Unleashing Your Management and Leadership Potential
Mentorship is about exploring the possibilities and building skills that help you reach your potential. Mentors and Mentees can work on skills that focus on increasing their respective management and leadership capabilities (yes, Mentors grow when helping to develop others!). But you may wonder how to focus on these skills and where to start. We will focus on the why, how, and what of reaching your management and leadership.
Unlocking Your Potential
Know where you are and what you want
Seek out a mentor
Create a plan
Be accountable to your plan
Use resources to build your skills
When starting a new mentorship, it is best to start by getting to know each and setting goals. Download my Updated Interactive Mentorship Workbook process to complete it here.
The impact of mentoring is not limited to the mentee alone; it also benefits the mentor. As Maya Angelou once said, "When you learn, teach. When you get, give." Mentoring allows experienced individuals to share their knowledge and expertise, leaving a lasting legacy. By guiding others toward their potential, mentors make a difference in their mentees' lives and experience personal fulfillment and growth.
Moreover, research supports the idea that mentoring catalyzes personal and professional growth. According to a study by Gartner, mentored employees are five times more likely to be promoted than those who are not. This statistic underscores the significance of mentoring in unlocking management and leadership potential.
The next step in Mentorship may be reviewing and addressing specific issues that the Mentee and Mentor bring at the start of the relationship. These should be addressed and may be the focus of your initial conversations and work together.
But follow these initial points, and see if you can put leadership and management growth work on the table. Why? Because these are core skills that help people do better.
According to a University of California study, leadership skills can increase your earning by 4% to 33%.
"One of the greatest values of mentors is the ability to see ahead what others cannot see and to help them navigate a course to their destination."
-John C. Maxwell, a renowned leadership expert
This quote encapsulates the essence of mentoring - the ability to provide vision and guidance that can propel individuals toward their potential.
Please note: Even if you don't have a mentor, my Workbooks and tips here can help you chart your own course. Beginning with your own journey can move you forward and lead to a great mentoring relationship in the future.
Why you need leadership and management skills
Let's start by defining what we mean and why leadership and management skills are important to your success.
While Management and Leadership are two different skill sets, they are two sides of the same coin. To realize your full potential, you should work to master both.
Management is the art of organization-led competency in action.
Leadership is the art of inspiration-driven cooperative-led outcomes.
Managers
organize
systemize
prioritize
delegates
coaches
Leaders
wonders
innovates
challenges
develops
inspires
Tools to Help you become a Better Leader and Manager
These 3 Concepts can help you to 'unpack' the various aspect of management and leadership skills. Use the information and workbooks to help you work through your improvement journey.
Assess your Management Skills
Management skills are diverse and foundational. Once you learn them, you will use them in many ways for the rest of your life.
Management is about organizing work to meet a goal. That can be in project form as a one-off, specific task. Or the day-to-day work of running a department. Managers are there to chart the course and provide a method to get the job done. If you need help with detailed user needs and solution adoption, processes, technology, people, contracting, or governance as part of that work, you will likely find the content and tools on my blog.
Managers work to understand:
What is the Goal? (what success looks like for the assigned task)
What you need to do to execute the goal (the processes, governance, and team structure you need to put into place)
Who will help (how to leverage the people who can make it happen)
Based on the above, you may need to dig deeper to understand each point. I have articles, models, and tools to help you. Below are a few highlights.
Management is about organizing work to meet a goal. That can be in project form as a one-off, specific task. Or the day-to-day work of running a department. Managers are there to chart the course and provide a method to get the job done. If you need help with detailed user needs and solution adoption, processes, technology, people, contracting, or governance as part of that work, you will likely find the content and tools on my blog.
The Tools you need to Build your Skills
Use can use the search tool to find the content you are looking for here. Or browse the 100+ articles to find one that fits your needs.
Understand and Embrace your Leadership Style
Knowing who you are, how you operate, and what aspects of your personality can help you become a better leader are key to your success. Leadership cannot be faked. Leading by example needs to be authentic and honest.
"Business leaders cannot be bystanders."
-Howard Schultz, Starbucks CEO Starbucks
Start by learning your leadership style. Take a self-assessment and reflect on the strengths you want to build on and the weak points you want to work on. You can get my guide and more on understanding your personal leadership style here.
Now that you know yourself better, determine how your strengths play into natural leadership.
Use my article on Essential Leadership Skills. Use the chart in this article to identify your best strengths you can leverage now and choose one skill you want to grow.
Create storyboards for situations you want to improve
Role Play situations with your mentor or a friend to create muscle memory
Assess your strengths and work to improve as you go
Using this method of assess, reflect, role play, and review you can build these skills with confidence.
"As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others."
-Bill Gates, Former CEO of Microsoft
Try different Mentoring Approaches
In addition to one-on-one mentoring, group mentoring can effectively unleash management and leadership potential by bringing together diverse individuals with varied experiences and perspectives. Group mentoring fosters collaboration, learning, and the exchange of ideas. This approach allows participants to learn from each other, gain new insights, and develop a broader understanding of leadership.
A Mentoring Case Study
Many successful organizations have recognized the power of mentoring. For instance, Google has implemented a formal mentoring program called "Googler-to-Googler." This program pairs experienced employees with those new to the company, providing them with the necessary guidance and support to thrive in their roles. The results speak for themselves, with mentored employees reporting higher job satisfaction and a greater sense of belonging within the organization.
Unleashing your management and leadership potential is a journey that requires guidance, support, and a commitment to growth. Mentoring is a powerful approach to helping individuals reach their potential. Whether through one-on-one or group mentoring, the transformative impact of mentoring is undeniable. So, take the leap, seek out a mentor, and embark on a journey of self-discovery and growth. The possibilities are endless, and the rewards are immeasurable.
