PSVillage Mentoring Program Kicks-off! - Link to Kick Off Recording

WOW! What more can I say about the participants in the 2008 PSVillage Mentoring Program. Everyone’s willingness to share their ideas and experiences is inspiring and I am sure this will spark even more participation in the future. For the next 6 months, we will grow and learn together.

As part of the program, the following PS Leaders have volunteered their time to present on the following topics. For ease of scheduling, the presentations will be the first Thursday of every month at 12noon Pacific / 3PM Eastern. The conference calls will be on the second Thursday of every month at 12noon Pacific / 3PM Eastern.

Aug 7 – Marketing and Branding – on-line Event – ALL: Scott Fletcher, Director, Infomentis
Aug 14 – Mentor Q&A – Conference Call
Sept 4 – Recruiting - on-line Event – ALL: Sheryl Friesz, Founder of Santorini Consulting
Sept 11 – Mentee Q&A – Conference Call
Oct 2 – Knowledge Management - on-line Event – ALL: Andrew Nash, CEO of Personive
Oct 9 – Mentor Q&A – Conference Call
Nov 6 – Career Path - on-line Event – ALL: Joe Longo, VP PSO MetricStream
Nov 13 – Mentee Q&A – Conference Call
Dec 4 – Performance Management – on-line Event – ALL: Rob Barnum, SVP of Global Services and Customer Support for SupportSoft
Jan 20 – Final Wrap-up call – on-line Event - ALL

Meeting invitations will be sent in advance of the meetings so that reminders will be placed on your calendars with the GoToMeeting and/or conference dial-in number connection information.

Your enthusiasm is infectious! Thank you for your participation and I look forward to working with each of you.

Download link: PSVillage Mentoring Program Kick-off Recording

Debbie Stovall, President
http://www.successrealities.com/

What does it mean to be a mentor /coach?

First Published in Voice of The Village - October 2007 - see more articles at PSVillage http://www.psvillage.com/index.php/psvillage/Featured-Article/

As a veteran of the corporate climb I grew up, like most of you, on hard work and little advice. Early in any career you survive on pure will or youthful ignorance to succeed. But as you stockpile the good, bad and ugly encounters in your repertoire, you begin to use your experience to help navigate not just your career but the careers of others. Mentoring and coaching is skill that every great leader needs to have. So, what does it mean to be a mentor or coach?
Some think it is an annual review where you give and receive the ‘do better cards’. Some think it is leaning back in their chairs and telling of ‘when I started this career .. blah blah blah’. Others think only sports analogies will give them the distinction of ‘coach’. Categorically all of the above, while useful tools in some cases, have nothing to do with being a mentor or coach. Being a mentor or coach is about the mentored / coached; helping bring clarity to a goal and tasks to an end result.

I got such clarity early in my career when I met my first real mentor/coach – and of all unlikely places, in a pulp mill. Now those who know me, realize that stylish footwear is part of my passion – so the steel toed shoes made by RedWing did not fit my goal and objective of style. But, the learning opportunity afforded me as one the IT staffers far outweighed the horror of lace up combat boots. Our boss was a fabulous mentor and coach – he helped me, for the first time in my career, see that what I did in my daily, weekly and monthly tasks were directly connected to the goals and objectives of the mill and the parent company. In today’s buzz word style this would be known as cascading goals – and if you don’t have them where you work, you need to get them.

Most companies have a mission statement and then annually set goals in line with that mission. These objectives are typically tied to revenue and customer satisfaction. But how does the IT staffer ever know how they affect the revenue – because they don’t sell anything or produce the widgets or cup stock. And customers - Who are they? They don’t talk to or see the company’s customers. So when Dixie Cup calls and complains about the 45 railcars loaded with cup stock all bearing the exact same batch number label (they are suppose to be unique) – who in IT knows about it? All we hear is that the label printer is on the fritz again and someone needs to strap on their ugly shoes and get down to the finishing house and fix it! Yesterday!

During this unfortunate series of events, our boss/mentor/coach, took the opportunity to bring clarity to the goals of mill. Customer satisfaction – well Dixie was none too happy. And revenue – after refunds, rail charges to/from/to the client, labor to refill the order, etc. – pricy to say the least. So beginning that day, not during reviews, we all set goals reflecting what we could do to affect revenue and customer satisfaction. From there, we reviewed our daily, weekly and monthly tasks to ensure we were progressing toward our goals. The lesson - if we are doing a task not related to one of the goals, then we are not doing the right task. Basically, if you don’t have goals, how does anyone know what to do each day?

What a difference one meeting can make. Companies are powered by the individuals working to accomplish daily, weekly and monthly tasks. So I challenge each of you to have that meeting in your teams, set the clarity of the group’s and the individuals’ goals. Then proceed to the list of tasks that will carry them to the end result. Be a mentor and coach – help your colleagues, peers and subordinates realize their contribution and value of the work they perform.

PSVillage Mentoring Concept and Background

I have become increasingly convinced that to be an effective leader, within any context, one must first have a passion for helping others develop their skills. Demanding more and better performance without showing how it can be done is seldom effective and never sustainable.

When first introduced to the concept of a Professional Services focused mentoring program I was impressed with the vision and delighted to have the opportunity to participate. The vision and strategy Terry set out for this program perfectly aligns with my conviction that mentoring is not only an outstanding opportunity to raise the platform so that those who follow can achieve even greater heights, it is also crucial to the long-term vitality and sustainability of any organization or profession.

The program coalesced in an amazingly short time because we kept ourselves focused on the simple objective of bringing professional services people together in such a way as to enable those with years of successful endeavors to share their knowledge with those looking to further their capabilities and who understood the wisdom of learning from those that had traveled the path before them. In other words, we kept it simple. What is important is not the program but rather the people who will engage to share within its context.

I fully expect that those designated as mentees will realize a vast source of insight and knowledge that will prove invaluable to them but I also anticipate the mentors will gain much both professionally and personally. As a result, although the program itself has been specified as a six month engagement, we suspect the relationships forged during this time will endure long past the official time-frame.

The PSVillage Mentoring program is a start. We have provided enough structure to ensure core topics are discussed and that an initial set of tools is in place. We are particularly excited about the panel of experts who will address the group over the coming months to discuss topics such as: Marketing/Branding, Recruiting, Knowledge Management, Performance Management and Career Path. We have also started a reading list that we hope will be useful to all participants. Again, we have simply primed the pump with an initial selection of materials but fully expect that too will expand as participants add to it.

The program is not, however, complete. It is our hope and expectation that it never will be complete. We envision the program evolving and changing as those that participate share their experiences and provide input and feedback. We endeavored to designed a program that will guide without being restrictive, that will encourage innovation and ensure perpetual relevance. We hope you agree and look forward to hearing from each of you regarding your experience in the PSVillage Professional Services Mentoring program.