A520.7.2DQ Importance of Mentoring and Coaching

Having a mentor or coach is a wonderful way to develop professionally and personally. When talking about professional relationships it is important to understand that professional development often leads to personal development. People identify themselves, in large part, by what they do. In truth, the world is going to judge you by the quality of the work you put back into the world. I don't care if you're the smartest guy in the world, what you do with that intelligence is what matters. And that is what you will ultimately be judged upon. Because of this, your work can define you. So when you develop professionally, you are often developing personally as well.

Because of this intermingling of personal and professional development, I prefer the mentor/mentee relationship. I view coaching as more task orientated and mentoring as more person related. A coach provides motivation and strategy to reach a goal. A mentor is concerned with bringing about change in a person and developing them into someone different from when they began. This isn't to say a coach doesn't do the same thing but the focus is different. Personal change is a by-product of coaching; it is the crux of mentorship.

When choosing a mentor for your professional journey it is important to be able to indentify with the person. You will need to be able to develop in such as way that you are comfortable discussing goals and how certain things make you feel. Professonial development becomes about finding a role that fits for you. It goes beyond just a "job you like" into something you are comfortable wearing as part of your identity. A mentor needs to understand what drives you in order to help you become who you want to be. Do you want to be a successful managerial consultant? One of the first questions a mentor should ask is "Are you comfortable with the world seeing you as consultant? Because like it or not, that is the first thing you are going to seen as being.

Another harsh truth, the world doesn't care about how good of a father,mother, son, daughter, boyfriend, girlfriend,etc you are. Most certainly your family does, and maybe a few close to you will, but the world, as a whole, does not. You will always be judged by your product. What you produce is what you will always been seen as by society at large. This is not to say that being a good father or mother cannot translate into a good manager. In fact, many of those skills in one area can be moved to the other. Some of the best managers I've known have treated their staff as extentions of their family. What I AM saying is that the world, as a whole, will only see what you put into it; and it must have some sort of value.

Mentors will HAVE to understand this. What you develop into professionally will turn into what you are seen as personally. There is no getting around it. How many times do you ask someone new, "So what do you do?" You have to be comfortable with that answer and the judgements that follow. Mentors, far more than coaches, will have to understand this. That is why the mentorship is so important. It is going to develop you into something that the rest of the world is going to assign you as an identity.

A520.6.5.RB: Team Roles

Team work is the topic this week and how I facilitate team membership and relationship building roles.
A few considerations will be how I relate as a team-member, how I engage with a team to accomplish its mission, and how I work to improve team cohesion and collaboration.


First, how I relate as a team member. I've been on good teams and poor teams. My last posting in the Air Force was a horrible team. Turf guarding, entrenched ways of thinking, and active sabotage permeated that team. It affected me in a negative fashion and I, in turn, let it affect how I interacted with subordinates. I was angry and upset and took some of that out on the people that I was leading. I learned from that experience and gained a bit of insight into myself that I now find valuable. Part of developing emotional intelligence is being aware of weaknesses, I found a few on that team.


Other teams I have been on have been good teams, and I learn a great deal there as well. Teams that run well often become more than the sum of their parts. However, even here I encounter flaws in my personality that I need to be aware of. I get easily frustrated if I feel teams are not producing at a level that I feel they should. This doesn't mean that I am right, just that I am frustrated. I have to remind myself to slow down and take a larger perspective. This ability to see the bigger picture is starting to serve me well in other parts of my life as well.

I do actively engage with my team; otherwise why be a part of one. My level of engagement depends on my role. Where I was the junior member I often did more listening and offered input only where I was confident I could contribute. As a senior member I often did more listening and offered input only to guide discussion or learning. On both ends of the spectrum I did more listening but I was still engaged with the team. On points in between it really just came down to understanding what was needed of me.

Lastly, working to achieve cohesion and collaboration is paramount to building a team. Even in the often tumultuous times at the onset of team formation if you keep in mind the need to collaborate to achieve synergy you will start to improve cohesion. Not every team will make it that far. It's a given that some teams will fail despite best intentions. However, from those failures it is important to learn what caused those failures and take those lessons forward.

A520.5.3.RB - Empowerment

Empowerment comes in all shapes and sizes. Indeed, from a management standpoint empowerment can be double edged sword; especially if not implemented correctly. The class text, Management Skills for Leaders, outlines the dimensions of empowerment by providing a framework for the act of empowerment as well as some benefits of empowerment (Whetten & Cameron, 2011). A few benefits are self-efficacy (being confident in self) and self-determination (sense of having a choice). There are others but those are the most important as I feel trust, personal consequence, and meaning flow from feeling that you are competent and in control of a situation. At its core, empowerment seeks to give subordinates a greater sense of self and ownership in an organization's direction. It lets them feel directly linked to the organization's successes and failures. Over time this breeds very loyal employees and more competent teams. Much is written about synergy, and I've touched on it when discussion small team management, and I think that synergy is also derived from empowerment. By letting a person or team take ownership and control they feel compelled to produce more than the sum of their parts. Whetten and Cameron go on to discuss how to implement empowerment and much of their guidelines boil down to setting a goal and allowing the empowered person to first feel connected to it and then to own it. After that it a manager needs to provide resources otherwise the empowerment is doomed to fail.

There are a few other pitfalls associated with empowerment. Russ Forrester in his article "Empowerment: Rejuvenating a Potent Idea" shares some of these pitfalls. Narrow focus, precipitous mandates, and one-size-fits-all are three of the traps mentioned. (Forrester, 2000) They are all unique but I want focus on one-size-fits-all as I think this would be a major barrier for myself and the broader implications strike at fundamental problems managers may face.

When seeking to implement empowerment programs you have to work towards a goal in mind, If your goal is better customers service you have to set metrics by which to measure success. Likewise for less waste in production, or less turnover in front-line personnel. One trap of one-size-fits-all is that measures are implemented across the board and it is hoped that metrics follow. This is setting yourself up for failure. Different business units have different needs, different employees have different needs, and customers (both internal and external) have different needs. Empowering everyone equally leads to chaos. There has to be a measure of discretion when deciding whom to empower and why. Also, be careful to not empower two groups in such a fashion that they compete for resources. Empowerment is a great tool but everyone has to be playing from the same set of rules.

Great football teams win when they realize that everyone from the special teams to the quarterback have separate roles to play but those roles are intertwined. A good set of plays from the quarterback, even if not ending in a touchdown, can place the kicker in a good position. Strong defense allows the offensive advantageous starting positions. Each of these units is empowered to train and coach in their own way but they are guided by an overarching philosophy and constrained by a framework set in place by the coach. In this way the units are guided to work together for mutual benefit. So it needs to be with empowering business units. Accounting needs to understand how they support production and their guidelines for empowerment should be different than the guidelines that empower the administrative personnel in human resources. They have different functions but the same goals. Empowerment is a wonderful tool to use in any organization but you must tailor your approach to the needs of each unit and then provide a framework for each unit to work together. Then you must provide support for those units and work towards results.



Whetten, D., & Cameron, K. (2011). Management skills for leaders. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall.

Forrester, R. (2000). Empowerment: Rejuvenating a potent idea. The Academy of Management Executive,14(3), 67-81. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/4165660?uid=3739904&uid=2134&uid=378680471&uid=2&uid=378680461&uid=70&uid=3&uid=3739256&uid=60&sid=21103403490471 

A520.4.3.RB - Motivation Beyond Money

There are a number of motivating factors beyond salary that motivate people. This link is to a video where Andy Mulholland discusses three things that motivate beyond a salary. These three things are to expand skill sets, do interesting work, and (most critically) recognize the worker. These types of discussions are often interesting for me as it assumes that workers are paid enough to have enough security to worry about interesting work or even being recognized. As I've mentioned before, I can't eat good feelings. Telling me I did a wonderful job and giving me an award does not pay my electric bill. You know what pays my electric bill? Money. As income inequality widens in the US to levels not seen since the Great Depression I think the discussion needs to stop focusing on intangible motivators and get back to helping people pay their bills. The real wages of the American worker are lower now than they were in the 1970's. Want to know why the guy at Wal-Mart could care less about your problems? His food stamps just got cut and his daughter's school no longer has funds for low-income lunches. Quite frankly the whole idea of providing interesting work, expanding skill sets, and recognizing people is insulting in an atmosphere where people with full time jobs need to rely on SNAP to feed their children.

Now, assuming that you are in job where your basic needs are met and you are able to possibly save money than yes; these three motivators become more important to the worker than basic pay. The speaker has a point, overpaying people will not make them happy with their jobs in the long run. I agree with that statement. Providing interesting work and expanding skill sets tend to go hand in hand. Workers will want to learn as they grow. However, as people take on more and more responsibility they expect to be rewarded for it. Recognition is one form of reward. Pay increases are another. It is my opinion that organizations are looking for any excuse they can find to not pay their workers. There are exceptions. Costco does very well and pays decent wages. The other firm listed here (Great Little Box) is raising wages at the bottom and providing promotions and incentives. I am going to quote at length from the link above. These are the take-aways from Costco and Great Little Box.

"1. Understand who performs the majority of the essential work. At professional services firms, this may be lawyers or paralegals; in surgical clinics, this could include surgeons, nurses, technicians, paramedics, and individuals preparing the operating room; and in manufacturing, those working on the factory floor clearly carry out most of the essential work.

2. Realize that the firms’ success depends on the quality of the work performed by the majority of workers. Remarkably, few firms currently design their organizations to optimize the efforts of employees at the bottom of the corporate ladder—even when these employees are central to the firms’ ability to add value. At Costco, the sales staff was instrumental in ensuring the high-quality shopping experience that would draw customers to return. At Great Little Box, the company beat competitors because of its ability to respond rapidly to customized orders.

3. Recognize that the quality and productivity of employees at the bottom of the ladder depend on whether these employees are motivated, healthy, adequately rested, and well-prepared to carry out the tasks they are asked to perform.Employees at Costco were motivated to work harder and perform better by a combination of higher wages and opportunities for promotions. Great Little Box employees had a direct financial stake in the company’s performance.

4. Realize that line workers are often the ones who know best how to increase efficiency. Great Little Box benefited from suggestions from line workers that led to cost savings and greater flexibility in production. Managers at Costco had a better understanding of how to improve production because most had served as hourly workers. "

Go back and read number three again; "motivated, healthy, adequately rested, and well-prepared..." It sounds like these companies are making both my point and Mr. Mulholland's point. These organizations are experiencing great success by A) Paying living wages...not minimum wages AND providing benefits. B) Utilizing the three principals of interesting work, expanding skill sets, and recognition. You have to have both.

A520.3.5.RB - Supportive Communication

This post will discuss how I can integrate supportive communication into my present position. This is an interesting topic as my present position requires me to be a coach, mentor, criticizer, cheerleader, and whipping boy usually in the span of about ten minutes. Ehow has a concise definition of supportive communication here. If you are unfamiliar give it a read...I'll wait.

All done? Okay! moving on.

In my role it is important that supportive communication be the norm rather than the exception. No one lands at my desk if their lives are going well. People usually accept my service after they've reached a sort of crisis point in their lives and careers. This can lead to tension rather quickly if they perceive I am lecturing from a pedestal or if I am making their problems into personal failures. As the case manager/client relationship matures it becomes even more important that supportive communication permeate all of our meetings.


When working with people that have addictions or a history of self-destructive behavior you can expect relapses. This isn't to say that everyone relapses but the odds are good you will get one or two relapses over the course of a year or two. Often times this leads to shame and guilt on behalf of the addict, it is CRUCIAL that you are supportive yet assertive as you move them onto the next challenge. This may mean starting from square one in the process but you can't let that color your language or approach. Everyone is fighting a battle you cannot see, be kind...always.

This means being aware of your language, your posture, you eye contact, gestures, and even how you arrange furniture in counseling sessions. Use barriers like desks or tables judiciously and understand that those barriers can give you an air of authority but can also distance you from the person needing help. Make sure that your words match your actions and that you communicate feelings clearly. This will be tough once your emotional responses take over, be aware that in supportive communication it isn't about how YOU feel, it is about how you BOTH feel regarding a situation. Lastly, focus on solutions and let the other person be a part of the solution process. This will enhance outcomes.

Supportive communication is exhausting at first but becomes easier with practice. Once again you will have to develop self-awareness and emotional intelligence to move into true supportive communication but if you're a regular reader of this blog you should already have those tools. Until next week.

A520.3.1.RB - Decision Making

1. What are a few words that describe your decision-making style and their opposites?
Just going to jump right in this week. Instinctive (intuitive), rational, and comfortable with ambiguity.

I tend to make choices based on my gut feelings towards many things. Here lately I have been doing the opposite and carefully planning my new moves. I am moving into uncharted territory with my career and personal life and I don't have a read-made background of experience in these areas backing me up. I still trust those instincts but I'm mixing in some planning as well.

I like to work with what is rational. I find that allowing to much emotion into leadership activities can lead to poor choices. That being said, in relationships I am working on allowing more emotional elements to take over my decision making. It's interesting.

Comfortable with ambiguity is three words but it defines a leadership style that I am able to use. Rarely do we have all the information we need. Maybe because for so long I've learned to trust where my instincts take me, I'm okay working in a bit of a fog. I will still actively seek information where available. The opposite would be having this ambiguity cause distress.


2. Could you see any benefits to making decision using an approach that is based on either the opposites or somewhere in-between and what outcomes would you expect to see?


I think the new areas of my career and personal life that I am experiencing are forcing me to rely less on my instincts and more on planning. I expect that this will allow me to weigh various pros and cons and move forward. However, too much analyzing will start to stress me out. At some point I will just jump in and go. I've done that with my personal life but my career is where I am really doing some careful planning. I'm gathering information and trying to get a good idea of what my risk/rewards might be. This is mixing my emotional and rational decision making styles in new ways that I am still trying to sort out. It's odd for me to not be able to lump choices into neat little boxes but I feel like my ability to work with ambiguity is what is keeping me from going nuts!