Practising mentors building their practice
I recently initiated a furious debate on the web about a coaching technique called EFT, by asking whether there was any evidence to support its remarkable claims. The furore – from both detractors and supporters, with “let’s keep an open mind” in the middle – made me reflect on what is and isn’t “legitimate” in the...
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Moving into a new role is one of the most common situations that arises in coaching and mentoring. There are multiple uncertainties and inevitable concerns on all sides. The new role holder will usually have to make adjustments in how they lead, but it may not be clear what these should be. Here are 12 (more…)
Read More 12 questions to help a client transition to a new role
Coaches and mentors use many tools to stimulate the learning dialogue. Among the most frequent, though we are often unaware of it, is the process of analogy. An article by Douglas Hofstadter and Emmanuel Sander explains that “an apt analogy allows a person to treat something new as if it were familiar. If one is...
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It’s common for coaches to be so concerned about the well-being of their clients that they become oblivious to their own. Coaching, when done well, is frequently emotionally draining and intellectually demanding. Every now and then, there are comments in the coaching social media about how coaches (and especially those working by telephone) can earn...
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Mentoring is all about transitions – foreseeing them, preparing for them, managing them and moving on from them. But mentees often don’t recognise how ready they are for a transition. It’s a bit like outgrowing your clothes, but not doing anything about it because you can still squeeze into them! It’s useful for a mentor...
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Yesterday I was deeply honoured to be welcomed onto the Royal New Zealand naval base just outside Auckland, with a traditional Maori welcome, a powhiri. It was a deeply humbling experience and an introduction to a perspective on hospitality, which has been largely lost in our urbanised societies. The ceremony starts with a traditional welcome...
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Eldership: Some Ideas on What, Why and How A brief look on Google revealed a remarkable shortage of information about this topic. The Wikipedia entry focussed on church governance and hadn’t been updated for 13 years. There were no dictionary definitions but there were a lot of biblical ones! The most common themes in these...
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The immediate aftermath of a merger poses a number of major challenges. While many of these challenges relate to integration of systems and structures, the people challenges are often the most difficult and long lasting. In particular: Introducing a well-designed mentoring programme for top talent can make radical and positive difference to managing each of...
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In a newly-merged multinational organization, there is typically an urgent need to ensure quality and consistency in talent development – even if the strategy is to continue to operate largely as separate entities within the same group. One of the key areas to examine, and one where it is possible to have a large impact...
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Read More Building a mentoring capability in a newly-merged multinational company
When we talk about mentoring, we describe it as a relationship. Coaching still requires a relationship (though often perhaps less intimate and of shorter duration), but we tend to talk about it as an assignment. This difference in language or metaphor can affect subtly the way we think and behave. The word assignment carries with (more…)
