Every leader needs a mentor

Professor Judy McKimmCombined SIG Workshop

26-28 July 2019Sydney

Aims • To provide an overview of how mentoring can

help develop leadership skills and behaviours• To highlight some key approaches,

opportunities and challenges• To stimulate discussion

Medical leadership ‘Medical leadership and management’ describes the engagement of doctors at all stages of their career in the leadership and management, not just of clinical situations, but of services, organisations, departments and improvement initiatives

Professional development framework

Sanction Formalsupport

Formalassessment

Remediation

• Additional time• Time out/break• Extra tuition

• Mentoring• Supervision• Coaching• Preceptorship

• Performance management

• Disciplinary/FtP• Expulsion

• Examinations• Workbased

assessments• Revalidation• Relicensing

Referral tooutside

agencies

Mentoring • Mentors provide guidance, support and advice to

help mentees make transition or to assist professional development

• Mentor is typically more senior or more experienced than the mentee - ‘the guide on the side’ or ‘wise counsel’

• Many organisations have formal mentoring schemes for new staff

Coaching “… typically refers to methods of helping others to improve, develop, learn new skills, find personal success, achieve aims and to manage life change and personal challenges. Coaching commonly addresses attitudes, behaviours and knowledge, as well as skills, and can also focus on physical and spiritual development” (www.businessballs.com/coaching.htm)

• Aims to develop individual capabilities and potential to unlock performance and achieve personal and/or organisational goals

• Coaching can be very helpful for people who are at a career ‘crossroads’ or who need help in making life and work decisions

Counselling “Counselling and psychotherapy are umbrella terms that cover a range of talking therapies. They are delivered by trained practitioners who work with people over a short or long term to help them bring about effective change or enhance their wellbeing” (British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy)

• Counselling should always be carried out by trained counsellor • Basic counselling skills such as active listening, building rapport and

reframing are all useful communication skills that can be used in a range of settings

Mentoring or coaching?

Mentoring is for transitionsCoaching is for decisions

Mentoring: benefits for mentees• Improved performance and productivity• Career opportunities and advancement• Improved knowledge and skills• Greater confidence and wellbeing

Garvey and Garrett-Harris (2005)

Benefits to the organisation• Increased motivation and

performance• Policy implementation• Better ‘talent’ management• Enhanced knowledge and skills• Supports change initiatives• Succession planning

A mentor’s skills and qualities You need a mentor or coach to: be interested in you have the knowledge, skills and experience to guide you ask the right questions or provide the right advice set boundaries and maintain professional confidentiality be available act as a role model

Building an effective relationship • Building and maintaining an effective relationship is central• Approach taken depends on how person or task focused the

activities are and whether they are more personal or job related• Depending on the duration and level of the relationship, certain

elements need to be addressed by both parties:• building trust• willingness to engage in the activity • mutual respect

• Trust is essential and once broken, is hard to recover

Building the relationship

Source: www.community4me.com/images/relationships.jpg

ClutterbuckSuggests two main models of mentoring:• The sponsorship model – where a mentor takes on a

protégé, mentor has power and influence and can help mentee achieve organisational or professional goals – a ‘hand up’

• The developmental model – fits into the support framework, goes alongside coaching, helps mentee find own solutions – longer term sustainability

Clutterbuck D. Everyone Needs a Mentor: Fostering Talent at Work. London: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, 2004

GROW model (Whitmore 2009)

Source: www.mentoringforchange.co.uk/classic

T-GROW model Simple framework to help you work towards your goal and navigate difficult terrain

• T is for topic• When setting Goals - useful to start with the current Reality or to set some

provisional Goals, then come back to the current reality to generate Options• Action planning tools are useful to decide whether goals are realistic and

expand options• When thinking about the current Reality, difficult conversations may result -

self-development tools can be helpful • Will is about motivation, willingness to develop and sometimes, to change –

end with ‘what will I do?’

Group supportIn addition to or alongside one-to-one conversations, professional development can occur in group settings, including: • Peer and co-mentoring• Group supervision • Action learning sets• Step back groups

Source: www.adhdkingston.org.uk

Key pointsEach session needs to have clear goals and

purpose, lead to action points and close satisfactorilyBuilding rapport and maintaining a trustful

relationship will help the exploration of more difficult or stressful issuesFollow up actions need to be carried out in a

timely and appropriate fashion

3 STAGES OFPROF DEVEL

UndergraduatePostgraduate

CPD

3 KEY PERSONALQUALITIES

CompassionGritEI

3 EXPERTISE SETSYour ‘industry’

Personal qualitiesWider context

3 LEVELSIntrapersonalInterpersonalOrganisation

3 COREVALUESIN ACTION

AccountabilityAdvocacyActivism

3 WAYS OF LEARNING

TheoryPhronesisFeedback

SKILL SETSLeadership

ManagementFollowership

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Daffodil field by Amanda Slater (2008) CC BY-SA 2.0

Three skill sets - the ‘leadership triad’

1. Management: planning, providing stability and order (‘doing things right’)

2. Leadership: change, setting direction and adaptability (‘doing the right thing’)

3. Followership: We do not lead all the time. Being able to be a good ‘follower’ helps groups, teams and organisations function smoothly

Daffodil field by Amanda Slater (2008) CC BY-SA 2.0

Three levels of learning 1. Intrapersonal – involves getting to know yourself,

developing self insight, understanding strengths and weaknesses and how you respond under pressure

2. Interpersonal – working in teams, with other people, patients, colleagues, how do others see you?

3. Organisational/system – learning about and understanding wider systems and organisations, politics, processes, managing change and improvement

Daffodil field by Amanda Slater (2008) CC BY-SA 2.0

Three expertise sets – gaining credibility as a leader

1. By understanding your ‘industry’ (e.g. health service improvement) Know how healthcare systems, structures, funding and QI/SI initiatives work Possess a theoretical knowledge of QI and SI Understand the wider socio-cultural, political and economic context to keep abreast

of trends and policies 2. Become an ‘expert’ in your area, project or initiative helps to build credibility,

particularly when your power and influence is relatively low because of position in the organisation and professional hierarchies

3. Understanding your personal qualities, strengths and weaknesses helps you to build effective teams and structure your leadership development to build on strengths

Daffodil field by Amanda Slater (2008) CC BY-SA 2.0

Three key personal qualities Leadership literature identifies many personal qualities leaders should have (e.g. integrity, humility and charisma) as well as the harmful effect of toxic or destructiveleadership.

But three sets of qualities emerge from study of successful leaders:

1. Compassion – caring deeply about others, more than empathy, shows humility

2. Emotional intelligence (EI) - combination of self-awareness, empathy, social skills, self-motivation and self-regulation

3. Grit - combination of resilience (the ability to ‘bounce back’ from adversity or challenge), passion, hard work, perseverance, determination and direction

Daffodil field by Amanda Slater (2008) CC BY-SA 2.0

Three ways of learning 1. Theories: Formal opportunities to ‘learn leadership’ through short

courses, workshops and longer, award bearing programmes

2. Feedback: Through practice, obtaining constructive feedback and purposeful reflection

3. Phronesis: Learning leadership is a lifelong endeavour: good leaders have learned from their experiences and gained a practical wisdom (phronesis) about how to behave and function in different situations

Daffodil field by Amanda Slater (2008) CC BY-SA 2.0

‘Horizontal leadership’ provides an evidence base (in terms of theories, concepts, models and tools) about what leadership is, how it works and ways of approaching situations or tasks

However, you can only learn for yourself how to lead, follow and manage effectively - ‘vertical leadership’: meeting challenges (‘heat experiences’) ‘sense-making’ of the experience (through reflection and

conversation) being open to ‘colliding perspectives’ about what is going on

Daffodil field by Amanda Slater (2008) CC BY-SA 2.0

Three ways of learning cont.

Think about …• What leadership, management and followership skills are

you trying to learn from your mentor?• Setting clear goals, action plans and follow up activities:

these are central to making the mentoring relationship work • Being prepared to go external to your own organisation for

additional support • Asking colleagues or friends about referral to other agencies

or individuals

Summary • Becoming and being an effective leader takes

time and experience• In times of transition, a mentor can be a very

useful ‘guide on the side’• If you have to make life or career decisions, a

coach can be helpful