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I recently read a question (on another forum) dealing with mentorship. The poster wanted to know how to create a program to “maximize mentorship opportunities.” As I considered my reply, I thought back to my military time and the enduring officer-leader inclination to “create a program…”
Leadership likes to think in terms of "programs". I, too, thought like this as a young leader. As a lieutenant – I was raised on OPD/NCOPD and I did things like read most of the professional reading list (which I still recommend). Later as a CPT and MAJ, I recall thinking and saying things like, “We’re going to have a strong ‘professional development program’ in this outfit,” and I had a pretty good one going as a Battalion S3, too – reading list, partnership unit (in Germany), staff rides and unit-specific history/legacy. But do these things equate to “mentorship?” Many think of mentorship as a much more personal, one-on-one experience between a senior advisor and a more junior, inexperienced mentee seeking guidance.
So, if mentorship is more personal, is something lost if you try to reduce it to a program? Can mentorship be accomplished in the absence of a formal program? I believe the answer is YES, and I’d like to offer some basic thoughts on how to approach this.
First, practically every interaction you have with your subordinates sets a tone and - as a leadership transaction - contains the opportunity to provide mentorship, or not. Even the most routine interactions display whether we as leaders are cognizant of a mentorship responsibility, and on the other side, if followers are open to it. This is all easily lost in the day-to-day, deadline driven, crisis-management atmosphere that many of us experience in the military and in business. So, I'd start there.
If you have mentor/mentee pairings that are “self-identifying” meaning that they are linking-up all on their own, recognize it, acknowledge it, encourage it, and don’t get in the way! Those choosing these relationships must be comfortable with the other person, and there must be trust there. That’s the only way it works.
Second, consider some basic rules of conduct for your outfit. I called them "flat ass rules" - an expression of the team's shared values, as well as company or unit expectations. Mentor that. Constantly emphasize these FARs with new hires, in meetings, and in your actions. Some of my FARs in my last position (a staff office) were:
· Row well and live!
· Unquestioned engineer expertise/solidarity
· Think two levels up & two phases ahead
· Trust, but verify; assume nothing; check, re-check, check again
· Analysis! (Not e-mail forwarding…)
· No staff work wasted
· Stay calm, carry on!
Another technique I used was to post a whole series of inspirational historical quotes or vignettes in our “cubicle farm”. These included: Standing Orders of MAJ Robert Rogers; Horatius at the Bridge; Invictus; Teddy Roosevelt’s “The Man in the Arena,” and King Henry’s speech at Agincourt (Henry V). If nothing else, your team will be well-grounded in the classics!
Mentors emulate the values and beliefs of the organization. Teaching those by example and with constant reinforcement is perhaps 50% of your "program." Ground everyone ethically and morally!
Third, emphasize and insist on performance counseling. Consider these private sessions a delivery system for mentorship. In the Army, the stated requirement is soldiers monthly, officers quarterly. It sounds good, but in practice it’s very, very hard. As a senior officer, I really worked at this and maybe achieved a 50% execution rate...which was far better than I saw on my left and right. More than just what a subordinate might be doing well or poorly, counseling includes a dialogue on career path expectations and potential choices of future assignments. And, it must include a frank assessment of your people’s character, integrity and promotion potential. I can’t emphasize enough that this really takes effort.
Once you make these things habits in your workplace, then you are ready for the more traditional "programs" like a series of weekly or monthly sessions on technical/professional skills-related topics, branch information briefings, staff-rides, exchanges, or other techniques to develop and cross-train.
Finally, there are professional certifications and "schools" or outside opportunities. An example from my last job: many of my young officers were interested in the "Project Management Professional" course, so we set aside the time, and a group in our office met with a PMP-certified leader/mentor for several weeks to go through the whole course workbook designed to prepare you for taking the written exam. They also learned how to document their work experiences for the "apprenticeship" portion of the requirement. In the end, we got several guys/gals qualified!
What are your thoughts on good mentorship?
Liberty6, over!
Leadership likes to think in terms of "programs". I, too, thought like this as a young leader. As a lieutenant – I was raised on OPD/NCOPD and I did things like read most of the professional reading list (which I still recommend). Later as a CPT and MAJ, I recall thinking and saying things like, “We’re going to have a strong ‘professional development program’ in this outfit,” and I had a pretty good one going as a Battalion S3, too – reading list, partnership unit (in Germany), staff rides and unit-specific history/legacy. But do these things equate to “mentorship?” Many think of mentorship as a much more personal, one-on-one experience between a senior advisor and a more junior, inexperienced mentee seeking guidance.
So, if mentorship is more personal, is something lost if you try to reduce it to a program? Can mentorship be accomplished in the absence of a formal program? I believe the answer is YES, and I’d like to offer some basic thoughts on how to approach this.
First, practically every interaction you have with your subordinates sets a tone and - as a leadership transaction - contains the opportunity to provide mentorship, or not. Even the most routine interactions display whether we as leaders are cognizant of a mentorship responsibility, and on the other side, if followers are open to it. This is all easily lost in the day-to-day, deadline driven, crisis-management atmosphere that many of us experience in the military and in business. So, I'd start there.
If you have mentor/mentee pairings that are “self-identifying” meaning that they are linking-up all on their own, recognize it, acknowledge it, encourage it, and don’t get in the way! Those choosing these relationships must be comfortable with the other person, and there must be trust there. That’s the only way it works.
Second, consider some basic rules of conduct for your outfit. I called them "flat ass rules" - an expression of the team's shared values, as well as company or unit expectations. Mentor that. Constantly emphasize these FARs with new hires, in meetings, and in your actions. Some of my FARs in my last position (a staff office) were:
· Row well and live!
· Unquestioned engineer expertise/solidarity
· Think two levels up & two phases ahead
· Trust, but verify; assume nothing; check, re-check, check again
· Analysis! (Not e-mail forwarding…)
· No staff work wasted
· Stay calm, carry on!
Another technique I used was to post a whole series of inspirational historical quotes or vignettes in our “cubicle farm”. These included: Standing Orders of MAJ Robert Rogers; Horatius at the Bridge; Invictus; Teddy Roosevelt’s “The Man in the Arena,” and King Henry’s speech at Agincourt (Henry V). If nothing else, your team will be well-grounded in the classics!
Mentors emulate the values and beliefs of the organization. Teaching those by example and with constant reinforcement is perhaps 50% of your "program." Ground everyone ethically and morally!
Third, emphasize and insist on performance counseling. Consider these private sessions a delivery system for mentorship. In the Army, the stated requirement is soldiers monthly, officers quarterly. It sounds good, but in practice it’s very, very hard. As a senior officer, I really worked at this and maybe achieved a 50% execution rate...which was far better than I saw on my left and right. More than just what a subordinate might be doing well or poorly, counseling includes a dialogue on career path expectations and potential choices of future assignments. And, it must include a frank assessment of your people’s character, integrity and promotion potential. I can’t emphasize enough that this really takes effort.
Once you make these things habits in your workplace, then you are ready for the more traditional "programs" like a series of weekly or monthly sessions on technical/professional skills-related topics, branch information briefings, staff-rides, exchanges, or other techniques to develop and cross-train.
Finally, there are professional certifications and "schools" or outside opportunities. An example from my last job: many of my young officers were interested in the "Project Management Professional" course, so we set aside the time, and a group in our office met with a PMP-certified leader/mentor for several weeks to go through the whole course workbook designed to prepare you for taking the written exam. They also learned how to document their work experiences for the "apprenticeship" portion of the requirement. In the end, we got several guys/gals qualified!
What are your thoughts on good mentorship?
Liberty6, over!
Mentorship
Leadership
Senior Leaders
Counseling
Command Post
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 12
7
7
0
IME, mentorship was much more personal and informal than anything that could be included in a program. While OPD classes and other leadership training were valuable, and you certainly pick up good traits simply by observing the great example set by good leaders, to me that was more education than mentorship. Not every commander I had was someone I considered a mentor, though I learned from all of them. Likewise, while I tried to develop all my subordinate officers, I don't believe all of them would consider me a mentor.
There was something more personal and one on one about mentorship. And most of the mentoring didn't take place during duty hours. It was more like conversations that occured late at night when the cimmander and I were finishing some late task, and found ourselves alone in the HQ. discussions involved all sorts of leadership topics, often with the mentor sharing much more of his internal thought process of how he approached a problem and came to a decision than he would normally share with everyone during a busy day. Or maybe it was a story or two he shared from his career while waiting at an airport for a flight, or some other opportunity where we found ourselves alone with some time to kill.
I learned many of the philosophical underpinnings of leadership in this way, seen through the eyes of someone who was excelling at a higher level than I was at, and therefore had a much deeper perspective of the challenges I was facing. Perhaps because this is how I was mentored, it was also how I tended to mentor certain officers.
I believe there is also a personal connection aspect to the mentor-mentored relationship. There wre just certain officers that seemed more eager to learn, more eager to dig into the finer points of being a leader than others. They would ask the probing questions, push the discussion, challenge my positions, which caused a deep examination of the topic at hand. Now, perhaps there is an unfair element to that. Is it fair to spend extra time with some officers than others? Should I have, in fact, created a program that shared all my "nuggets of wisdom" with everyone? Perhaps. But IME that was neither practical nor effective. There is a qualitative difference between having a battalion OPD, (though a lot can be shared that way) and having a one on one discussion (not a counseling session) that generates more organically.
I learned many things from every senior officer I worked for but I consider very few as mentors. To me, there was something more to mentorship than simply education and the sharing of experience. There was an intangible factor that took the senior officer from a respected senior to a mentor.
There was something more personal and one on one about mentorship. And most of the mentoring didn't take place during duty hours. It was more like conversations that occured late at night when the cimmander and I were finishing some late task, and found ourselves alone in the HQ. discussions involved all sorts of leadership topics, often with the mentor sharing much more of his internal thought process of how he approached a problem and came to a decision than he would normally share with everyone during a busy day. Or maybe it was a story or two he shared from his career while waiting at an airport for a flight, or some other opportunity where we found ourselves alone with some time to kill.
I learned many of the philosophical underpinnings of leadership in this way, seen through the eyes of someone who was excelling at a higher level than I was at, and therefore had a much deeper perspective of the challenges I was facing. Perhaps because this is how I was mentored, it was also how I tended to mentor certain officers.
I believe there is also a personal connection aspect to the mentor-mentored relationship. There wre just certain officers that seemed more eager to learn, more eager to dig into the finer points of being a leader than others. They would ask the probing questions, push the discussion, challenge my positions, which caused a deep examination of the topic at hand. Now, perhaps there is an unfair element to that. Is it fair to spend extra time with some officers than others? Should I have, in fact, created a program that shared all my "nuggets of wisdom" with everyone? Perhaps. But IME that was neither practical nor effective. There is a qualitative difference between having a battalion OPD, (though a lot can be shared that way) and having a one on one discussion (not a counseling session) that generates more organically.
I learned many things from every senior officer I worked for but I consider very few as mentors. To me, there was something more to mentorship than simply education and the sharing of experience. There was an intangible factor that took the senior officer from a respected senior to a mentor.
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I always hated how in the Army we are quick to complete negative counselings yet drag our feet when it comes to developmental counselings. It seems like developmental counseling is one of the first things to go out the window whenever the optempo increases. I have been at duty stations where I never received even an initial counseling. I make it a personal goal to properly counsel Soldiers so that they know what I expect of them and whether or not they are reaching those expectations.
I know many in the Army are lukewarm about MRT, but the MRT competencies have a lot of good tools for improving the way we mentor and counsel Soldiers. I try to incorporate the long-term planning MRT skill into my developmental counseling sessions. It helps both me and the Soldier with developing realistic goals for the next month / quarter.
One thing we can do to give us as leaders more time for counselings is to coordinate with the unit training NCO for dedicated times on the training calendar for counseling sessions.
I agree with your assessment on the importance of mentorship. If we placed as much emphasis on mentorship as we do APFT and MOS training, we would have a much more capable fighting force. As leaders, we should always be grooming one of our subordinates to be able to take over our jobs.
I know many in the Army are lukewarm about MRT, but the MRT competencies have a lot of good tools for improving the way we mentor and counsel Soldiers. I try to incorporate the long-term planning MRT skill into my developmental counseling sessions. It helps both me and the Soldier with developing realistic goals for the next month / quarter.
One thing we can do to give us as leaders more time for counselings is to coordinate with the unit training NCO for dedicated times on the training calendar for counseling sessions.
I agree with your assessment on the importance of mentorship. If we placed as much emphasis on mentorship as we do APFT and MOS training, we would have a much more capable fighting force. As leaders, we should always be grooming one of our subordinates to be able to take over our jobs.
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COL John McClellan
Agree with you SFC Daniels! For most of my career, even the mention of the word "counseling" was negative... if someone "needed" counseling then there was something wrong with THEM, or the assumption that they had done something wrong. As I said, very, very, very hard to sustain performance counseling with the right aim (development) vice the negative. Thanks for the response!
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COL John McClellan, I started BCT on 11NOV69 and the drill sergeant of 1st platoon of D-3-1 at Fort Jackson was SFC Richard DesLauriers. He was a kind and comparatively quiet man, atypical of many BCT drill sergeants. He was in the business of mentoring and counseling eons before the Army formalized the process and was worthy of emulation. He was an extraordinary NCO, and put me on the right path. I think it was his atypical approach to training and counseling that made me listen.
I've tried to find him many times since those days of basic to thank him, to no avail.
I've tried to find him many times since those days of basic to thank him, to no avail.
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