The Invisible Mentor

Posts Tagged ‘Professional Development’

This is a series of posts on how to create your own mentoring program. In the first installment, we looked at how to determine your mentoring needs, and in this episode we will take a look at a variety of mentoring models. To create your personalized mentoring program, you have to understand your needs and you also need to know what your options are. While you are learning about the various mentoring models, make note of the ones that would work in your situation.

Mentoring Models

Traditional Mentoring:  The traditional mentoring model focuses on a “one-to-one relationship between an experienced person (a mentor) and a less experienced person (a protégé) that provides a variety of developmental functions” Mullen (1998). In this type of mentoring relationship, the relationship is a hierarchical one, and there is usually an imbalance of power, where the mentor possesses the skills and resources, sets the agenda, time and place to meet, and the frequency of the meetings. Despite these drawbacks, many studies have reported on the positive impact of having traditional mentors.

Co-Mentoring: Co-mentoring relationships were created to address the weaknesses and limitations of traditional mentoring relationships. While embarking on graduate studies, Gail M. McGuire and Jo Reger documented their co-mentoring relationship. At the time, both students had traditional mentors but found gaps in their mentoring relationships with their traditional mentors that they needed to fill. In their paper, “Feminist Co-Mentoring: A Model for Academic Professional Development,” they “address the limitations of traditional mentoring, in particular, its hierarchical structure and limitations and its availability” McGuire and Reger (2003). Co-mentoring relationships are reciprocal and mutual in nature because each co-mentor plays dual roles as both teacher and learner. This type of mentoring relationship is less formal than traditional mentoring relationships. Most times this involves two participants, usually at the same level.

Mentoring Circles: In 1993, The Mentoring Company™ developed Mentoring Circles, a group learning model in response to what they believed was the limited success of one-to-one traditional mentoring. The organization tested mentoring circles using both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies and found them quite effective. There are two main types of mentoring circles with variations of each:

1. Single Leader – Mentoring Circle: A single leader provides mentoring to a group of people. This is a one –to-many mentoring relationship and a variation of a traditional mentoring relationship, except that in this instance, you have one senior level professional mentoring many mentees who are at a lower level in their career.

2. Mixed Level – Mentoring Circle: Mixed group of mentors and mentees who take turn leading the group. In this mentoring circle model you have co-mentors mentoring mentees and they take turns leading the group. You also have the variation where mentees also get the opportunity to lead circle meetings.

Peer-Mentoring: Members of the group provide knowledge, guidance, support and mentoring to each other. The members of the peer-mentoring group are often equals and the relationship is reciprocal in nature. Members of the group monitor and help each other achieve personal and professional success. An example of peer-mentoring is a mastermind group. A peer-mentoring group can be formed around an industry, job function, an issue, whatever, the possibilities are endless.

Personal Board of Mentors (Directors): Many people refer to this type of mentoring as a Personal Board of Directors. The same way that organizations have their Board of Directors is the same way that each of us should have our personal board, and in this case, we are the organization and we get to decide who is on our Personal Board of Mentors. There are five to seven people that you can quickly call on for advice when you have question. Members of your Board of Personal Mentors should have varied backgrounds.

Speed Mentoring: Speed mentoring is a very new concept which evolved from speed dating. Speed mentoring is short-term business mentoring, which focuses on quick-hit information gathering and time-efficient networking. Mentors and mentees are at one venue, and it is a structured way for mentees (participants) to get specific mentoring in a short time.  For seven to 10 minutes, each participant gets to talk to a high profile person. Participants keep moving from one high profile person to the next.

Invisible Mentoring: But mentors can be invisible. That means that the mentor does not know that they are mentoring us. These invisible mentors are our role models. We choose them because we want to study their behaviours. We want to learn from them so we can possibly mimic their actions. Often they have done something that we would like to do, or are trying to do but with some difficulty. Confucius emulated the good qualities that he observed in others, and checked himself for their bad qualities. In some of The Invisible Mentor interviews I have conducted, you have read time and time again interviewees say that they have been mentored by the books they read. People, interviews, books and so on can also be invisible mentors.

In the next episode we will pull it together. How can you use this information? What do you have to add to the conversation? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Related articles

Adventures in Learning: DIY Mentoring Program, Episode Three (theinvisiblementor.com)

Adventures in Learning: DIY Mentoring Program (theinvisiblementor.com)

Five People You Need On Your Personal Board of Directors

Reading should be an educational journey even if you are reading for entertainment. Great ideas can come from any genre of books, even fiction. While you are reading, always have the questions below in the back of your mind. Study the questions until they become second nature to you. After you have read a book, if there are potential ways that the information can help you make note of it.

While I’m reading, I make notes in the front and back covers of the books. If it’s a book that I’m reviewing, I wait a few days after I have finished reading the book  to digest its contents because I have discovered that I often have a delayed reaction to the book, and some of the points that strike me as most significant often come later.

Questions to Ponder

1. How does the author’s ideas or solutions relate to your life and work?
2. Did you come across any different ways to solve every day problems?
3. What breakthroughs did you have while reading this book?
4. Does the document contain facts that are somewhat surprising because they are different from what you know?
5. Are there any rule breaking in the book? If yes, what are they?
6. What are the additional insights?
7. Is there a method of thinking, or metaphor implied in this book that you can adopt to solve problems?
8. What are the top 5 takeaways from the book?
9. In what ways can you use the ideas/insights/takeaways to increase the value of your product/service to my customers (internal/external)?
10. 10. In what ways can you use the ideas/insights/takeaways to add value to your life?

Type up the responses to the above questions if you feel that the information will help you. It’s also a way to build your general knowledge which is critical to creative problem solving and idea generation.

How can you use this information? What do you have to add to the conversation? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

I was asked to send in five tips from my book Tales of People Who Get It which was published in NAFE (National Association for Female Executives) eNewsletter 2008. Here is what I submitted:

Learns continuously/reads voraciously: Learning is not an end, but an endless process. Invest in yourself by making personal and professional development a priority. Take courses, read broadly, observe and make sure that you look at what’s been done before, not reinventing the wheel. Each year, decide on a learning theme. You could make this commitment for January to December, one birthday to the next, or simply start where you are and begin the commitment today. Think about how you can apply what you’ve learned or read to improve your personal and professional life.

Listens and hears: Practice active listening and know the difference between listening and hearing. The ability to listen and hear show others that you care about them and it also allow you to better understand situations and ultimately make better decisions. Focus your attention on what the other person is saying instead of formulating your response to what’s being said. People appreciate when they feel like they are being heard.

Understands that there is a higher purpose, and life isn’t just about me: Make sure that you serve others well. And do so while honoring your purpose in life. Ask yourself these three questions about your product or service: Does it fill a need/add value to or serve other? Does it honor my purpose? And, does it make money? All three are important to achieve success.

Refuses to be satisfied with the status quo: Always look for new and innovative ways to do things, find creative ways to solve problems by thinking deeply and differently and adapt to different situations. Reinvent yourself, push your boundaries and do the unexpected.

Commits and follows through: Be the person who does what she says she is going to do. Honor commitments, even the ones you’ve made to yourself. Let your word be your bond. If you commit to doing a large task, break it into bite-sized pieces, focus on one bite at a time and complete it so that you are never overwhelmed.

The five tips are excerpted from 13 ItnessPoints in my book. Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the left side) by email or RSS Feed. I created a Mini Learning Toolkit and you can grab a copy by clicking here.

Photo Credit: Google via Apture

In a previous post Reading & Listening Plan Process, I outlined the steps to get you on a professional development plan. This is the follow-up to that post, which involves you projecting into the future to where you’d like to be three years from now. This information is taken from The Invisible Mentor Toolkit.

Where You Want to be Three Years from Now

1. How many books do you plan to read in 3 years? How do you plan to achieve this goal? Please explain in detail.
2. How many interviews, presentations and speeches do you plan to listen to? How do you plan to achieve this goal? Please explain in detail.
3. Of the books that you plan to read, how many are for entertainment, information and understanding?
   1. Entertainment
   2. Information
   3. Understanding
4. Of the interviews, presentations and speeches that you plan to listen to, how many are for entertainment, information and understanding?
   1. Entertainment
   2. Information
   3. Understanding
5. Based on your responses in your Self-Discovery Worksheet, what skills gaps will be filled at the end of 12 months, 24 months, and 36 months?
6. Based on your responses in your Self-Discovery Worksheet, what functions do you want to be able perform that you cannot perform now?
7. Based on your responses in your Self-Discovery Worksheet, what subject areas would you like to have mastered?

Let’s keep the conversation flowing, click on the comment link below and leave a note for me. If  you liked this post, considering getting a copy of The Invisible Mentor Toolkit. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the left side) by email or RSS Feed. I created a Mini Learning Toolkit and you can grab a copy by clicking here.

Photo Credit: Bing via Apture

Do you have a difficult problem that you are trying to solve? A systematic approach to problem solving will make your task that much simpler. Below is a process to assist you, follow the steps in How to Read to Solve a Problem and record the information in the problem solver template. Read the blog posts How to Problem Solve and Reverse Problem Solving: When You Must Have a Certain Outcome for additional information. Information from this post was extracted from the Invisible Mentor Toolkit which I developed to assist you in acquiring information and knowledge from a distance.

How to Read to Solve a Problem

1. Describe a problem that you are having in your organization simply, clearly and not too broadly or narrowly.
2. Uncover the facts surrounding the problem
3. What are the underlying causes of the problem?
   1. Are the underlying causes internal or external to the organization?
   2. Are the underlying causes solvable?
4. Look at problems in many different ways, and find new perspectives that no one else has taken
5. On a blank sheet of paper do a brain dump for 15 minutes, writing down as many answers and solutions to the problem. If necessary, go back to Step 1 and redefine the problem
6. Compile a bibliography of books that could potentially help to resolve the problem?
   1. Ask colleagues for book recommendations
   2. Ask subject matter experts for recommendations
   3. Check the bibliography of scholarly journals and books on the topic
   4. Search the catalogues, or ask a librarian at a good reference library to find titles
7. Spend half a day at the library inspecting[1] the books listed in the compiled bibliography to:
   1. Whittle down the number of titles on the list
   2. Get a cursory understanding of the topic/situation
   3. Determine which  books say anything important about the topic of interest
8. With a cursory understanding of the subject:
   1. Develop questions you are trying to answer or issues to resolve
   2. Clarify the information that you are seeking. Distinguish between ‘must know’ and ‘nice to know’
   3. Write down the elements of what you require
   4. How will you know when you have found the answers?
9. Inspect the books identified as relevant to solving the problem
   1. Find the most relevant passages and record page numbers
   2. Record the answers to the questions by authors (Refer to the Problem Solver Template)
10. Read and analyze all the information gathered
    1. Distill the information germane to the problem
    2. Compare and contrast the answers to each question
    3. Reorganize the information in many ways. Combine, and recombine, ideas, and thoughts into different combinations no matter how incongruent or unusual
    4. Draw conclusions and identify possible solutions (Do not limit yourself to what has been done before but be open to new and better alternative solutions)
    5. Which option best serves the organization?
    6. Is the option consistent with the mission, goals and objectives of the organization
    7. Select the best option
11. Implement the solution
12. Evaluate the solution
13. If the solution does not work, repeat Step 10 c through to 10 d

[1] Refer to How To Read A Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading to find out how to quickly inspect a book.

The Problem Solver Template

Title of Book/Name of Author

Why is Author Qualified to Answer?

Question1

Answer 1/Page Found

Question2

Answer 2/Page Found

Question 3

Answer 3/Page Found

Question 4

Answer 4/Page Found

Question 5

Answer 5/Page Found

Let me know what you think about the questions. It is my vow to assist you on your professional development journey. If there are additional ways that I may be of service please let me know.

Click on the comment link below and leave a note for me. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the left side) by email or RSS Feed. I created a Mini Learning Toolkit and you can grab a copy by clicking here.

For your research and writing needs, consider my firm Ambeck Enterprise for white papers, articles, fact sheets, anniversary booklets, you name it. Since I am the best kept secret you may not know this, but I have over 15 years research and writing experience. I KNOW content. And if you cannot figure out which books to read for professional development, I am your WOMAN. I can assist you with that too. Visit my sales page for resources such as The Invisible Mentor Toolkit to assist you in acquiring wisdom from a distance. For free white papers click here.

Photo Credit: Google via Apture

Related Resources

Inspirer, Reflector, Innovator or Influencer, Which One Are You?

What Type of Problem Solver Are You?

The Importance of Problem-Solving by Ken Watanabe