MENTORS BEWARE! The Rules are Changing

The rules are changing.

Mark Affleck

Posted February 19, 2014

http://www.yellowchairstrategy.com

It’s true. The already steep responsibility of
mentorship is getting steeper. Not because the
need for mentors has changed. It hasn’t. In
fact, we need mentors more than ever before.
It’s the changing environment that must be
considered.

The rules are changing.

In this presentation on MENTORING, I’ll drill down into over 25
years of my own experience as a CEO Leader and Strategist.

Mark Affleck



Before unpacking what’s changed
for mentors, let’s clear up some confusion
around the difference between

coaching
mentoring
Mark Affleck



THE COACHING

“TRANSACTION”
Coaching is tactical and transactional with a goal to teach
someone how to “build the individual parts” that
make up a bigger whole. The coaching process is more specific
than mentoring.
It features the exchange of precise
information from an experiential-driven knowledge base.

Mark Affleck



Coaches set task-oriented goals
and introduce accountability into the
process. The coaching relationship
typically focuses on incremental
improvement of performance-driven
metrics with some kind of objective
measurement of value.

Coaches moves the process from Point
to

Mark Affleck

A

Point B through step-by-step replication.



coaching mission

The
is to improve
knowledge, skills or abilities in the person being
coached so later they can better perform the task or
work on their own.

Coaches try to direct a person to a
destination end state by strategically and
efficiently guiding the process along the way.

Mark Affleck



Coaches are detail-oriented and less
concerned about having a deeper connection with the
mentee—although close relationships often develop
in the course of coaching engagements.

Coaches usually operate against a clock that is largely
absent in mentoring. When the work is complete, that
engagement ends. That’s a very quick view of coaching. On the
next page we’ll get back to mentoring and those changing rules.

Mark Affleck



The BIG PICTURE for mentors
Coaching is a tactical exercise that depends on
a good strategy (mentoring). It’s much like
the difference between organizational
tactics and strategy where deploying
tactics without a crystallized vision and
strategy leads to results ranging all the
way from mild confusion to a big failure.

Mentoring, on the other hand, pivots off how the individual parts that are
addressed in coaching fit together to form the larger, complete
picture. Mentors are expected to improve the overall understanding of
another person, rather than developing or improving a basic skill.

Mark Affleck



The Mentor’s role is not hierarchical where the “expert”
sits atop a

throne and dishes out wisdom to aspirational

individuals sitting below.

No thrones.

The mentoring relationship is a power free,

mutually beneficial learning experience. Mentors
provide advice, share knowledge and teach their mentee
through a low pressure,

Mark Affleck

self-discovery process.



Mentoring is a long-term commitment that
requires the mentor’s time investment because they
aren’t just teaching their mentees; they must connect
at a deeper and more inspirational level.

Mentors focus on the person and their
life/career to generate individual growth,
maturity, and greater understanding. They
become an advocate and sounding board
about life’s bigger picture for the mentee.

Mark Affleck



MENTORS: A NEW RULEBOOK
OK…fair enough. Mentors are different than coaches
and focus on the bigger picture to help the mentee
successfully move through life and career. And,
clearly, that critical role is not changing.

So what is changing that produces
a new way of thinking for mentors?
It’s the filter through which mentors do their work that has changed.
I call it the ChangeAge.
A world without borders. A world buffeted by
an information hurricane. A world where the
future is not a linear extension of the present.

Mark Affleck



Mentors need to embrace the reality that tomorrow will be faster than
today and smart work will replace hard work. That we must deal with NOW
by embracing the mammoth contradictions in our midst. While everything is
changing, nothing is changing at all.

Wal-Mart still sells hair
spray and mouse traps.

Google still helps us
search the Internet.

Mark Affleck

Apple’s iPhone still zooms out
of the factory like lightening.

Ford still builds cars and trucks.


Mobil still sells gasoline from
street corners across America.

Microsoft still sells the world
Windows (at least for now).


In front of the

CONTRADICTION CURTAIN

are the inexorable churnings of the ChangeAge which produce these

five rule changes for mentors:
#1
#2

The CAREER LADDER is down.

#3

It’s COMMUNITY, not company.

#4

The end of HIERARCHY.

#5

Mark Affleck

The CONTINUOUS LEARNING imperative.

The rise of BRANDING DISTINCTION.


Turn the
page for
the details.


#1

Rule
Change
Mentors must know that:

The CONTINUOUS LEARNING imperative

Everyone has a new job in 2013, and a new
responsibility–lifetime self-management
and continuous learning. It’s the only value
we can sustain over time and through the
tumult of the ChangeAge. The entire
industrialized world is grappling with the
same monster.

Mark Affleck



#2

Rule
Change

The CAREER LADDER Is down.

Everyone is vulnerable because they have taken
down the CAREER LADDER. With it, Lifetime
employment has vanished. The regular merit
raise, gone. Individualism, management
supervision, paternalism, and top-down
command and control power…all gone.

Mark Affleck



#3

Rule
Change

It’s COMMUNITY, not company.

Mentors must know that . . .
The strength of a business today is measured by its relationships
and connections outside the office. Organizations have no choice
but to build a community–not a traditional
company. Increasingly, they are hiring people
provocateurs who can push for connections in
the organization’s ecosystem and value--truly
value--all customers, every partner, and the
entire staff of workers.

Mark Affleck



#4

Rule
Change

The end of HIERARCHY

Leaders who progressed through the
old hierarchical system are struggling
to keep up. Their quantitative skills and
arrogance are often useless in a world
driven more and more by technology
and communication abilities.

Mark Affleck


These individuals are
frequently benched in the
new game which is teambased, collaborative,
technology focused, and less
rigid cross functionally. And
that “good-old-boy”
network that protected
those leaders is now a relic.


#5

Rule
Change
The rise of

BRANDING DISTINCTION.

Being “competent” is merely the price of entry in the competitive ChangeAge.
Everyone is competent, at least on their website. Obviously we need to be
competent at what we do, but success today comes when we leverage those
competencies by creating a “Core Distinction.” We must capture our essence
and value in the marketplace, relative to the competition.

Like it or not…

Personal Branding
is here to stay.

Mark Affleck



MENTORS: Don’t mourn
the death of hierarchy…
Celebrate the
dawning of an
exciting
opportunity to
paint new pictures
for your mentees
on a blank canvas.

Mark Affleck



The Author
CEO Change Leader Strategist Issues & Crisis Manager
As CEO of YellowChair Strategy, he helps leaders transform
their organization to “survive today and thrive tomorrow.”

Mark Affleck


MARK AFFLECK


MENTORS BEWARE! The Rules are Changing

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