How were mentoring managers rated and who consults mentos?
A survey regarding the characteristics required for successful management was conducted seven years ago. The survey’s analysis and results revealed that participants rated “mentoring abilities” one of the ten most important qualities of a successful manager.
[The survey was conducted in cooperation with Anat Milner Cohen]
Even though the results of the survey were read by more than 3,000 people, an on-line blog survey, conducted later revealed that only 5% of businesses use mentors. We will try to understand why mentoring for managers is not common and how it should be practiced.
In his book “Winning”, Jack Welch, who served as the CEO and Chairman of General Electric for twenty years, dedicated a chapter to leadership. He listed eight rules for leading management:
Jack Welch says that managers must continuously advance their team members and regard each encounter as an opportunity to appreciate, coach and build up their self-confidence. Welch says a CEO should invest most of his time in the following three activities:
Evaluate – Make sure the right people are allocated to the right positions. Support and promote those who succeed and dismiss those who don’t.
Coach – Direct, support and help staff members to improve their performance in all aspects. Steer them in the right direction.
Build self-confidence. – Encourage team members, care for their welfare, and provide positive recognition. Self-confidence invigorates and enhances courage to invest efforts, to take risks and aspire to achieve far and beyond. It is the fuel that motivates team members into action.
Jack Welch emphasized the importance of cultivating self-confidence. He said that managers must continuously appreciate their staff members. the more explicitly the better.
Read about The 8 Rules of Leadership by Jack Welch.
According to Welch, assessing the progress of the people you manage is one of the most important rules of management.
Is mentoring common amongst CEOs?
As the CEO of an association that merges tens of settlements, Yishai meets CEOs every day. He told me in one of the meetings we had recently, that CEOs refuse to admit that they need mentoring because, mistakenly, they think it’s a sign of weakness. I told Yishai that indeed they were mistaken and the best way to prove their mistake is by presenting the business results of companies which use mentoring services. It will prove that monitoring pays. To that Yishai responded that the type of monitoring CEOs require are within the “soft” areas. Issues that cannot be measured or monitored.
The truth is that both Yishai and I are right. Yes, the “soft” issues are the issues that CEOs mostly need mentoring. CEOs often need an outsider’s assistance to guide them in matters that cannot be counted or quantified. I agree that progress of “soft” areas is difficult to measure. However, without progress assessment, managers may forget the starting point and CEOs may ask themselves if working with a mentor had any benefits. It is therefore highly important to find ways to monitor progress and improvements in “soft” areas as well.
Look at the following example:
Management difficulties are followed by bad feelings
David is a CEO at a company he established and owns. He asked me to coach him and his company regarding management and profit improvements. Together we decided on an action plan which included milestones and KPIs.
Very quickly after we started our sessions, the issues that most bothered David surfaced. He had difficulties in defining his role as CEO in areas like: finance, professionality, sales, managing staff members and delegating authority.
Our meetings focused on the issues that were more important to David rather than on the milestones we defined at the beginning. We focused on the “soft” issues mentioned above. The issues about which David, like other CEOs, could not discuss with anyone else.
As our work together progressed, David felt better. His frustration and distress had gone. However, I knew it was not good enough because the company’s goals to increase profit could only be successfully achieved through continuous KPI monitoring.
In one of our routing meetings towards the end of our sessions, I thought it was important to return to discussing the KPIs. Quite coincidentally, our meeting started with a question David had been asked earlier that morning. The financial manager asked David if he could recognize any progress regarding the company’s profit.
I told David that I thought we had been neglecting monitoring the KPIs and that we must return to measuring the company’s progress. However, a few minutes into the meeting, David steered the conversation back to the “soft” issues which were more important to him.
At the end of the meeting, I asked David what had he learnt from the meeting and what was he going to tell the financial manager regarding the company’s profit? The second part of my question made David understand the aim of our meetings.
My conclusion is that a way to monitor “soft” areas’ progress must be found despite the difficulties.
My personal experience
As a CEO of many firms over twenty years in my career, I always preferred to work with a mentor or an advisor. Sadly, it was not always possible.
Throughout their career, managers, and especially CEOs find it difficult deciding who to consult with when facing personal and professional challenges. In some situations, they feel they cannot ask for help from their subordinates, peers or higher management. They avoid consulting the chairman and company owners to whom they must provide solutions and not questions.
A CEO who asks too many questions may be perceived as weak and inexperienced. Mentors fill in the gaps. Mentors are objective, independent, not part of the business hierarchy and confidential. They are the best people to consult with.
Everybody makes mistakes, but consulting with others makes us aware of our mistakes and recognizes where and when things went wrong.
Who objects to monitoring?
Chairmen and owners of businesses are usually the ones to object to monitoring. They ask themselves if they had selected the best person for the job if they have to spend more money for external mentoring.
That approach is, as I said before, mistaken.
A well composed mentoring program is a good way to assist managers. EDC (Everyday Coaching) is one of the ways to train managers to become mentors of their company’s employees.
As mentioned above, the ability to become a mentor to the employees had been rated as one of the ten most important qualities of a CEO in a survey we conducted.
However, can a CEO mentor his employees? Let’s look at the following example:
Yehiel asked me to be a mentor to Hanan, one of the managers in the company.
Yehiel told me that he tried to be Hanan’s mentor, but he stopped the process because Hanan showed no improvement. Yehiel started to worry if Hanan would ever be able to meet his KPIs.
I learnt from my conversation with Yehiel that Hanan had not been given specific KPIs and he was assessed by gut feelings rather than by measurable KPIs. Furthermore, Hanan did not know what was expected of him. Obviously, Yehiel, who had never been trained to be a mentor, did not do a good job.
Problems may occur when CEOs mentor their managers because when managers ask questions, they might be perceived weak and inexperienced.
The conclusion is that internal mentoring can be an excellent idea if provided by trained mentors, follows an Everyday Coaching program, and considers the status difference between managers and CEOs.
Summary and recommendations
CEOs are expected to consult with management regarding the company’s challenges. However, there are some issues, like personal challenges or managers’ difficulties that CEOs prefer not to share with higher management.
In those situations, CEOs have no one to consult with. They seek advice from external mentors or advisors who can help the CEOs and other managers face the challenges.
Businesses that train staff members to be mentors are in a good position. Companies that do not use Every Day Coaching (EDC) programs which train staff members to become mentors, must use external mentors/trainers/advisors to help staff members face everyday challenges.
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