mentors beware! the rules are changing
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MENTORS BEWARE! The Rules are Changing It’s true. The already steep responsibility of mentorship is getting steeper. Not because the need for mentors has changed. It hasn’t. In fact, we need mentors more than ever before. It’s the changing environment that is “changing all the rules” for mentors. This presentation explores the differences between the "Coaching TRANSACTION" and the "Mentoring BIG PICTURE."TRANSCRIPT
Posted February 19, 2014 Mark Affleck http://www.yellowchairstrategy.com
The rules are changing.
Posted February 19, 2014 Mark Affleck http://www.yellowchairstrategy.com
It’s true. The already steep responsibility of mentorship is getting steeper. Not because the need for mentors has changed. It hasn’t. In fact, we need mentors more than ever before. It’s the changing environment that must be considered.
In this presentation on MENTORING, I’ll drill down into over 25
years of my own experience as a CEO Leader and Strategist.
The rules are changing.
Posted February 19, 2014 Mark Affleck http://www.yellowchairstrategy.com
coaching
Before unpacking what’s changed
for mentors, let’s clear up some confusion around the difference between
mentoring
Posted February 19, 2014 Mark Affleck http://www.yellowchairstrategy.com
Coaching is tactical and transactional with a goal to teach
someone how to “build the individual parts” that
make up a bigger whole. The coaching process is more specific than mentoring. It features the exchange of precise
information from an experiential-driven knowledge base.
THE COACHING
“TRANSACTION”
Posted February 19, 2014 Mark Affleck http://www.yellowchairstrategy.com
Coaches set task-oriented goals
and introduce accountability into the process. The coaching relationship typically focuses on incremental improvement of performance-driven metrics with some kind of objective measurement of value.
Coaches moves the process from Point A to Point B through step-by-step replication.
Posted February 19, 2014 Mark Affleck http://www.yellowchairstrategy.com
The coaching mission is to improve
knowledge, skills or abilities in the person being coached so later they can better perform the task or work on their own.
Coaches try to direct a person to a
destination end state by strategically and efficiently guiding the process along the way.
Posted February 19, 2014 Mark Affleck http://www.yellowchairstrategy.com
Coaches are detail-oriented and less
concerned about having a deeper connection with the mentee—although close relationships often develop in the course of coaching engagements.
Coaches usually operate against a clock that is largely
absent in mentoring. When the work is complete, that engagement ends. That’s a very quick view of coaching. On the next page we’ll get back to mentoring and those changing rules.
Posted February 19, 2014 Mark Affleck http://www.yellowchairstrategy.com
Coaching is a tactical exercise that depends on a good strategy (mentoring). It’s much like the difference between organizational tactics and strategy where deploying tactics without a crystallized vision and strategy leads to results ranging all the way from mild confusion to a big failure.
Mentoring, on the other hand, pivots off how the individual parts that are addressed in coaching fit together to form the larger, complete picture. Mentors are expected to improve the overall understanding of another person, rather than developing or improving a basic skill.
The BIG PICTURE for mentors
Posted February 19, 2014 Mark Affleck http://www.yellowchairstrategy.com
The Mentor’s role is not hierarchical where the “expert”
sits atop a throne and dishes out wisdom to aspirational
individuals sitting below.
No thrones. The mentoring relationship is a power free,
mutually beneficial learning experience. Mentors
provide advice, share knowledge and teach their mentee
through a low pressure, self-discovery process.
Posted February 19, 2014 Mark Affleck http://www.yellowchairstrategy.com
Mentoring is a long-term commitment that
requires the mentor’s time investment because they aren’t just teaching their mentees; they must connect at a deeper and more inspirational level.
Mentors focus on the person and their
life/career to generate individual growth,
maturity, and greater understanding. They
become an advocate and sounding board
about life’s bigger picture for the mentee.
Posted February 19, 2014 Mark Affleck http://www.yellowchairstrategy.com
MENTORS: A NEW RULEBOOK
OK…fair enough. Mentors are different than coaches and focus on the bigger picture to help the mentee successfully move through life and career. And, clearly, that critical role is not changing.
So what is changing that produces a new way of thinking for mentors?
It’s the filter through which mentors do their work that has changed.
I call it the ChangeAge. A world without borders. A world buffeted by
an information hurricane. A world where the
future is not a linear extension of the present.
Posted February 19, 2014 Mark Affleck http://www.yellowchairstrategy.com
Mentors need to embrace the reality that tomorrow will be faster than
today and smart work will replace hard work. That we must deal with NOW
by embracing the mammoth contradictions in our midst. While everything is
changing, nothing is changing at all.
Microsoft still sells the world Windows (at least for now).
Apple’s iPhone still zooms out of the factory like lightening.
Wal-Mart still sells hair spray and mouse traps.
Ford still builds cars and trucks.
Mobil still sells gasoline from street corners across America.
Google still helps us search the Internet.
Posted February 19, 2014 Mark Affleck http://www.yellowchairstrategy.com
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
In front of the CONTRADICTION CURTAIN are the inexorable churnings of the ChangeAge which produce these
five rule changes for mentors:
Turn the page for
the details.
The CONTINUOUS LEARNING imperative.
The CAREER LADDER is down.
It’s COMMUNITY, not company.
The end of HIERARCHY.
The rise of BRANDING DISTINCTION.
Posted February 19, 2014 Mark Affleck http://www.yellowchairstrategy.com
Mentors must know that:
Everyone has a new job in 2013, and a new responsibility–lifetime self-management and continuous learning. It’s the only value we can sustain over time and through the
tumult of the ChangeAge. The entire
industrialized world is grappling with the same monster.
#1 Rule Change
The CONTINUOUS LEARNING imperative
Posted February 19, 2014 Mark Affleck http://www.yellowchairstrategy.com
#2 Rule Change
Mentors must know that:
Everyone is vulnerable because they have taken
down the CAREER LADDER. With it, Lifetime
employment has vanished. The regular merit raise, gone. Individualism, management supervision, paternalism, and top-down command and control power…all gone.
The CAREER LADDER Is down.
Posted February 19, 2014 Mark Affleck http://www.yellowchairstrategy.com
but to build a community–not a traditional company. Increasingly, they are hiring people provocateurs who can push for connections in
the organization’s ecosystem and value--truly value--all customers, every partner, and the entire staff of workers.
#3 Rule Change
Mentors must know that . . .
The strength of a business today is measured by its relationships
and connections outside the office. Organizations have no choice
It’s COMMUNITY, not company.
Posted February 19, 2014 Mark Affleck http://www.yellowchairstrategy.com
Mentors must know that:
Leaders who progressed through the old hierarchical system are struggling to keep up. Their quantitative skills and arrogance are often useless in a world driven more and more by technology and communication abilities.
#4 Rule Change
These individuals are frequently benched in the new game which is team-
based, collaborative, technology focused, and less rigid cross functionally. And
that “good-old-boy” network that protected
those leaders is now a relic.
The end of HIERARCHY
Posted February 19, 2014 Mark Affleck http://www.yellowchairstrategy.com
Mentors must know that:
Being “competent” is merely the price of entry in the competitive ChangeAge. Everyone is competent, at least on their website. Obviously we need to be competent at what we do, but success today comes when we leverage those
competencies by creating a “Core Distinction.” We must capture our essence and value in the marketplace, relative to the competition.
#5 Rule Change
Like it or not…
Personal Branding
is here to stay.
The rise of BRANDING DISTINCTION.
Posted February 19, 2014 Mark Affleck http://www.yellowchairstrategy.com
MENTORS: Don’t mourn the death of hierarchy…
Celebrate the dawning of an
exciting opportunity to
paint new pictures for your mentees
on a blank canvas.
Celebrate the dawning of an
exciting opportunity to
paint new pictures for your mentees
on a blank canvas.
MENTORS: Don’t mourn the death of hierarchy…
Posted February 19, 2014 Mark Affleck http://www.yellowchairstrategy.com
The Author
CEO Change Leader Strategist Issues & Crisis Manager As CEO of YellowChair Strategy, he helps leaders transform their organization to “survive today and thrive tomorrow.”
MARK AFFLECK