Five Steps for the Mentoring Manager

An effective method of knowledge transfer that works as an alternative to traditional training is mentoring.  When you take on the role of a mentoring manager, you develop a one-on-one relationship with a protégé from your staff and facilitate his or her development.  This means that you’re helping that person maximize their own potentials and find solutions on their own while giving them just minimal input.

Mentoring can be accomplished using a five-step facilitation process that you can remember easily as 5Ds: Define, Describe, Decide, Do and Debrief.  Here’s how you can apply it with the learners you’re mentoring.

Step One: Define.  At this stage you are encouraging your learner to set specific outcomes that they would like to achieve as a result of the mentoring process.  You can help by challenging them to state positive, agenda-oriented outcomes.  If, for example, your learner presents a problem saying, “I’m too shy to be working in sales,” you can challenge immediately by asking, “How would you like it to be?”, which may be answered as, “I’d like to be more confident in the way I approach people.”  Already, you’ve made considerable progress.

Step Two: Describe.  The objective of this step is for you and your learner to become aware of the dimensions of the problem.  Your role, therefore, is to listen while your learner talks.  Ask open-ended questions to keep your learner talking while you check for emotions, feelings, and facts.  The information you’re provided with will help you formulate an approach suitable to your learner’s development.

Step Three: Decide.  The key here is to guide your learner towards deciding which solutions will work best.  Be patient at this stage, because the temptation will be for you to jump in and offer the solutions you may think are best.  Remember, however, that as a mentor you are facilitating a process rather than imposing your own agenda.

Step Four: Do.  This is the implementation step where your learner will go out and apply the agenda that they’ve developed with your guidance.  Your learner will operate independently at this stage, while your role may be to check in periodically and assess how things are going.

Step Five: Debrief.  When your learner has made significant progress, it’s time for you to step back in to evaluate the process with them.  What worked?  What didn’t?  What did you do well?  What could have been done better?  This is your learner’s opportunity to reflect on the learning process they have been through and your opportunity to set the stage for the next phase of development.

Galileo once said, “You can’t teach a person anything.  You can only help them find it within themselves.”  In other words, everyone already has what they need to learn and develop already.  As a mentoring manager, it’s your job to bring it out.