Leadership, Followship, Mentoring, Menteeing.

Whatever we may call it, Leadership has been a key focus for LearnScope teams in South Australia this year.

How did we go? Read the list below for the naked truth. 

It’s moments like these……..

This year LearnScope projects in South Australia have had a strong focus on developing leadership skills within their team. Many teams have been led by one experienced Project Manager and Facilitator who have in turn mentored other team members in order to increase the pool of skilled LearnScope Project Managers and Facilitators across South Australia.

At the recent LearnScope team leaders’ final workshop we discussed this process and asked the mentors and “mentees” to talk about their experiences during the year.

Mentors and mentees were grouped separately and asked to focus on three key questions.

The obvious choice of material needed to get these groups to “stick” to task was the famous “Mintie”, so in a strategic attempt to facilitate discussion we bribed each group with copious quantities of the famous Allen’s sweet.

Like all good plans however, several flaws became quickly apparent. Firstly, we discovered that meaningful discussion with a mouthful of Minties was not always possible and then of course there was the group who, unable to stay precisely on task, organised a spontaneous “Make the Longest Mintie Wrapper” shredding competition. Strategic persuasion (i.e. Threats, pleading and cajoling) got them back on track and the following is a summary of each group’s questions and subsequent discussions.

Mentors

How did you mentor? What strategies/ processes did you use?

• Selected a great team, the right people.
• Worked collaboratively on the project plan and budget.
• Being there when required.
• Attended all sessions
• Regular meetings with facilitators to discuss strategies eg. Ideas for facilitating with peers and content of sessions.
• Debriefing sessions after workshops.
• Divided the work: Matched tasks to skills.
• Brainstormed needs and implementation strategies for the project
• Reassured mentees through positive encouragement and feedback
• Creating challenges.
• Listening
• Allowing mentees to get on with it by not being a supervisor.

What worked well? Anything you would like to pass on to future mentors?

• Meeting regularly
• Modelling through co-facilitation leading to independent facilitation
• Selecting good people.
• Informally keeping in touch.
• Letting go, not imposing your view.

Do you have any ideas for next time? What have you learned?

• Create more opportunities for mentoring
• Have specific meetings which focus on mentor/ mentee roles
• Continue to be flexible
• Remember we are all learning!

Mentees

How did it help having a mentor?

• Backup if needed.
• We were not totally responsible: there was a safety net for us
• Increased confidence
• Great resource and sounding board.
• Ideas
• Collaborative learning
• Gave credibility, sponsorship to project.
• Able to facilitate and be a participant at times.

What worked for you? What did you appreciate the most?

• The mentor’s presence
• Having a sounding board
• The value of previous experience
• Good point of contact
• Help with facilitation skills.
• Having mentor with knowledge of who, what, i.e. resources
• Collaboration and sharing
• Helping with the finances and reporting procedures.
• Allowed us the freedom to “run’ with it.
• Giving us an idea of what to expect.

We’re all in the same boat!

What if you were a mentor? What are your ideas?

• Set time aside for our mentee.
• Need to have time funded.
• Listen.
• Make resources available.
• Use past experiences to make a list of what worked and what didn’t
• Clarify expectations at the beginning of the project.

Minties

The “Minties” were not provided with any questions but just asked to “Stick to task”...