Step 4

Leverage Experience for Development

“Nothing ever becomes real ‘til it is experienced.”

—John Keats

A couple years ago, I worked with managers from a large global business to help them become more developmental. The approach was an action-learning series with one learning cycle per month over a several-month period. To complete the program each month, managers were required to participate in a short, interactive workshop with 17 colleagues; read reinforcement material after the workshop; plan and take action with employees to apply what they learned about this developmental practice; and then attend a cohort meeting with five other managers to discuss their outcomes and receive support from colleagues.

One brilliant and busy leader, whom I will call Dr. Wong, told me she had done the first two steps but did not have the time to apply the new actions with her employee, yet she intended to attend the cohort session. “Do you feel you know this new developmental practice inside and out by attending the workshop and then reading about it?” I asked. “Yes, I do. I have a definite picture in my mind about how this will work,” she replied firmly. I probed further: “Would you want your employees to take charge of new tasks by reading about it, and not experiencing it firsthand?” She got my point without any additional discussion, and ended up applying the practice with one of her challenging employees to help develop him.

The following week, Dr. Wong joined her cohort group and shared her surprise about how thorny the experience was. There were unexpected emotional responses from her employee, and questions he raised that she could not answer on the spot. “What I had pictured in my mind did not compare to reality!” she told the group. Her colleagues then worked with her, asking pertinent questions about assumptions she had made and exploring potential avenues to handle it differently in the future. Others discussed their experiences as well, relating both successes and challenges. By the end of their conversation, she declared: “This was a very powerful lesson; not only about how I best learn, but for how I need to help my people grow.” It’s a reminder for all of us of the difference between mentally formulating our action and masterly applying the actions.

For most of us, our early formal learning, which took place in primary school, was largely conceptual; studying historical facts, writing reports, and learning math equations. Decades later, as mentors, we know people learn in a multitude of ways, and that learning needs to go well beyond “just the facts.” Thinking through an approach, reading about it, and planning actions gets us only so far. Having experiences in testing new behavior and interactions with people gives much more. Yet, with old habits dying hard, we can persist with a focus on conceptual learning.

A wonderful contribution you can make for your mentee is to orchestrate learning from experience. Experience is a potent teacher, most especially when it is targeted to get the lessons that are needed, and then debriefed to discern what mindsets and behaviors were used and their impact (Axelrod and Coyle 2011). Research by the Center for Creative Leadership, stretching back for decades, shows that if steered properly, experiences are the premier source of learning and development (McCauley 2006).That’s one reason to avoid a style of mentoring that is just about reading books, sharing the mentors’ stories, and giving “lessons.” This is not the best use of everyone’s time.

Help your mentee understand that jumping into experiences with narrow foresight can have limited learning outcomes. Your role is to help the mentee focus on the lessons aligned to their goal, identify potential obstacles, feel encouraged, navigate the obstacles (both internal and external), and receive feedback. All of this is paired with insight-generating conversations. A mentor’s support in this discovery is a multiplier effect for much bigger gains. You will undoubtedly help leverage the learning from experience many times during your work with your mentee and increase your own skill at doing this. When supporting your mentee to get the most from experience, consider the 4 Es of Leverage Experience for Development, as shown in Figure 4-1.

FIGURE 4-1

THE Four ES OF LEVERAGING EXPERIENCE FOR DEVELOPMENT

Examine the Possibilities

At the opening of a workshop on creative problem solving, the facilitator called everyone to attention. He held a brick in his hand and asked, “What can this be used for?” The participants hesitated at first, thinking this was a trick question; then, one by one, people called out suggestions: “Build a house,” “Pave a walkway,” and “Create a pizza oven.” “We can do better than that,” he said. “Look at the brick from a new perspective, with huge potential; consider all of its attributes and how they can be used. Now, take out a piece of paper, and in the next 60 seconds, write down as many possible uses as you can think of.” At the end of one minute, participants had come up with dozens of uses (such as a door stop, paperweight, engraved for a fund raiser, shelf). They did this by disrupting their typical assumptions about bricks and finding new potential for how they could be used.

Since you may not be able to count on your mentee’s organization to provide an assignment that’s a perfect fit for their development, take a similar approach to uncovering what experiences are potentially accessible to your mentee. Together, be creative about identifying the hidden learning opportunities in their environment; help them uncover possibilities they did not know were there. What tasks or assignments can be used to allow them to experiment with new approaches and behaviors? For example, one mentee was bent on transferring to another department because he felt his current project leader had him pigeonholed in the same boring tasks, despite his requests to be put on other duties. Then, his mentor suggested he use the very situation with his project leader to learn the skill of influencing up (something that was already on his “desired development” list). Bingo! He got reengaged at work, and week by week focused on growing his upward influence skills—something he will use for a lifetime.

You were deliberate in helping the mentee identify their goals; now be deliberate to find new assignments that will yield desired growth. I recommend three attributes that gear an experience or assignment for substantial mentee development. These attributes, described in Tool 4-1, can be your guide to shaping the experience. Identify the extent to which each of these three are present. If any one of these is lacking, consider how the experience or assignment can be adapted to integrate that attribute more fully.

TOOL 4-1

THREE AS OF ASSIGNMENTS GEARED FOR SIGNIFICANT DEVELOPMENT

Research about sourcing growth opportunities shows that for many of us, a multitude of possibilities exist in our own job environment; we just need to uncover them (McCauley 2006). You and your mentee can scan their environment to find opportunities to develop skills such as business knowledge, communications, global mindset, interpersonal relations, decision making, negotiation, and many more. Tool 4-2 presents growth-option categories. Select from these or create your own to provide the best learning options for your mentee at each stage of growth during your mentoring.

Let’s consider an example of how a mentor might guide a mentee in the right direction. Cedric was an aspiring facilities manager, working for a global food and facilities company at one of its conference centers in the United Kingdom. Handling reservations and planning the usage of the building week in and week out was both challenging and rewarding, and he was recognized as highly proficient. Thank goodness for his mentor, Teresa, because Cedric’s boss was so time constrained to do anything to support his growth. After a couple years in his current role, Teresa understood Cedric’s interest in becoming a general manager, and they both realized there was a lot of development needed. Two capabilities Cedric wanted to advance were mastering continuous improvement processes and forecasting budgets.

TOOL 4-2

SAMPLE DEVELOPMENT POSSIBILITIES IN THE CURRENT WORK ENVIRONMENT

After brainstorming the possibilities within the context of his current role, Teresa and Cedric zeroed in on an idea that Cedric had been circling around for a while. He could lead a team to introduce a new, more flexible operations system, which would integrate reservations with the staffing and food components of the conference center. This would streamline the overall operation of the center and provide automatic inputs for the budgeting process. Several conference centers in the United States were using it, learning a lot about putting the system in place and its execution.

If this requested project could go through, Cedric would be developing a number of skills: continuous improvement, influence abilities, leading an interdisciplinary team, and forecasting budgets. There was no question in Teresa’s mind that this had the classic makings of an incredible developmental assignment and reflected the three “A” attributes: ambitious (stretch in responsibilities, behaviors, and mindset); accountable (management would count on his success with this and provide him feedback on its implementation); and advocated (he would get support from colleagues, and from Teresa herself; she had been through similar assignments).

Experiment With New Approaches

With the specific mentee development goal in mind, encourage your mentee to step into new mindsets and behaviors. The term “experiment” sets this up for learning, with the expectation that more refinement will be needed. Your mentee will benefit from exploring both new ways of thinking and new ways of behaving.

Spur New Ways of Thinking

We are creatures of habit. To be efficient, many of us tend to have a “go-to” way of thinking about things, which can set us into repeated patterns. You know the adage, “If the only tool you have is a hammer, you treat everything as if it were a nail.” A hammer might be right for building some things, but in a more complex world, that tool will seem negligible. How can you help your mentees increase their repertoire of thinking tools?

You start by asking questions that illuminate the mentee’s current mindset, assumptions, and approaches. You might ask something like, “What are other possible ways of looking at this?” Once you’ve opened that door, feel free to guide your mentee through more questions designed to have them think from multiple perspectives (such as, “How do you think your client would view this?”). Be prepared with a collection of methods that might be right for the particular situation they are facing, such as those in Tool 4-3. For example, if they need to be more strategic, you might suggest they explore scenario analysis.

TOOL 4-3

EIGHT THINKING AND PLANNING METHODS

The objective here is not just getting to an answer, even if that is a wonderful result. It is also about introducing alternate ways of thinking and encouraging the mentee to seek ways to find broader perspectives and to use thinking tools that are specific to the type of situation they face.

Remember Teresa and Cedric? To get ready for further discussions with management, Teresa suggested Cedric try his hand at a well-known planning tool with which he already had some familiarity. Not only would this help prepare him for the assignment, he might end up using the same tool again with the team, to position the project once things got started. She asked him to make a first pass for their upcoming mentoring conversation. Example 4-1 is his initial use of the SWOT analysis tool.

EXAMPLE 4-1

SWOT ANALYSIS COMPLETED BY CEDRIC

Spur New Ways of Behaving

How you help your mentee think about which steps they will take gives them a template for action, their intention; it is intangible. How they behave is reflected in the tangible actions they take; it is quite visceral. Both are needed to develop full competence.

With the setting for testing a target skill identified, and prethinking about how to apply the skill clarified, the time is near for your mentee to dive in. Whether it is influencing senior management, leading a team, or taking a product from local to global, your mentee will need to muster the courage to take that stretch step … and you can certainly help with that. They can start small (especially if the actions have elements of risk, such as writing company news releases), knowing that it will take progressive steps to truly master the behavior or skill. Help your mentee visualize their actions.

Ask several questions to get the wheels turning. Two questions I consider standard are: “What actions do you intend to take?” and “What impact do you hope to have?” Using slightly different phrasing, these questions will be repeated as part of your debrief. Keep the tone of the questioning positive and hopeful rather than analytical and cautious. Providing encouragement translates into greater confidence for the mentee to be courageous. Tool 4-4 offers some helpful sample questions.

As appropriate, role play the mentee’s upcoming action with them. It will take real grit for your mentee to step into situations in a new territory. Do them a favor and make the role play realistic; avoid making it too easy. Teresa did this with Cedric during a rehearsal, and she asked both tough questions and a couple that didn’t even seem relevant. She was using the safety of their conversation to help him find out about the surprises that could be lurking. Cedric got anxious and fumbled the answers. Teresa handled the next part of the conversation positively, helping Cedric turn the mistakes into valuable lessons.

TOOL 4-4

QUESTIONS TO ASK WHEN PREPARING YOUR MENTEE TO APPLY NEW BEHAVIORS

Learning new ways of behaving through experience is never a one and done. Helping your mentee reflect on their actions is a key element of your role. You will help them fine-tune for the next time and perfect the skill.

Enlist Others for Insight and Feedback

I once had a seasoned mentor tell me, “As a professional, I used to think that doing everything myself, never including others, showed how independent and smart I was … now I know, I was really hurting myself. Finding thinking partners at work is one of the best ways that I learn.” It’s surprising how many professionals have suffered through a level of independence that is truly limiting. Seeking out others to be a development partner as a sounding board or expert guide is one of the best ways to deepen and broaden our skills. This mentor now incorporates that wisdom into all the mentoring he does. He would say that using others as resources enables mentees to:

• Increase their knowledge of the business.

• Receive feedback from a trusted and caring source.

• Understand more about the organizational landscape.

• Receive emotional support when they feel stuck.

• Learn from others’ tested approaches (and failures).

• Have someone to bounce around ideas with.

Your mentee should have a variety of thinking partners, not just you. Early in your work with them, find out how they are currently using others as resources, and likewise how they serve as a resource to others. Many mentees, early in their careers, are busy adding people to their network. Great. However, too often, their interactions with those people are simply transactional, lacking depth. Help them think about attaining true developmental partners who are working in the same environment, including trusted peers and experts as a source of information and feedback. Encourage them to create this habit for their career, and it will be as rewarding as it is developmental. Your mentee can enlist others for insight and feedback by deliberately taking the three steps as identified in Tool 4-5.

Extract the Learning

When first learning to ski, Tasha decided to take a couple formal lessons from a ski school in Vermont. The class was small and the instructor was skilled. Based on what she was learning, each time they started down a new section of the slope, Tasha took a certain posture and observed the placement of her skis and hands. She shifted her body weight to move into the turns. She could feel herself mastering it, and after a few hours was feeling a bit like a pro. At the end of the first lesson, each student was videotaped for the next day’s review.

TOOL 4-5

THREE STEPS FOR MENTEES TO CREATE A CADRE OF TRUE DEVELOPMENT PARTNERS

The next morning, with each successive video, Tasha had a keen awareness of what to look for and could spot what the classmates did well and what needed improving. Her instructor then offered more nuanced observations. Next, her video was shown. She was surprised and a bit embarrassed by what she saw. Her body looked stiff and her turns were awkward. Funny, she hadn’t realized things were a bit off-kilter. She had lacked self-awareness. Having seen this visual level of detail, Tasha was able to put feedback from her classmates into perspective. Then, her instructor chimed in, not with feedback, but with questions. The questions helped to raise awareness about her mental orientation as well as how she engaged her body. He commended her for what she accomplished as a first-timer and provided additional input. Now, she was eager to hit the slopes again, and fully master her turns.

Your mentee won’t have a camera going when carrying out their new behaviors. Your job is to help them emulate “video”-level depth by exploring the insights that can come from many angles (colleagues’ feedback, the mentee’s close observation of others’ responses, impact reported by their manager, self-insight, debrief with you), and to encourage forward thinking for next time. Learning from experience is an iterative process which, importantly, rests upon reflection after action steps (Kolb and Yeganeh 2011) … a step many people give short shrift or overlook. Your mentee can have a handy list of thoughtful questions and additional in-the-moment probes to use for reflection right after the experience. Then, they can discuss this with you in-depth at your next meeting. Having debrief discussions with you after testing a new behavior will become a regular part of your ongoing conversations.

Be sure you always relate these conversations back to elements of the mentee development plan so that forward progress is identified. Your role is to spur your mentee to think about things they never thought of before. Make the debrief a positive experience so that confidence for the next round is bolstered. Over time, they will be more observant and self-aware while it is happening, knowing that a rich debrief with you will follow. Tool 4-6 offers some potential questions you can ask during the debrief.

TOOL 4-6

QUESTIONS TO USE WITH YOUR MENTEE TO DEBRIEF A DEVELOPMENT EXPERIENCE

After meeting with management, Cedric sat down with Teresa to review what occurred. “I don’t think they are buying it, Teresa. At least, not yet,” Cedric reported; he sounded drained. “So, you wanted an immediate ‘Yes’?” she responded. He laughed, realizing his anxiety was driving impatience. “I think it is worthwhile to review this with you; whether or not the project goes forward, there is much to be learned,” she said. He agreed.

Teresa proceeded with a series of questions about his frame of mind going into the meeting, how he greeted the executives upon entry to the meeting, what content he covered with them, what they asked him, his assessment of how they felt about him, what new feelings he had about himself, and whether there was someone to provide him direct feedback from the meeting. Their conversation was thoughtful and paced. It was clear the debrief allowed him to consolidate his learning.

Finally she asked, “What did you feel most proud of, Cedric?” He paused for a moment, then excitedly told her, “I am most proud of being bold enough to take the step, prepare for it, and get them thinking about something they had not considered before. All of that feels pretty darned good.”

Based on your own practice, are you ready to help your mentee leverage experiences for development? Use Tool 4-7 to review how you have personally leveraged experience for your own development.

TOOL 4-7

MENTOR’S PERSONAL RECORD OF LEVERAGING EXPERIENCE FOR OWN DEVELOPMENT

The Next Step

Action alone rarely leads to lasting developmental change. Lasting development also requires insight and self-examination. Next, let’s explore what it takes to create the safety needed to freely examine your mentee’s work life and interactions and to increase self-awareness. Because mentees find this opportunity rare in other areas of their work lives, this step becomes a pivotal component of your mentoring and an important skill for you to have. Learn the practical tips you can use to expand growth using everyday psychology and help propel the development of your mentee.