Friday, March 25, 2005
Mentoring Assignment
How Are We Doing?
Mentor’s Worksheet
My mentee and I have been meeting for ___________ (amount of time).
Approximately 6 weeks
I feel we have established enough trust between us that we can work well together.
Yes
I'll say that since I'm mentoring a group that with some of the group , definately and with others in the group no.
If s/he’s upset or unhappy with me or our relationship, I’m confident my mentee would talk to me about what’s going on.
Disagree. I don't think as a group we have reached this level of intimacy where they would tell me if something was wrong. AGain, I think gthe group is too big. I feel like a few of the members within the group would probably feel comfortable doing this, but not everyone in the entire group.
If I were upset or unhappy with my mentee or our relationship, I would feel comfortable talking with my mentee about what’s going on.
Neither Agree nor Disagree
Again, I'm going to say in general it is hard to say because I feel like with the group, some I would be comfortbale talking with and others I wouldn't.
I feel we’ve made real headway in helping my mentee set goals and take steps to implement them.
Agree. Again, this question is more geared for one on one mentoring but as a whole, I believe I've made headway with the group in establishing trust among the group and within the group close relationships have developed. I cannot take credit for all of this, since the group is part of a pseudo cadre which I interact with but am not responsible for. I'm able to use these relationships they are developing within the group and leverage them, however. Now that this group has completed their face 2 face time, I feel like my role is just beginning. I'm allowing for them to communicate virtually via phpbb. I'm not sure I have buy in from the entire group as I mentioned above, however I do believe I will be able to narrow this group down to a more focussed and committed core group which I will contineu to work with for this project and for my ARP.
Five things I feel are going great in our mentoring relationship are:
1. I've definately established trust with a handful of people in the group. I feel like if they need something or would like to talk they will have no problem contacting me.
2.The group as a whole has continuity and tightness.
3. I've established the means for the virtual communication of the community which will begin being utilized as the group returns to their respective offices
4. I feel I have made significant headway with some key members of the group and that I can have those members buy into the smaller core group I'm working on establishing.
5.As a member of the group but not an equal, I feel like I will receieve as much from this relationship as they fhopefully feel they will benefit. I see the yin-yang effect at WORK!
One thing I wish I could change about how we interact with each other is…
I wish I could get more participation as a whole by the entire group. I feel like the group is too big and I wish I would have thought more about that prior to the relationship. I still have learned tremendously from this, I realize how important intimacy is in a mentoring relationship and that just can't be accomplished when the group is too big. For both this and for my ARP I'm in the process of breaking the group down into a smaller "sub-group". I probably should have done this sooner but it took me a while to realize and a fair amount of reflecting to figure out exactly how to accomplish this!
Mentor’s Worksheet
My mentee and I have been meeting for ___________ (amount of time).
Approximately 6 weeks
I feel we have established enough trust between us that we can work well together.
Yes
I'll say that since I'm mentoring a group that with some of the group , definately and with others in the group no.
If s/he’s upset or unhappy with me or our relationship, I’m confident my mentee would talk to me about what’s going on.
Disagree. I don't think as a group we have reached this level of intimacy where they would tell me if something was wrong. AGain, I think gthe group is too big. I feel like a few of the members within the group would probably feel comfortable doing this, but not everyone in the entire group.
If I were upset or unhappy with my mentee or our relationship, I would feel comfortable talking with my mentee about what’s going on.
Neither Agree nor Disagree
Again, I'm going to say in general it is hard to say because I feel like with the group, some I would be comfortbale talking with and others I wouldn't.
I feel we’ve made real headway in helping my mentee set goals and take steps to implement them.
Agree. Again, this question is more geared for one on one mentoring but as a whole, I believe I've made headway with the group in establishing trust among the group and within the group close relationships have developed. I cannot take credit for all of this, since the group is part of a pseudo cadre which I interact with but am not responsible for. I'm able to use these relationships they are developing within the group and leverage them, however. Now that this group has completed their face 2 face time, I feel like my role is just beginning. I'm allowing for them to communicate virtually via phpbb. I'm not sure I have buy in from the entire group as I mentioned above, however I do believe I will be able to narrow this group down to a more focussed and committed core group which I will contineu to work with for this project and for my ARP.
Five things I feel are going great in our mentoring relationship are:
1. I've definately established trust with a handful of people in the group. I feel like if they need something or would like to talk they will have no problem contacting me.
2.The group as a whole has continuity and tightness.
3. I've established the means for the virtual communication of the community which will begin being utilized as the group returns to their respective offices
4. I feel I have made significant headway with some key members of the group and that I can have those members buy into the smaller core group I'm working on establishing.
5.As a member of the group but not an equal, I feel like I will receieve as much from this relationship as they fhopefully feel they will benefit. I see the yin-yang effect at WORK!
One thing I wish I could change about how we interact with each other is…
I wish I could get more participation as a whole by the entire group. I feel like the group is too big and I wish I would have thought more about that prior to the relationship. I still have learned tremendously from this, I realize how important intimacy is in a mentoring relationship and that just can't be accomplished when the group is too big. For both this and for my ARP I'm in the process of breaking the group down into a smaller "sub-group". I probably should have done this sooner but it took me a while to realize and a fair amount of reflecting to figure out exactly how to accomplish this!
Thursday, March 17, 2005
Progress of my mentoring
I've been working with my group but the timing hasn't quite worked out in my favor. Again a little background on the group is that there are 40 employees of the company in town doing a training and next week they will return to their respective national offices. Group mentoring, my goals were to help them to develop as a group that could continue virtual relationships and sharing of resources. The face to face time hasn' t involved me quite as much as I would have liked although I've had a fair amount of interaction with a wide rand of the group one on one. I've come to realize they do value me as a resource and respect my knowledge and expertise.
Today I spent some time doing some specific training with 4 of the members of the group. I find that this one on one (or small group) time is invaluable in bonding. I stayed later after nearly all the others were gone and helped answer some other questions and provide as a resource to them. Although there were only a few people left, I felt a more intense bonding happen "after hours". I also found that going above and beyond goes miles with estblishing trust. This I see as being invaluable to working with the group. I feel I have definately furthered my relationship with the group as a whole as well as many of the individuals. I find that having bettered my one on one relationships definately spreads throughout the group.
In addition, I find that when I become more interested in them and ask genuine interests, they become more interested in me. I think this helps them see me as a person and vice versa.
Today I spent some time doing some specific training with 4 of the members of the group. I find that this one on one (or small group) time is invaluable in bonding. I stayed later after nearly all the others were gone and helped answer some other questions and provide as a resource to them. Although there were only a few people left, I felt a more intense bonding happen "after hours". I also found that going above and beyond goes miles with estblishing trust. This I see as being invaluable to working with the group. I feel I have definately furthered my relationship with the group as a whole as well as many of the individuals. I find that having bettered my one on one relationships definately spreads throughout the group.
In addition, I find that when I become more interested in them and ask genuine interests, they become more interested in me. I think this helps them see me as a person and vice versa.
Monday, March 07, 2005
What would I Do Differently...Next Steps
So to continue from the last blog.
Here is what I would do differently next time I mentor a group or help to build a CoP or CoL.
1 - Fill a Need/Build Value
Although I believe the group I worked with saw value in being able to share information virtually, in hindsight, I see the importance of making sure you are filling a need the group has. I also think this helps with building value, if the members of a group have a void and you are helping to fill that void, value will be inherint in the process.
Value can also be built by discussions or examples and benefits.
2 - Intimate Group
I think that the group I worked with was too big. I think that the size of the group created anonyimity in the group so no one felt accountable for particpating. They all felt like someone else would particpate.
3 - Consier Timing and Build Immediacy
Again, hindsight is clearly 20/20 but I think I should have done a better job outlaying the goals to the group and incorporating the timing with each goal. I think if they would have had a better idea of what the particular time frames were, they would have felt more compelled to participate now, rather than later. In addition to that, I believe the timing for this particular group was bad. They had so many other outisde pulls during the time that I was to mentor them that particpation in this group became a low priority.
Those are just a few things I've learned.
My next steps will be to ask for particpants with out right expectations and time frames to provide me a group that is willing and motivated to particpate.
Here is what I would do differently next time I mentor a group or help to build a CoP or CoL.
1 - Fill a Need/Build Value
Although I believe the group I worked with saw value in being able to share information virtually, in hindsight, I see the importance of making sure you are filling a need the group has. I also think this helps with building value, if the members of a group have a void and you are helping to fill that void, value will be inherint in the process.
Value can also be built by discussions or examples and benefits.
2 - Intimate Group
I think that the group I worked with was too big. I think that the size of the group created anonyimity in the group so no one felt accountable for particpating. They all felt like someone else would particpate.
3 - Consier Timing and Build Immediacy
Again, hindsight is clearly 20/20 but I think I should have done a better job outlaying the goals to the group and incorporating the timing with each goal. I think if they would have had a better idea of what the particular time frames were, they would have felt more compelled to participate now, rather than later. In addition to that, I believe the timing for this particular group was bad. They had so many other outisde pulls during the time that I was to mentor them that particpation in this group became a low priority.
Those are just a few things I've learned.
My next steps will be to ask for particpants with out right expectations and time frames to provide me a group that is willing and motivated to particpate.
Tuesday, March 01, 2005
Building In Value
When I look back at my original vision I posted in January, it makes me kind of sad. I can feel my excitement as I read through what I thought would unfold, but it hasn't. As I wrote in my last blog about trying to get a group of people to do something, I feel like I'm herding wild dogs or something. After I realized the group did not seem to be latching on to the virtual identity, I've thought of several other changes I could make. I think because the group is so big, that each person feels like they blend into the group and there is a sense of anonymity. In this case, I don't think that is good. When we talked about one on one mentoring, we discussed setting up commitments and expectations as well as two engaged learners. Although I realized this was important for a group, I don't know that I fully realized how to do this with a group. The group I worked with existed prior to mentoring as CoP (although they would not recognize this term) so my goal was to help them with their virtual identity. The difficult part was building value into this. I believed they saw the value but in hindsight, I'm not sure they did.
