Jason Buffington .com

transcript

This week, I’d like to wrap a three-part series on mentoring. 

• We talked about the power of PEER-LEVEL MENTORING, where you walk beside someone and each of you helps the other grow.
• We talked about being a MENTEE, which (1) starts with “the ask” – (2) being mindful of an area that you want to grow in – and then (3) driving the mutually agreed schedule.  But it starts with the ask.

So, let’s finish with a few ideas for the MENTOR.

The first key is to identify whether your mentee is looking for a MENTOR or a COACH. Different folks interchange these, so for the sake of this discussion:

• I view a coach as instructing on skills … In professional baseball, there is an overall team manager, but to ensure the best skills and delivery of each of the player roles, there are batting coaches, pitching coaches, etc.

• Versus a mentor, who helps you see bigger pictures, bounce ideas off, etc.

So, be clear on which role you are serving.  There might be times when you swap hats but be sure that you and your mentee are aligned.

• Coaches often offer prescriptive recommendations on specifically how to build skills – “try it this way.”

• Mentors don’t always offer the answers – they ask questions so you can think or see differently – “what do you think about”.

Here are a few examples:

One colleague came to me a few months ago and really wanted to work on her presentation skills.  Truth be told, she was already stronger than she gave herself credit for but she brought a few projects that she knew needed to land well.

• The first was internal for a lot of heavy stakeholders, so we really just talked through flow, layout, etc.  She previewed it, I gave feedback slide by slide on content and delivery, she iterated, and then later nailed the presentation.
• The second was an external industry presentation that had a theme.  It was such a cool theme, so we geeked out on her initial ideas. I offered some others as we shared that nerd interest, she iterated some more, and wow – such a neat final delivery. 

We connected through a mentor-mentee matching program, but I really was coaching.

For a different colleague, we really are mentoring.  It started as a discussion of integrating faith and work, but his current career looks a lot like my past, so its evolved into a longer-term ongoing mentorship, often with some encouragement of how to expand his future opportunities.

In both cases, I primarily ask questions – sometimes, I might also do an introduction, or unlock an opportunity, and I’ll ask if they want feedback as well as suggestions.

Let me wrap by saying that everyone is busy.  But, every two weeks, I have 80+ working hours, so 160 half-hour slots.  If someone is in a growth mindset on something I can help with, I’ll try to give them one.

See you next Monday.