A cold, windy and snowy day today! I have had some time to reflect on the successes over the past week and look forward to the challenges that will come this week. I was blessed again this past week to have developed some relationships that I know will be long term. Some of these relationships are a good two and a half hour drive from my home so I am concerned about maintaining the synergy that we are building because of the distance between us. Should I be concerned?
Mentoring is all about the trusted relationship and the ability to be able to communicate with each other. How you communicate is also important and that medium is normally driven by the person that you are working with in your mentoring capacity. I asked a question the other day, “When I come back for our next conversation, would you mind if I brought along someone that I would be training to do what I do today?” The answer was emphatically “YES, I would not be receptive to someone else partaking in our conversation!” This reinforces the need for that trusted relationship and the faith that someone has in you as their mentor. They only want the relationship with you – and for reasons that only they can explain.
When I look at some of the engagements that I am doing now that focus on creating an engaged, empowered and accountable workforce enabled through a mentoring culture I need to make sure that I have a plan for providing support when the organization and the employees move to maintenance mode. The onus shifts from what I am doing to the organization and its people to maintain the mentoring culture. Now we know that there will be bumps along the way even in the maintenance mode. That is why we as mentors provide the ongoing support to those that we work with to ensure that they can think their way through new challenges.
When I am working with an organization and their employees in another country I will have in place a plan that will address the ongoing support for the organization but more importantly for the people that I have developed that trusted relationship with! That is so critical to all the stakeholders in this situation. So how will we work through this when we are working with people in another country? Through the development of a trusted relationship we will be able to determine the communication wants and needs of each individual that we work with. Once we move to maintenance mode – that communication may well shift to the use of technology as a means to communicate. We would want to have a plan in place though to address an accumulation of challenges that may require more face to face time. The bottom line, “Making you successful is what matters®!”
No matter the distance, we are never really that far away and can always ensure that through the “power of mentoring” we can help you grow personally and professionally and increase productivity in your organization.