Mentoring Future Leaders

Mentoring Future Leaders
• Decide what can be gained and what to tackle first – opt for early
successes/ quick wins, the “low hanging fruit”.
• Encourage, support and celebrate progress.
Note: Feedback principles and techniques have been discussed and
practised in the mentoring skills module. Refer back to your notes.
© Learning Link International
April 2005
Strategise and Take Action
The biggest avalanche is caused by the last snowflake.
List plans for improvements and determine leverage points -
strategies with the most potential impact
o Let the mentee suggest action plans and deadlines for high leverage.
o Make suggestions very cautiously, even when invited to.
o Suggest resources such as courses, colleagues and external experts
o Document commitment, e.g. What? When? How? Who? Where?
o Determine possible obstacles, (e.g. skills, knowledge, confidence,
people, workload, time, money) and how to overcome them.
o Role-play difficult interactions before hand.
Review continuously to decide when to conclude mentoring
relationships
o Learn from mistakes
o Continue best practices
o Invite feedback on your performance as a mentor
o Highlight support systems and own continued interest.
o Monitor progress and celebrate success.
Tasks
• Focus on protégé’s needs
• Give and invite / receive feedback
• Determine best practices, options and
alternatives
• Establish own methodology and rhythm
• Document highlights
Challenges
• Guard against the urge to rule out possibilities / options prematurely
• Dealing with unexpected change
• Redefining the focus and relationship
Module 5 - The Mentoring Process Page ! 1