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Mentoring Has Advantages

Every individual, business and organization is looking for a competitive advantage. One way to help create a competitive advantage is to use mentor relationships. A colleague and I were having a conversation about previous relationships with mentors or relationships that could’ve been considered a mentor-type relationship. We agreed that we’ve both seen articles in the media recently that communicate a common theme. That there is a significant correlation between business mentorship and the survival rate of those businesses. Not to mention individual mentorship and professional advancement.

Many years ago when I finished my undergraduate coursework, finding a mentor was not as easy as it is today. Today offers many more options for finding a match. There are online services that connect local National and even global matches. For example, MicroMentor is just one example of an online service that allows you to create a profile, reach out to others and start mentoring. According to MicroMentor, the average communication time between mentor and mentee is about 12 hours of phone calls, advice given online or in-person meetings.

Mentoring doesn’t have to be a huge commitment and there are no rules or definitions as to exactly what is to take place. The relationships can take on many different forms.

In general the benefits include:

Better recruiting – mentoring leads to better recruiting and retention of employees for organizations or small working groups.

Engagement by employees – mentoring can spark appreciative coworkers who put in extra time and effort on their jobs. Many individuals report that they are more engaged, happier and productive when they are acting as either mentor or mentee.

Savings – there are no direct costs involved with mentoring and it is very easy to implement.

New attitude – an attitude pick-me-up is a byproduct to those that participated in mentor-mentee relationships.

New skills – many individuals who communicate with a mentor or a variety of mentors make fewer mistakes and often end up developing job-specific and leadership skills.

In general there aren’t any disadvantages to simply asking someone with more experience for advice. If a mentor relationship develops and they become a mentor, this may just be a win-win scenario for both parties.

-RG

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Top 5 List: Lead Yourself And Others

Top 5 List

There’s been a lot of talk recently about leading from within or leading from where you’re at. The idea of leading or being a leader from your position in life makes sense to me and I’m not sure why that is. Might have something to do with the way I was raised. It might also have something to do with different positions I’ve held during my career. And every once in a while I meet somebody who doesn’t identify with the word leader. They might say things like “I can’t do that”, or “I’m not the leader”. To me leading and leadership doesn’t always have to relate to positional authority. Leadership is more about the behaviors we exhibit. 

These are behaviors that are unique to creative problem-solving and bettering the lives of others. Leadership behaviors can also directly shape the future and make things better. Leaders that I have known over time have demonstrated the following:

Confidence – this is simply the belief that you can succeed. We should all pay attention to our internal voice when challenged.

Service – this is to help make sure that your colleagues have the support and tools that they need. Directing your resources, talents and experience to help others we’ll develop trust and transform a working group into a highly-effective team.

Accountability – as challenges arise you must question whether your part of the problem and accept responsibility if need be. Focus on the items that you can control and disregard those that you can’t.

Credibility – this is the key to leadership and grows when the others know that they can count on you because your words match your actions. We should all work to minimize the gap that may exist between our words and our actions.

Character – be aware of what we value and how that enables us to direct our life and lead others. We should all find time to consider what values matter the most to us and how they can better guide us.

-RG

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Top 5 List: Creating Great Culture

Creating great culture in an organization is key in today’s world. When organizations are just being developed, leaders and followers can all sit and talk through every decision together. The challenges at this stage are simpler and messages are much clearer. There’s a lot less uncertainty about essential items and how to deal with things as they arise.

As teams and organizations begin to grow you may suddenly be faced with a situation in which you don’t know everyone on the team. The team of five is significantly different than an organizational 50 individuals. It becomes more difficult to communicate with the larger group and get a consistent resolution and process in place for everything. A solid culture can provide the guidelines to work within. Here is a list of the top 5:

Ownership – depending on the size of the team or organization there must be one person who will be directly responsible for culture. This person shall focus on culture and make sure that everyone is heading in the same direction.

Leadership – the culture will be shaped by its leader. The leadership team must embrace the brand that is desired. Ideally a teamwork culture is highly regarded and the leaders must work together as a team.

Ask questions – asking very simple questions of leaders and employees will help clarify the desired culture. For example, what do you like most about the current culture? What would you like to change about the current culture? How do you personally define culture? What do you think it’s important about culture?

Focus – it would be rare to find a group of six that works as a team and has the same kind of passion for the work that they are doing. The team should focus on what is best for the product or for the customers and then act accordingly.

Communication – this is the key to any team or organization’s culture. You must be clear about the values and culture both at internal and external levels. All employees must appreciate the culture. Reward those who promote the culture while being truthful with those who do not. Communication of culture should be an ongoing and regular activity.

-RG

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Work Time And Play Time

There is a popular quotation from Plato that is often used in work environments: “You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation”. Many teams will take a playful approach to team building, whether it’s helping in the community through a charity or collecting supplies for another organization.

Large corporations have set aside budgets for activities and team building smaller teams find it more difficult to find the same opportunity. Here are a few things that can be done to help motivate and bring teams together without breaking the bank.

Get out – with many busy schedules people don’t always have the time to leave the office all day. Remind each other that even if they choose to eat at work they can still get out of their workspace. Why not take a break on the patio. Sometimes just a simple change of scenery is all that’s required to recharge and refuel.

Add music – music plays an important role in everyone’s life. It’s amazing how just adding some music to a workspace can help perk up the office and bring everyone together. Many times just a conversation about favorite artist or favorite concerts can help make connections between individuals.

Unplug – technology can be amazing and helps us with almost every facet of our lives except one: interpersonal communications. The more time we spend on our devices will translate into less time interacting with each other. Our personal relationships will suffer as our reliance on technology continues to grow. We should encourage each other to unplug it for a few minutes every day and this will help foster better relationships within the workspace.

Play – play time is the time to decompress. It might be as easy as putting together a Rubik’s cube, or joining an after work bowling league. Coworkers who spend a couple of hours laughing and playing together will end up learning things they never knew of each other.

-RG

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Servant Leadership

Leaders are pressed for more and more over time. Whether it is increased competition, technological changes or culture changes leaders simply cannot avoid being asked to give more. With these increased demands and higher stress levels leaders on all levels must develop new ways of engaging and inspiring teams of employees. Being a servant leader can be challenging, but the rewards are worth it. 

Over the years I have been fortunate enough to have worked with a couple leaders that embraced the idea of Servant Leadership. These leaders helped me understand that there is no better way to win than by leading with your heart and developing a competitive advantage. Here are a few things that have stayed with me:

Customer-centered goals – to improve the customer’s quality of life simply fuels the heart.  Fueling the brain is done by talking about what needs to be done from a business standpoint. If we can shift the focus to winning by making a difference you can fuel both the brain and the heart.

Give the gift – one of the leaders that I worked with often spoke of giving the gift of self-confidence. Letting others know that you believe in them can be transformational. For example, telling someone: “ I have great confidence in you and what you can do!” Offered during especially tough times, these words can empower people to make bold decisions that have a positive impact on the organization.
Talk straight – simply stated, straight talk should be the universal language we use to conduct ourselves and business. One of the leaders I was fortunate to have met along the way employed the strategy in dealing with his teams. This approach led to more solution-based conversations and led to more positive outcomes. He had a way of communicating the unfiltered truth about the challenges we all faced. The result was increased loyalty and new ways of generating feasible solutions.

-RG

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Top 5 List: How To Be Human In An Online Learning Environment

Top 5 List

Online courses can often feel like a lonely place due to the lack of presence of the instructor and other students. This lack of presence can have a negative effect on learning and lead to lower retention levels. Feedback is an essential way to create presence. Feedback can be offered in many different ways. Here are a few things that we can do to help add a human feeling to online courses by using feedback:

Discussions – instructors should participate in the online discussions at least once a week to let students know that they are there, yet being careful not to take over or steer the conversations. Simply provide feedback and ask open ended questions.

Email – send individual student emails to complement them and comment on their work. A simple question such as “How are you doing?” can go along way.

Announcements – as you find relevant resources during the course provide a link in the announcements section of the course. Additionally add a sentence or two that ties this resource back to the course content. This provides a clear indication that the instructor is active in the course.

Surveys – adding surveys or polls can add a human element to the course. For example, a strategy that I have used in the past is the one-minute survey that simply asked two questions. The first question is “What is being done well in the course?” and the second question is “How can the course be improved?”

Icebreaker – at the beginning of the course you present some type of icebreaker activity to gather student information that will be useful later in the course. For example, what are the students work experiences? Have they created a portfolio? What would they like to do in the future? These questions not only make the online course more personal it also values them as individuals by recognizing their experience.

-RG