Tag Archives: start-ups

Reverse the Mentoring Stereotype

In its most common context, mentoring is understood as someone with experience (and a few grey hairs!) showing someone younger how to perform key job functions. Yet, one of the hottest trends in human resources is termed “reverse mentoring.” Whether due to job loss and the need for new training, or “Second Act” entrepreneurship, or simply the precipitous amount of change being introduced in organizations trying to compete globally, there has arisen a need for this practice where younger workers are now showing the older ones “the ropes.”

While the concept is that exposure to those outside the corporate suite may be good for staying in touch with the values held by newer workers, there are several other benefits. Higher employee retention rates among younger workers are cited as an unexpected, but welcome outcome. Exposure to management issues and how decisions are made are additional upsides.

When Jack Welch was the CEO of General Electric, he  was mentored on how to use the internet by a young employee in her 20s. He saw such promise from the process that he mandated that 500 of his top executives reach out to younger employees to do likewise. These days, mentees are learning how to use social media effectively from their younger mentors. Even at top ad agencies like Ogilvy & Mather, a worldwide managing director admitted that his more youthful mentors had shown him how to enhance his Twitter posts to be less boring. His eyes have been opened to new possibilities and he now plans to utilize Skype and videoconferencing to facilitate distance mentoring across the firm’s 450 offices. HP & Cisco also have reverse mentoring programs in place.

Michelle Rafter, in a blog post entitled “8 Ways to Make a Reverse Mentorship Work For You,” suggests the following guidelines:

1. Find a compatible partner –someone with skills in areas you’re lacking

2. Set expectations- create ground rules for what you want out of a partnership, such as how often you’ll meet and what both parties will get out of it

3. Get your boss’s OK- A lot of reciprocal mentoring can happen on an informal basis. But if you want or need to set up a formal program, you’ll need your manager’s or company’s approval.

4. Be open to suggestions and criticism- learn in days from someone else what one could take decades otherwise by having a thick skin

5. Make it more than just about tech- maybe a younger person could help you learn about sushi, Chinese, popular music, or even how to lead the next generation more effectively

6. Give as much as you get-the relationship should be mutually beneficial

7. Experiment with approaches– a single department, a program that crosses departments, and a multitude of variations

8. Don’t stereotype- not every 45-year-old has the same knowledge or expertise, so don’t assume every Gen Y worker does, either.

Secret Entrepreneur Weapon

In a January 26, 2012 article for Entrepreneur magazine (Mentors: A Young Entrepreneur’s Secret Weapon) Adam Toren writes,

…to take advantage of the most powerful weapon an entrepreneur can have, find a mentor.

A good mentor helps you think through a business idea, suggests ways to generate that startup capital and provides the experience and savvy you’re missing. You’ll get praise when you deserve it and a heads-up when trouble comes — probably long before you would have noticed it yourself.

Instead of mentoring, many entrepreneurs “hang out” with peers, attend fun/trendy events for start-ups, and make presentations at conferences and forums. While there is a place for many–if not all–of these activities, they do not take the place of a relationship with someone who has knowledge or expertise in areas that are not your own strengths. Often, the mentors even know of others who can be helpful in additional disciplines so that you are able to become surrounded with wise counsel and advice. EntreDot is a mentoring organization that has seen the need for this type of service and is creating and implementing programs via innovation centers and in conjunction with strategic allies to foster entrepreneurship in the Raleigh-Durham area of North Carolina.

Entrepreneurs — especially young ones — tend to tap their friends for business advice. But that can be a mistake. The reason is, friends tell you what you want to hear. For what you need to hear, rather, a mentor is often a better bet.

A mentor could be a professional who advises entrepreneurs for a living or someone working in a related industry who is willing to help you. And unlike your friends, mentors are typically more removed from you and your business. So they tend to be more comfortable delivering bad or critical news and advice. And since many of them have either started up businesses in the past or have worked in industries that you’re trying to shake up, mentors can also fill experience gaps, as well as impart their wisdom on how to handle specific business challenges.

The above quote was taken from another article in Entrepreneur magazine, this one by Martin Zwillig last week (A Good Mentor Will Tell it Like It Is). The gist of his insight is that mentors can come from a variety of backgrounds, but their key role is to warn you of missteps rather than cheer your every decision. The good mentors can help you identify steps to success and stand by you to follow them when challenges would distract you from executing your plan.

Zwillig concludes by suggesting 5 Qualities That Are a Must in an Ideal Mentor:

  • Pragmatism.
  • Fortitude. 
  • Stamina.
  • Connections.
  • Perspective. 


Hope you are successful in putting your own secret weapon to strategic advantage!

 

Annihilated by Apathy

The story is told of military training (whether true, or no, is immaterial–the principles are sound) wherein the new soldiers are placed in a simulation. Within the war game being played, they are told  that three snipers are crawling towards them through tall grass. The snipers are live soldiers who have been trained for their role in the exercise; the “bullets” to be fired are blanks. As the defenders wait for the attack, a  figure pops up across the field suddenly and is fired upon with full force. Closer to the defenders, another attacker pops up and the newbies direct their attention to the target. Immediately thereafter, the entire platoon is taken out by hand grenades thrown by the third attacker, who had been sneaking towards them and was able to obtain a close position undetected.

Because the platoon failed to recognize the immediate threat closest to them they lost an insignificant, yet instructive battle. Similarly, as business owners and managers, we have as our most important target the existing customer base. If these folks go somewhere else, collectively they can “upset the apple cart” of business success.

Since most businesses don’t have an offering that is clearly superior to the competition, they must focus on how they provide goods or services as a differentiator. If your organization has a great quality control system to make sure jobs are done to standard and timely, but the customer is not aware of your system, you are missing a great opportunity to connect with what’s truly important. Or, maybe your efforts to simplify the ordering process have not seen the return you hoped because the customer doesn’t yet know. Educating customers about what they are receiving for the money is good business!

Ike Behar is in the men’s clothing business. While this line of work, like many, faces pressures from abroad and tries to avoid commoditization, the way the company differentiates itself is far from apathetic. Taken from some of its promotional materials about men’s dress shirts, the statements below will show you: a.) how Behar stakes a claim for competitive advantage and b.) the type things you need to be able to say about your business that will matter to a prospect.

  • There are 52 steps involved in making one of our shirts. Each shirt sports an authentic split yoke, removable collar stays, and button sleeve pocket.
  • Handkerchief-rolled seams. This tailoring technique prevents puckering and produces and elegantly finished shirt, with added durability.
  • Buttons. We carefully match our buttons–ranging from mother-of-pearl to unbreakable plastic–to complement the fabric and style of each shirt. A spare button is sown into the tail of every shirt.
Behar lists many more, but these should give you an idea of what is helpful to get your point across. (With thanks to Jaynie Smith, who literally wrote the book on Creating Competitive Advantage.)
You can see the threat in the grass, but what are you going to do?

 

Focus on EQ Rather Than IQ

While one may not be able to improve IQ, the ability to improve one’s Emotional Quotient has been shown effective in enhancing management decision-making.     EQ Mentoring is most successful when directed management team members who support an organization’s executives.

“Emotional intelligence isn’t a luxury tool you can dispense with in tough times. It’s a basic tool that, deployed with finesse, is the key to professional success.”

~Dan Goleman in The Harvard Business Review

What is Emotional Intelligence (EQ)?

Effective and timely decision-making is at the heart of good performance. To improve performance, we need to understand how to make better decisions. At the most basic level, our ability to make good decisions and, in turn, perform well is captured by our competencies. Competencies are the things we know how to do and what we are good at are capabilities. Most performance management processes are built on the concept that competencies are the direct antecedent or predecessor to good decision making and high performance. What determines our competencies?

Preceding our competencies are our behaviors. Behaviors include our day-to-day activities that determine where we focus our time and where we focus our energies. Cognition precedes behavior. Slightly oversimplifying this concept, cognition refers to one’s intellectual capacities, thoughts, knowledge, and memories. This is the rational part of our brain. What finally precedes cognition in this physiological sequence to high performance is one’s EQ—a body of personal characteristics and social abilities that are closely tied to success in both our professional and personal lives.

How is EQ Improved?

In order to establish a baseline, an EQ Assessment is taken at the inception of the competency improvement process by each team member individually. The mentoring process is explained to the group and some recurring group meetings are held (minimum of once/month) to reinforce concepts in a team environment. Primarily, however, the mentoring  occurs individually and the scheduling of weekly meetings with each team member (half hour ea.) creates an environment for concepts to “grow legs” and become implemented.

The mentoring is administered by a professional certified in the process and competent to interpret the assessment results into a personal development program. The five competencies (self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy and social skills) that constitute one’s EQ scores are evaluated and a plan created to improve the mentee’s lowest area(s) first.

During the weekly sessions, hypothetical scenarios are discussed between mentor and mentee to identify thought processes, offer alternatives, and learn better decision-making styles. After six to eight weeks, the hypothetical gives way to actual work examples and on-the-job learning occurs. Generally, it is at this point that executives can see early signs of improved management skills.

As the mentee becomes more enlightened, additional tools and assessments are introduced to keep the free flow of information positive, eye-opening, and stimulating. Generally, a follow-on assessment is administered at the six month point and a joint decision is made as to how to proceed.

NOTE: For EQ improvement to become part of the culture, it is generally advisable that the owner/CEO/etc also submit to the process and go through their own mentoring. After such, there is opportunity to learn new methods of interaction that reinforce principles and better habits learned.

Getting Entrepreneurs Unstuck

So many businesses start with grand visions and hopes, only to miss the mark along the way. In our home state of North Carolina, 26000 businesses are started each year; but, 23000 fail each year as well. Without getting into the dynamics of how many survive for three or five years, we can at least ask the question “why?” Why do so many businesses fail each year?

Mismanagement, making mistakes others have already made, inadequate capitalization, and poor knowledge of systems and process resources are all contributors to business failure. The reason many of these mistakes are made is the lack of a sounding board for many entrepreneurs–someone to whom they can turn for ideas, resources, and encouragement. For centuries, there were very formalized apprenticeship programs in many industries that helped new workers become business people. In modern times, we use the term “mentor” to describe someone who is willing to work with an apprentice.

Management of a business is tough work. Having a mentor can make a big difference. Some of the things a mentor can offer include:

  • Business strategy and planning to make sure their business is focused on a viable market with a winning product and/or service that has a competitive edge
  • Forecasting and financing ensuring that sales plans are realistic and that cash is well managed
  • Operational discipline and judgment to increase the chances of success by making fewer mistakes
  • Industry connections that can help accelerate the business and its operations
  • Start-up company experience that can instill the wisdom of what it takes to really start and manage an emerging business

Organizations like EntreDot and incubators like the Cary Innovation Center and REDii in downtown Raleigh are but a few of the many resources that smart business owners seek out. The value is in having someone on site who can walk and talk  you through an issue that is new to you. The “someone” is often one who has more experience in business, but can also be a peer in these incubator environments.

Getting “stuck” on a tough issue is okay; staying in that predicament can put jobs, ideas, and investments at risk of loss. Regardless of whether you live in a community that has ready providers of mentoring or have to seek it from elsewhere, it is vitally important to your success to get help. Becoming “unstuck” makes life more enjoyable, fuels the economy, and builds better communities. Best wishes!