This becomes an opportunity for both mentors and mentees to assess if changes are needed to either the roadmap or their boundaries and expectations. As learning is a fluid event, mentors and mentees need to be flexible to recognize when their actions or behaviors are not providing them with the results that they want, and collaborate on how to change what they are doing to change their results.
Benefits to Establishing a Path By creating a safe environment, boundaries and expectations, and a roadmap at the beginning of a mentoring relationship, it creates a sense of ownership in both the mentor and mentee. As mentoring is about relationship building as much as it is about learning, growing and results, there will be none of the above if ownership is not defined at the onset and then re-assessed periodically throughout the relationship. Establishing a path for success is a tool that is focused on ‘how’ the ‘what’ results will be achieved. It provides a continuum of support to both individuals, keeping them both accountable to not only each other but to themselves for their own actions and behaviors. At the onset of mentoring, a path can help a dyad create a visual of the starting and end points and what is needed to move from one to the other. It creates the opportunity for learning to be broken into smaller chunks and experiences, one building on the other. Smaller chunks are less overwhelming for both the mentor and mentee, as information overload is difficult to express coherently or digest easily. Being able to reflect on what has, or has not, been working to achieve results provides insight to adjustments that need to be made to actions such as teaching or communication styles based on how information is, or is not, being learned. Page 107 E The Magazine for Today’s Female Executive
By building on the initial desire that brought a dyad together, collaborating on how success is going to be achieved ties into the element of emotional engagement that I discussed in my first column. The emotional engagement is what will help drive the desire of mentors and mentees to help the other to be successful, and to remain dedicated to the roadmap when resistance and perceived barriers are encountered. The emotional engagement will also feed into the desire for the dyad to flex their communication styles with each other as the relationship grows to ensure that results and success are achieved at the end of their path. Subscription link www.female-exec.com/s.html