The Power of Mentors

Do you have someone on the team that has been there longer than anyone else and knows the secret path to positive results? Whether we are talking about executive or operational teams, these members have the operational knowledge that the rest of the team needs to be successful. While we cannot connect to the Matrix and download everything they know, we can do something similar that will provide growth for everyone that chooses to participate.

The greatest benefit of using mentors is the transfer of knowledge from an experienced professional to an inexperienced protégé. There may be a basic understanding of what is going on, but it is the old guys who have already made the mistakes that know the nuances of their system. This transfer can only be successful if the receiver is ready for and open to the new information.

I feel some organizations may not have mentoring due to the innovative nature of their work, and how someone “did it” 10 years ago does not matter. That is until ideas began to be built on other ideas and now the organization is forced to document everything or keep someone around that knows the old system. At some point the innovation must move into the mainstream where it can be adapted and replicated.

When I began in my first formal process improvement role, I did not have a mentor and I had to feel my way around in the dark (while making lots of mistakes) until I started doing things right. When it was time to start the mass building of “belts”, I knew that to be successful, those new belts would need some help to get through the process faster. It was a workable system, but I wonder how much more those candidates would have learned if we were not holding their hands the entire time?

As you mentor others, are you directing down the path, or are you asking questions to make the protégé think about and consider the potential impact of decisions? Are they learning enough to walk the journey alone when you are no longer available? We have see the results of this condition when the charismatic leader leaves the organization and performance declines.

Each protégé is a little different and we cannot treat all of them the same. Would Anakin have turned to the dark side if Obi-Wan had not been as cryptic in his approach? Wisdom comes from practice, not from following an old man on some darn fool idealistic crusade. There should be discussion, a decision, execution, and then back to discussion. These conversations can follow a simple formula: what happened, what was supposed to happen, why did it happen, and then how do you respond to the results?