By Tiza Pyle

Change is the Only Constant

Change is upon us, and we no longer doubt that it has become the way of life in our decade and beyond. In the real world, change occurs only when people embrace it, champion it, and have the courage to move onto uncharted paths. Successful change is about discovery and resistance, and attending to the needs of the people who are an integral element of the process.

Mentoring As Support for Change
Effective mentoring is a powerful way to address people’s needs during change, thus reducing resistance, and opening the path for the new desired future.

Mentoring Competencies That Support Growth
The ability to guide people through successful change is linked to specific mentoring competencies.

Successful mentoring relationships act as vehicles that enable people to develop the new behaviors that are necessary for change. These relationships are based on simple, but powerful principles:
• Mutual trust, developed as a result of mutual respect;
• Commitment to growth and discovery, through support and challenge;
• Openness to give and receive help and feedback;
• Commitment to action and results, the ability to make it happen.

Examples of Mentoring Help during Change
Each phase of transition offers different mentoring challenges. The following examples illustrate how mentoring behaviors can be tailored to meet specific needs.

Phase 1. Optimism
Early in the change process people may have an unrealistic view of what is required. Mentoring can provide a direction that keeps people on an even keel, and helps them understand the full impact of what is needed during change.
The mentor accomplishes this by asking good questions that help people identify their individual reactions to the change. This questioning process looks at both positive and negative aspects of the change, and helps identify future needs. By also sharing his/her own experiences with change, the mentor makes the change experience real and possible.

Phase 2 – Pessimism
As change begins to take shape, support and understanding of emotions are essential. As people experience the difficulties associated with change, they start questioning and doubting the process.
The mentor’s role is to open the doors to possibilities, and to help people explore and understand their feelings. This phase involves taking risks in the mentoring relationship. Open and honest feedback can help people look at their own behavior, and help develop increased trust through genuine caring and mutual respect.

Phase 3 – Resistance
This is a powerful phase, and the energy generated here needs to be channeled into creative ways that lead to buy-in for the change. People’s reactions can take various forms, and the dominant theme is an unwillingness to embrace the change. Fighting resistance is not productive.
The major role of the mentor in this stage is to listen, and to help people recognize their reasons for the resistance. The key mentoring behaviors are a combination of support and challenge that shows respect for the person’s position, but at the same time provides growth-oriented feedback that can help him or her move beyond resistance. The mentor does not see resistance as a negative, but as an opportunity to better understand the real impact of change on people an the organization. Some of the most creative solutions for problems have been generated from resistance.

Phase 4 – Acceptance and Commitment
In this phase, there is a great deal of positive energy and commitment to the future, as people are starting to believe in the process and feel a part of it.
Here, the role of the mentor is to empower people to move to action that will sustain the change, and to help people reflect on the various steps of the journey. Change is a dynamic process, and learning from past experiences increases people’s ability to better deal with future changes. The mentor plays a key role in enabling people to formulate and commit to action plans for making the transformation work. The ability to celebrate success, and the insight to recognize both individual and group contributions are other key behaviors that contribute to the success of change.

Tiza Pyle is a senior consultant at Perrone-Ambrose Associates Inc. in Illinois. Copyright 2003 by the International Mentoring Association.
Reprinted from the International Mentoring Association, www.mentoring-association-org.

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A practical and direct process for use by new or seasoned mentors can be mastered in four simple steps.

Step 1: Extend Your Reach
Managers often report that one of the most satisfying parts of their job is when they have the opportunity to share their knowledge, experiences and insight with others. Reaching beyond the daily responsibilities of their job and profoundly affecting the growth and development of others brings the manager immediate rewards and the organization long lasting benefits. Fast-track mentoring education begins with “where and how” to offer help to learning partners.
Today´s employees want to learn and grow. Their own success is very important to them. The employee who cannot get answers, cannot learn or find out how to be successful, often grows frustrated and leaves the company.

Step 2: Listen, Don’t Preach
The mentor’s job doesn’t start with giving advice – it begins with listening. A mentor needs to hear what their partners want from the process. It’s also critical to learn about development needs and expectations. A good mentor must learn to explore the focus and understand the goals of their partners.

Step 3: Do More Than Teach
The traditional mentor was a teacher-but today it takes much more to be a successful mentor. There are four different conversation styles that can be used to stimulate learning and transmit knowledge quickly. They have been proven to promote learning and transmit knowledge quickly. Mentors need to learn how to share their stories, encourage dialogue, debrief their partner’s experiences, and help build network connections for their partners.
In a world where overnight obsolescence threatens skills and knowledge, success calls for creative ways to foster learning, improvement and everlasting experimentation.

Step 4: Define Actions for Each
Mentoring partners have equal responsibilities in making the process work. They need specific action plans so that both mentor and partner can measure the progress of their work together. The Mentoring process can be a great source of personal learning and satisfaction for everyone. But much of its success depends on finding the right balance between doing too much and doing too little.
As technology continues to change and the world continues to move faster, the value of using knowledge effectively in an organization will continue to skyrocket.

How Everyone Benefits
While the time-honored practice of mentoring has always been with us, it is now more than ever a dynamic tool for building collaborative relationships. Organizations need a simple but elegant process that demystifies the mentoring journey. It also should work to develop the mentor as he or she works to develop others.
A successful process should provide mentors and their partners with specifics on what to do, what to talk about, and how to take action. Mentoring in this fast-track format may well be one of the most powerful ways to engage and retain both employees and managers. It should also provide a payback for the organization so that talent can be recognized and grown.

Reprinted from hr.com, your source for knowledge, expertise and resources.

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The case for mentoring in organizations is now more compelling than ever. It is clear that mentoring supports the retention, development, and engagement of today’s workforce. It is a direct link to an organization’s productivity and, ultimately, profitability. No one really needs to be convinced as to what a powerful and dynamic process mentoring can be for both employees and organizations. It has the potential to elevate corporate dialogue from the mundane to the truly transformational. But the key concern has always been how do managers learn the skills, find the time, and build the relationships necessary to make it successful.

Business Week reports that over 35% of employees who are not being mentored within 12 months of being hired, are actively looking for a job!

Many mentoring programs begin with high energy and good intentions, but end up with little impact and less long-term follow-through. In our current organizational climate there is a pressing need for a practical way to educate managers and leaders quickly so they see mentoring as a positive experience rather than a burden. The task is to integrate a simple and effective method to give managers, team leaders and individual contributors the basic skills and practical how-tos of mentoring others that makes it part of their on-going responsibilities and not an add-on.

It’s a rare organization today that can afford to take mentoring partners offsite for extended training. The alternative is to provide an easy self-study process or brief facilitated program that highlights the most important aspects of the mentoring process and gets mentors started immediately.

Mentoring, when combined with training, increases a manager’s productivity by 88% according to the ASTD.

Everyone brings unique experiences and expertise to the mentoring relationship. Allowing mentors to begin with their strengths gives them confidence and comfort with the process.

Reprinted from hr.com, your source for knowledge, expertise and resources.

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