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In This
Issue...
 Angels With
Rotary Wings
Reality
Mirrors Movie
Mentoring
Aikido
Stop The
Merry-Go-Round
Features...
Peter Block Column
Views for a
Change
Pageturners
Briefcases
Diary of a
Shutdown
|
 Sharing
Expertise
Mentoring Enhances Team
Effectiveness
---Almost 3,000 years ago, the
ancient Greek poet Homer wrote tales about the warrior and
traveler Ulysses in “The Iliad” and “The
Odyssey.” The great hero achieved much of his success
because he had a wise and trusted advisor, a fellow by the
name of Mentor. He did such a good job that Athena, the
goddess of wisdom, took on his countenance to guide
Ulysses’ son, Telemachus. Linguists suspect this
worthy aide’s Greek name is derived from a word
meaning “think” or “counsel.”
ssWhether they know it or not,
Pat Noonan and her partner, Nancy Page-Cooper, co-founders
of Mentor Coach, a national consulting and training
organization, are following in some illustrious footsteps
as they advocate new and important applications for
mentoring. They are advocates for mentoring within
teams—that is, thinking, counseling and sharing
wisdom—as the key to greater team
effectiveness.
There is No ‘I’ in Team
“We’ve all heard the saying that there is no
‘I’ in team,” Noonan has written.
“Well, that is true if the ‘I’ focuses
solely on individual accomplishments. Being a team means
blending individual effort and team
achievements.”
sssBut
it’s not that simple. “There is another
‘I’ that belongs there. That is the influence
the team creates,” Noonan explains. “The
ability to influence others toward positive actions takes
you and the team to the next level of accomplishment or
career direction.” In essence, according to Noonan,
the most effective teams are those that encourage team
members to mentor one another.
sssA
casual observer might question this advice. Isn’t
mentoring, which seems to suggest one-on-one activity,
antithetical to the concept of teams? So why does Noonan
advance its value?
sss“It’s a positive
element of teams because no matter how equal the job is for
team members, each team member brings a different
orientation, a different background, a different skill set
to the team. Each one has things that they are better at
than someone else.”
sssThere’s no reason,
according to Noonan, that it must always be an older, more
experienced person showing the way to a neophyte. “If
we look at mentoring as helping another person to improve
their skills,” she explains, “it doesn’t
have to be a senior to a junior person. It could be a peer
who has a slightly different orientation, a slightly
different background, a slightly different experience.
They’re helping me improve that part of my skill set
if I’m a member of a team.”
sssNoonan, whose consulting
practice is based in Sedalia, Colo. also teaches at a
university in the Denver area. “We use this concept
in our faculty development,” she notes, “by
having faculty members bring their expertise to the
in-services and train each other. The same thing is used in
elementary and high schools, where a master teacher or
someone who has more experience in one area of teaching
comes and shares their knowledge with other teachers, who
may have even more years of teaching experience, but may
not have that level of a skill set.”
What Makes a Good Mentor
Noonan and Page-Cooper have identified characteristics that
are the qualities of the best mentors. Perhaps most
generally, mentors have to be willing to give of their time
and energy. Beyond that, “strong self-awareness of
your own skills, the ability to empathize and translate
that skill to another person and the ability to teach
it” are important traits, Noonan says.
sssThese insights also mean
that a good mentor is able to ascertain to what level the
other person’s current skills have developed.
“If I’m teaching a person how to use a software
program,” she offers, “I have to know whether
or not they know how to turn on the computer before I can
show them how to do all the bells and
whistles.”
sssEveryone isn’t suited
to be a good mentor, Noonan points out. “Some people
are very knowledgeable in their technical areas, but
aren’t good teachers. They can’t transfer that
knowledge.” Returning to her computer analogy, she
extends her example: “There are people who are
technically proficient in computers, but don’t have
the skill to train. Others may not have the level of
understanding of how the computer works, but they have good
training skills. So the second person is actually a better
mentor.”
sssPerhaps the hardest part of
mentoring, Noonan believes, can be the ability to give
honest feedback. “It’s very difficult sometimes
for a mentor to say, ‘You’re not getting
it,’ or ‘You didn’t get it right,’
or ‘Let me try again,’ and do something in a
way that keeps the other person’s ego intact and
allows them to actually hear the feedback and accept
it.”
sssNoonan is especially quick
to point out the power of team members mentoring each
other. “A major difference between an average team
and a superior team is an approach that actively enlists
team members to act as mentors for each other,” she
maintains. “By willingly helping other team members
develop the skills you now have, you are not only sharing
your expertise, you are building credibility and competency
in the team.” Noonan is fond of quoting a fundamental
message: “Behind every good team member and team is a
willing mentor.”
Share Yourself and Spread the Knowledge
Mentors, by the way, can come from inside or outside a
team. Noonan cites mentor models that are internal and
external. “For example,” she says, “most
teams in production environments particularly don’t
understand the finances of the organization. Go outside and
find someone in the accounting or financial department who
can mentor the team to understand what the finances are
about, how to manage their own budgeting.” It can
make all the difference in a team’s success, she
maintains.
sssHow
can team members be encouraged to become mentors?
“You help them to understand,” Noonan offers,
“that by sharing their knowledge, they’re not
giving away their knowledge. What they’re doing is
improving the overall productivity and efficiency of the
team.” Those involved in mentoring often feel
increased enthusiasm when they see that it’s a
two-way street, and others begin to share knowledge with
them.
sss“The way I always
start mentoring sessions,” Noonan says, “is to
tell people to think of themselves as a lifelong work in
progress. If you can think of yourself in that way, you can
be open to learning things from somebody else. You’ll
never know where that’s going to come from if
you’re not open to it. If you keep yourself open, the
new things that you learn may come from the most outrageous
source, from the janitor or from somebody just walking by
your team.”
Words of Wisdom
To improve team-mentoring skills, Noonan says you need to
identify the current level of mentoring ability already
present on a team. “You create a development plan for
your mentors, just like you would for the learners, helping
them develop the mentoring skills, the teaching skills.
Keeping them fresh. So they feel like they are getting back
and that they continue learning as well.”
sssNoonan is very concise when
asked for her best advice about mentoring: “Be open.
Be willing to listen. Be willing to give feedback. Be
willing to share yourself. And have fun.” It’s
not hard to imagine that Ulysses’ trusted advisor
would see the wisdom in this mentor’s sage
words.
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