Becoming A Better Mentor

Happy Thursday!  This month, I’m focusing on maximizing mentorship: How to think about your support system, best practices if you’re currently a mentor and ways to ensure impact if/when you’re a mentee. Here’s what you need to know in under 2 minutes…

What tech leaders should be thinking about this week: Re-defining your role as a Mentor. Most of you are probably organizational leaders AND Mentors to individuals in/out of your company.  It’s a big job, and many tech leaders are taking on too much as a Mentor … they are building a relationship, driving operational elements and pushing folks to a better outcome(s).  Mentor’s need to be focusing primarily on the last item from above: Raising the bar for their mentees (by asking the right open-ended questions (below) to create excellence and value).

Why this is important:  Going deep on these “raise the bar” elements of the Mentor/Mentee partnership take the weight (and pressure) off the Mentor and puts it onto the Mentee (where it should always be in this type of relationship).  The Mentee needs to own the agenda, improvement areas, KPIs, and plan to get there. By playing more ofa “Coach” role leveraging the right questions, the Mentor can serve better, scale to others, and not get burned-out by the logistics of “managing” another person (it’s already your day-job)!

Simple “Go-Do’s” for tech leaders/performers:  Spend 15 minutes and create a plan to optimize your role as a Mentor. Specifically think about:

·     What clarification is needed around roles/responsibilities? Where can my mentee do more heavy lifting around agenda, focus area(s), KPIs, etc.?

·     What new questions might I ask to ensure I’m playing more of a coach?  Some good ones that I love include: What's your plan? What's your success criteria? What's the impact? What's another way to think about this? What are you learning about yourself? (my favorite!)

·     How can I show-up better as aMentor/Coach/Human?

Value Add – Additional ways to show-up as a leader:  Take the weekend off!  I’m seeing a ton of burnout out there recently.  With Daylight Saving lastSunday + all the stuff happening in the world (and your 401(k)), this is a perfect weekend to take off, get some sleep, and have some fun. Close that laptop tomorrow afternoon and don’t open it under Monday.  I guarantee you’ll show-up better next week!  

New/improved dedicated newsletter page!  Know someone who’s looking for quick/easy ways to show-up better as a tech leader/performer? Forward them this mail or have them sign-up directly on the new/improved newsletter page on theEngaged Pursuit website.

Here’s to your Engaged Pursuit!