Seeking and giving advice is especially crucial for leadership and decision-making. It requires emotional intelligence, self-awareness, restraint, diplomacy, and patience on both sides. All distinguished skills are not gifted competencies but something we all can learn. Regardless of what type of feedback we choose, whether it will be One-time advice, Coaching, or Mentoring, it is all about unlocking a person's potential to maximize their performance and, of course, our organization's performance as well. In episode 11, we defined coaching as a process of helping to learn rather than teaching. Where coach point direction by asking the right question without involving personal experience.
In this episode, we talked about Mentoring, a potential tool used by the organization to grow higher performers to a leading role. It is based on long-term feedback from a senior colleague, seen as more knowledgeable and worldly-wise, giving advice and providing a role model. Mentoring involves wide-ranging discussions that may not be limited to the one decision context.
Why mentoring matter in our organization?
Mentoring is a part of learning and development, and it has a direct link to business performance. It is about growing your potential stars in the organization responsible for delivering the final product or creating a new organization's reality. People's performance is not something that can enhance by themselves, but it depends on the environment created by the proper management and organization culture.
Without adequate preparation, there is always some part of information asymmetry that can distort the intended result. There are few stages defined for proper mentoring process utilization:
Of course, the relationship between the mentee (a person who is advised) and mentor can be a personal agreement without involving different parties within the organization. Still, it will have a more significant impact if this will be an official company program where some people will be distinguished as a high potential performance and the organization's future. How to do it? Identifying what kind of skills business desires to have now and in the future – remember, mentoring is a long-term relation between mentee and mentor.