We know that people feel a desire to be successful and effective. The question is usually how to achieve this. Why is it that people with similar abilities and expertise often demonstrate very different performance? The answer can be found in how they apply knowledge and competencies in practice and to what extent they are capable of self-renewal and change.
Based on our two decades of experience, we are confident in stating that the expertise and internal resources underlying an organization have enormous value, even if the company is not operating as efficiently as possible at the given moment. Our goal is to make the most of these existing resources!
In order for this process to be successful, we first have to familiarize ourselves with the corporate and individual goals, the status quo and current operations. After evaluating these thoroughly, we compile development and performance enhancement plans, which are then followed by concrete steps.
It doesn’t matter whether we are dealing with individual, team, or corporate mentoring, the essence is the same: we divide the whole into small pieces as we would a Lego model, and then, if necessary, use the parts to create a new structure in line with stated goals and objectives.
Experience has shown that this requires an unbiased eye, an expert capable of seeing and evaluating people, processes, situations and operations objectively, and who, at the same time, has a basis for comparison and can apply industry and sector benchmarks.
Improvement and self-renewal are impossible without internal drive. This can’t be forced upon anyone in the form of a task or obligation – external support can, however, initialize the process.
Experts most often do possess the appropriate level of professional expertise and experience, however, for various reasons, may not achieve the results during practical implementation that are expected based on the knowledge they have. Success requires more. It requires faith, motivation, commitment, and taking responsibility.
These are the elements we explore during individual mentoring. In the personalized development plan, we emphasize strengths as well as areas to be developed, and define corresponding actions to drive change. We monitor and analyze the plan’s implementation and offer participants regular feedback. This helps them become more motivated and more committed and allows them to learn techniques which will later be the foundation for their ongoing self-renewal and improvement.
As we often see in sports, having the best players on the team is not enough in and of itself. Besides individual performance, collaboration and teamwork are also indispensable. Everyone needs to be aware of what their own role is, in which position they can best contribute to the common goal.
It is highly recommended to base the creation of teams within a corporate environment on this same principle. In order, however, to ensure that everyone is given the role best matching their expertise and abilities, thorough analysis is essential.
Efficient operations require us to understand and get to know team members’ motivations and goals in order to map out their competencies and personality types and to summarize how members see one another and the team as a whole.
One vital element of mentoring is the fact that we are also interested in participants’ opinions and thoughts, as these are what we use to develop the new structure and operational model.
If team members realize their own ideas have been included, they become active participants in the process of renewal from the very beginning and are much more likely to fully accept changes.
Faith and identification are the two most important pillars of implementation, and thus also of success. These are what we need to evoke in everyone.
Our experience suggests, irrespective of industry or sport that people hold the solution on a team level as well, spread out in small parts, like the pieces of a puzzle. They just need an external mentor – free of the routines and prejudices of everyday operations – to convince each player to show the others which piece they are holding, and to coordinate collaboration to ensure the parts come together to form a new whole.
