In this competitive world, it is very important to be always training and improving every aspect of your personal and professional life, this is why mentoring spaces are born.
Mentoring seeks to develop different personal and work skills that will allow you to get the best out of your talent, in addition to focusing your efforts on your areas of greatest weakness, but always taking advantage of all the strengths you have as a person. As I always say, you must use your strengths as a lever to grow and your weaknesses to evolve. I leave you with the definition of Bozeman, B., & Feeney, M. K, in their publication Theory of Mentoring, to keep it handy:
"Process of informal transmission of knowledge, social capital and psychosocial support perceived by the recipient as relevant to work,
career or professional development.
Mentoring involves informal communication, usually face-to-face and over an extended period of time, between a person perceived to have more knowledge, wisdom or experience (the mentor) and a person perceived to have less (the protégé)."
In the world of mentoring, a very important figure appears, which is the mentor. This person has a higher level of experience and knowledge in the areas you want to work on and gives you different tools to achieve your purpose. That is why it is vital that you know the achievements and professional progress of the mentor and that you validate that the experience has to do with the things you want to achieve.
How do we do our mentoring with La Nerd del Futuro?
In my years of experience I have developed a work model for the participants, in which we evaluate the progress we have in each one of them and we draw an evolution plan that allows us to see the growth in a period of time and also allows us to understand what we should expect. The model has 4 fundamental pillars, which are evaluated as a whole from 1 (being an element to be worked on) - 10 (a mature element that is already internalized by the participant).
Pillar 1: Knowledge
In this pillar we specifically evaluate the hard skills related to the knowledge you want or need to acquire in order to evolve in your area of expertise. Generally we talk about topics such as innovation, digital marketing, business theory, business management. But when we do the assessment together, we can identify other more technical areas where formal courses are required, such as masters or postgraduate degrees, which we even start evaluating and validating together.
Pillar 2: habits and methodologies.
This pillar is fundamental at the moment of converting knowledge into action or being able to put into practice everything that has been worked on or learned. I faithfully believe that methodologies help you to achieve results that can be seen and to understand if you are on the right path. Habits allow you to generate personal evolution in different areas, they make you feel that you are on the right path, they help a lot in motivation. For this reason, in our mentorships we identify both aspects, we direct the work to achieve what you need to make things happen and see the results. In these spaces we talk about atomic habits (James Clear), agile methodologies, VUCA, among others.
Pillar 3 Leadership - Emotional Intelligence.
We are not always prepared to lead, in fact, in my experience most of us are thrown into leading teams without much knowledge of the tools or issues that must be taken into account when working with others in different teams or in the same team. This is why this pillar is vital for professional development. Here we work on self-assessment tools, definition of values, leadership vs. area management, types of leaders, types of teams, etc. To lead, emotional intelligence is essential and this is the pillar to work it focused, with playful tools that allow you to understand it in a much more practical way.
Pillar 4 - Purpose.
The power of purpose is one of the practices that I have carried out in my life and that has generated greater results when focusing my professional efforts, in addition to supporting others to achieve it, I believe that this accompanies professional growth and gives meaning to life itself. That is why we use two basic methodologies to define purpose: the first is the Japanese IKIGAI and the second is Simon Sinek's golden circle theory. Here are the two theories so you can see the approaches and how they work.
What types of mentoring are there?
There are different types of mentorships, these vary depending on the number of participants, the relationships to be established between the parties or even the tools to be used, but according to my criteria, mentorships can be classified as follows:
One-on-one mentoring: in this type of mentoring the objective is to focus on a single person, review his or her work plan and follow up with advice, activities or work plans to improve the participant's skills.
Group mentoring: the basis of work is the same as the previous one, the difference is that it is composed of two or more people who are expected to take the knowledge and skills required to achieve the objectives or growth plans that are outlined in the kick-off meeting.
Peer mentoring: in this case what is sought is to achieve shared support among people who are at the same level of the organizations or who seek the same objectives. This is usually more common in organizations and is highly recommended for high potential management teams, as it contributes to teamwork.
Reverse mentoring: this is one of the most interesting methodologies to implement in organizations focused on innovation. It is when a lower-ranking employee mentors a higher-ranking or more experienced employee in the organization. It requires a lot of trust and communication work, but it supports intergenerational teamwork and helps support the adoption of new technologies.
Quick mentoring: especially in events, it is proposed to generate work tables between people with high knowledge on topics, with a defined time, in which a specific topic is addressed and support or guidance is sought from the most experienced person or mentor.
Schedule a mentoring session
In the nerd of the future we work with these and other tools so that together we achieve the goals you have as a professional, as a business and as a person. We focus on a work plan, clear progress in each of the pillars, all built from our kick-off meeting.
If you schedule your first mentoring and initial assessment, now is the time to make your 2023 resolutions a reality. Enter here.