If you want to conduct professional mentoring, it is essential to master a conversation technique called catalyzing. It involves asking questions, listening and reflecting.
To have a good mentoring conversation, focus on the mentee authentically and with your whole person. When posing questions, let the mentee think about what was said. Mobilize the creation of solutions based on one’s own competence and knowledge, and then stimulate creative reflections and conclusions.
How to do it in practice?
Ask
Remember that the way you ask questions is just as important as what you ask. Therefore, show a keen curiosity to be able to discover your interlocutor’s way of seeing. This approach makes it more possible to release the emotions and reflections of the mentored person and to see if a transformation is taking place in him.
Questions for development are:
- Short ones, such as: "What do you think?"
- General and neutral, such as: "What happened?"
- Adequate to what has been said before, such as. "What was great about it?"
- Open and asked with curiosity, such as: "What priorities for yourself do you see in this situation?"
- Moving toward creation, such as: "What do you want to achieve?"
- Comprehensive (examining different aspects of the same issue): "What works?", "What doesn't work?", "What is unclear?", "What is obvious?".
Listen to
True listening means full attention. Listen to your words, your feelings, your emotions. mentee’s thoughts and perceptions and beliefs.
- Soak like a sponge. Accept everything you hear and accept it regardless of whether, in your opinion, it makes sense or not.
- Don't judge or analyze.
- Don't interrupt.
- Open up and trust the mentee. This will ensure that you treat each mentee's speech as a natural expression of creativity, ability and wisdom.
- If you have your own thoughts, conclusions and proposals, save them for the rest of the conversation.
Reflect
The best proof that you are listening to the mentee will be the presentation of the content he/she is saying, preferably in his/her words. We call it mirroring.
You can also interpret or name what was said between sentences.
With this approach:
- You clarify the problem the mentee is talking about.
- You will build mutual respect and a partnership relationship.
- You will make the mentee gain a sense of acceptance, and thus build a greater awareness of their capabilities and understanding of the situation they are in.
The reflection will make you as objective as a mirror. Nor will you succumb to the temptation of your own interpretation and attachment to it.
Your insights will come when the mentee gets to a place where he or she already has his or her own ideas, thoughts or action plans. Remember that your job is to develop mentees, to give them method and independence, not to solve tasks or achieve results for them.
