A 'pacy' well-structured and rewarding experience. Plenty of practical ideas delivered in an energetic manner. No PowerPoint - hurray

Mentoring Approaches

For us mentoring fills a gap between training and coaching.

It's also often about building an individual's confidence, either in themselves or in how to get something done more effectively.

In these instances, we – and our clients – often prefer to choose a more 'route one' approach, drawing on our own extensive experience.

This is our approach:

Establishing rapport – getting a match – then leading. Pushing them along on the back of the strong connection to help them get what they want.
Getting the context first – finding out what’s going on, where are they at and where this all fits.
Finding out what they want and why – getting the leverage we need to be able to deliver for them.
Working closely with their boss – keeping confidentialities, but going for a ‘pincer movement’ together to help the person get what they want.
Knowing at which ‘change level’ the client’s blocks are (e.g. mindset or skills) and going for that first.
Building confidence through sponsorship (i.e. ‘you’ve got something special’).
Constantly raising the bar with them as their confidence increases – expecting more.
Being brave as the mentor when there’s a prize to be had – recognising that anger and tears are good sometimes to get the breakthrough that’s needed.
Making all our experience and knowledge available to them.
Choosing the right tool for the job e.g. Coach-Sell-Teach or Tell™ – we see all of these as having a valid place in a mentoring relationship.
Pinning them down to specific, timed actions to get things moving for them.
Keeping it real – no clichés, management-speak or jargon.
For some clients, watching them work and then giving them ‘in the moment’ feedback and guidance.