Transformational Mentoring – creating developmental alliances

July 24, 2024|Kim's Blog, Management Skills, Relationship Management|

I’m reviewing some of the latest books on mentoring (reviews will be published soon) and I remembered this book. I read it back in 2000, during my studies to qualify as a professional coach/mentor. The author admits that it isn’t a book for beginners. But it had a huge impact on me as I found it both forward-thinking and inspirational. Partly because the author is a psychotherapist (Transactional Analysis and Neurolinguistic Programming) and also a human resources professional specialising in organizational development and transformation (i.e. culture change). Book review: “Transformational Mentoring – creating developmental alliances for changing organizational cultures” (1995) by Julie Hay.

Psychology and business communication: Intro to transactional analysis (kimtasso.com)

What is NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming)? – Kim Tasso

Key ideas in transformational mentoring

This book would be my recommendation if you want to know about the process and tools to use in mentoring (i.e. a practical, nitty-gritty approach). Of particular value in this book:

Reframing mentoring as a developmental alliance (“A relationship between equals in which one or more of those involved is enabled to: increase awareness, identify alternatives and initiate action to develop themselves”)

Trends in organizational development. The author talks about: megatrends for women, the decency decade, the learning organisation, Kirton’s adaptors and innovators Leadership teams: Maverick Magpies and Predictable Pigeons (kimtasso.com), cashing-out, cocooning and flexible working. Considering the book was written in 1995 – many of these ideas have become reality.

Mentoring formats: older/younger, training and development, expert/novice, friend/comrade, temporary deficit, spot mentoring, group mentoring

Values and beliefs: people are OK, people want closeness, people can change, people want to grow, we create our own meaning, we can make decisions, our behaviour is purposeful

Differences between counselling, coaching, traditional mentoring and developmental alliance (and the pros and cons of developmental alliances)

Characteristics/qualities of mentors: compatibility, respect, ethics, self-awareness, self-development, attitude, attitude to ambiguity

Mentor styles: personal styles (controlling, nurturing, logical, adaptable, spontaneous), thinking styles (experience, emotional response, logical consideration of future impact), working styles (from Transactional Analysis: Hurry Up, Be Perfect, Please People, Try Hard, Be Strong)

Understanding mentees:

- psychological styles (e.g. Myers Briggs see Creativity and personality profiling (kimtasso.com))
- personal styles (see the parent, adult, child (PAC) model helps with difficult interactions (kimtasso.com) and motivation

Levels of learning: traditional, transitional and transformational and learning styles (Improve learning effectiveness – Using Kolb’s learning styles (kimtasso.com)) and the competence curve

Helping strategies and initiating a corporate approach

Valuable mentoring frameworks

Seven stages of a mentoring alliance

Alliance – preparation, build the initial relationship, bonding, contracting (see below)

Assessment – review and describe the current situation and desired future, be empathic to encourage self-disclosure, use mind-mapping to understand personal constructs, portfolio building

Analysis – gain awareness and understanding using frameworks and theories (e.g. lifelines, genograms, relationship style (parallel process between mentor-mentee), SWOT

Alternatives – see things differently, identify options, steps to success (see below)

Action planning – Force field analysis (forces for and against change), objective setting (3M – measurable, manageable, motivational), select the best options and develop a detailed action plan

Application – mentee gains autonomy through awareness in the here and now, alternatives to choose from and authenticity

Appraisal – review mentoring relationship, action and results

Four-cornered contract

Organisation
Mentor
Mentee
Manager

6S steps to success framework

Situation
Significance
Solutions
Skills
Strategies
Success

Ongoing appraisal – C4P4A4

Contact
Contract
Content
Contrast
Personal
Psychological
Professional
Parallel
Aim
Alternatives
Action
Autonomy

David Clutterbuck

Having had the privilege of working with mentoring pioneer and expert David Clutterbuck | CCMi Coaching and Mentoring Courses and Training (clutterbuck-cmi.com) decades ago, I must also recommend some of his books, notably:

Coaching the team at work (2007)
Mentoring executives and directors (1999)
Mentoring in action (1995)
Everyone needs a mentor (1985, 2004)

And I haven’t read it (yet!) but in 2022 “Coaching and Mentoring: A journey through the models, theories, frameworks and narratives of David Clutterbuck” was published (his 75^th book at age 75).

Coaching Skills Academy

The Managing Partners’ Forum and PM Forum have a Coaching Skills Academy offering a range of training workshops for leaders and marketing and business development professionals Coaching Skills Academy – PM Forum during the latter half of 2024

Coaching and Consulting Skills for marketing and business development (18^th July)
Coaching teams – a practical toolkit (1^st October – Jamie Butler)
Meaningful mentoring (15^th October – Andy Lopata)
Introduction to coaching and mentoring skills (5^th November)
Developing people’s resilience (25^th November)
Advanced coaching skills (19^th December)

Related books on coaching and mentoring

Introductory coaching books:

Book Review: The Coaching Manual by Julie Starr – Kim Tasso July 2024

Book review: Coaching skills: A handbook by Jenny Rogers (kimtasso.com) June 2022

The following coaching books are for more advanced/experienced coaches:

Neuroscience for learning and development by Stella Collins (kimtasso.com) September 2023

Helping people change: Coaching with compassion (kimtasso.com) October 2019

Coaching models – book review of Stephen Gribben’s book (kimtasso.com) August 2017

Other books and some coaching qualifications are listed here: Coaching and consulting skills for M&BD workshop (November 2021) (kimtasso.com)

These books are helpful on organisational change:

Neuroscience for learning and development by Stella Collins (kimtasso.com) September 2023

Book review: Neuroscience for organizational change by Hilary Scarlett (kimtasso.com) May 2020

Change management – Change Catalyst book review by Kim Tasso September 2018

change management and organisational change (kimtasso.com) January 2017 “Making sense of change management: A complete guide to the models, tools and techniques of organisational change” by Esther Cameron and Mike Green

Classic management book reviews – The McKinsey way, Good to great (kimtasso.com)