Achieving Your Objectives:
Become a Goal Medalist

Reprinted from the Questia Newsletter: http://www.questianewsletter.com/newsletter/volume-6-issue-2/biz.htm?CRID=nullCRnull&OFFID=newsletter20100822n#bigidea

Lots of resources are available to help you learn about goal setting. But MindTools.com, an extraordinary site which focuses on “Essential skills for an excellent career,” offers a straightforward approach which works as well in career or business school situations as in the rest of your life.

In Personal Goal Setting, MindTools explains, “Goal setting techniques are used by… successful business-people and achievers in all fields. They give you long-term vision and short-term motivation. They focus your acquisition of knowledge, and help you to organize your time and your resources so that you can make the very most of your life.”

MindTools suggests taking these first steps in setting your goals:

• State each goal as a positive statement: Express your goals positively – ‘Execute this technique well’ is a much better goal than ‘Don’t make this stupid mistake.’
• Be precise: Set a precise goal, putting in dates, times and amounts so that you can measure achievement. If you do this, you will know exactly when you have achieved the goal, and can take complete satisfaction from having achieved it.
• Set priorities: When you have several goals, give each a priority. This helps you to avoid feeling overwhelmed by having too many goals, and helps to direct your attention to the most important ones.

And “When you have achieved a goal,” says MindTools, “take the time to enjoy the satisfaction of having done so.” And then take the following steps to “review the rest of your goal plans:”

• If you achieved the goal too easily, make your next goals harder.
• If the goal took a dispiriting length of time to achieve, make the next goals a little easier.
• If you learned something that would lead you to change other goals, do so.
• If you noticed a deficit in your skills despite achieving the goal, decide whether to set goals to fix this.

Keep in mind, your mentor can support you in achieving your goals, facilitate your thinking and planning, help you to stay focused and distinguish the learning. Your mentor is also your best cheerleader and celebration partner. ]]> http://odysseymentoring.com/news/becoming-a-goal-medalist/feed/ 0 http://odysseymentoring.com/news/how-will-you-keep-your-best-brightest-employees/ http://odysseymentoring.com/news/how-will-you-keep-your-best-brightest-employees/#comments Sun, 25 Jul 2010 19:20:00 +0000 odyssey http://odysseymentoring.com/?p=131 The recession caused almost every company in America to downsize, right-size, furlough, reduce benefits, cut expenses to the bone and basically, white knuckle it until things got better. Although the recession seems to be lifting, managers are still afraid to loosen their grip, and rightly so.

The experience was traumatic for everyone. Between the survivor’s guilt and being asked to do more with much less to keep the business afloat, the best and the brightest are re-evaluating their options. At the beginning of the year, the Department of Labor noticed a new trend. More people were quitting their jobs than were being laid off.

A recent report published by Watson Wyatt Worldwide affirms that top performers are increasingly dissatisfied with their jobs. They are choosing to leave for better working conditions, opportunities and resources.  To keep the best and brightest stars of your organization, you are going to need to create a new value proposition for them. As the economy improves, employees will need to see that their future with your company will improve as well.

One effective strategy is a comprehensive professional mentoring program that will help them through the transition; concretely demonstrate your commitment to their professional growth, ensure a lower turnover rate and greater job satisfaction. To be successful the program should be structured, begin with training that prepares both mentoring partners to make the most of the relationship and consistent support from senior management.

Prior to that, the average number of people voluntarily leaving their jobs per month had been about 2.7 million. In October 2008, the average number dropped to 1.72 million. This March, it bumped up to 1.87 million.

If this is the start of a new trend, and the number of employees quitting continues to grow, what could it mean for businesses across the nation? Could a solid mentoring program help to stem the tide and help the talent within step up to fill the void? We believe the answer is YES!

Recruiters and human-resource experts interviewed by the WSJ say the increase in employees giving notice is being caused by two things. First, the natural turnover of employees leaving to advance their careers didn’t occur during the recession because jobs were so scarce. Workers were waiting for the job market to improve before making a move to better jobs.

The second thing that may be making it harder for companies to retain employees is the effect of the heavy cost-cutting and downsizing on workers’ morale that occurred over the past two years. WSJ reported the results of a survey conducted by the Conference Board, a management research organization. A drop in job fulfillment was found to be the result of workers being less satisfied with wages and less interested in work. In 2009, 34.6% of workers were satisfied with their wages, down more than seven percentage points from 1987. About 51% in 2009 said they were interested in work, down 19 percentage points from 1987.

We believe that when people see a path to the future that benefits them, their careers and their families, they will take action to move toward that future. A strong mentoring program shows employees that the company is as interested in their future as they are. It provides a support structure, the opportunity to try new things, learn new things and broaden the employee’s network within the organization.

Disillusioned workers may not embrace the idea of participating in a mentoring program until they begin to see the results and a sustained commitment from management. Buy-in from upper management, training to provide a solid foundation for mentors and mentees to get off on the right foot, and support and coaching for the duration of the program will increase success.

Here are some distinctions we use:

Mentoring– a developmental relationship between a more experienced “mentor” and a less experienced partner that typically involves the sharing of advice, resources and support for reaching specific goals. The mentor is experienced in a particular domain and shares that experience while bringing the protégé up the ranks.  It is a partnership between the two. Ideally, the protégé leads the relationship by asking for guidance and support. The relationship can occur in a formalized program or between two people who agree between them to work together for a period of time. In our work, the mentors and protégés work for the same company or belong to the same professional organization.

Coaching – a method of professional development that can be provided by a supervisor or a paid professional to attain a certain work behavior that will improve leadership, accountability, teamwork, sales, communication, goal setting, strategic planning and more. It can be provided in a number of ways, including one-on-one, group sessions and large scale organizational work. Business coaches often specialize in a specific practice area such as executive coaching, corporate coaching, small business and leadership coaching. A good business coach does not need to have specific business expertise and experience in the same field as the person being coached.

Counseling – counselors are professionals who are trained to diagnose and help a client with emotional problems, resolving issues from the past or a dysfunction. From time to time, a mentor or coach may find it useful to recommend counseling to a client or protégé.

According to the Business Week article “How Failure Breeds Success,”  ”Everyone fears failure. But breakthroughs depend on it.”  And while “not all failures are praiseworthy… intelligent failures — those that happen early and inexpensively and that contribute new insights about your customers — should be more than just tolerable. They should be encouraged.”

However, even in environments which allow for failure, “some people will take setbacks to heart instead of to mind. Such people let a disappointment seep into their sense of self like a poison,” says Carlin Flora in the Psychology Today article “Embracing the Fear of Failure.”

But failure is “not as bad as you may think,” says Marcia A. Reed in the Black Enterprise piece “The Truth about Failure.” In fact, Reed quotes job counselor Seaborn Morgan who says, “If you’re not failing on a regular basis, then you’re probably not doing a whole lot.”

Reed summarizes tips for using failure to advantage:

First, “Find your purpose and define your goals… in specific, measurable outcomes. Use them as the criteria for assessing progress, as well as success and failure. For example, if you aim to improve your health, use changes in cholesterol, blood pressure or weight to track how far you’ve come toward achieving your goal.”

Second, “Know your weaknesses… Conduct a self-assessment and look for areas in which you feel most prone to fail. Then, create an action plan to strengthen yourself and respond positively when you do fail.”

Third, “Think of failures as learning … Don’t make excuses for failure; acknowledge and accept it as soon as it occurs.” Analyze it and ask yourself: “What was the mistake? Why did it happen? How could it have been avoided? How can I do better next time?”

Fourth, “Rebound and take more risks… Build your tolerance for failure and resilience by forcing yourself to take more risks as soon as possible.”

If you have a mentor, allow them to support you on using the four tips in the article. Your mentor can be your sounding board. She can assist you in being accountable. He can cheer you along the way. When you experience a subsequent failure, and you will, your mentor can dust you off and assist you as you get going again.

If you are a mentor, you can assist your mentee by asking the kind of reflective questions that guide them away from the emotions of the failure and allow them to think more clearly about what actions they will take in the future if they are confronted by the same or similar circumstances. ]]> http://odysseymentoring.com/news/learning-from-your-mistakes-nobodys-perfect/feed/ 0 http://odysseymentoring.com/news/productive-mentors/ http://odysseymentoring.com/news/productive-mentors/#comments Mon, 08 Feb 2010 01:48:15 +0000 odyssey http://odysseymentoring.com/?p=109 If you’ve identified a need for strengthened leadership development programs for your employees or members, you could be considering a formal mentoring program. You know you have people who want mentors and you  have a group of more experienced people interested in being mentors. But, you also know being a mentor is not for everyone. Though your mentor candidates are willing – are they ready? Just because a person knows how to do something well and has years of experience doing it, doesn’t mean they have the skills to teach what they know.

For many people a mentoring session can become a game of Monkey See/Monkey Do: “This is the way I do this , it has always worked for me,  and this is how you should do it from now on.”

For others it becomes a trip down memory lane:  “Why, when I started in this industry, the computers still had green diode screens…”

Still others take on a Dear Abbey quality: “Now that I understand your problem, here is what you ought to do…”

These approaches do work in some instances, but they don’t  foster a culture of learning and open communication.  They don’t lead to the majority of people becoming proficient in breakthrough thinking and, ultimately causing increased productivity.  Rather, they can alienate the protégé/mentee, take too long to get to the point, and fail to produce lasting results.

What we have found to be useful in our programs, is to teach prospective mentors how to become keen observers, enhance their listening and emotional intelligence skills and for them to practice asking reflective questions that allow their protégés to dance with them toward insight and breakthrough.  These conversations can be so effective, that complex issues can be dealt with in just five to 15 minutes. Once learned in the context of the mentoring program, these skills will be useful for managers to use with all of their direct reports. Now that’s productive mentoring that leads a high return on investment.

Throughout the 1990’s I was a founder, volunteer and later executive director for the New Mexico Youth at Risk Foundation. My passion was bringing quality mentoring programs to at-risk middle school students.  Our programs allowed hundreds of young people to transform their lives with the guidance and commitment of amazing adults who volunteered their time. My job included enrolling the adults, youth and other volunteers, providing the mentor training for the adults and leading the weekly workshops for them. I also served as a mentor in several of our programs.  These programs were my training ground.

The most important thing I learned about mentoring is that it is not a “monkey see, monkey do” process. It is a powerful relationship between two people who are both committed to the mentee’s goals for his or her life. The best mentors learn how to ask questions that make their protege think about what they are doing or facing in new ways that support positive choices and creative problem-solving.

One of my mentee’s, Claudia, was an 7th grader with failing grades. She was bright, energetic and from a family that was in shambles. Her parents fought with each other constantly and she fought bitterly with her older sister just as frequently. They lived in a Habitat for Humanity house, but didn’t have the resources to maintain it. The middle school she attended was a recruiting ground for the local gangs. And Claudia was a chatterbox who could not sit still or be quiet in class. Her sister had been in our program the previous year.

After I made my presentation to 300 students, 25 applied for our mentoring program, Claudia included. She was one of the most courageous young people I have ever met. She was willing to work on her problems with the course leader, in front of everyone. Her sister was volunteering that day and when the seriousness of their sibling rivalry came to light, he brought them both to the front of the room. They literally transformed before our eyes. Later, after their mother’s suicide attempt, they were able to rely on each other and survive the trauma together.

But her grades continued to flounder. One day we were working on what goals she could have for the rest of the program and she said she wanted to make B’s instead of D’s and F’s. When I asked her what she thought it would take, she offered that perhaps her teachers might allow her to make up all of the failing work since the beginning of the year. It was December. When I asked her what would have to happen for her teachers to allow that, she asked if I would meet with them. For a moment I thought about doing that and then a light went off and I said, “What do you think would happen if you asked them?”

It was quite a conversation. She was unsure and afraid. Ultimately she agreed to meet with her teachers by herself, apologize for her behavior in class and for not completing her assignments. Her teachers were amazing. They agreed, but only if she would sign a contract that said this was her last chance. If she did not complete the work, she could never again expect her teachers to make an allowance or accommodation for her. She signed it. Then I took on a project to raise the most money I had ever raised for the foundation and we supported each other.

Claudia completed every assignment, the do-overs and her current work on time and on her own. She never had another behavioral referral. She raised her GPA to a 3.2. She went out for the basketball team and performed in the school talent show. And I met my fund-raising target. We  stretched each other, we laughed a lot and cried some. There were days when neither one of us knew what our next step should be. We struggled, we made mistakes, and we succeeded. It was worth every minute of it.

In a professional setting, the issues that a mentee/protege address may be very different than those of an at-risk youth. But the principles are the same and the transformation is the same. The only difference is the starting point.

Happy New Year! I wanted to share this article from the online magazine: Advance for Laboratory Professionals. They interviewed me as the mentoring expert.

Your Career Guide

How to find a mentor in the lab.

When I was in my early thirties, I had an opportunity to change careers. I made the move from public information officer of a chamber of commerce to marketing professional services for architects and engineers. The basic skills were the same: ability to network productively, write persuasively, and research opportunities.

The dilemma: I did not know anything about the built environment and how firms marketed. I had never seen a written proposal for any kind of engineering, I had no idea what kind of work the different disciplines performed, and I didn’t know how architects, engineers and their clients thought about their work, their business and the future.

One of my committee chairs, an architect named Robert Turner, believed I could make the switch and succeed. He offered to be my mentor. To prepare for the job interview, he allowed me to spend hours going through his firm’s marketing files and learning what comprised a successful proposal, seeing what good marketing materials for the built environment looked like and the kinds of messages that communicated. He talked with me about local market conditions and the roles of the different players in our market. His generous mentoring allowed me to create new ways of viewing the world, the industry and in many ways, the new me. I learned to think strategically about business development and marketing.

I got the job and went on to become a very successful business development director for three engineering firms working in a continuous joint venture during the economic downturn of the eighties. None of the principles of these three firms had any experience marketing their services. Until the economic downturn, waiting for the phone to ring had been sufficient. In less than three years, I helped them bring in more than fifty million dollars in construction projects. More than 130 employees kept their jobs and saw their careers grow.

Turner remained a mentor, friend, client and resource over the following decade. He continuously shared his network with me, introducing me to people and organizations that could help me. He was a natural mentor.

We have been out of touch for a number of years, but the difference his mentoring made in my career will never be forgotten. Teaching others to give the gift he gave to me is the best way I know to honor my mentor and friend.

The most effective training produces the best results when people incorporate new learning into their work immediately. Less experienced people may have difficulty in the day-to-day application of what they’ve learned because they need support and guidance to develop new habits. For many people, professional development workshops produce new insights, folders or notebooks full of notes that are never referred to again, and minimal change.

At Odyssey Mentoring, our clients report that more structured professional mentoring programs between young professionals and more experienced practitioners improve productivity and allow for richer relationships and breakthrough results. Program participants report relationships that are mutually satisfying to both mentors and protégés.

Generally, opportunities to receive one on one mentoring through professional association membership are accessible on an informal basis. This works when a member has an immediate, short-term need for coaching, advice, or brainstorming.

By offering a structured mentoring program through your association, you can provide a valuable member benefit that continually enhances the effectiveness of the training you currently provide, develops members’ careers regardless of where they work, and establishes your organization as the leader.