Leader Mentoring: Find, Inspire, and Cultivate Great Leaders

By Michael Shenkman

A compilation of moving stories and helpful guidance discusses how to become a successful mentor and leader while looking at the benefits mentoring has to all parties involved.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Career Press
• Release date: Apr 25, 2008
• ISBN: 9781601638274

Michael Shenkman

Michael Shenkman, Ph.D., president of the Arch of Leadership, a nationally recognized leader mentoring firm based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, is the author of The Arch and The Path: The Life of Leading Greatly and two other books, as well as numerous published articles. He developed the Arch of Leadership program after more than 20 years of consulting experience, extensive research, executive coaching, and mentoring. He holds a Ph.D. from Boston College and a B.A. from Dickinson College.

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Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedication

Foreword

PREFACE

Introduction

CHAPTER ONE - CHOOSING THE CANDIDATE

THE BIG PROBLEM

CHOOSING CANDIDATES FOR MENTORING

CONSIDERING THE CANDIDATES

CHAPTER TWO - THE OUTLINE FOR MENTORING A LEADER

THE COURSE STRUCTURE

THE MATERIALS

CONTENT

SELF-TRUST

ADVANCED LEADERS

CHAPTER THREE - BEING MENTORED

CHAPTER FOUR - WHO MENTORS

OUR MENTORS’ LIVES

MENTOR TRAINING

CHAPTER FIVE - MENTORING IN ACTION

CHAPTER SIX - THE PROFESSIONAL FACTOR: GREATER, NOT SMARTER

GREAT MENTORS

GREAT LEADING

EXPERIENCES AND FUTURES

SUCCESS

MENTORING VS. COACHING: A JOURNEY

CHAPTER SEVEN - THE RIGHT ROLE FOR LEADER MENTORING

THE PRACTITIONER: LIVING THE DIFFERENCE

OFFERING A CHOICE OF SERVICES

WHY THIS FIGHT

TO THE HIRING FIRM: THE VALUE PROPOSITION

A DIFFERENT MOTIVATION

WHERE DO WE FIND LEADER MENTORING? WHERE IS IT OFFERED?

AN HR CHECKLIST

LEADER MENTORING AS AN HR FOCUS

CONCLUSION

POSTSCRIPT

APPENDIX A - MENTORING ALONG THE PATH

APPENDIX B - TERMS USED IN THE ARCH OF LEADERSHIP MENTORING ROGRAM

APPENDIX C - WORKBOOK

NOTES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

"Shenkman’s thinking and mentoring strategies provided a powerful framework for designing a master of architecture program committed to the creation of leaders within the profession.

We base our master’s curriculum on Shenkman’s philosophy of leader mentoring. The practicing architects participating in the program universally feel his insights have heightened their effectiveness in promoting change within their firms and their profession."

—Curt Lamb, AIA, PhD

Executive Director, Education Initiatives,

Boston Architectural College

I have seen Shenkman’s idea of leader mentoring develop from its inception. After 10 years of experience, fine-tuning, and consolidating its approach, it is now honed to a fine point. The good managers who are selected to go into this program do emerge among our organization’s most trusted, respected, and effective leaders.

—Charles E. Hoffman

President and CEO, Covad Communications, Inc.

As a former manager who worked for 17 years on the creative edges at Intel Corporation, I learned the importance of roadmaps to the success of an engineering and technology-driven company. Mr. Shenkman has developed a roadmap that uses mentoring as a vehicle for mentors aspiring leaders in the technical environment. The result is that for some it will rock their world, and for others open up wonderful new possibilities. None will be left unchanged. And, in a technology world, change is everything.

—Barbara Brazil

Manager, Public Affairs (retired), Intel Corporation

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Copyright © 2008 by Michael Shenkman

All rights reserved under the Pan-American and International Copyright Conventions. This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or hereafter invented, without written permission from the publisher, The Career Press.

LEADER MENTORING

EDITED BY KARA REYNOLDS

TYPESET BY MICHAEL FITZGIBBON

Cover design by The DesignWorks Group

Printed in the U.S.A. by Book-mart Press

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Shenkman, Michael H.

Leader mentoring : find, inspire, and cultivate great leaders / by Michael Shenkman.

p.cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-60163-012-4

eISBN : 97-8-160-16382-7

1. Mentoring in business. 2. Leadership. I. Title.

HF5385.S56 2008

658.4’092--dc

2007046517

DEDICATION

To my father, always my first mentor;

and to my mother, who listened.

FOREWORD

BY CHARLES E. HOFFMAN PRESIDENT, CEO, COVAD COMMUNICATIONS, INC.

I had just earned my way into my first managerial job. After meeting my new team I complained to my boss that I would not have picked any of these people. He responded that you never get to pick your own people; that’s just the way it is. Well, he was wrong. Throughout time, who you decide to hire and how you treat them has significant impact on a successful career.

In the nearly 30 years since that first managerial job, I have learned a different way of looking at people, viewing them not as problems to be micromanaged, but as sources of endless opportunity. I used to say that I preferred to work with young people until I realized that my longest-tenured work colleague had just turned 60 years old. The right attributes of great employees have nothing to do with numerical age, but rather a balanced life, a young-at-heart attitude, and a willingness to accept change.

Working with these dynamic people takes not only trust in human nature, but also a belief in unlimited potential. Your love for working with people cannot be faked; rather, it has to be part of who you are to be genuine. People want to be trusted with responsibility (with accountability, of course) as long as you give them the freedom to make some mistakes, and help guide them along the way. Take the time to mentor the stars and watch out! In my experience, they will wow you with ideas and results. Extra dividends are high retention and loyalty.

Treating these stars with respect also demands that you understand that their work life is not separate from their personal life. Mentoring entails helping that person realize his or her full potential, both at work and at home. I have seen numerous examples of divorces or substance abuse problems due to an imbalance between these two aspects. Early on, I went through a divorce myself, and my manager at the time could tell, at a glance, that the previous evening did not go well. Obviously, I was not an effective employee during that period of time, though I thought I was not letting it affect my work. My manager’s patience and encouragement helped to shorten that period and got me back on track.

We may want to believe that everybody is a star and everyone can follow great leading. But those who cannot accept change, become complacent, or don’t want to develop themselves, are worthy of little effort.

I have worked for two billionaires in my career, including one who is now acknowledged as the richest man in the world. In addition to having an amazing passion for work, his distinguishing characteristic is the ability to surround himself with superstars. This is not because he pays better, and it’s certainly not because the jobs are easy. He knew how to mentor the stars. Leaders like him have high expectations, and constantly raise the bar. Because they are constantly at work, they helped me be constantly at work. These great leaders became very much a part of my entire life, not just my eight-to-five life. I could see in their eyes the genuine love for developing people. I, and many others, responded and produced enthusiastically and vigorously in this environment.

Recruiting the right people, especially leaders, is essential for your company’s success. But mentoring them to help fulfill their dreams is the ultimate personal and professional reward. Selecting the right people and leading them smartly is important, but taking the next step and mentoring your stars can achieve passionate loyalty and awesome results.

A CEO just doesn’t have time to mentor all the exciting prospects in an organization. Professional leader mentoring can fill this important gap. It multiplies and intensifies the mentoring I would personally like to do. Shenkman built his program with this intention in mind. Professional leader mentoring clearly and practically demonstrates the power of this approach. I have seen this program develop from its inception. It is now honed to such a fine point that good managers who are selected to go into this program do emerge among our organization’s most trusted, respected, and effective leaders.

PREFACE

I apologize to the reader in advance if, by using my company’s own materials and processes, it seems that some of what follows seems to be self-promotional. I also refer frequently to my own book, The Arch and the Path: The Life of Leading Greatly (Sandia Heights Media, 2005). Given the state of leader mentoring—that is, a state of its being nearly nonexistent—there are just precious few examples from other cases to cite. There have been many studies about leader effectiveness and what techniques work best, but none that I have found about the effect of mentors on leaders.

At least I can assure the reader of this as I use our firm’s work as the basis for making our case:

Our mentoring process was developed with a view toward the literature on mentoring and adult transformation (see the Bibliography). It was also developed in the field, in the course of meeting with scores of aspiring leaders. Its methodology emerged from what these exciting and daring people were asking us to help them with. Finally, it was built in contrast to more than 15 years of executive coaching—applying all the established parameters of that profession.

With those qualifications in mind, let’s proceed.

INTRODUCTION

LEADER MENTORING

The scene: a conference my company is conducting for one of our clients. Nearly 30 people—senior managers, directors, and scientists—have gathered for the event. This conference is the second of three group-learning sessions conducted during our eight-month leader-mentoring program. To kick off the conference, our client sponsor has arranged for one of its most respected VPs to attend and recount his personal path to becoming a leader.

This VP (we’ll call him Dan) has come to the conference with no prior prompting or preparation. Our program is new to this organization, so there was no history or reputation for him to fall back on for a sense of what was about to happen; he was not briefed by me or anyone on what to say. The sponsor simply told this VP that we wanted to hear his story about how he became a leader (not a manager), and we wanted it to be spontaneous.

So here is what Dan told the group:

Let me begin with a story from when I was a young manager, in a position junior to what you in this room now hold, he began. "It starts with Larry, a VP whom some of you might remember. I met him only once, more than a decade ago. I was working on an important project, under the scrutinizing gaze of the whole organization. We were all counting on the success of this project. But it failed.

"A few days following this failure, my immediate boss, AJ, whom some of you may remember as being a tough guy to work for (and I worked for him for 15 years!) came by my office to inform me that we were both going to go see the VP—none other than Larry. Not good, I assumed.

"AJ and I stepped into the VP’s office with all the trepidation one would expect after such a high-profile failure. ‘So what happened?’ the VP asked, after a few very brief preliminaries.

"AJ and I looked at each other, trying to decide silently who would answer first. AJ took it on. He was forceful but not defensive about our preparation and about how we’d incorporated all that we knew and understood at the time. The technology of the project was daunting, and obviously not particularly interesting to Larry. I only added, ‘I don’t know if we’ll ever know what exactly when wrong.’

"‘Well, it was a difficult project, but we’re here to do difficult things. Get it right the next time,’ Larry barked, looking straight at me.

"I left the office while AJ remained behind. As I left, I felt stunned and relieved, but amazed most of all. A next time? There would be a next time? I actually felt uplifted and buoyant as I made my way back to my team and relayed the exciting news. We were getting a second chance!

"After a year’s worth of more dogged, hard, and often frustrating work, the project failed once again. Even more so than the previous time, I was devastated. I stood out on a balcony overlooking the site of the failed test and never felt more alone, feeling like the world caved in. After some time—I don’t know how long—AJ approached me from behind, put a hand on my shoulder and said, ‘I know how you feel, but pull yourself together, Dan. The people on your team are inside and they need you. Go back in there. We’ll talk about all this in the morning.’

"That second failure happened 10 years ago. It’s ironic that I am here, in front of you, senior managers and directors, in a mentoring program, telling this story. After times like these—and there were more—did I ever imagine I would be a VP in this organization, filling Larry’s shoes? Did I ever imagine I’d be asked to speak to a group of our most distinguished managers and scientists about my experience as a leader? Certainly not!"

At that point, Dan paused. He became pensive. As he took off his glasses and looked down at the table in front of him, he seemed to be recalling that moment standing alone out on the balcony. In a moment, he collected himself, looked up, and locked his attention back on the conference attendees.

Only a few months back, in an airport (where else?!), I met up with Larry, that VP who so long ago gave me that second chance, Dan resumed. "Up until that moment in the airport, I hadn’t seen Larry again after our meeting in his office. He’s retired now, but, incredibly, he recognized me, seemed glad to see me, and so we started to talk. That’s when he surprised me a second time. I told him about my own promotion to the position he once held. ‘That’s great,’ Larry said, ‘a lot of people, for a long time, had been grooming you for that.’ In that instant, I suddenly realized, through all those failures (and successes too), through all the many times of testing me, and my anxiety about how something had turned out, through of all of that...I was being mentored the whole time!

"I knew about some of the mentors I had throughout that time, like AJ, my boss out there on the balcony. I would have followed him into hell after that experience on the balcony with such much-appreciated support he was giving me at that trying moment. But I didn’t know about some of my other mentors, such as Larry, for example. And maybe there were others too! So I am here today, in front of you and with you, here at a ‘mentoring conference’ to tell you all this: no mentors, no leaders!"

Dan had been lucky. A decade ago he’d worked with people who had taken the concept and practice of leader mentoring very seriously. Today, due mainly to the pressures and demands of corporate/executive life, true mentoring is rarely done. And when it is done, in the context of in-house mentoring programs for instance, it is usually thought of as helping younger employees with career advancement and getting them connected with the right people, the ones they’ll need to know in order to get ahead.

Dan’s organization was different. It still valued mentoring. Because it showed appreciation for how difficult it can be for managers to clear the time to really do leader mentoring, our sponsor had hired us to come in and help them do it right.

PROFESSIONAL LEADER MENTORS?

What is a professional leader mentor? What does one do? How do professional leader mentors contribute to an organization’s success? What value do they provide when compared with other professional advisory and consulting services?

I view leader mentoring as an exceptional and most ancient relationship that has been offered through the eons, to people who step out of the norms of everyday life in order to offer the possibility of transforming new possibilities into the products, services, and institutions that mark our everyday life. Leader mentoring views leading as a creative enterprise, and as such views each leader as one whose talents and energies need to be channeled and shaped to the rigorous demands of leading. Mentoring happens because someone has the aspiration to create followers in this great adventure, so that collaboration can improve lives. Mentoring is necessary because the pitfalls in leading are many, the rewards few, and the demands unending. The leader cares about the followers, and the mentor cares about the leader. In this great chain of care and attention, great things can happen.

Mentoring differs from instruction, teaching, and coaching in that it emphasizes the qualities and values of life that are needed to sustain oneself in the creative endeavor, not the talents and skills used for the purpose of executing a project. Mentoring is a manner of both exemplifying a way of life and testing the initiate as he embarks upon this new way. As a result of the mentoring process, a master determines whether or not the initiate has a chance of succeeding in this life of leading.

Leader mentoring focuses on the creative aspects of leading. We envision leading as being on a continuum of creative endeavors, rather than being a salient point of a managerial process. Leading often involves a lot of drudgery, and so we fully acknowledge how leading within a contemporary organizational setting is embedded (or fully submerged) within the culture of managerial expertise, and its exacting demands for productive excellence.

But leading came before managing. Leading also came before art, and before words were ever spoken. Leading pulses in the heart and drives the rhythm of conscious, organized life (as observations of other mammalian species attest). In its human form, at its core, leading is a creative force. To the extent that humans are able to consolidate visions into realities, leaders make that possible. To the extent that humans bring into existence more expansive and encompassing, and more satisfying and sustaining, ways for people to engage with each other and their natural environments, leaders are doing their work.

Through the years it has been my observation that in our business and service organizations, in the crunch to meet demands for stockholder returns and compete internationally, with budgets cut and timeframes for production squeezed to the breaking point, mentoring has been all but discarded. This book asks you to consider this proposition: It’s high time for it to once again assume a special place in the way we find, inspire, and cultivate our prospective and aspiring leaders. We ask you to consider that leader mentoring needs to be regarded as a high-level advisory and transformational service to those we perceive will one day become our future leaders. It needs to be