LMA INSIGHTS: MENTORING
>> With high expectations of immediate results in fields such as football, it’s critical that leaders surround themselves with people who can support and challenge them in equal measure.
Words: Jeremy Snape, Sporting Edge
When you’re faced with a challenge, problem or personal issue, little compares to having the ear of a guide or a mentor, someone who knows the terrain or from whose experience lessons can be learned.
Finding a mentor is a sign of ambition not weakness and those who are brave enough to make the first step will find their journey speeding up straight away.
GETTING STARTED
Mentoring is not like teaching, which is a one-way flow of facts, and it isn’t like coaching, which uses questions to encourage the recipient to find their own answers. Mentoring is about the flow of expertise down the
The defining point of a mentor is their ability to cut through the complexity and simplify the challenge. After hearing your monologue, they can distil your ramblings into two or three key points that encapsulate the entire situation. When things are presented so clearly it can feel very clinical, but it shows they were not only listening to every word you said but also translating it with a structure and clarity that you couldn’t have reached on your own.
The next stage is to take each of these challenges and explore the potential options and choices to move them forward. Expect them to flex their muscles here as your current thinking got you into this mess so you will need to be challenged to think differently. This is not a time for excuses, it’s time to move forward positively into solution mode.
Finally, your mentor won’t be happy leaving with a nice chat; they joined this relationship to see you move on, so they will reconnect you with your strengths and provide positive feedback for you to make those concrete commitments with dates, times and outcomes.
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