Successful people can always point to one, or a few people who over the years have contributed to their success. A great mentor does not tell you what to do, or how to do it, rather they examine motivations, objectives and options to help you determine which path you will follow, then provide feedback and suggested options for consideration.
The tool of an effective mentor is searching, challenging, and enlightening questions.
What does success look like?
This is a question that adapts itself from the little tactical things, to the big strategic challenges that need to be defined and faced. Creating a conversation where the goals are articulated by the mentee creates ownership in their minds. ‘Owning’ a challenging goal is the first essential step in achieving it.
What do you want to be different in 3 years?
This question is a follow up and supporting question to the first one, and it gives a time frame, a powerful motivator to action, as it requires commitment. Together these two questions add up to what I call ‘hindsight planning‘.
What are the major obstacles being faced.
The obstacles we face are a mix of personal, and commercial, identifying the shape of them is the first step to developing strategies to overcome them. Like any problem, and obstacle undefined is never addressed in an optimum manner.
How do we measure progress?
Having defined what success looks like, and identified the major roadblocks, you have to at some point act, and measure progress towards the goal. Fine words without the actions to achieve them are just hot air.
What can you control, and what is outside your control?
Focused effort on leveraging the variables under your control that deliver the outcomes you want, is essential. However, ignoring the things you cannot control, is a huge mistake. The best you can do is see, and have a deep understanding of how these uncontrollable factors may impact on the performance of your businesses and achievement of key objectives. Then you should plan to enable the leveraging of potential opportunities that may emerge, while mitigating the potential negatives.
What are the options available?.
Encouraging wide and analytical thinking is necessary in the face of complex problems. This is a question to be asked every day, in relation to every action. Dealing with any uncertainty is always helped by understanding the options available, and only committing when they have been analysed, and then only when you need to progress. The danger of course is that there is an over-consideration, which becomes procrastination.
What would you do next time?
Explicitly learning from experience separates the successful from the rest. Conducting a formal ‘After Action review’, a term that evolved from the US army learning processes is common in large businesses after a capital expenditure project is completed. Critical review of actual outcomes compared to the plan is far less common in non-financial areas than it should be. The discipline is a crucial one, from the major strategic decisions to the tactical and team based projects on a shop floor. Those familiar with process improvement often use the term ‘Plan Do Check Act’ which is a core discipline of process improvement.
Tell me more.
This is always a question to apply in any situation where you are trying to uncover the motivations, cause and effect, and implications inherent in any situation. The simple act of asking the question ensures that the one being questioned has another look at their preconceptions, and barriers.
When you think you might benefit from this kind of collaborative performance management, give me a call. After 40 years of doing it, I have learned a bit that may be of value yo you.
