not getting lost in the detail - Listening to the speaker’s tone as well as content - Showing you are attentive by your body language, remember the majority of communication is non-verbal!

NLP for facilitators


The goal of this chapter is to give some useful and practical tips that will help to facilitate

the Mentoring Circles™ and workshops, based on the Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP)

methodology created by Richard Bandler and John Grinder in the 1970s.

They will help you to enable change in the paradigms of your participants, build a better

rapport with them and, through using the right meta-questions, help participants tap into

and recognise their unconscious barriers and achieve their goals.

According to the NLP methodology people tend to fall into one of 4 representational

systems (visual, auditory, kinesthetic or auditory digital) which influence how we learn and

process information. As a facilitator, if you can recognise these preferences in your

individual participants you can work to present information in a way that is more likely to

engage the group1.

In Annex I you will find a test you can give to your participants to fill out at the beginning of

the programme to help you both understand which representational system they favour.

Annex II gives a short overview of the 4 systems with practical tips on how best to interact

with your participants taking these preferences into account. Annex III contains a list of

predicates you can use, sorted by the 4 systems.

What is NLP?

NLP is the acronym for Neuro-Linguistic Programming.

Neuro stands for our five senses through which we gather and process information:

Sight – Visual

Hearing – Auditory

Touch – Kinesthetic (although Kinesthetic also refers to emotions)

Smell – Olfactory

Taste – Gustatory

Linguistic refers to language, also including non-verbal cues, which give meaning to our

Internal Representation (IRs).

Programming is about behaviours we run internally to achieve our outcomes, like patterns,

programmes or strategies.

1 N.B It is quite common for an individual to score highly in 2 systems so don’t worry if this is the case!


Put together, ‘NLP’ is about “How we use the minds own language to consistently achieve

our desired and specific outcomes.”

NLP Communication Model

The below model shows how an external event is put through our different filters to

categorise the information we receive. The amount of filters (e.g. language, memories,

attitudes etc) show that an event is judged by more than just the most obvious elements, like

what exactly someone said, but also how he said it, in what context and how he behaved

whilst saying it.

Source: www.nlpworld.co.uk

Distortions – Changing Meaning

The following three chapters will give you some practical tips to lead a conversation with

participants in order to influence how they think and encourage them to question why they

respond in a certain way to a given situation/event. In this way you canl help them to rethink

their current perception of an issue and become open to new suggestions and viewpoints.

This might be the paradigm shift they need to come up with the solution to a problem or a

great new idea for their business.

http://www.nlpworld.co.uk/


Surface Structure Question/ Deep Structure

Mind Reading (knowing someone’s internal state – but not saying how) e.g. “She doesn’t like me”

How do you know she

doesn’t like you?

Recovers the source on information

Lost Performative (Value judgements – where the person doing the judging is left out) e.g. “It’s bad to be rich”

Who says it’s bad?

According to whom?

How do you know it’s

bad?

Gathers evidence criteria Recovers missed info

Cause – Effect (A>B) Where Cause is wrongly put outside self e.g. “He makes me mad”

How does what he’s

doing cause you to

choose to feel mad?

Or – How specifically?

Recovers choice

Complex Equivalence (A=B) 2 experiences are interpreted as being synonymous e.g. “She’s always yelling at me, she doesn’t like me”

How does her yelling

mean she doesn’t like

you?

Have you ever yelled at

someone you like?

Gives a counter example

Presuppositions: e.g. “If my husband knew how much I suffered, he wouldn’t do that.”

How do you choose to

suffer?

How is he reacting?

How do you know he

doesn’t know?

Put back at Cause What does he do? Bust the mind-read


Generalisations

Universal Quantifiers: - All, every, never,

everyone, no-one etc.

e.g. “He never talks to me”

Exaggerate the universal quantifier ... Find counter examples...

Never?

What would happen if

he did?

Recover counter example – effects outcome

Modal Operators e.g. “I have to work hard.” e.g. “I can’t stop smoking”


you didn’t?

...Or?

What prevents you?


you did?

Recover effects/outcome Recover causes

Deletions

Nominalisations: Process words, verbs – turned in to nouns e.g. “We have a problem with our communication.”

Who’s not

communicating what to

whom?

How would you like to

communicate?

Turns the verb back in to a process, recover the deletion.

Unspecified Verbs: e.g. “He rejected me.”

How specifically did he

reject you?

Specify the verb

Comparative Deletion: e.g. “That’s expensive!”

Compared to what? Recover comparison


Utilising Values in the Real World

In order to build rapport with a participant it is helpful to find out about their values and

priorities. Several tools, like the ‘Motivation to Start Up exercise (see tool 6), can help you

with this.

Once you have an understanding of the values held by an individual you can use this in

conversations to gain a higher level of engagement. Below you can see an example of 5 values

and how the facilitator used those in a sentence to speak directly to the participant. Of course

in real life it is very seldom possible to use all values together like this, but after identifying

some of the participant’s values you should try to work them in whenever it is appropriate.

1. Results

2. Satisfaction

3. Fun

4. Money

5. Fulfilment

“Well Sarah, because I am committed to assisting you in achieving your RESULTS and getting

SATISFACTION, let me tell you about a new programme that will teach you in a FUN way to

make more MONEY whilst gaining greater FULFILMENT from life. Does that sound like a

training programme that would be of value to you?”

A sample values hierarchy that

you established with the client.


Detailed Overview of Mentoring Circles Process

DETAILS ON THE MENTORING CIRCLE™ MEETING PROCESS

Your first meeting is dominated by more preliminary contracting; however

subsequent meetings generally follow a similar process. The table below summarises the

‘exploration stage’ in each lesson plan, where depending on the number of participants,

each is given 25 minutes to focus on themselves in the following manner:

EXPLORATION STAGE

- INITIAL

“CHECK IN”

- DESCRIBE

CURRENT

ISSUE(S)

- ISSUE

EXPLORATION

- DEVELOP

SOLUTIONS

AND OPTIONS

- ALTERNATIVES

FOR ACTION

- SUMMARISE

ACTION AND

LEARNING

- CURRENT

SITUATION

- NOW

- PERSONAL

EMOTION/

MOTIVATION

LEVEL

- THE PROBLEM

- CHALLENGES

-

OPPORTUNITIES

ARE AIRED

- PARTICIPANTS

QUESTION TO

HELP EXPLORE

THE ISSUE

- COMPLETE

TOOLS &

EXERCISES

- FACILITATOR

AND

PARTICIPANTS

HELP

INDIVIDUAL

DECIDE ON NEXT

STEPS AND

ACTIONS

- INDIVIDUAL

PRESENTER

SUMMARISES

NEXT STEPS

THEY WILL

TAKE/

ACTION AND

WHAT THEY

HAVE

LEARNED

FROM THE

PROCESS

DISCUSSION


Below are more details about the process and how each stage within it works:

Check in.

This is the introduction when you find out how people are, what they have been working on,

what challenges they have been facing, what progress they have made, their review of any

changes. It helps to structure a format.

You might wish to write the following on the flip chart to help structure the individual

presentations.

How are you feeling?

What’s been happening?

What actions did you take?

What progress have you made?

Describe current issue(s)

At this point the individuals have separate time slots for airing issues. Allocate equal time for

each person leaving enough time for a summary and evaluation at the end. Establish a turn-

taking order. Then in this section the ‘presenter’ talks about the issue they wish to discuss at

the moment. The ‘presenter’ (the person airing the issue) gives enough information to give

the Mentoring Circles™ members an understanding about what they are facing.

Materials which can be used for this include the sheet ‘My problem or issue I want to talk

about is…’ (under Resources in the Manual for Entrepreneurs). Individual thinking time can

be given prior to starting this stage.

Then the Mentoring Circles™ members question the presenter. At the early stage questions

are probably information questions to provide enough understanding to grasp the context. It

can be time consuming to do 2 rounds, 1 for a check in, the second to air the issue, so decide

if it’s best to combine the check in with the airing of the issue. This will depend on numbers,

time available, and talkativeness of the members and complexity of issues. If this is your

approach add other questions on the flip chart to structure the format. You are enabling the

presenter to articulate and describe their issue at this stage.

What’s your priority/challenge now?

What do you need help with today?


It can sometimes be difficult for participants to prioritise which issue is requiring work.

Some questions that may help include:

What’s the issue?

What makes it an issue now?

Who owns this issue/problem?

How important is it on a 1-10 scale?

How much energy do you have for a solution on a 1-10 scale?

Are you concerned with a number of issues, if so what does it make sense to tackle

first?

Some problems are so complex that sequential goals are needed to get to a solution;

therefore be flexible, and keep them on track. Also be aware when a participant is flitting

from one issue to another that it might be symptomatic of other issues which may need

tackling, confidence, poor self-organisation, fear of failure, or procrastination in avoidance of

committing to one decision.

You will use your judgment as a facilitator when to probe usefully to maximise learning. There

can be value in exploring why actions have worked and why things don’t work at the check in

stage too.

Issue exploration

By now the participants should have a grasp of the situation and be able to question to probe

and explore. Questions are used to create more options, to elucidate, to probe more deeply,

to ask discovery questions which might lead to insights or new ways of seeing things or more

alternatives for action.

Judge whether or not you need to offer some input on how to question here, particularly in

the early stages. It may be necessary to explore closed and open questions, hypothetical

questions, discovery questions and leading questions. Discovery questions help uncover the

hidden assumptions and limiting beliefs that may be preventing the individual from taking

useful action.

As part of issue exploration, a series of tools/resources are available in the Learners’ Kit for

the facilitator to choose to work with in order to support participants. Suggestions for tools

to use in each session are provided under ‘Outline of Session Content’. A description of each

tool is provided under the Manual for Entrepreneurs.


Develop solutions, options, alternatives for action

Following questioning, discussion or completion of tools, the process then moves onto

resolving issues. Issues may only be resolved slightly; sometimes opportunities may have

been explored so there may be further actions identified rather than solutions. This stage is

characterised by people moving from ‘not knowing’ to ‘knowing what to do next’.

Summarise action and learning

At this stage ask the individual members to summarise their actions and verbally commit to

goals or actions. The Goal and Task Worksheet is the key tool to help participants make sure

they have concrete goals recorded after the first session which they would like to focus on

during the MENTEE Mentoring Circle™ programme.

Working through the Manual for Entrepreneurs

The Manual for Entrepreneurs contains five main sections:

Introduction: Summary of Mentee and the Mentoring Circle™ process

Introduction to soft skills and the entrepreneurial levels

Entrepreneurial Competences Level Assessment and Evaluation

Skills Development Tools: Several tools to support self-reflection and business/idea development

Resources: Several resources to support the tools

All exercises and tools will be demonstrated during the Training the Trainers workshop for

MENTEE Mentoring Circles™ facilitators. In addition, the Manual for Entrepreneurs exercises

contain instructions for participants on how to complete each tool. These can be useful as a

reminder for facilitators. We will also provide an overview of several of the tools focused on

during the Mentoring Circles™ here.

Participants should initially complete Annex IV, the Entrepreneurial Competences Level

Assessment. This will enable participants to understand which level they fall under on the

Entrepreneurial Cluster Levels (Annex V) and can help you both plan the skills they could look

at developing throughout the Mentoring Circles™, however this is only indicative and as many

soft skills are interrelated, it should be the core focus of discussions and issue exploration. As

with the Skills Profile Evaluation below, this assessment can also be repeated at the end of

the final Mentoring Circle™ session to indicate progress.


Tool 1: Skills Profile Evaluation

1

2

3

4

5

Self

Mo

tiva

tio

n

Net

wo

rkin

g Sk

ills

Effi

cien

cy

Co

mm

un

icat

ion

Ski

lls

Kn

ow

led

ge o

f h

ow

to

mo

tiva

te o

ther

s

Neg

oti

atio

n S

kills

Co

nfi

den

ce

Kn

ow

led

ge a

bo

ut

men

tori

ng

Kn

ow

ing

ho

w a

nd

wh

ere

to g

et …

Kn

ow

ing

wh

at I

wan

t n

ext

Sen

se o

f ac

hie

vem

ent

at w

ork

Ass

erti

ven

ess

Entr

epre

neu

rial

sp

irit

Lead

ersh

ip S

kills

Pro

ble

m S

olv

ing

Skill

s

Sen

siti

vity

to

oth

ers

Enth

usi

asm

Man

agem

ent

of

Stre

ss

Del

egat

ion

ski

lls

Pre

sen

tati

on

Ski

lls

Sen

se o

f H

um

ou

r

Bu

ildin

g n

ew r

elat

ion

ship

s

Tim

e M

anag

emen

t

Go

al S

etti

ng

Get

tin

g th

ings

do

ne

Un

der

stan

din

g w

hat

's im

po

rtan

t to

me

Kn

ow

ing

clea

rly

wh

at I

wan

t to

ach

ieve

Kn

ow

ing

clea

rly

wh

at m

y lim

itat

ion

s ar

e

Wo

rk li

fe b

alan

ce

P1: Self Assessment

At the start of the Mentoring Circles

At the end of the Mentoring Circles

Ask participants during both the first and final session to complete the skills profile evaluation

form on a scale of 1 (poor) – 5 (excellent). They should not spend too long reflecting on the

skills and competences and as facilitator you should take the completed form for the future.

However, after completion during the final session you should return the first profile

evaluation to them and as a group reflect on the changes, reducing a score is not always a

bad thing, it shows that participants are more aware of their weaknesses and you should

support them in setting goals to strengthen them. You can insert the scores in to the Annexed

Skills Profile Excel Table (Annex VI) to create a graph as above.

Tool 2: What does a typical entrepreneur look like?


What do you see in this picture? An old lady or a young lady?

Most people look at the picture and can see one thing first- the old or

young lady. If you can’t see both, ask someone else to take a look and

see what they can see. How do you feel when someone else sees

something different to you and you can’t see it? Maybe you felt

frustrated, annoyed, stupid, curious, amused? Can you see both now? We often get ‘stuck’

seeing ourselves or our lives in certain ways and once these ways are set; it can be very

difficult to alter it. Try and look at your hobbies and interests and see if any of them could be

turned into a business. For example, you’ve always been a keen cook at home but you haven’t

thought about turning your love of making home-made chutneys into a business or you make

beautiful wall art for your house but have never considered yourself doing it for money (Tool

3).

Self- reflection, looking at and assessing our skills, is not something we do out of habit and

can be a hard skill to learn as we are not used to it.

As a facilitator you should encourage the group to describe the stereotype of the people that

work for themselves – Are they male or female, old or young, well qualified, already from

money, lots of experience?

How does this stereotype relate to people that you know that are self-employed? Does it

confirm the stereotype ? If not, why do we have stereotypes in mind and why do we let them

constrict us?

Now you should ask the group to try looking at themselves differently, from the perspective

of someone who doesn’t know them very well. What skills/passions would they see?

For pre-start ups: Can any of your skills or passions be turned into a business?

For start-ups: Do these skills and passions reflect your work and current company values?

Tool 3: Mind Maps and Ideas Generation


Mind maps (originally

created by Tony Buzan)

can help you to quickly

write down your thoughts

on one piece of paper and

are very useful for seeing

thoughts and ideas in

relation to each other in a

simple visual

representation. Draw a

mind map with you or

your business name in the

middle. You can use

different colours to show different issues.

For start-ups: You can use this map as a way of showing a landscape of all the issues in your

business, current & future (you might want to add things that you might have found useful in

the checklist we have just discussed).

For pre-start ups: Or if you are looking for business ideas then you can use it to brainstorm

your interests, hobbies and skills to see where you might be able to generate a new idea as

below!

Strengths & Achievements Mindmap

Transferable skills or strengths are

those you’ve gained in life that you can

move around and use in a different

situation. Start by thinking about the

skills you’ve built up with your current

or past jobs and how these could be

useful to you in running a business.

Think also about your strengths (could

be in terms of attitude & personality)

that can be useful for running a

business. You can then start to think

about other transferable skills you

could use in your business that come from different areas of your life such as parenting,


hobbies, sport or doing voluntary work. There may even be some that you weren’t aware you

had or that could be applied to a business setting.

Drawing their business idea/s as a mind map is a good way to express the complexity and

uniqueness of the business. Here are some tips to give to participants. An example mind map

is in the mentee pack.

Use key words, or wherever possible images.

Start from the centre of the page and work out.

Make the centre a clear and strong visual image that depicts the general theme of the

map.

Create sub-centres for sub-themes.

Put key words on lines. This reinforces structure of notes.

Print rather than write in script. It makes them more readable and memorable. Lower

case is more visually distinctive (and better remembered) than upper case.

Use colour to depict themes, associations and to make things stand out.

Anything that stands out on the page will stand out in your mind.

Use pictures or images.

Use arrows, icons or other visual aids to show links between different elements.

Don't get stuck in one area. If you dry up in one area go to another branch.

Put ideas down as they occur, wherever they fit. Don't judge or hold back.

Break boundaries. If you run out of space, don't start a new sheet; paste more paper

onto the map.

Tool 4: SWOT Analysis

Explore your Strengths: Something many people can relate to when it comes to work is that

we often tend to be overly critical of ourselves. Instead, it would be beneficial for you to learn

and make the most of your strengths. Most importantly, don’t under-estimate them! As well

as thinking from your point of view, try and put yourself inside a potential customer's head

when thinking about your strong points and attractive skills they might see in you. Avoid false

modesty, but also try and be honest and realistic with yourself. Ask friends and family to

remind you of any others that they’ve noticed, or you might not be aware of. Check that

you’re not forgetting any strength that could be transferred to working for yourself.


Explore your Weaknesses: Conversely, look at your

weaknesses in an honest manner but remember not to over-

estimate them. Many of these could be overcome or reduced

in their importance, especially with support from others.

Knowing your weaknesses is not necessarily a downfall, it can

allow you to avoid and sort issues which might have arisen if

you hadn’t known them.

Exploring Opportunities: Opportunities for your business idea

are out there and you need to be ready to recognise and act on them. They might be

something you may have not even considered before. Don’t hold back on your hopes or

ambitions.

Think about all possible opportunities for you and your business - the sky’s the limit!

Exploring Threats: Threats are things in the environment or your situation that could be a

barrier to working for yourself. These could come in a range of forms, whether it is financial

worries, market changes or simply not having the confidence to pursue your idea or take it

your business further. Although you don’t always have control over these, you do have

control over how you deal with them to try and reduce their impact on your plans. If you

already have a business then it can be issues that are stopping your business growing or

moving forward.

Tool 5: Entrepreneurial Resilience Questionnaire

Ask participants to complete the questionnaire and to score themselves using the table

provided in the Manual for Entrepreneurs. Explain the following aspects of resilience as

below and using the Mentoring Circle™ methodology to support them in creating an action

plan to develop their weaker aspects.

Aspects of Personal Resilience

What is resilience?

Resilience is the personal capacity to cope with adverse events and return to normal life

Internal Strengths: What I’m good at now/My business’ strengths

Weaknesses: What I’m bad at now/Areas for improving my business

External Opportunities: What’s out there for me and my business?

Threats: What could get in the way of my business success?

S = strengths

W= weaknesses

O = opportunities

T = threats


Resilience is also the determination to see something through to its conclusion, even in the

face of significant pressures to do something else or give up.

Resilience is a psychological feature that contributes towards the prevention of the damaging

effects of psychological distress; resilient people are able to cope better with adverse events

than people with little resilience.

Resilience is an example of the type of quality or capacity that we at Inova would be trying to

help you work on during our programmes. There are 8 areas of resilience useful at work.

1. Self Efficacy. This involves a high level of self confidence and a self belief that one can meet

any challenge. Self Efficacy includes the understanding that, while the world is challenging,

one has the ability to succeed despite these challenges.

“Life is difficult. This is the great truth, one of the greatest truths—it is a great truth because

once we see this truth, we transcend it.” M Scott Peck Quote

2. Personal Vision. Resilient people know what they believe in and have a clear idea of

what they want to accomplish or create in their life. With a personal vision, however blurred

this may be, people use this as a guide through life challenges, and provides them with hope

for the future.

Hope is seen as something that reflects people's motivation and capacity to strive toward

personally-relevant goals. Research shows that hopeful individuals enjoy many benefits not

experienced by their low-hope counterparts including superior academic achievement,

psychological adjustment, and physical health.

3. Flexible and Adaptable. Being adaptable and flexible enables people to respond

flexibly to unknown challenges by seeking out ways of overcoming events, and being able to

adapt to the new reality. This reduces the impact of rigidity in the face of a constantly

changing environment.

Being flexible and adaptable consistently tops the charts of the type of qualities that

employers are most looking for in staff.

4. Organised. Creating a structured approach to tasks that need completing add to individual

ability to maintain personal control in the face of a seemingly chaotic existence, or

uncontrollable external events.

“If” Rudyard Kipling poem – a few lines of the poem that expresses the ability perfectly!

“If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,”


5. Problem Solving. The ability to resolve problems enables people to find causes and

solutions to adverse events that impinge on daily life. Those who train themselves to enjoy

problem solving will enjoy the challenge that adverse events present.

If you can enjoy solving problems the way a child learns how to solve problems like working

out which shapes go into what shape holes in the shape box as I’ve seen my toddler get to

grips with, then you can develop an enjoyment of the process of solving problems rather than

just moving instantly into frustration that there is a problem. You’re more likely this way to

develop strengths and strategies for future challenges.

6. Interpersonal Interaction. A key dimension of resilience is an individual’s ability to

understand and empathise with others. Resilient people demonstrate the competencies of

emotional intelligence: a high level of self and social awareness and the ability to use this

awareness to effectively management themselves and their relationships with others.

“success is strongly influenced by personal qualities such as perseverance, self-control, and

skill in getting along with others” – components of Emotional Intelligence.

7. Social Connections. This dimension involves the quality of personal and professional

relationships. Resilient people have a strong relationship with selected friends with whom

they share ideas, problems, solutions, frustrations, hopes, and so forth.

You need to build your network with the right people.

8. Active. Resilient people actively engage in change. Faced with adverse events, resilient

people will be assertive in stating their contribution to the changing situation and will

maintain personal control through their assertiveness and maintenance of self efficacy.

You need to take an active role in change – even if you feel it is an unwelcome change – you

have more chance to control and influence outcomes if you take an active role in being part

of any change that happens to you.

Tool 6: What are your motivators to start up and work for yourself?

Ask participants to make a list of all the things that they need to do today/over the next few

days. Then ask them to write down in a list next to it, realistically how many are really going

to get done, and how many are going to be pushed back with the classic “I’ll do it tomorrow”.


Motivation could possibly be one of the hardest parts

of starting a business especially when the list of tasks

seems so great and many are new or possibly

difficult. You may be feeling disheartened or down

due to not finding a job, lacking confidence in your

skills or what you can offer in a company or just

feeling out of touch with the routine of work. All of these can make it hard to pick the pieces

up and get back into the swing of the working environment. When starting up a business it is

important to remember your goals, your intrinsic motivations (things of a personal nature or

needs) and extrinsic ones (such as pay or move up in the business world). Seeing and

visualising where you want to end up, and seeing yourself there successfully are key, small

tasks to help keep you on track, determined and encouraged to get there.

Ask participants to complete the chart of their extrinsic and intrinsic motivators for being self

employed. Do they have a balance of both types to allow them to start up or keep growing

their business?

Intrinsic & Extrinsic Motivations

If time allows encourage discussion – Was it easy/hard to think of what motivates you? Did

the chart turn out how you expected it to? If no, why not? Do you think knowing what drives

you will help you to work in a better, more efficient way?

Tool 7: Goal Setting

As facilitator you should ask if the group knows the difference between urgent and important

– allow for 2 or 3 min discussion in pairs and then ask for feedback.

Urgent and important are not always the same – there may be things in your day that are

urgent e.g. buy food as there will be nothing for tea.

Important may be getting the children ready for school on time and it should also be noted

that these, especially importance are terms which are rather subjective; what one may

consider of great importance may only slightly appear on the radar of another and vice versa.

It is important for participants to look at their list and work out which items are urgent and

which are important so they can then begin to make some items more of a priority. Ask

participants to put the items in their list under which heading they think they fall under and

then compare with those nearby.

Prioritising is key when running a business as you may have many different tasks to do, and

lots of things which require your attention all at the same time. This really is something where


practise makes perfect. Knowing what to attend to first and which is the most important can

be vital for the success and organisation of your business.

This skill can be practised with very simple tasks. For example, you might want to prioritise

the things which you are going to include in your action plan, which will benefit you most to

improve, and indeed which require more work. Remember that things to do can be practical

things such as developing your marketing skills, but other soft skills are as important such as

increasing self-confidence, developing clarity of purpose, identifying further internal &

external resources; identifying new working patterns (e.g. flexible hours or part time). Once

you have prioritised your “to do’s” you can then move to your action plan

Think about the following:

Refer to the results of your Entrepreneurial Competences Level Assessment and the results

of other tools or issues that have evolved during the Mentoring Circle™ sessions.

What are they?

How will I develop these skills/attitude? (actions to do)

What help/resources do I need?

How will I measure my progress?

Is this a plausible and realistic task?

Don’t forget that your actions/objectives need to be SMART.

Specific – Objectives should specify what they want to achieve, as oppose to something

vague and non-descript.

Measurable – You should be able to measure whether you are meeting the objectives or

not.

Achievable - Are the objectives you set, achievable and attainable?

Realistic – Can you realistically achieve the objectives with the resources you have?

Time – When do you want to achieve the set objectives?

Aiming high is crucial for goal setting. Setting specific, difficult goals results in better

performance than setting specific easy goals, unclear goals such as “do your best,” or no goals

at all; this is strongly supported by research (eg. Locke & Latham, 1990).

Goals which are set too low become issues in a variety of manners. First, you are limiting

yourself and your potential from the start, and adding more barriers to your business than

the ones you may already face. Even if the end goal seems unobtainable, striving for that may

take you a little bit further than you would have gone otherwise. But it is also important to


allow yourself some forgiveness when setting ambitious goals. Continually failing to meet the

exact high goal can lead to stress and feelings of demoralisation so allow room for error.

Participants can be led through the information on setting goals before choosing 3 goals to

work on. Remind participants of the SMART methodology when setting goals and make sure

they’re clear of the breakdown of tasks in order to achieve each goal.

Tool 8: Just for Fun: Quick Quiz – Are you Ready to Work for Yourself?

Remind participants that this is just a quick fun quiz about starting up in business but they can

complete it in order to start thinking about their answers to the questions and how ready

they feel to start up. Encourage all participants that regardless of their final score, they can

still think about starting up in business but may need more support to plan and gain business

advice in order to feel more ready.

Tool 9: Mapping your Goals

To support participants with the important skills of both understanding and planning out their business goals it is useful to use a visual exercise such as this. Collect a range of newspapers and images, colourful pens and post-its. Ask participants to draw a date which is one year from now in the middle of a large piece of paper and then divide the paper into 5 different areas: relationships, health, finances, career/business, personal/professional development. Next ask participants to write down one goal per area which they want to achieve by the date in the middle. Once they have decided their key goals for the next year (1 per area) they can then find pictures or draw images that represent the goal and how it will feel when they achieve it. Participants can describe their goal map to the others in the Circle and take it home to put it somewhere where it can inspire them on their journey to success! Tool 10: Imagine you’ve Done It- Reflecting Back on your Journey to Success. Ask participants to imagine themselves in the future at a point when they have achieved one of the goals they had set themselves from their Goal Maps. Ask them to look back and reflect on their life/the period of time and see what helped them achieve the goal. Ask participants to fill out the question sheet looking at the 3 most important changes in their life that have happened now that they have achieved their goal and the 3 most important actions that have helped them achieve their goal. Then ask participants which one of the actions they will do today to set them on the path to success. Remind participants that everything is one step at a time. For example, if your goal is to run a marathon, today you could go for a short walk – one step at a time and they will make it! Tool 11: Goals are not everything – Act!


Give participants the question sheet to ask 9 questions to ask themselves in order to be clearer about their goals. When they are clearer about what they want to achieve they will find it easier to achieve it. Tool 12: Wheel of Life Give participants the handout with the Wheel of Life which has 8 categories representing key areas of their life e.g. Finances, work/career, personal development, health, relationships, free time, wealth, relaxation, physical condition (fitness), spirituality. Participants have to rate each area of their life on a scale of 1 to 10 (1 is no satisfaction in this area and 10 is full satisfaction). Ask participants to join the dots from the 8 categories or colour in the ratings and they will end up with a spider diagram which clearly shows any areas of their life which are out of balance in terms of satisfaction levels. Ask participants to now imagine riding a bike. The wheels of their bike are just these uneven wheels which have come out of their ratings. The shape of the wheels goes exactly with the areas which are coloured. How is it possible for them to ride a bike whose wheels are so uneven? If they were to choose one of the areas, which would substantially improve their life comfort, which area would it be? What is the single action, which could substantially improve their wheel of life? Tool 13: Business Pitch Describe the concept of an Elevator Pitch to participants where they meet someone they

don’t know in a lift and in the time it takes for the lift to get down to the ground floor they

need to describe (and sell!) their business idea to the other person. Ask participants to

prepare a 3 minute presentation on their business idea to present to the group. Let them

know that other participants will also have 2 minutes to ask any questions. Be strict with the

time- the idea is to force participants to really think about the essence of their business idea

– the main focus.

After everyone has presented ask participants to feed back to the group about how they felt

while presenting- what would they change about their presentation if they could do it again?

What did they like about their presentation?

Tool 14: Clover of Skills and Passions

Ask participants to write short words or sentences about their skills and passions/key

interests in each of the four leaves of the clover which represent family, professional life,

personal life and social life. Remind them that our passions can be useful in business – they

can build their business around their passions and interests and skills in order to make sure it

will bring them happiness and satisfaction!

Tool 15: 3 Years from Now?...


Following on from the Clover exercise ask participants to complete the table which looks at

the areas on the clover and adds an extra area of ‘my business’ for them to think about where

they want to be in each of the areas in 3 years time. Once participants have the ability to

project into the future and imagine what they want to have achieved or be feeling like in the

future then they can have the opportunity to connect today with the changes they need to

make in order for these future dreams to come true!

Closing meeting

Ask people to summarise their actions and comment on any learning for the session.

Ask participants to score themselves on the soft skills form and analyse their changes

since the first session The skills profile form results will look something similar to

this:

1

2

3

4

5

Self

Mo

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wan

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vem

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Ass

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neu

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Pro

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Enth

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Man

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P1: Self Assessment

At the start of the Mentoring Circles

At the end of the Mentoring Circles

Explain any arrangements for encouraging group members to hold one another to

account. You may decide to ask people to allocate a ‘chasing buddy’ to their left

around the table. This person chases them up, asks about progress and generally

checks informally on their success in between meetings. This can also help to build

relationships more strongly within the group.

Ensure everyone has the date of the next meeting diarised and has venue

information.


Confirm any action you will take e.g. e mailing the agreed ground rules.

Close the session by asking people to complete the relevant evaluation form.

Closing the final meeting

Ask people to summarise their actions and comment on any learning for the session.

Close the session by asking people to complete the relevant evaluation form and a

final outcomes form.

Confirm any arrangements for continuance or informal networking outside of the

group.

Discuss sustainability plans for the group


Annexes

I. Pilot Summary Report Format II. Application Form

III. Attendance List Example IV. Entrepreneurial Competences Level Assessment V. Entrepreneurial Cluster Levels

VI. Skills Profile Excel Table VII. Additional tools (Tools 9 -16)

Bibliography

Arygyris, C. (1993). Knowledge for Action: A Guide to overcoming barriers to organizational

change. Jossey Bass

Bandler, R. and Grinder, J. (1979). Frogs into Princes: Neuro Linguistic Programming. Real

People Press

Block, P. (1981). Flawless Consulting. Jossey Bass Publications, San Fransisco USA

Kolb, D. A. and Fry, R. ‘Toward an applied theory of experiential learning’ in C. Cooper (Ed.)

Theories of Group Process, London: John Wiley. (1975)

Revans, R. The ABC of Action Learning in Mike Pedlar Library: Developing People and

Organisations. (1998).

For more information on Mentoring Circles™ and the MENTEE project, please visit

http://www.mentee-project.eu. The content and methodology cannot be reproduced

without the written consent of Inova Consultancy. If you are interested in becoming a

http://www.mentee-project.eu/


trained facilitator of the Mentoring Circles™ methodology then please contact Inova

Consultancy ([email protected] ) for licensing details.

mailto:[email protected]

mentoring circle™ programme and facilitators’ manual_en.pdf · nlp for facilitators ......

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