What are the best practices for mentoring new team leaders in your industry?

When setting goals with a mentee, focusing on objectives ONLY limits them to a mindset of achievement driven. encourage by discussion how they FEEL at times. this facilitates reflection and therefore growth by way of self-awareness.

In my experience, making sure you give the gift of time is key. Scheduling lots of 121 reviews with an open agenda, ensures that a new leader is given the opportunity to discuss what’s on their mind and ask any questions is key. Psychological safety is important. Building trust and empathy unlocks learning. The earlier this can be established the better.

Timely, quality feedback is essential for leadership growth. New leaders need to experience purposeful challenges. Equally important is the feedback from an experienced mentor to provide perspective and guidance throughout those challenges. Feedback and support include mutual reflection, empathetic-but-direct critique, re-orientation, debriefing, and resources. I've seen potential leaders miss out on growth opportunities without the right mentorship support. Likewise, I've seen potential leaders grow exponentially with the right support from a mentor leader.

Embracing vulnerability as a mentor, being open about challenges, lessons learned, and moments of growth creates a safe space for mentees to share their own concerns and experiences. Vulnerability fosters a deeper connection, trust and a shared understanding that the journey toward leadership excellence is an evolving process. Through these types of authentic exchanges mentorship becomes a truly enriching and mutually beneficial relationship.

When sharing experiences, especially successful ones, this needs to be approached carefully as the mentee could take this as a way of working. to get the best out of themselves they need to find their own path, so open questions that help both parties explore the possibilities often gives the best end results as what once worked for you might not always work for them.

Encouraging a mindset of lifelong learning by leadership mentors ensures that new leaders stay agile and adaptable and prepares them to seize the learning opportunities that leadership presents. Mentors should recommend relevant internal and external learning opportunities such as workshops, courses, insightful literature, podcasts, etc. that they've found helpful to stoke mentee curiosity towards continuous growth while empowering them to navigate leadership with confidence.

Coupling Mentoring with a personal development plan is an effective tool to help grow the mentee and also know what to bring them into. it can be damaging for a mentee to be brought into an environment they have no interest in.

When mentors reflect on some of their own fears and concerns when they were new leaders and share how they navigated situations by staying true to their leadership values or tapping into moments of courage will let mentees know they are not alone and that the challenges are surmountable.

Creating a community with others in a similar position can also work really well. Inspiration comes in many forms and peer to peer encouragement can provide confidence and support. Simply sharing experience from your own career can unlock some great questions. My favourite questions have been around “what advice would you give yourself now, given what you’ve learnt?”. Providing resources and references to inspire is key. From social media, podcasts and books, the list can be overwhelming. I like to recommend 3 things to discover and then schedule a follow up discussion to see how it landed!

I might add Stephen Covey's "8th Habit" idea here: To find your voice and inspire others to find theirs. That whole book is a great read.