Mentoring Future Leaders

Mentoring Future Leaders
function well. If it is irrational and untrue, then we experience
stress and emotional disturbance. The following is an
example of irrational self-talk: “I can’t bear to be alone.” No
physically healthy person has ever died merely from being
alone. Being alone may be uncomfortable and lonely, but you
can live through it.”
Technique G: Using Edward De Bono’s
Six Thinking Hats
When faced with a tough challenge:
• Acknowledge emotions
• Anticipate difficulties
• Look for possibilities
• Generate alternatives and creative ideas
• Collect neutral information – facts and figures
• Map the whole situation, taking an overview and making plans
Acknowledging emotions involves being objective and honest about the
way you feel. We lie the loudest if we lie to ourselves. Emotions are
neither positive nor negative and are part of the set of facts we should
consider – therefore we need to see them as not more or less valid than
any other information. Ask yourself how you feel about the situation.
Anticipating difficulties or possible problem areas, based on past
experience, enables one to identify gaps and anticipating what can go
wrong – not to be negative, but to prevent surprises.
Looking for possibilities involves a constructive process of developing a
vision of how things could be and how to make it possible.
Generating alternatives and creative ideas involves going beyond the
obvious or even the possible. This kind of thinking requires the willingness
to turn things upside down, to start from the other end, to build on ideas in
a creative way,
© Learning Link International
generating new and unexpected possibilities. It is a style of
thinking that needs to be free of judgements, free of reasons why “it
April 2005
Module 4 - Mentoring Skills Page ! 1