Mentoring 101. David Paisley. Technical Fellow Boeing Commercial Airplanes

Transcription

1 Mentoring 101 David Paisley Technical Fellow Boeing Commercial Airplanes

2 Agenda Definitions Why Mentoring is Important Why Mentoring is Difficult Summary, Q&A 2

3 Definitions

4 The Professional Relationship Landscape NETWORK PROFESSIONAL SOCIETY MENTOR INDUSTRY MENTOR COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE YOU MENTOR COLLEAGUES COMPANY 4

5 Mentors, Networks, Communities of Practice Mentor Usually a senior person in your own technical field, or one closely related. Communities of Practice Groups of employees whose members regularly engage in sharing and learning, based on common interests Network Typically limited to within a company, but could include partners and suppliers in the right circumstances The entire expanse of your contacts Work group, Related work groups, Alumni network Partner companies, Suppliers, Government Agencies, Research institutions, Universities, Industry associations, Professional societies 5

6 Mentors, Networks, Communities of Practice Characteristics of the relationships Mentor Close, one on one, learning, counseling Communities of Practice Learning, understanding, improving Network Connections, opportunities Note: networking in the business sense is most often associated with job-hunting. Here, I use it in the sense of simply developing relationships to enhance your career in general. 6

7 Characteristics of Mentoring Informal Mentoring Random Luck Friendship Rewarding Formal Mentoring Planned Structured Skill Transfer 7

8 Career Development Balancing Individual and Company Needs 6. Implement plan and monitor the alignment of organizational and individual needs. 1. Identify the organization needs 2. Identify personal needs (career goals, interests, talents, etc.) 5. Identify a support system. Get input and support from others 3. Identify opportunities to add value that will both leverage your talents and meet your needs How others can help 4. Develop a plan to take advantage of those opportunities 8

9 Why Mentoring is Important

10 Why Mentoring Is Important Mentoring helps people quickly learn the ropes of a new job. meet their new colleagues and build a social network. do their job correctly build confidence, because they get feedback about if they are doing their jobs correctly. feel competent by having someone who gives them credit for their work. feel satisfied in their workplace by providing a venting place for frustrations. stay in their jobs, by helping to make the workplace a better place to work. feel like they are in a professional setting, working with people who are serious about their jobs. 10

11 Why Mentoring Is Important Most of the middle market firms I'm aware of put an effort into mentoring in order to attract, develop and retain the best quality people. The relationship they build with employees gives them a sense of ownership, a close tie to the firm. Scott Sachs, Managing Partner, Good Swartz Brown & Berns 11

12 Why Mentoring is Difficult

13 Friendship is Important Finding the right person to be a mentor can be difficult Forced matches don t always work well Finding the right match involves persistence and luck 13

14 Brain Limitations Experts often try to teach too much all at once, ignoring the realities of how people learn: Our Brains are Easily Overwhelmed Demonstration example Internal/External Data Confusion Our brains easily confuse what happened externally vs what our brain saw and remembers Context Is Vital Important to set the scene with the big picture Remembering Recognition is much easier than Recall Automatic thinking Vital for expertise, makes it difficult to teach Gerard L. Hanley, Ph.D. (2000) 14

15 Understanding Yourself and Your Organization

16 Impact of Others Identify Organization Needs Mentors Can be very knowledgeable about organizational needs Usually aware of technology trends in the field Communities of Practice Working with closely related work groups you can often find some interesting synergies and linkages Extended Network A source of broad knowledge across industries Industry associations and technical societies are places where cutting edge knowledge is often shared Research Institutes, University projects often lead to breakthroughs keeping a finger on the pulse can give you an edge on where to focus your efforts 16

17 Understanding Yourself Get as much insight as you can into what makes you tick Tools Myers-Briggs Career Anchors See next page Learning Styles (Several approaches) Try a few things and see what resonates with you. 17

18 Career Anchor Descriptions Edgar Schein s work shows that most people have two strong career anchors from the following list: Technical/Functional being good at something will work to become a guru or expert. General Managerial want to be managers, like problem-solving and dealing with other people. thrive on responsibility. need emotional competence. Autonomy/Independence primary need to work under their own rules and steam. They avoid standards and prefer to work alone. Security/Stability seek stability and continuity avoid risks and are generally 'lifers' in their job. Entrepreneurial Creativity like to invent things, be creative and, most of all, to run their own businesses. ownership very important. easily bored. Service/Dedication to a cause driven by how they can help other people Pure Challenge driven by challenge seek constant stimulation and difficult problems will change jobs when bored career can be very varied. Lifestyle Focused first on lifestyle and their whole pattern of living. Integrate work and life may take long periods off work Schein, Edgar H, (1990). Career Anchors (discovering your real values), Jossey-Bass Pfeiffer, San Francisco 18

19 Impact of Others Identify Personal Needs Others often have insights about us that are difficult to see from inside Mentors Can often provide a safe, somewhat objective view of what makes you tick Communities of Practice Some individuals within a CoP with whom you have worked closely may be able to help you identify what makes you tick Extended Network Working with a wide variety of other people may give you some insights into the kind of people you work well with and situations in which you work well and also the opposite 19

20 Impact of Others Combining Personal & Organization Needs Mentors Can often provide insights into talents you don t recognize or value as highly as you should, or perhaps that you haven t had the chance to use fully Communities of Practice The extended work network may provide you with some interesting ideas for high leverage work projects or new assignments Extended Network Many possibilities for random connections to result in an interesting idea or three 20

21 Support System - Engaging Other People Seeing yourself through other people s eyes Mentor Close, one on one, learning, counseling Communities of Practice Learning, understanding, improving Network Connections, opportunities 21

22 Feedback True or False : False Feedback you receive has to be fair and accurate to be helpful Feedback gives us insight into what other people think. Whether they are right or wrong it is helpful, although it can also be painful Feedback is essential to learning "Where's the Gift: How to Achieve Phenomenal Success by Discovering the Gift in All Feedback." Nigel Bristow ( 22

23 Mentoring Activities

24 Mentoring Activities Here are a few actions that mentors can perform: 1. Choose challenging work assignments that will provide your mentee with opportunities to learn new skills. In this way the task becomes the teacher and the mentee learns by doing. 2. Integrate your mentee into the network of professionals within your company, external agencies, your customers, and your subcontractors and vendors. Expertise is not only what you know, but also whom you know and how you know them. Show the mentee that there is a world of technology outside his or her backyard. 3. Schedule times to discuss strategies for enhancing the mentee's professional and engineering skills development. Remember that you have to make time to meet with your mentee if you're going to teach. Gerard L. Hanley, Ph.D. (2000) 24

25 Mentoring Activities (cont.) 4. Provide feedback and supporting actions that reduce unnecessary risks for the mentee. Share your experiences with the mentee what you have found to be some right and wrong ways to get the job done. 5. Take the time to reflect on your thought processes. Map your problem-solving techniques (your expertise) by using a process flowchart to map out the mental steps you undergo while doing your job. 6. Find something of value in the mentee as a person. Find ways to learn from your relationship. If you don't like your mentee, you probably won't take the above steps. Gerard L. Hanley, Ph.D. (2000) 25

26 Communities of Practice Still in the nascent stages in most companies, agencies Often use electronic means ( , websites, message boards) to create communities across geographic and organizational boundaries However, face to face meetings are still important to most people to establish relationships Imagine what will happen when the MySpace/Facebook generation gets hold of it 26

27 Communities of Practice - Benefits Decrease learning curve Increase customer responsiveness Reduce rework and prevent reinvention Increase innovation Connections Relationships Common Context Find experts Find individuals with similar experiences Find artifacts and the individuals who developed them Leverage weak ties that provide exposure to new ideas Mentor and coach new employees Develop willingness to respond to random questions Establish positive reputation Build safe environment for brainstorming and testing new ideas Understand rules of the firm Understand the common language Understand situational nature of knowledge Understand which problems are of common interest 27

28 Networking

29 Networking Who you know, and perhaps more importantly, who knows you. Some tips: Prepare an elevator speech Show interest in others Build relationships Don't be selfish make it a two way street Don't abuse relationships limit favors asked Follow through thank those who help 29

30 Q&A

31 The World s Forum for Aerospace Leadership 31