Mentoring Students & Early Career Engineers

Mentoring Students & Early Career

Engineers

Eamon Boyle

[email protected]

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• Eduardo Barrientos

– VP-Elect, Affinity Communities

• Jenn Dandrea

– Committee on Early Career Development, Member-at-Large

• Cheryl Hasan

– Early Career Development, Manager

• Kalan Guiley

– Board on Government Relations, Member-at-Large

• Thomas Wendt

– District C, Leader

• Eamon Boyle

– Chair-elect, K&C Training Committee

NOTE: Some content in this presentation is adapted from Mentoring for Excellence training material developed by Boeing and/or Targeted Learning and used with permission. Slides containing that content bear the copyright of Boeing and/or Targeted Learning as applicable. All rights are reserved.

Session Developers

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Session Objectives

• Understand what “mentoring” means

• Recognize the benefits for mentors and mentees

• Understand the role of mentoring in recruiting and

retaining student and early career engineer (ECE)

volunteers

• Gain knowledge and tools to foster mutually

beneficial mentoring relationships

• Understand and practice skills that are useful in

mentoring relationships

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Session Outline

• What is mentoring?

− Definition

− Benefits

• Understanding and reaching students and ECEs

• Mentoring behaviors and aptitudes

− Creating the environment

− Sharing expertise & facilitating learning

− Receiving and giving feedback

• ASME resources on mentoring

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What is Mentoring?

Mentoring is a developmental partnership

that facilitates the transfer of knowledge,

skills, abilities, information, and perspectives

to foster personal and professional growth

Copyright © 2012 Boeing. Used with permission; all rights reserved.

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Benefits

What are the benefits of mentoring for…

the mentee?

the mentor?

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Mentoring Roles and Responsibilities

Mentor

• Transfer knowledge & skills

• Provide feedback

• Provide access to network

• Provide challenges and

growth opportunities

• Share the big-picture

perspective

• Help mentee develop

professional credibility

• Don’t overwhelm

Mentee

• Maintain drive and focus

on acquiring knowledge

and skills

• Provide feedback and

new perspectives

• Accept and meet new

challenges

• Be independent and

creative, but know when to

seek help

• Be open

Copyright © 2012 Boeing. Used with permission; all rights reserved.

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Understanding Students and Early

Career Engineers

• Defined by having no more than 10 years of professional engineering experience

• Core Values

– Optimism

– Confidence

– Civic Duty

– Technology Savvy

– Inclusiveness

– “Work to Live” rather than “Live to Work”

Access to mentorship and career advice

is a key reason ECEs join ASME!

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• Why interact with young members?

It’s exhilarating, rewarding and fun!

It helps identify new relevant activities for the unit

It creates a pool of potential leaders

Young members ensure your section’s continued vitality

and success

Mentoring students and ECEs is

valuable and rewarding!

Reaching Students and Early

Career Engineers

Mentoring Behaviors and

Aptitudes

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• Creating the Environment

• Sharing Expertise and Facilitating Learning

• Receiving and Giving Feedback

Creating the Environment: Mentor and Mentee Roles

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Mentor:

• Listening

• Supporting

• Encouraging learning

• Embracing mistakes

• Ensuring confidentiality

• Providing feedback

• Sharing relevant stories

• Exploring common

ground

Mentee:

• Listening

• Being open and honest

• Being receptive

• Trying new things

• Taking responsibility for

meetings

Source: Galbraith, M. W.; Cohen, N. H. The complete Mentor Role: Understanding the six

behavioral functions. Journal of adult Education. Brigham City: Fall 1996. Vol. 24, Iss. 2; pg 2

Copyright © 2012 Boeing and Targeted Learning. Used with permission; all rights reserved.

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Creating the Environment: Listening - Your first step to being heard!

What are the costs of listening?

What are the costs of not listening?

The costs of not listening almost always exceed

the costs of listening. So why are so many

people poor listeners?


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Creating the Environment: Active Listening

• Be an active listener by: – Paraphrasing to confirm understanding

– Asking clarifying questions

– Using verbal prompts to encourage elaboration

• Benefits: – Reduces miscommunication

– Person talking feels “heard”


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Creating the Environment: Verbal and Non-Verbal Communication

• “Verbal” – the words we use

• “Nonverbal” – how we deliver our words:

– Facial expressions

– Volume, pitch and tone of voice

– Gestures, body positions and movement

– Eye gaze direction

• Use active listening to resolve discrepancies

between verbal and nonverbal cues:

“While you were talking about something that sounded

pleasing, you looked upset; is there something I’m

missing?”

Source: European Business Forum, Winter 2005, pages 74-76


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Creating the Environment: Exercise Activity – Listening Generously

• Steps: 1. Select roles

2. Preparation

3. Discussion

4. Debrief

• Mentor role: You are going to solicit some input from your

mentee about your meetings with him/her. Listen, respond,

and try to reach an understanding (page 1 of handout)

• Mentee role: Carefully follow instructions on page 2 of

handout

• Observer role: Make notes of how the mentor handles the

conversation. These notes should include body language,

non-verbal cues, words spoken, etc. Use page 3 of the

handout to take notes


Sharing Expertise and Facilitating Learning: Mentor and Mentee Roles

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Mentor

• Create awareness

• Choose appropriate style

• Motivate and inspire

• Teach detailed skills

• Transfer tribal knowledge

• Ask open-ended

questions

• Move from thinking to

doing

• Provide context, direction,

and application

Mentee

• Do self-assessment and

identify knowledge gaps

• Ask clarifying questions

• Be open

• Keep notes

• Balance dependence

and interdependence

• Seek new knowledge to

fill gaps using expertise of

mentor


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Sharing Expertise and Facilitating Learning: Overcoming the Paradox of Expertise

The most talented and knowledgeable people in a field are often the most ineffective teachers.

Why?

Four levels of expertise:

1) Unconscious incompetence

2) Conscious incompetence

3) Conscious competence

4) Unconscious competence


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Sharing Expertise and Facilitating Learning: Techniques for Effective Sharing

• Focusing

• Spaced repetition

• Association

• Chunking

• Contexting

• Framing

• Motivation and Inspiration

• Small Wins


Sharing Expertise and Facilitating Learning: Expert and Facilitative Styles

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Expert

• Advocating

• Talking/Selling

• Giving advice

• Asking closed questions

• Sharing information and

feedback

• Doing the thinking

• Evaluating others’ ideas

Facilitative

• Inquiring

• Listening and learning

• Exploring others’

opinions and ideas

• Asking open-ended

questions

• Suggesting a self-

critique

• Getting the other person

to think

• Building on others’ ideas


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• What are the advantages of each style?

• What situations lend themselves to each style?

• What are the consequences of overusing each

style?

• What do we call someone who overuses each

style?

Sharing Expertise and Facilitating Learning: Exploring the Expert and Facilitative Styles

Since neither style is perfect, what are the

implications for mentors?


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• What are you trying to achieve?

• What seems to be the problem? What

data do you have? What are your

assumptions?

• What are the constraints?

• What have you already tried? What

happened?

• What are your decision criteria?

• What is the best solution? Does it get

you to the desired future state?

Sharing Expertise and Facilitating Learning:

Facilitative Questions Mentors Should Ask


Receiving and Giving Feedback: Mentor and Mentee Roles

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Mentor

• Acknowledge development

and progress

• Develop mentee’s

confidence and morale

• Offer constructive

feedback

• Address unconstructive

attitudes and approaches

• Encourage self-

assessment

• Ensure enthusiasm

Mentee

• Ask for specific and

candid feedback

• Be open to redirecting

feedback

• Accept, reflect and act

on feedback

• Give mentor feedback

on feedback

• Give feedback to help

mentor achieve goals


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• Information that helps people:

– Align their actions with the intended outcomes

– Gain new insights

• Types of feedback:

– Reinforcing

Goals and behavior are aligned

Builds motivation, confidence and

relationships

– Redirecting

Goals and behavior are not aligned

Attempts to redirect existing behavior

Illuminates blind spots

Receiving and Giving Feedback: What is Feedback?


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Receiving and Giving Feedback: Our Greatest Learning Disability

Vicious

Cycle

Joe is uncomfortable

giving feedback, so

he holds back

Joe’s frustration

builds until he can’t

hold it back

Joe “dumps”

feedback on Jim

Joe feels punished for

providing feedback,

reinforcing his

discomfort

Jim gets frustrated

and defensive


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• When receiving feedback:

– Ask for honest feedback, not just validation

– Treat it as a gift

Say “thank you,” acknowledge the gift

Listen actively

Do not explain yourself unless asked

– Remember that even poorly delivered and inaccurate feedback

is more useful than no feedback at all

Receiving and Giving Feedback: Rules for Receiving Feedback


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• When giving redirecting feedback:

– Don’t vent!

– Ensure timing is appropriate

– Use (at least) one of the following approaches:

Present feedback as a request for help, not a demand

Frame feedback in terms of the recipient’s interests and goals

Present feedback in the context of mutual interests or values

Give “feed-forward”

– Describe the specific behavior; be direct and non-judgmental

– Explain the impact

– Seek resolution and agreement

Receiving and Giving Feedback: Rules for Giving Redirecting Feedback


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• When giving reinforcing feedback:

– Describe the specific behavior in a direct way

– Explain the impact and express appreciation

– Sometimes offer feedback in writing

– Praise efforts and progress, not just goal accomplishment

– Be generous

– Be timely

– Avoid public praise without first coordinating with the recipient

Receiving and Giving Feedback: Rules for Giving Reinforcing Feedback


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Receiving and Giving Feedback: Exercise Activity – You Talk Too Much!

• Steps: 1. Select roles

2. Preparation

3. Discussion

4. Debrief

• Mentor role: You are going to provide some redirecting

feedback to your mentee about a habit of his/hers.

Follow instructions on page 4 of handout.

• Mentee role: Listen, respond, and try to reach an

understanding (page 5 of handout).

• Observer role: Make notes of how the mentee reacts to

the mentor’s feedback. These notes should include body

language, non-verbal cues, words spoken, etc. Use page

6 of the handout to take notes.


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• Frequent open and honest communication is the best way to diagnose problems in the relationship and take appropriate action

• Common pitfalls:

– Relationship is not meeting at least one person’s expectations

– Mentor doesn’t have the needed level of expertise

– Mentee uses mentor as a “crutch”

– Personality issues

Receiving and Giving Feedback: What To Do if the Mentoring Isn’t Working

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Summary of Key Points

• Mentoring is a developmental partnership that facilitates the transfer of knowledge, skills, abilities, information, and perspectives to foster personal and professional growth

• Opportunities for mentorship are one of the things that draws Students and ECEs to ASME

• Mentoring offers distinct benefits to both the mentor and the mentee

• While there is no formula for mentoring, there are specific behaviors that successful mentors employ, depending on the situation

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ASME Mentoring Programs

• Online Mentoring Program (Available to Students members only)

• ECLISPE Program (Early Career Leadership Intern Program to Serve Engineering)

http://www.asme.org/groups/volunteer-resources/the-eclipse-program

• ASME Partnerships (E-week, Pre-College, Public Policy, FIRST Competition, E4C/EWB)

• Diversity Action Grant ($500 to $3,000 per student section based on size and project scope)








http://www.usfirst.org/

• WISE Program http://www.wise-intern.org/

• Conference Mentoring Programs (example: Leadership Training Conference)

• Society Awards (McDonald Mentoring Award, Student Section Award, etc.)

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ASME Mentoring Programs

http://www.wise-intern.org/



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Mentoring Students and

Early Career Engineers

For questions or comments Kalan Guiley

[email protected]

Presentation available at events.asme.org/LTC13/

home.cfm

APPENDIX

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Creating the Environment: Behaviors that Inspire Openness

• Acknowledge their own shortcomings and failings

• Don't take themselves too seriously

• Are open/honest about their own fears, concerns, uncertainties, interests and aspirations.

• Take an interest in me as a person (e.g., family status, hobbies, career aspirations, etc.).

• Are genuinely interested in helping others succeed.

• Don't do things that reinforce their higher status.

• Genuinely appreciate it when others challenge their ideas and suggestions view constructive conflict as an asset rather than as a liability.

• Avoid distractions when meeting others.

• Willingly reverse themselves when presented with new data or perspectives.

• Are open to questioning the status quo.

• Ask for feedback on their ideas, or the efficacy of the help they're providing.

• Acknowledge and reinforce efforts, not just outcomes.

• Treat emotions as legitimate human expressions.

• Avoid trivializing the concerns of others.

• Listen patiently/generously-especially when their ideas conflict with the ideas of others.

• Do not impose their career values or interest on others--let others define success as they choose.

• Are open and non-defensive when criticized; learn from feedback even when it comes from people who are not as experienced or smart as them.


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Creating the Environment: Behaviors that Inspire Openness

• Give honest, candid feedback in a helpful and non-judgmental way.

• Before they give advice , they make sure they get all the relevant details.

• Ask others for advice/input on issues they are wrestling with.

• Don't interrupt others or finish their sentences.

• Avoid dismissing the ideas of others with "yes, but…” responses.

• Genuinely respect the ideas of others and try to build on them.

• Talk to others about their career goals and interests.

• Return phone calls, e-mails and other messages promptly.

• Don't keep others waiting-are on time for appointments.

• Keep commitments.

• Do not criticize other people behind their backs.

• Provide a "safe-harbor," i.e., don’t divulge information shared in confidence.

• Are clear about organizational expectations, but encourage creativity.

• Build others up by giving them credit publicly, showcasing their achievements, expressing confidence in them.

• Build on others' strengths rather than focusing on their weaknesses.

• Rather than focusing the mentee on fixing his/her weakness , they help the mentee explore other ways to manage those weaknesses

• Accept mistakes as the process of learning something new.

• Resolve conflict constructively by exploring common ground, finding mutual interests, exploring mutually beneficial options, etc.


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