Mentoring in the Moment

Mentoring in the Moment is a 20-item assessment designed to help mentors understand the process of mentoring and improve their skill in responding effectively to their mentee's needs. Participants are provided with different day-to-day situations that could be used as "mentoring moments." They are asked to first use the information in each item to gauge the mentee's readiness for different types of responses. Then, assuming that time permits only one response among the options provided, participants must choose the response that would best serve the mentee. Below are 4 sample items taken from the participant booklet:

Sample Items

As the new kid on the block, your mentee has needed to get up to speed quickly on a variety of routine procedures. As you pass by his work area, you pick up on his frustration with one of these procedures.
   
You:

  1. Show him a trick you've learned that makes the procedure much easier.
  2. Kid around with him about the "monster procedure" that you had to teach yourself last week.
  3. Recommend that he try to think of the procedure in the same way as the person who designed it.
  4. Step back and let him learn by trial and error.

During the past few months, your mentee has written a couple of documents for your signature without any help from you. However, today he turns to you for help. He needs to write a type of document he has never written before.
   
You:

  1. Suggest that he'll have a greater sense of ownership if he writes the document without your help.
  2. Suggest that he model his document after a similar document you have written.
  3. Ask him what he's learned from the other documents he's written.
  4. Tell him you'd be happy to skim it over from him once he's done ("two pairs of eyes are better than one").

Your mentee says she's angry that you've been interacting with her less frequently. The irony is that recently she said she'd prefer to be more independent.
   
You:

  1. Put some of her thoughts into your own words to show you're connecting.
  2. Push her to examine the inconsistency in her recent comments.
  3. Tell her you've been trying to provide her with the opportunity for greater independence.
  4. Apologize. Tell her it's easy to take for granted the friendships you value most.

You have established a long-term friendship with your mentee. One day he gripes to you about a colleague who isn't pitching in her fair share on a project.
   
You:

  1. Tell him you've always been impressed with his ability to handle this kind of situation.
  2. Offer a strategy that's worked for you in similar situations.
  3. Ask him how he plans to correct the situation.
  4. Challenge him to consider other reasons he may resent the colleague.

 

Excerpted from Mentoring in the Moment by Mary Blitzer Field, MA. 
© 2000 Organization Design and Development, Inc.

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