Leadership's Ability: Mentorship

This ability is all about relationships... specifically 1-on-1 relationships. The milestones of this ability start out speaking about informal mentorship. It then evolves into more of a formalized coaching relationship. Let's dig into the definitions of each.

Mentorship is a relationship in which a person with specific experience, access/knowledge, and/or responsibilities helps to guide a person that would benefit from the first person's experience, access/knowledge, and/or execution of their responsibilities. It is an unofficially designated learning and development partnership between someone willing to guide and someone who wants to learn. [*]

Coaching is a form of development in which an experienced person, called a coach, supports a learner or client in achieving a specific personal or professional goal by providing training and guidance. Coaching differs from mentoring by its more formal nature (ie architecture leads are accountable to coaching architects and managers are accountable to coaching those they serve) focusing on specific objectives, as opposed to informal and more general goals. [*]

 Mentorship / Coaching on our team will focus on three characteristics:

• Well Being
  • Supports the emotional well-being of group members in difficult times, and celebrates their successes
• Work Accomplishment
  • Inspires day to day excellence, maximizes potential and effectively resolves performance issues with compassion
• Career Guidance
  • Provides strategic support to teammates to help them build the career they want

Much of the language borrowed from the wiki article on mentorship and coaching, and has been discussed in this Google Doc

I have observed this person showing a consistent, comfortable, continuous, and clear positive impact to a squad when wielding this ability, and therefore I would put them in situations where they can employ this ability with only a small amount of guidance

You informally mentor individuals in an ad-hoc way, support new hires and/or less experienced team members, and help nurture/spread institutional knowledge.

• Well Being
  • You are a people-smart teammate, in so much that you have been known to help ensure colleagues are happy and healthy.
  • You are aware and considerate of the feelings of others, in that you can empathize with them E.g. You might ensure group members are taking enough vacation, check in with colleagues showing signs of burnout, avoid blame, and focus on positive change
• Work Accomplishment
  • You are a trusted advisor that folks gravitate towards when they want help with how to make progress, be it technology or process related.
  • You make yourself available for informal support and advice as well as act as a sounding board for peers and more junior members alike.
  • E.g. You might notice when someone is stuck and reach out, you might help others break down problems into feasible & tangible next steps and talk through them non-judgmentally, and/or you might utilize appreciative inquiry to reinforce and affirm positive feedback for good work
• Career Guidance
  • You give insight into opportunities and helps identify individuals' strengths and weaknesses
  • E.g. You might encourage a teammate to become an apprentice in a role they had been considering, but didn't act on

I have observed this person showing a consistent, comfortable, continuous, and clear positive impact to a squad when wielding this ability, and therefore I would put them in situations where they can employ this ability, with no assistance as well as being a trusted active or passive mentor to others

You mentor proactively.

• Well Being
  • You would rather devote your time and energy to appreciative inquiry or solving a problem, instead of harping on the negative. You look at the positive and what you have control over.
  • You have an inborn sense of wonder and curiosity that makes you delightful to be around. You don't judge; you make observations and explore the possibilities. You ask questions and are open to new solutions.
  • You motivate others -- when individuals interact with you, you tend to "give energy" and they walk away from the conversation energized interactions with you tend to "give energy"
• Work Accomplishment
  • You guide people to realizations rather than providing the answer. Your mentorship helps individuals resolve difficult performance issues, with insight, compassion, and skill.
  • You have a calming influence in tough situations; with an innate ability to understand what co-workers or clients are going through, you can get through difficult times drama free.
• Career Guidance
  • E.g. You might have been in situations where a teammate would benefit from taking the lead on an effort that you'd normally do... which you believe will help their development.
  • E.g. You might have shared an interesting article with a team member to help with their growth.
  • E.g. You might have offered unprompted feedback to help growth with empathy.

I have observed this person showing a consistent, comfortable, continuous, and clear positive impact to multiple squads when wielding this ability, and therefore I would put them in situations where they can employ this ability as well as being considered an expert within this discipline

You are expected to be a coach (very likely this is a formal part of your position).

• Well Being
  • You help teammate manage expectations across peers
  • You help your teammate mold consensus (preventing consensus building and consensus ignoring)
  • You promote calm
    • E.g. You are known to help teammates reframe problems as a challenges instead of barriers, when appropriate
• Work Accomplishment
  • You provide coaching on how to have difficult conversations
  • You have been brought in to intervene in long-standing performance issues with targeted behavior change, squad talent/opportunity fit, or performance plans
    • Worked with a teammate to address persistent communication failures
    • Investigates motivation and externalities for consistent poor performance
    • Arranged a transfer to another squad, resulting in improved performance
    • Puts together comprehensive, achievable performance plans
    • Managed group member closely to maximize chances of PIP success
  • You help your teammates aggregate signals of poor performance and create process for improvement
• Career Guidance
  • You ensure team members you coach have roles that both help them and the squad reach their goals
  • You work with the management team to elevate emerging leaders

New required activity for this milestone: You set up and attended regular 1:1s (weekly or bi-weekly if you are in a manager relationship... monthly or quarterly if the relationship is less formal) 

• Those you have 1:1's with would (strongly) agree to the following: 
  • "In every 1:1, I am better afterwards... better because one or more of the following occurred:
    • I was stuck but I can now see a few paths that I couldn't see before
    • I feel closer to my coach which helps me feel connected
    • I was able to vent which helped me think/talk through something that was bothering me
    • I received specific actionable and and appreciative feedback that helped me be a better teammate
    • I received specific actionable and and constructive feedback that helped me be a better teammate
    • I am confident that an improvement I brought up is going to be made

I have observed this person showing a consistent, comfortable, continuous, and clear positive impact to a squad when wielding this ability, and therefore I would put them in situations where they can not only employ this ability but where they set the tone for this at the company level

You are a coach of coaches

• Well Being
  • Advocates for the needs of teams and group members, and proactively works to calm the organization
    • You ensure team environments are safe and inclusive, proactively
    • You relieve org tension around product direction by providing extra context
    • You ground group member anxieties in reality
    • You encourage group members to focus on what they can control
    • You track team retention actively and proposes solutions to strengthen it
    • You guide people through complex organizational change
    • You develop best practices for conflict resolutions and you enable teammates to utilize them
• Work Accomplishment
  • Mediates escalated situations, empowers underperforming teams, and resolves conflict
    • You recognize heightened situations and toxic or aggressive interactions
    • You empower a team to drive forward amidst uncertainty
    • Inserts themself into conflict where appropriate to calm and mediate
    • You protect team from externalities so they could focus on goals
    • You encourage open dialog and builds trust between parties in conflict
    • You mediate sit-downs between team members to address tension
• Career Guidance
  • You offer effective, actionable career advice (which incorporates career paths and create plans for personal and professional growth) to team members, without being prescriptive
    • When those you serve are asked the following question, 80%+ of them (strongly) agree: "When I look back from a year ago to where I am now... what I have achieved... how I've grown, I am excited about the progress I've made".
    • You build resourcing plans based on company, team, and individual goals
    • Ensures all group members' roles are meeting their career needs
    • Prevents regretted attrition with intentional, targeted intervention

I have observed this person showing a consistent, comfortable, continuous, and clear positive impact to not just internal teams but the community/industry in general when wielding this ability, and they are recognized by the community/industry as an expert

Your coaching strategies and tactics are adopted by the industry

• Well Being
  • You manage narratives, channels negativity into inspiration and motivation, and protects the entire team
    • Recognizes and points out narratives when appropriate
    • Converted group member from a problem haver to a problem solver
    • Works to reshape narratives from victimization to ownership
    • Challenged false narrative and redirected to compassion and empathy
    • Increases the psychological safety of the entire team
    • Cultivated and championed a culture of empathy within the entire team
• Work Accomplishment
  • You resolve complex organizational dysfunction, or persistent conflict at senior levels
    • Takes control of dysfunctional teams to organize chaos
    • Turned around the performance of a problematic team
    • Repairs broken team dynamics and builds harmony
    • De-escalated serious tensions between teams
    • Presides over a well-oiled team of teams
    • Rebuilt trust between senior team leads
• Career Guidance
  • Supports the development of a significant part of the technology org, and widely viewed as a trusted advisor
    • Supports and develops senior leaders
    • Provided coaching to group leads
    • Identified leadership training opportunities for senior leadership
    • Devised Pathwise curriculum for group leads
    • Pushes everyone to be as good as they can be, with empathy
    • Advocated to execs for engineer development resources and programs