In today’s Newsy, let’s take some time to more fully understand the traits that contribute to being a great mentor / mentee. Knowing yourself. This means being self aware. Being aware of your strengths and how you show up in a relationship, conversation, a challenge and when under pressure or when asked to think strategically. Here are some of the key traits that effective mentors and mentees bring to the mentoring relationship.

You can use this list is a Checklist for yourself and then the mentee or mentor you’re working with. Share it and use it for discussion. These traits will give you a jumpstart to your mentoring partnership.

“Mentoring should be a fulfilling relationship between somebody with more experience and somebody with less, with the goal of helping both individuals become elevated versions of themselves” 
Janice Omadeke

And now here are some tips to kickstart and maintain your effective mentoring partnership.

1. Get to Know Each Other. Remind yourself to take time to connect and get to know each other. Strong mentoring relationships need strong foundations.

2. Buy In with Boundaries. Be clear that this is a mentoring relationship. It’s not a friendship or mateship, it’s a coming together to work on a shared vision and develop knowledge and skills along the way relationship.

3. Meet with Purpose. There’s no room for friendly have a chats ONLY in mentoring. Always set a purpose and develop shared purpose for your mentoring sessions. Even if this happens in the first 5 mins of the mentoring session, it’s super important that you commence with a shared purpose for your meeting. My top tip would be to not continue until you have this!

4. Maintain a Productive Process. Establish and maintain processes across your mentoring partnership and sessions. These should include templates, session timelines etc

5. Maintain Positive Energy. It’s likely things might go off track at some stage in the partnership. Maintain your energy during this time and build in a session to reset or re-goal so you both come back on board with shared expectations

Over to You

Do any of these resonate for you?  Could any be helpful in your mentoring relationships today?

The post Mentoring is Not Magic appeared first on Ruralscope.

2 Questions

As the New Year rolls around, take a few minutes to disrupt the flow and reset ready for your best year yet. Ask yourself the following questions.

Question 1

What worked well last year and what am I really proud of?

Question 2

What are the 2 key things I’m going to “do” and who am I going to “be” in this New Year?

There’s no hard and fast process here. You can read the questions and go through the answers in your head. You can take a note book (paper or electronic) and jot down the questions and answers and then turn them into a plan. You can then refer to them during the year and see how things are going. Or you can sit on the verandah and chat with someone you choose and see what comes up for both of you. You can then see what to take forward for you and as a shared intention. Lots of people tell us they have found the verandah option a game changer.

12 Questions

If you’re looking for more of a deep dive to disrupt and reset ready for your New Year, then these 12 questions are a must. I don’t recommend you go through these questions in your head. I think it best that you grab a note book (paper or electronic) and jot down the answers and then turn them into a plan. And I strongly encourage you to share and talk about these with others. This way you can also support and hold each other accountable too. 

Question 1

What are my achievements from last year?

Question 2

What set backs did I overcome to achieve these?

Question 3

What did I produce last year?

Question 4

How did I positively impact others – in my family, my team, my workplace, my community or my industry?

Question 5

What new knowledge and skills did I gain?

Question 6

What could I have done differently across the year?

Question 7

What do I need to “let be” or “let go of” and not take into the New Year?

Question 8

What do I want / need to focus on in the New Year?

Question 9

Who do I want to “be” in the New Year?

Question 10

What are my key goals for the New Year and how will I know when I achieve them?

Question 11

How will you monitor the year ahead and take time out to recalibrate and celebrate your achievements on the go?

Question 12

What will the year ahead look like and how will you feel at the end of the year?

Over to You

Do you think the 2 or 12 questions suit you best? Will you think about the questions in your head? Jot them down – paper or electronically or take some time out with someone else and chat them through and create individual as well as shared intentions? Whichever you choose, remember it’s up to you to develop and implement a plan for your New Year. Many people tell us that even a small amount of thinking and planning creates clarity and confidence for their New Year. I want the same for you. Good luck. And please feel free to reach out to me here if you think I can help in any way.

Until next time!

The post Kick Off Your New Year With These 2 or 12 Questions appeared first on Ruralscope.

1. Lead With Self-Awareness

When I interview leaders they tell me that knowing yourself is super important. Given that self-awareness is the foundation of emotional intelligence, it’s important you understand your strengths, things that trip you up, your default communication style (we love using DISC for this) as well as biases and blind spots. So, how do you become more self aware? Key is the ability to self reflect so that after a meeting, speaking in public etc you can take an honest stocktake of how it went and then change things to improve next time. Consider using tools like personality assessments or leadership coaching to deepen your awareness. The self-aware you are, the more grounded and confident you’ll be.

2. Language is Important

Leadership has a language. This includes the words and key messages you choose and use. They must be responsive to the people you lead and the context in which you are in. Clear communication builds trust and alignment. Be intentional about what you say and how you say it. Always listen more than you speak. Use plain language when you speak and avoid industry jargon. The goal is to inspire and motivate people to act and create change – this requires carefully crafted messages that always link to the “Why”.

3. Flex Your Communication Style

We all have a natural or default communication style. The way you use this or develop your understanding and confidence to use the four dominant communication styles – Direct, Influencing, Stabilising and Conscientious will determine your effectiveness as a leader. Knowing your communication style and flexing into the others as the context demands is a skill you can learn. Click here for more information. We offer this training in small groups and also one on one sessions. Please reach out, if this is of interest.

4. The Wholehearted Inventory

We use this inventory with many of our clients. It helps to assess your strengths and opportunities for growth. It’s a Brene Brown tool and we find our clients love it. It’s free so go ahead and check it out here. If you want to discuss where to from here, once you complete it, please just book in for a Leadership Laser Hour session with us.

5. Lead With Purpose and Values

Leaders with a clear sense of their values and purpose inspire loyalty and drive real change. Do you know what your values are? If not download our free Values booklet here. Do you know what you stand for? Do you have a leadership vision? Do you know your leadership “why” or purpose? Leaders who know this are able to communicate it and engender spirit in others to come on board or go forward with confidence. This is the ultimate leadership goal.

Over to You

Levelling up your leadership is available to you right now. It’s defined by how you show up, how you grow, and how you help others to thrive and grow into their leadership. So increase your self-awareness, work out your leadership language, flex your communication style, take the wholehearted inventory and review your values and leadership purpose. Start applying these five practices today and watch the transformation unfold. Reach out if we can help.

Until next time!

The post 5 Ways to Level Up Your Leadership appeared first on Ruralscope.

Reflection is key here. It’s important to recognise when things aren’t going to plan and then take time to back yourself and find a solution that works for you. This way you can achieve what you want and need from your mentoring sessions. It’s also important to take care of yourself and your mentor through the process. Your mentor is committed to doing their best for you, make it easy for them.  

Revisit Your Vision

Do the Work

Ask for Help

Plan, Plan and Plan Some More

Floundering to Flow

Over to You

Ok, go right ahead now and choose which issue / barrier resonates most. Take time to read about what you can do and take the action described. Give yourself a pep up and feel great about working through the issue / barrier. Go into your next mentoring session with increased confidence and commitment to leading the session differently to achieve the best you can. Good luck. And please feel free to reach out to me here if you think I can help in any way.

Until next time!

The post Mentoring Partnership Mess Ups – A Mentee’s Perspective appeared first on Ruralscope.

How Can a Mentor Help You?

A mentor is a trusted person with experience. They volunteer their time and have a genuine interest in helping others. There are so many ways they can support you.  Here are a few. They can;

• Share their own career story / achievements / challenges that they have overcome
• Support you to set goals
• Support you to take action on your goals and hold you accountable
• Help you to look at challenges in a new way and to push through resistance
• Act as a cheer squad by providing confidence when you don’t feel you have enough yourself
• Guide you regarding opportunities that show up
• Challenge your thinking and help you see things in a different way
• Build your confidence by supporting you to act and
• Suggest places for you to network, gain advice and develop new knowledge and skills.

Sounds like the world is your oyster here so how come your mentoring relationship may not be going as smoothly as you’d like?

What Makes a Productive Mentoring Relationship?

I recently asked a client interested in becoming a mentor what qualities they would like their mentee to have. Here’s a few of what they listed off;

• Dedicated
• Respectful
• Passionate
• Open minded
• Enthusiastic
• Motivated and
• Committed

So, please use this as a checklist for yourself as a mentee. Do you show up to your mentoring session with these qualities in abundance. If you do, then in our experience you can expect it right back. If you don’t, then your mentor is likely to wonder what they can offer you and to not be as present or giving as they could be for you. You hold the key.

The Importance of a Shared Vision and Shared Expectations

A mentoring partnership works best when your mentor understands your vision and goals. They aren’t mind readers, so it’s up to you to share this with them. Share with them what you are going for / what you really want to do or achieve. You might find it scary to be open and upfront. You have to. Your mentor expects it. Otherwise they will have no idea what your mentoring goals are and hence will flounder in their support of you. This is the number 1 reason mentors tell me they can find mentoring hard going. You have the key to make it easy and rewarding for you both.

Plan Your Mentoring Sessions

Now you have shared your vision and goals with your mentor and they have a clear understanding of what you are going for and want to achieve then you’re ready to make each session count. Take time to plan a rough outline of what you want to cover before each session. Think about this from a professional and personal perspective. Write down a theme for the session. Then prepare some questions. 2 or 3 key questions is enough for a 30 – 45 mins session. I strongly suggest you email this to your mentor ahead of your session. We know mentors like to have time to think through how best to support you and they can only do this if they know what you want to focus on.

Do the Work

Yes, you read this one right! It’s up to you to do the work. Mentoring is not just showing up to a session with your mentor and then ticking this off your ‘to do’ list until your next session. Be responsible for your own development. Your mentor is there to share their experience, offer suggestions and support you. You are there to do the work! Mentors tell me they like nothing better than when their mentees let them know they have tried something they have suggested or taken on board an idea or piece of advice. Never waste your mentor’s time. Always do the work.

Review your Progress

I can’t recommend this one enough. You can get so busy in your mentoring sessions and then actually doing the work post mentoring session that you can forgot to review your progress. Reviewing your progress helps regroup energy and reset your commitments. Easy ways that we have seen work are to;

• Build in a 5 minute update and review of what you’ve been up to, achieved or what’s worked or hasn’t at the beginning of each and every mentoring session and
• Make every fourth session a review session. This helps you to maintain focus on your vision and goals and it really helps your mentor to refocus on what you want your mentoring experience to be. This places them in a much better position to help you.

I think this is a must do, not a nice to do in your mentoring partnership. You can guide your mentor by saying “I want to start today’s session by reviewing what I’ve done and achieved since we last got together…”. Once you have spent 5 minutes on this then go on to the theme and questions you have planned and shared with your mentor.

Over to You

Ok, go ahead and reread this article. Look for things that really resonate for you. Please take one or two or maybe even three things from this article and take into your next mentoring partnership and or session. It really will make a difference and you will find you gain more from your mentoring experience than you ever thought possible. Good luck. And please feel free to reach out to me here if you think I can help in any way.

Until next time!

The post Key Ways to Maximise Your Mentoring Experience appeared first on Ruralscope.