I was facilitating a mentoring workshop earlier this week with a great group of learning designers and one of the key topics I always include is the core attributes of an effective mentor and an Read more…
In our Empower Mentoring clubroom today on Clubhouse we talked about how we can make decisions that are meaningful and important to us and influence meaningful change in our lives. We make a whole lot Read more…
I started a new Clubroom today on Clubhouse with my ever-wonderful co-host Lisa Galea called Empower Mentoring. Our club meetings cover a range of topics across the spectrum of core (soft) skills that help us Read more…
I talk a lot about the mentor’s toolbox. The toolbox provides your mentors with training and equips them with strategies, templates, and a whole lot of resources to support them in their mentoring practice. But Read more…
When you implement a mentoring programme in your organisation, this takes time, focus, energy, effort, and money. It’s a significant investment in the growth and success of your company as it reaps tremendous rewards for Read more…
Develop inspirational mentors who create phenomenal change for your people. There are many reasons why a mentoring programme is a must for your organisation. When I think of the feedback I have received over the Read more…
The optimum outcome of matching a mentor with a mentee is immediate synergy between the two partners. There are several factors that can influence this: The process used to match the mentor with the mentee Read more…
A lot of my clients are Organisation and People Capability Development Managers and HR Managers. When I first meet them, I would say 85% talk about the adhoc nature of their mentoring programme. They have Read more…
I read this statement in a newspaper article today – “Words Matter” – and it resonated with me in my belief that the language we use has incredible power to influence the quality of our Read more…
Continuing the journey of designing and implementing a mentoring programme for female alumni in Papua New Guinea (PNG), I facilitated a webinar yesterday to provide prospective mentors and mentees in PNG and Australia with information Read more…
A Mentoring 360 series following the progress of implementing a mentoring programme for women in Papua New Guinea I thought it would be interesting (and helpful) to share the journey I am on with establishing Read more…
Your mentoring programme is as good as the framework you develop right from the beginning. A robust programme framework helps participants (your mentors and mentees) know how to engage in mentoring, what to expect from Read more…
“Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply“ (Stephen Covey) There is a mentoring experience that sticks in my mind and I always share it when Read more…
There is a lot of talk at the moment (and for some time to come I am sure) about the dramatic shift to online communicating, connecting and learning. These activities are not new but they Read more…
I’ve been meeting with a number of business leaders of small and medium-sized companies lately and they have all been talking about the impact their managers and supervisors have on team performance and cohesion. These Read more…
As I prepare my training schedule for 2020, an essential action in that process is reflecting on what I want participants to achieve as a result of the learning, i.e., what will they do/be able Read more…
I’ve just finished reading an article about a research project that investigated whether mentors learn by mentoring others. My first question to self was, “What did the authors mean by the mentors’ ‘learning’?” And what Read more…
Mentoring 360 In-house Programme This programme is for organisations wanting to establish a mentoring programme for staff capability development. My ‘At A Glance’ diagram illustrates the 12 components of the mentoring programme from the design stage Read more…
Our emotional awareness influences our interactions and responses to other people. During a recent webinar, I encouraged the attendees to complete an exercise where they identified factors that trigger their response, determine their usual response Read more…
4 Habits of Highly Effective Communicators I recently facilitated a webinar for the Australian Institute of Training and Development (AITD) entitled ‘Developing Quality Workplace Relationships through Skilful Communication’. A key feature of the webinar was Read more…
Mentors support others but who supports the mentors? A CoLG is a brilliant and (cost) effective way to provide support for your mentors. Whatever number of group members, a CoLG is a place where mentors Read more…
I was listening to a podcast the other day which was talking about creating content and stories based on everyday life observations and experiences. I loved the concept and immediately applied this practice with my Read more…
Strategic alignment (how does mentoring contribute to the strategic direction and goals of your organisation?) Sponsorship from senior levels (advocates for your programme) Criteria for quality professional practice (what is the level of quality practice Read more…
I am currently working on the last chapter of my book on mentoring programme design (yes, I know I said it would be available earlier this year but it’s not far away now – watch Read more…
During a recent needs analysis meeting with a client, we spent some time determining the purpose of mentoring in their organisation. This is one of the first questions in the needs analysis process and a Read more…
Prompted by one of my FaceBook Community and LinkedIn colleagues – thanks Matthew Percival – I started doing some reading about tacit knowledge, in particular how common it is to lose this wealth of knowledge Read more…
Recently I had an article published in the Women’s Network Australia (WNA) magazine where I talked about the benefits of having a mentor as you progress through your career. Whether you are in an early Read more…
This is a piece taken from Chapter 4 of my book Mentoring 360: A very practical guide to designing and implementing your mentoring programme and getting it right the first time which talks about the importance Read more…
I just looked up the word mentoring. The thesaurus couldn’t cope with this – I had to use ‘mentor’ to receive a list of synonyms. I Googled “Another word for mentoring” and still got ‘mentor’ Read more…
A survey undertaken with 500 organisations by the American Productivity and Quality Centre (APQC) on workplace mentoring practices found that 89% said they use mentoring and apprenticeship to help employees develop their skills and competencies. Read more…
Who Mentors the Mentor? Here is an excerpt from my upcoming book ‘Designing your mentoring programme: Getting it right the first time’ to be published in early 2019, about the support your mentors need………. A Read more…
Or in this context, how to help your mentee manage change occurring in their professional and/or personal life. Although change is a constant, some people don’t have the resilience to cope with it and end Read more…
Getting the right mentor-mentee partnership match can sometimes be a challenge; I have talked about this aspect of a mentoring programme in a previous newsletter. Getting the partnership matching right has been a constant reflection Read more…
I am a fan of Jack Canfield’s work, many years ago reading his book Chicken Soup for the Soul (he has since published many more ‘Chicken Soup’ books). I receive regular Jack Canfield blog posts Read more…
Including mentoring training for your mentors and mentees is, in my opinion and experience, an essential component of your mentoring programme. I have talked about the hows and whys of mentoring training in a previous Read more…
One of the areas people are always interested in is knowing what questions to ask – of the mentee or of the mentor – and how to handle the difficult conversations. As you probably know Read more…
Topics of Interest Sessions: Another way to build mentoring capability and sustainability I completed a mentoring programme evaluation for an organisation last year which highlighted many good practices as well as some areas where a little Read more…
Refresher Training for Your Mentors and Mentees Let’s take a snapshot of a mentoring programme model and the systems and processes you can (I would say ‘should’) incorporate to ensure success, quality outcomes, return-on-investment (ROI), Read more…
Peer Mentoring and Communities of Practice I have added this article as a supplement to the CoP article above, as I have found that mentors and mentees who engage in CoPs really benefit from continuing Read more…
A Community of Practice (CoP) for Mentors and Mentees What is a CoP? A Community of Practice – CoP for short – is a group of people who share a common interest in a topic Read more…
Increasing Employee Engagement If you search the internet for how to measure employee engagement, there are multiple sites suggesting multiple tools, including the need to define what you mean by ‘employee engagement’. That last part Read more…
Who Are Your Mentees? A lot of attention is paid to selecting the right mentors for your programme. I certainly focus extensively on this in my mentoring workshops, including the importance of deciding on organisational Read more…
Building Resilience Through Mentoring We live in a world of change, with different challenges presenting themselves at times, both in our professional and personal lives. Changes and challenges can be stressful, requiring us to review Read more…
Mentoring Masterclasses and a Thought Leader Seminar Two weeks ago, I had the opportunity to facilitate mentoring workshops and a mentoring seminar with leaders, team managers and HR practitioners across the Queensland public sector. The Read more…
SheEO I recently became involved with SheEO, a leading global innovation in the female entrepreneur marketplace. The SheEO model finances, supports and celebrates female entrepreneurs and brings together 500 women called Activators who contribute $1100 Read more…
TRUST: The Cornerstone of a Mentoring Relationship Stephen Covey talks about high and low trust in his article on leadership, and how the best leaders build trust. Here’s what he has to say…….. “When trust Read more…
The Career Conversation Are you at a stage in your career where you think a change would benefit you, professionally and/or personally? Or perhaps you are just starting on your career path? Whatever stage you Read more…
Mentoring for Career Support and Success Late last year I had the privilege of presenting a seminar to a group of business women who are members (including myself) of the Brisbane Women’s Club. The focus Read more…
Snapshot of a Mentoring Meeting If you are new to mentoring, it can be a bit daunting to know how to get started. How will you use the mentoring meetings so that both of you achieve Read more…
How to Start, Continue and Finish the Mentoring Conversation (the SCF Model™) Here are some suggested phrases that you may find helpful when you are starting the conversation in your mentoring meetings, when you want Read more…