Where Have All The Mentors Gone?

It is very easy to play to someone's strength. In fact, this is what most managers (and also leaders) tend to do.

However, if we want to take a more inclusive approach, we need to become a mentor. When we look at the workplace, there are often not many true leaders and even fewer mentors.

Being a mentor is a step up from a leader, in the sense that they actively try to understand and make a conscious effort to support a person. For example, James may be interested in working on the task you always give to Tina, just because she 'knows how to do it' or 'is good at it' (i.e. the 'easy' way out). When looking at a manager compared to a mentor, a manager would probably:

A mentor would probably:

If you are thinking "That seems like a lot of effort!", you think like a manager. "Getting things done" is not the approach when we talk about people, their interpersonal relationships and feelings. As much as I hate to break it to you, we don't always get along! There is a child in all of us and as much as we would like to, it sometimes cannot be controlled, any parent will tell you that.

Most people can manage just fine, without the need of another person doing it for them. Heck, we do it every day in our personal lives. This is why I don't like to use the word Manager when referring to positions that involve a certain degree of mana* over others. One should see themselves as a Mentor instead, which gives it a completely different angle. When you see yourself as a Mentor and not a Manager, you become equally responsible for the other person's success and are immediately removed from a feeling of having to assert yourself. 

A Mentor is a person who helps, supports, advises and guides someone. They take the time to get to know you and the challenges you're facing. They will then use their understanding and personal experience to help with your development. What does it mean to be a good mentor?

Mentors are:

Without implying that managers will never have the above mentioned traits, you can see how this is very different to the traditional role of a Manger. Mentors bring the benefit of a more personal approach that is better geared to building trust.

We can probably all agree that micro-managing is not the way to go, if you want to build trust. The only reason it would be necessary to micro-manage somebody is that they are not exactly sure what is expected of them and in turn making them unsure of their actions. Micro-managing conveys wrong-doing to the person being micro-managed, which can knock their confidence to doing a great job.

Always make sure that people know what is expected of them. If you don't, you are automatically setting someone up for failure.

Empowering employees is a great way of building trust. If you are giving someone the freedom to take decisions in their role (and on behalf of the company) it can only be beneficial for both. Maybe investing in a new tool or software would help speed up your customer management or support? Maybe it is getting rid of systems that don't do the job and make it difficult to work with? When systems are difficult to work with, people often try to find a way around it. This may even hurt your business, if it involves sensitive data.

Empowerment is all about putting the decision-making into the hands of the people who know best what would benefit them to ultimately do a better job.

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