Mentoring Future Leaders

Mentoring Future Leaders
Telling
The same principles that apply to feedback, advice and instructions, apply
to telling. The reality, of course, is that you can tell anyone to do anything,
but they may just not do it.
Some people may sometimes do what you want, either because they have
surrendered their power to you or if they are unwilling to challenge your
right to tell. In either case this is not mentoring.
Occasionally, mentors might tell mentees what to do, but always with
explicit permission. It might be considered if the mentee is so
overwhelmed that he/she needs another to take control for a short while.
And that is OK as long as the mentor does not then create some kind of
dependency relationship. In general “telling” is only appropriate when the
mentor is absolutely convinced that there is one right answer, which is very
seldom the case.
Application
Give examples of situations where advice, suggestions, instructing or
telling might be appropriate.
© Learning Link International
April 2005
Module 4 - Mentoring Skills Page ! 1