MENTORS BEWARE! The Rules are Changing

Posted February 19, 2014 Mark Affleck http://www.yellowchairstrategy.com

The rules are changing.


It’s true. The already steep responsibility of mentorship is getting steeper. Not because the need for mentors has changed. It hasn’t. In fact, we need mentors more than ever before. It’s the changing environment that must be considered.

In this presentation on MENTORING, I’ll drill down into over 25

years of my own experience as a CEO Leader and Strategist.

The rules are changing.


coaching

Before unpacking what’s changed

for mentors, let’s clear up some confusion around the difference between

mentoring


Coaching is tactical and transactional with a goal to teach

someone how to “build the individual parts” that

make up a bigger whole. The coaching process is more specific than mentoring. It features the exchange of precise

information from an experiential-driven knowledge base.

THE COACHING

“TRANSACTION”


Coaches set task-oriented goals

and introduce accountability into the process. The coaching relationship typically focuses on incremental improvement of performance-driven metrics with some kind of objective measurement of value.

Coaches moves the process from Point A to Point B through step-by-step replication.


The coaching mission is to improve

knowledge, skills or abilities in the person being coached so later they can better perform the task or work on their own.

Coaches try to direct a person to a

destination end state by strategically and efficiently guiding the process along the way.


Coaches are detail-oriented and less

concerned about having a deeper connection with the mentee—although close relationships often develop in the course of coaching engagements.

Coaches usually operate against a clock that is largely

absent in mentoring. When the work is complete, that engagement ends. That’s a very quick view of coaching. On the next page we’ll get back to mentoring and those changing rules.


Coaching is a tactical exercise that depends on a good strategy (mentoring). It’s much like the difference between organizational tactics and strategy where deploying tactics without a crystallized vision and strategy leads to results ranging all the way from mild confusion to a big failure.

Mentoring, on the other hand, pivots off how the individual parts that are addressed in coaching fit together to form the larger, complete picture. Mentors are expected to improve the overall understanding of another person, rather than developing or improving a basic skill.

The BIG PICTURE for mentors


The Mentor’s role is not hierarchical where the “expert”

sits atop a throne and dishes out wisdom to aspirational

individuals sitting below.

No thrones. The mentoring relationship is a power free,

mutually beneficial learning experience. Mentors

provide advice, share knowledge and teach their mentee

through a low pressure, self-discovery process.


Mentoring is a long-term commitment that

requires the mentor’s time investment because they aren’t just teaching their mentees; they must connect at a deeper and more inspirational level.

Mentors focus on the person and their

life/career to generate individual growth,

maturity, and greater understanding. They

become an advocate and sounding board

about life’s bigger picture for the mentee.


MENTORS: A NEW RULEBOOK

OK…fair enough. Mentors are different than coaches and focus on the bigger picture to help the mentee successfully move through life and career. And, clearly, that critical role is not changing.

So what is changing that produces a new way of thinking for mentors?

It’s the filter through which mentors do their work that has changed.

I call it the ChangeAge. A world without borders. A world buffeted by

an information hurricane. A world where the

future is not a linear extension of the present.


Mentors need to embrace the reality that tomorrow will be faster than

today and smart work will replace hard work. That we must deal with NOW

by embracing the mammoth contradictions in our midst. While everything is

changing, nothing is changing at all.

Microsoft still sells the world Windows (at least for now).

Apple’s iPhone still zooms out of the factory like lightening.

Wal-Mart still sells hair spray and mouse traps.

Ford still builds cars and trucks.

Mobil still sells gasoline from street corners across America.

Google still helps us search the Internet.


#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

In front of the CONTRADICTION CURTAIN are the inexorable churnings of the ChangeAge which produce these

five rule changes for mentors:

Turn the page for

the details.

The CONTINUOUS LEARNING imperative.

The CAREER LADDER is down.

It’s COMMUNITY, not company.

The end of HIERARCHY.

The rise of BRANDING DISTINCTION.


Mentors must know that:

Everyone has a new job in 2013, and a new responsibility–lifetime self-management and continuous learning. It’s the only value we can sustain over time and through the

tumult of the ChangeAge. The entire

industrialized world is grappling with the same monster.

#1 Rule Change

The CONTINUOUS LEARNING imperative


#2 Rule Change


Everyone is vulnerable because they have taken

down the CAREER LADDER. With it, Lifetime

employment has vanished. The regular merit raise, gone. Individualism, management supervision, paternalism, and top-down command and control power…all gone.

The CAREER LADDER Is down.


but to build a community–not a traditional company. Increasingly, they are hiring people provocateurs who can push for connections in

the organization’s ecosystem and value--truly value--all customers, every partner, and the entire staff of workers.

#3 Rule Change

Mentors must know that . . .

The strength of a business today is measured by its relationships

and connections outside the office. Organizations have no choice

It’s COMMUNITY, not company.



Leaders who progressed through the old hierarchical system are struggling to keep up. Their quantitative skills and arrogance are often useless in a world driven more and more by technology and communication abilities.

#4 Rule Change

These individuals are frequently benched in the new game which is team-

based, collaborative, technology focused, and less rigid cross functionally. And

that “good-old-boy” network that protected

those leaders is now a relic.

The end of HIERARCHY



Being “competent” is merely the price of entry in the competitive ChangeAge. Everyone is competent, at least on their website. Obviously we need to be competent at what we do, but success today comes when we leverage those

competencies by creating a “Core Distinction.” We must capture our essence and value in the marketplace, relative to the competition.

#5 Rule Change

Like it or not…

Personal Branding

is here to stay.

The rise of BRANDING DISTINCTION.


MENTORS: Don’t mourn the death of hierarchy…

Celebrate the dawning of an

exciting opportunity to

paint new pictures for your mentees

on a blank canvas.

Celebrate the dawning of an

exciting opportunity to

paint new pictures for your mentees

on a blank canvas.

MENTORS: Don’t mourn the death of hierarchy…


The Author

CEO Change Leader Strategist Issues & Crisis Manager As CEO of YellowChair Strategy, he helps leaders transform their organization to “survive today and thrive tomorrow.”

MARK AFFLECK

Business

MENTORS BEWARE! The Rules are Changing