2
Laying the Cards on the Table
Roshan came back with the coffee and Johann, who had been making small talk, now turned his full attention to Debra's professional situation. Pulling his seat forward slightly, he gave his card to Debra who looked at it carefully before handing him her own. Pleasantries over, Johann got straight to business, admitting “I'm afraid I don't know as much about you as I would like as this has all happened rather quickly.”
“Yes,” said Debra.
Johann nodded as she stopped speaking. Although she was perfectly polite, did he detect a note of not exactly apathy but certainly a lack of enthusiasm? Maybe even hostility? He decided to probe a little further.
“So tell me a little bit about yourself and why you're here.”
Debra took a deep breath. “Well, I'm 32 years old. I have an MBA. I've been promoted four times in six years and I moved to this company eight months ago when I was made an offer I couldn't refuse.” She stopped. “It wasn't just the money although I won't lie the package was very attractive and, of course, it's a prestigious organization; but it was also the chance for growth and development that I was shown.”
Johann took a chance, “And do you feel, now, that you made the right decision?”
The hesitation was obvious as Debra's mouth opened slightly.
Johann interjected: “I'm sorry. I should have been clear up front on confidentiality. Assuming you don't tell me anything illegal or against the company's rules, everything we say in here is completely confidential and I will share nothing without your express say so. That's one of the rules of the programme and I take it very seriously.”
Debra's shoulders fell and she leaned forward. “To be honest, I'm not sure. I enjoy my work and I think I do a good job. In fact I know I do a good job but I've just been turned down for a job that I know I can do and been assigned a mentor!” Listening to her voice rise and the tension creep in, Johann prompted her.
“So it doesn't sound like you're very happy with the situation?”
“Would you be?!” Debra paused before starting again in a calmer voice: “I have already done the majority of that job. The only difference would really have been the size of the geography – I'd have been working across the whole region which really is the only next move for me if I'm going to stay here. And I don't want to leave – it's a great company, I like the people and the work …”
“And you've only been here eight months,” Johann suggested.
“Quite,” Debra agreed dryly. “Even in today's environment that could seem a bit flaky.” She stopped, embarrassed that she had admitted considering this to someone so senior.
Johann just nodded his head. The internal recruiter had already flagged that he had received Debra's CV from a “recruitment consultant” who clearly wasn't doing his job properly if he thought it was ok to send resumes to current employers! “And the mentoring programme?”
Debra looked puzzled so Johann elaborated, “you said you know you do a good job but you've been turned down and given a mentor.”
“Exactly. Again, I don't understand it. I get good performance reviews. I'm always level 4 or 5 or ‘matching’ or ‘exceeding’ expectations. I'm involved in a lot of cross-functional projects and now I'm being pulled away from my work. For what? I don't get it!”
Johann paraphrased, “So you feel like the mentoring programme is for people with performance issues and you don't believe that this description applies to you?”
“Exactly!”
“And nobody has discussed this with you?”
Debra shrugged, “Well, one of the guys from HR told me that there was a mentoring programme for people who need help to get to the next level and I was lucky enough to have been chosen.”
Johann shook his head and smiled. “OK, let's try something. Think about these questions. What percentage of people in this company would like a promotion? And what percentage would need some help to get there? And what percentage does the company invest in time and energy and, let's be frank, money to the extent that they get to work with, and I say this with no false modesty, a very experienced and talented senior manager?”
Debra grinned as she noticed Johann dip his head and raise his hand as though to toast his own brilliance. “Fair point. I suppose you could look at it like that. I guess this is an investment in me.”
“Exactly! We can see you are a high performer and we believe you have the potential to rise much further in the organization. We don't want to lose you but nor do we want to set you up to fail. In other words, the mentoring is not because we don't believe you can do the job, it is because we want to prepare you to succeed. This is not just because we're lovely people but because it makes economic sense for us to do so. It costs a lot of money to hire you, and we haven't got our return out of you yet! On top of that, we want to invest in you so that you're worth more to us. What do you think?”
Debra was still smiling. “Well, when you put it like that. But come on, let's be honest. I've heard this all before. There's always another training course to go on.”
“Exactly. Look, I get it, but the worst-case scenario for you is that this is a ‘fad’ and we're just paying lip service and you'll waste a bit of time but you can always look for another job then.” He looked at Debra. “Or maybe you'll find that it's useful. What have you got to lose? Looking at your last review you said that you felt that you hadn't got enough development opportunities. This is a development opportunity if you want it.”
Debra thought for a moment. She couldn't see what was in it for him – why was he giving up his time for this? I suppose he could just be bored, she thought. She imagined he was probably making a nice amount of money, had a nice wife, a nice life – their kids were doing ok at school and they could afford to travel and buy nice things. Maybe he'd been doing the same job for ages and just wanted to “give something back”. She stopped her eyes from rolling, aware that Johann was looking at her.
“OK,” she said brightly, “how does it work then?”
“The idea is that we meet twice a month for about 60 minutes a time. How we use the time is up to you. We can work on particular skills you want to develop and, ideally, we'd work on something that was ‘real’. For example if you want to improve your ‘stage presence’ in presentations or write better emails or develop your ability to influence others we can work on that. Whatever you want – we just have to be clear on what we are trying to achieve and why. From there we'll work out a plan and then implement it.”
“Sounds great – I'd like to have someone I can trust to talk things over with. It seems like a lot of work for you though? Do you do this with others?” Debra was interested to find out how many other people were given this “special” opportunity.
“Yes, a few. It changes over time. People come and go and sometimes I know I'm going to be particularly busy – like last year when my grand-daughter was born I started to reduce the number of people I work with. But I missed it so here we are …”
Debra murmured “I see” as Johann pulled out a photo of a pretty little girl about 10 months old. “Beautiful,” she said, smiling and, after a respectful pause, “So, tell me, when and where would we meet?”
“I like to devote a whole day every week – other mentors do it differently but I've found this to work best for me. You can have as much time as you like – first come, first served but the minimum is a 15-minute phone call and the default expectation is to meet for 60 minutes face to face. The most important thing I've found is to meet regularly and to stick to the meetings we agree. If we don't then it becomes difficult to maintain momentum.”
Johann paused and smiled, “I should tell you one thing – I have a hard time with lateness as I read it as disrespectful, regardless of my best attempts to see it otherwise since I know it's not always the case. Anyway, work with my PA, Janet, to make it happen. She'll be in touch tomorrow to make sure you have all the necessary contact details. But the responsibility of making the appointment is yours.” Johann looked directly at Debra as he spoke; he wanted her to understand that this was important.
Debra nodded agreement. She, too, struggled with people being late for meetings or work – she dreaded to think how much time the company was losing every year as a result of all these “small” delays. Maybe she could work with this guy after all.
“So we've covered why we're here (we want to keep you) and what we want to achieve (you being ready for the next step) and we've also dealt with some logistics – how often we'll meet, and how you'll set up the meetings.”
Johann took a deep breath. He still found it difficult to state what seemed to be obvious to him but he knew, from experience, how much of a difference it made to be completely transparent where possible.
“I'd like to be up front about what I want to get out of the mentoring work we'll do and also about my concerns. I'd like to share them very honestly and hear your thoughts. My experience tells me that this helps to make sure the work we do is successful. Then I'd like to hear the same thing from you. Is that ok?”
Debra nodded again. This was more of the “airy fairy” approach she had been expecting from a “mentor.”
“Great. So, obviously I'm a boring old man who has been everywhere and seen everything and am now wise and grey-bearded so this is a great opportunity for me to have a captive audience.”
Johann trailed off as he realized that Debra wasn't entirely sure he was joking. He grinned. Although he was a grandfather he was still a young man at 55. Wasn't he? The grin faded.
“Joke! Although you should be clear that there are, in fact, some substantial potential rewards for me in mentoring you – Sun Microsystems compared the career progress of about 1000 employees over a five-year period and found that mentors were six times more likely to have been promoted and both mentors and mentees were about 20 per cent more likely to get a raise compared to others not in the programme.
“And the skills I've learned as a mentor have been really useful in my current day job too. So many of us come into management and we don't get enough training, or it's at the wrong time, or we've got a boss or a rewards system that forces us to create bad habits so that we aren't the best managers we could be.”
Debra nodded, recognizing a number of the managers she'd dealt with.
“The mentoring training helped me to formally look at what I do and about how to get better. Really simple things that made a real difference.
“And, of course, there is the increased job and personal satisfaction – the rewards of seeing someone you've helped progress and succeed are probably the best thing.
“You know, I have been around the block a bit and learned some things and it's very rewarding to have a chance to share what little I do know.”
Johann felt he'd gone on too long.
“But it's not just about what I know, it's also about helping you to develop in other ways and we need to work out what those are! So what about you? What do you want to get out of the work we do together? From me? How can I help you?”
Debra leaned back in her chair and took a sip of coffee. Johann seemed nice but she had had her fingers burned before. She decided to be as up front as he was.
“What I don't get,” she sipped again, “is why the company is putting, as you said, so much time and energy into this mentoring thing?”
“Because it works!” Johann looked genuinely excited now as he leaned forward, his hands gesticulating.
“Organizations that continuously support mentoring achieve amazing results: they report increased retention rates, improved morale, increased job satisfaction and commitment, accelerated leadership development, better succession planning, reduced stress and stronger, more cohesive teams. We want some of that and we've found that, if we work at it, we can get it.”
“OK,” Debra was convinced that Johann, at least, really believed what he was saying but she still struggled. “So, really, how does this whole thing work?”
“It's almost like there must be more to it than just we meet and talk about stuff and things change as a result, right? And of course there is except, at the same time, there isn't!”
Debra looked more perplexed now than when she'd asked the question.
“Let me try again. It's like this. You have something you want to do better and the time we have together is time to get help on how to do that, then you and I go away and do the things we've agreed would help, then we meet again, see how it went, make any adjustments and, when we're happy, we move onto the next issue we'd like to tackle.”
“That sounds easy.” Debra relaxed.
“Exactly. You can use me as a safe place where you can try out new ideas and see how they fit. We can try to spot problems before they arrive and prepare for them. We can celebrate achievements and learn from setbacks and then, when you're bored with me and have wrung all you can from me, you will just up and leave!”
Debra was startled. She looked at Johann carefully. Relieved she started to laugh – clearly, Johann's sense of humour would need some getting used to.
“In the meantime, my job is to challenge you to think about what you really want, what new things you need to do to get them, new ways to think about things and to do things. We can talk about whatever you want and, if you need help in an area I don't know about I'll happily help you find someone who can sort you out. In my experience most of the issues are around people and what are called ‘soft’ skills but I'm interested to hear what you'd like to work on. Hit me!”
What do I have to lose? Debra thought. “Well OK. I suppose, off the top of my head, I'd like to work out why I didn't get the promotion and work on my issues related to that. Or the issues I'm perceived to have at least!”
“Great. And remember that these objectives can change. Once we've done something we'll re-evaluate and see what we want to work on next. OK? So let's say that in the subsequent session we're going to work out what stopped these people from giving you, so obviously qualified and clearly brilliant, this job which you could do with two hands tied behind your back!” Johann grinned at Debra. “So how are we going to do that? Where can you get information about why you didn't get the job?”
“Er, I guess I have the feedback from HR. And my own opinions of course.”
“Both great sources of information. Where else can you get information on how you might be perceived? And the impact this has on you? And people around you?”
“I did a 360 a couple of years ago but that was in a different company …”
“It might be useful though if it's the only thing you've got. Anything else?”
“There's the performance review I had a couple of months back.”
“Perfect. Anything else? Any psychometric tools or coaching reports for example? An assessment centre maybe?”
Debra agreed that she did have a rather old report from a psychometric assessment that she was prepared to share. The rest of the session was spent in logistics and small talk as they started to get to know each other better and they agreed that Janet would be in touch the next day. Just before she left, however, as she was shaking hands with Johann, he asked Debra one last question that was to give her food for thought over the next day …
Key Takeaways