Mentoring notes
From LLN
Mentoring notes
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Shorter essays on mentoring from a variety of sources.
A new mindset on mentoring
- by Leslie Dillon from Leader's Digest April 2009
Conventional wisdom used to be that finding a mentor was an ideal way to help you build your professional skills. But now, according to The MIT Sloan Management Review, one mentor is no longer enough. “Creating and cultivating a Developmental Network is a far better approach to insuring ongoing learning and growth.”
In today’s fast-paced, constantly-changing environment, no single mentor can possibly provide all the guidance necessary for future leadership roles. The alternative, a Developmental Network—”that group of individuals who have a genuine interest in your development and who are uniquely qualified to assist you in a critical aspect of your learning and development”—is a small group of people (about 5) whom you consult for mentoring support in your daily work life. These are the people you’ve enlisted to provide you with what you need to move forward. Your first step along that path is to recognize the importance of a network of high-quality relationships “characterized by mutual learning and mutual trust…” The next steps involve deciding who should be in that network and how to go about building it. If you’re just begining your career, you need to cast a broad net. If at mid-career, look to peers, senior managers, and people outside your organization. Senior managers need to consult not only peers both inside and outside the organization, but also junior members who possess knowledge you lack, such as technical expertise.
This “means creating a culture where developmental networks become part of the fabric of the organization.” Mentoring is then transformed into a set of developmental relationships, where peers can learn from one another and share complementary knowledge and skills. “Ultimately, these developmental networks can be leveraged to serve organizational performance and development as well.”
Kathy E. Kram and Monica C. Higgins, “A new mindset on mentoring: creating developmental networks at work,” MIT Sloan Management Review, Apr. 15, 2009. Free with registration.)
Mentoring at the University of Kansas Libraries
- by Leslie Dillon from Leader's Digest October 2008
The University of Kansas (KU) Libraries mentoring program has been a work in progress for about 10 years. Initially dominated by pre-tenure librarians’ needs for tenure and research support, the program has evolved to a “tiered and/or constellaton concept” and now provides mentoring for support staff and unclassified professionals as well as librarians. The program offers an entire network of mentoring opportunities (including orientation mentoring for all new staff) and blends “both formal and informal mentor pairings.” Staff may select their own mentors, and it’s understood that the mentor isn’t “‘responsible for the outcome’ of career success; that is solely up to the mentee.”
KU’s current mentoring program uses “multiple, shorter-term connections” and is building complementary programs and leadership opportunities. Merging “organizational/individual opportunities with formal and informal mentoring options is an innovative approach.”
(Nikhat Ghouse and Jennifer Church-Duran, “And mentoring for all: The KU Libraries’ experience,” Portal: Libraries and the Academy, Vol. 8, No. 4, 2008.)
Minding mentoring
- by Leslie Dillon from Leader's Digest March 2008
Offering managers, especially new managers, “a lifeline of support in the form of mentoring” isn’t as easy as you might think. Here are some tips for would-be mentors:
- Prepare adequately. Be sure to offer well-thought-out advice. Don’t plan to just have coffee and shoot the breeze. Both mentor and “mentee” should should understand the purpose of each session.
- Share stories of failure. Tell them “how you overcame adversity through creativity … and include the bombs.” Young managers “need to learn how to be creative, even if that means risking failure.”
- Go offsite. Being out of the office may be just what you need for a “powerful exchange.”
- Don’t offer mentoring just to rising stars. “Reach out … to those you’re not close enough with.”
([http://www.elabs2.com/functions/message_view.html?mid=56401&mlid=73&siteid=15988&uid=e1fbbe24d3 "Minding mentoring," The Inside Training Newsletter, Feb. 27, 2008.)
360 mentoring
- by Leslie Dillon from Leader's Digest March 2008
Formal mentoring programs don’t always work, and in today’s flatter organizations your best bet for successful mentoring may be a small network of five to six people, including peers and even subordinates, “who take an active interest in your professional development.”
According to Kathy Kram, coeditor of The Handbook of Mentoring at Work (Sage, 2007), here’s how to build a successful mentoring network:
- Define goals and expectations. What kind of expertise do you want to build? Technical, strategic, cultural? Limit your list to five or six objectives. Then recruit the people you want to mentor you.
- Make every mentoring relationship reciprocal. The old model was one-way; the new model is reciprocal. “Both members of a mentoring relationship have teachable knowledge.”
- Regularly evaluate progress. Initially, chemistry’s important, as are similar backgrounds. But another essential ingredient is “a shared commitment to the mentoring relationship.” Every quarter, you and your mentor need to ask each other if this is working, if you need to adjust what you’re doing, or just move on.
When the mentoring ends (whatever the reason), don’t just stop scheduling appointments. “Serving as a mentor is ‘an act of citizenship’. … Protégés need to reciprocate in kind by thanking their mentors for their time, energy, and assistance, and helping them ‘transition to the next phase of the relationship’.”
(Elizabeth Collins, “360 mentoring,” Harvard Management Update, March 2008.)
Building success one relationship at a time
- by Leslie Dillon from Leader's Digest March 2008
“Your network is your net worth.” (Tim Sanders) Library leaders are great networkers, but there’s always more to learn, especially by talented newer staff on the leadership path.
Keith Ferrazzi, co-author of Never Eat Alone And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time and a master networker in his own right, believes the secret to success is in reaching out to other people. Highly successful people are distinguished from everyone else by “the way they use the power of relationships–so that everyone wins.”
Genuine relationship–building is sharing ”knowledge, resources, time, and energy with people [you] know and trust.” Here are a few of Ferrazi’s proven strategies for building genuine relationships:
- Look for mentors. Connect with people who can help guide you and introduce you to others you need to know. Be a mentor yourself.
- Be interesting. “Develop the style, knowledge, and expertise that will draw others to you.”
- Build it before you need it. Create lists of people you know and want to know and stay in touch with them.
- “Ping” constantly. Reach out to people ”in your circle of contacts all the time–-not just when you need something.”
- Don’t keep score. Instead of just getting what you want, you need to make sure “that the people who are important to you get what they want, too.”
- Never eat alone. Avoid “invisibility”-– it’s a fate worse than failure. Constantly reach out to colleagues and future contacts.
(Amazon.com description of Never Eat Alone. Harvard Business is featuring Ferrazzi in an online seminar on relationship building for $349.00.)
Helping new managers succeed
- by Leslie Dillon from Leader's Digest February 2008
As the manager of a new manager, how can you help him or her succeed in that challenging new role? This brief article offers a few excellent pointers:
- Balance multiple demands from multiple constituencies. One of the greatest challenges new managers face is reconciling different (sometimes competing) constituencies’ expectations. Explain to your new managers that they need to manage other constituencies as carefully as they manage their direct reports.
- Use influence and persuasion to gain others’ support. New managers need to learn that there are many sources of power outside formal authority structures, and you need to help them identify people “whose cooperation is essential.” New managers can’t afford to disdain office politics.
- Delegate wisely. New managers need coaching in when to delegate. Ask them questions like: Is this a decision you need to make alone? Will you make the decision with advice from team members? Watch for delegation mistakes and, when you see them, follow up with your new manager.
- Create “an environment of psychological safety.” Don’t overreact to “inevitable missteps.” Coach the new manager instead. Talk about the judgment calls needed in their new role. Also, watch for new managers who aren’t asking for help and seek them out.
- (Lauren Keller Johnson, “Helping new managers succeed,” Harvard Management Update, Feb. 1, 2008.)
Related articles and resources
- We got trouble... - an overview for articles on internal difficulties.
- Mentoring - Peer Panel - the LLN Peer Panel discusses mentoring.
- Forget the OPAC, why does library management suck? - George Needham discusses management issues and mentoring as one solution.
- Mentoring resources includes links to a wide range of mentoring programs and new member round tables, with direct links to mentoring success stories.
