Mentoring on the Run: White-Water Wisdom

Speed is both the genie and the ogre for today’s supervisors. Some thrive on it; some long for the olden days. Like it or not, however, warp speed (a.k.a. cycle time, just in time, or out of time) is a trademark of our unpredictable work environments.

Dubbed “permanent white water” by Peter Vaill in Managing as a Performing Art, the nature of today’s business world challenges the supervisor’s coaching and mentoring responsibilities. There are too many “I’ll have to get back to you” responses to “Help me figure out how to” requests. The pressure to do wins out over the requirement to teach and learn. What can you do to coach on the run and still be effective? How can you keep up with the demands of the “Time’s up!” moment while making sure protégés receive the one-on-one attention, support, and tutelage they need to avoid skill obsolescence? Below are three tips for navigating through the white water.

Take Time for Learner Readiness

Great athletes always warm up, no matter how short the event. Under time pressure, many mentors tend to give short shrift to ascertaining whether the protégé is ready to learn. Lines like “Let me get right to the punch line” risk neglecting the protégé’s learning needs and leaving him overwhelmed and confused. Remember the old truism that longer planning time results in shorter implementation time, and less time overall? The same is true for learning.

No matter how little time you have for teaching, always take time to find out (1) the employee’s immediate learning needs and goals (“What do you need to learn?”), (2) any pressing concerns that might affect how you would help, and (3) the employee’s ideas on how you might be most helpful.

Beware of “Let Me Just Show You How!”

Good mentors don’t rescue, they support. The temptation of most leaders under the gun is to resort to demonstration rather than supportive direction. The real motivation behind “Let me just show you how” is to get the work out while ostensibly helping the employee learn. This approach may boost short-term performance, but long-term proficiency suffers.

Does this mean that the mentor should never demonstrate a procedure? Of course not. The employee can often benefit from being shown how as she learns to do it for herself. But before you touch the keyboard, equipment, or report, ask yourself two questions: (1) Am I rescuing myself or supporting her? and (2) Will my demonstration increase or decrease independence?

Build Strong Parts Rather Than Weak Wholes

You’re ten minutes away from rushing out the door to go to an important all-day meeting. One of your employees walks into your cubicle and announces, “I’m stuck on this new M60 filterator process you asked me to learn. Can you spare a few minutes to help me figure it out?” You know that it will actually take thirty or forty minutes to explain adequately; the employee has received only an overview orientation. Being late to the meeting is not an option, but you want some M60 performance from this protégé today. What do you do?

Many mentors would give a ten-minute condensation of the forty-minute lesson and hope the employee could then muddle though. The result of such a hit-and-run approach is likely to be complete confusion; an hour after you’re gone, the employee will remember only a blur. A better approach is to identify the ten-minute part of your forty-minute lesson that is most crucial to getting started and cover that part thoroughly. Solid learning on a key part will create confident momentum and enable the protégé to learn the rest on his or her own. Competence in a limited area is better than vague awareness of the whole.

The futurists tell us that the days of “Take your time!” are over for the business world; a “Time’s up!” pace, whether blessing or curse, is now essential to success. At the same time, employees must remain up to date on mastery of new skills. Superior mentors will be those who can competently tutor on the run.