Wondering how to teach mentee creative self-reflection and build their own solutions?
Very important in being a mentor is sensing the difference between advising and counseling. This particle “DO-” is crucial. Your advice can DOUBLE the mentee’s ideas and efforts and should always be directed TO the mentee, rather than focusing on the task. Simple advice on everything is of no use in the process of personality development. However, resisting the temptation to hint to a mentee is not easy. It is even more difficult when the mentee expects this advice.
Here an important note! It’s your role to remind the person being mentored that personal and managerial development is not about taking advice and implementing it (or rejecting it and waiting for the next one), it’s about finding the best strategies for yourself in the long term.
A good mentor doesn’t just suggest his proven methods, he looks for new ideas that are right for the mentee. Your prescriptions should be tailored to the situation and severity of the problem and the mentee’s personality. And most importantly, they should not be the only right ones.
Remember that mentoring is about stimulating the mentee’s thinking. You can do this by:
- Expanding his/her knowledge – share experience, introduce business models, theoretical concepts, paradigms, stories. For example, you might say, “The Blanchard model can be used in the approach, allowing you to better match the way you motivate your employees. How do you see it?”
- Suggesting solutions – suggest alternative ideas and ways, saying, for example. “What you can still do to show your differentiator is to modify your approach to positioning your product in the market. You can try it… What do you think?”
Only after he finds a solution to the dilemma on his own, suggest other ways to proceed. However, it is always up to him or her to decide how and what to do.
