To know:

• Where you are heading
• Why you are heading in that direction
• How to get there
• And finally, being able to fully realise the exceptional outcomes

Therefore having a title won’t make you a leader. Everyone has the opportunity to be a leader if they positively influence others. People of influence who multiply their effectiveness don’t rely on “positional power” but on “personal power.” While the position or title they have gives them authority, it is qualities such as integrity, trust, faith in people, the ability to actively listen and respond appropriately, to empower and understand people that sets them apart.

And most importantly of all – communicate effectively with clear purpose.

Everyone matters. Everyone makes a difference. The greatest insult in life or in business is indifference. We can’t afford the perception that people don’t matter enough for us to engage them. What people “do” could be divided into activity and accomplishment. What percentage of our day is made up of activity, as opposed to accomplishment? The latter largely depends on positive influence.

When it comes to leadership (as distinct from management), we are all a work in progress. All of us can lead better. None of us ever truly master the art. Each of our lives is a leadership “lab.”  We don’t need an organization or title to lead. What we need is a desire to make a positive difference and an awareness of the opportunities to lead that present themselves every day. This is determined more by who we are – our character, than what we know.

If each of us chose to lead (by positively influencing) at the right time in the right way what might our company be like? The real test of leadership could be – If you had no title or ability to reward or penalize others, could you still get them to follow you?

The person who thinks they are leading, but has no one following them, is only going for a walk.

So take charge of your career – whether you are an owner/director, CEO, GM or family business leader – indeed whatever walk of life.

Become your own CEO – Chief Energy Officer – and turn 2012 into a highly successful year and achieve all you have planned for – both personally and professionally.

The alternative – believe everything we read in the daily press and get mightily depressed!

Best wishes to all.

What Can an Executive Mentor Do for Me?

Is Executive Coaching and Mentoring in Australian companies destined to play a role occupied by psychoanalysis in some movie: a virtual prerequisite for anyone who aspires to be anyone?

It might seem that way at some organizations, at least to the untrained eye. IBM has more than sixty certified mentors (they call them coaches) among its ranks. Scores of other major companies have made coaching, indeed mentoring, a core part of executive development. The belief is that, under the right circumstances, one-on-one interaction with an objective third party can provide a focus that other forms of organizational support simply cannot.

And whereas mentoring was once viewed by many as a tool to help correct underperformance, today it is becoming much more widely used in supporting top producers.

Mentoring has evolved into the mainstream fast. This is because there is a great demand in the workplace for immediate results, and mentoring can help provide that. How? By providing feedback and guidance in real time. Mentoring develops leaders in the context of their current jobs, without removing them from their day-to-day responsibilities. And it does not necessarily have to be one-off.

At an even more basic level, many executives simply benefit from receiving any feedback at all. As individuals advance to the executive level, development feedback can become increasingly important, more infrequent, and more unreliable. As a result, many executives plateau in critical interpersonal and leadership skills.

So, should you have a mentor? And which managers in your sphere of responsibility might benefit from working with an outsider to help sharpen skills and overcome hurdles to better performance?

The right approach to answering these questions still varies a great deal depending on whom you ask, but input from several dozen mentors and coaches, and executives who have undertaken that relationship, does provide a useful framework on how to think about the role of mentoring.       

The Road to Mentoring Runs Two Ways

Although both the organization and the executive must be committed to mentoring for it to be successful, the idea to engage a mentor can originate from either HR or leadership development professionals or from executives themselves. In the past, it has more often sprung from the organizational side. But given the growing track record of mentoring as a tool for fast movers, we see more executives choosing it as a proactive component of their professional life.

Executive Mentoring is not an End in itself

In spite of its apparently robust potential, the very act of taking on a mentor will not help advance your career. In other words, don’t seek mentoring just because other fast movers in the firm seem to be benefiting from it.

Mentoring is effective for executives who can say, “I want to get over there, but I’m not sure how to do it.” Mentoring works best when you know what you want to get done. Perhaps, in spite of your outstanding track record, you haven’t yet gained the full interpersonal dexterity required of senior managers—for example, you’re not yet a black belt in the art of influence, which is so important in the modern networked organization. Honing such a skill might be an appropriate goal for a mentoring assignment.

But simply having a clear purpose won’t guarantee mentoring value. You have to be open to feedback and willing to create positive change. If not, mentoring may not be the answer.

There are certain times when executives are most likely to benefit from mentoring. Executives should seek mentoring when they feel that a change in behavior—either for themselves or their team members—can make a significant difference in the long-term success of the organization.

More specifically, the experts say, mentoring can be particularly effective in times of change for an executive. That includes promotions, stretch assignments, and other new challenges. While you may be confident in your abilities to take on new tasks, you may feel that an independent sounding board would be beneficial in helping you achieve a new level of performance, especially if close confidants are now reporting to you. More so, you may recognize that succeeding in a new role requires skills that you have not needed to rely on in the past; a mentor may help sharpen those skills, particularly when you need to do so on the fly.

But mentoring is not just for tackling new assignments. It can also play an invigorating role.

Mentors can help executives develop new ways to attack old problems. When efforts to change yourself, your team, or your company have failed—you are frustrated or burned out — a mentor can be the outside expert to help you get to the root cause and make fundamental changes.

One increasingly common use of mentoring for senior executives focuses on the challenges of managing younger workers, and on helping executives better understand and lead a new generation of employees whose work ethics and values are different.

Mentoring Engagements should be part of a larger Initiative

Mentoring works when it’s systematic. Many organizations use it as an integrated part of a larger leadership development program. Increasingly, firms incorporate “360-degree” feedback, using the results to indicate areas in which an executive might benefit from working with a mentor. Has your feedback revealed an area in which you would like to improve? Is it a skill you need to refine in order to advance through the organization? Would you benefit from an outside perspective? The answers to these questions help gauge the potential value of mentoring.

Mentoring can provide Benefits not available Elsewhere

One of the big benefits of a mentor is that they aren’t tied to the organization, your friends, or anyone else. They are tied to you only, so they support what you want and where you want to go.

Even our families, who want the best for us, can’t be unbiased or totally objective. What you do or do not do impacts them, whether it’s positive or negative. A mentor is not impacted by your decisions, your wins or losses, or anything else.

This doesn’t mean that company goals aren’t supported by mentor — indeed, the mentor was most likely hired by the company to support the executive’s efforts to achieve those goals. Even so, the role of the mentor is not to represent specific company needs or interests. The perspectives they provide, the alternatives discussed, and everything else has no agenda except to support the mentee.

For better or worse, many executives can’t find this type of conversation partner – a “truth speaker”— elsewhere in their companies. That “professional friend”.

And to reinforce this view we are trying to convey this message to an overwhelmed marketplace with a strong point of focused difference to the newcomers. A recently run article in the national print and magazine media helps us to convey our message to those we believe we can lend assistance. It follows.

So Let’s Summarize

A lot of organizations and executives jump into mentoring programs seeing them as a “quick fix”, and something quite inexpensive to implement. Many jump into it but don’t provide the necessary planning to their programming, nor the necessary support and resources to make it really work. So a lot of organizations may have mentoring programs in theory rather than in practice.

Mentoring programs vary, and depending on the organization the mentoring initiative, can be as short as a one-hour briefing before the “mentoring journey” occurs.

There are many different interpretations of mentoring. Some people see it more like a coach, or an adviser, or even a counsellor. In our opinion, it’s like those things, but it isn’t those things at all. You really need someone who can help someone think through their issues and their problems and their concerns, and come up with a good decision – rather than someone who is going to tell you what to do.

It is vital therefore that mentees have a good understanding of the agreed process and structure to ensure successful outcomes – to become fully engaged and aware of the skills, attributes and techniques for successful mentoring.

So what qualities does it take to be a good mentor and how does mentoring benefit the mentor and the mentee?

There are many qualities required for someone to be a good mentor, which can include significant professional expertise and competence in a particular field – or indeed in overall senior business leadership and management. There are also some key qualities that are necessary.

It’s important to be able to respect the “story” of the person you are mentoring and realise that this person is placing a good deal of trust and faith in you by sharing their career and professional development. Being a mentor is a privilege – and it carries with it a responsibility of confidentiality, trust and respect.

A mentor must listen with intent to understand rather than respond. By this we mean that as a mentor you often undertake the role of a “sounding board”. You can’t be an sounding board if you are doing all the talking! Taking time to listen and then determine how you can assist a mentee is a vital quality and skill.

So therefore the mentor should always be “there” for mentees – one-one, phone and email. Mentees are therefore guided towards things without necessarily being given the answers – people should work through the issues themselves and find out what suits them. Mentors actually guide, encourage and understand where you are at. It’s all about ownership and empowerment for the outcome as much as the added value in the partnership.

Significantly these days it also assists in terms of understanding people. You get a lot of talk about Generations X and Y versus the Baby Boomers. Sometimes it’s a very difficult proposition to understand someone who appears so different to you, so by being in a mentoring situation that requires you to withhold any judgement and really hear another point of view, it can increase your own skills of relating to people, so that’s another advantage as well.

However like any other program or initiative, mentoring programs need milestones, goals and some form of measurement – including that all important human feeling of well being. So when beginning the journey and developing the strategies always include those all important targeted outcomes – and review/monitor progress regularly.

We contend that mentoring for successful transition and to get people to where they really want to be has application in all walks of life – but in particular in organizations – and as much for business owners, the career minded and families in business – if not more so.     

When Peter James moved from London to Australia, he was surprised at the huge difference between the business environments in the two countries.

James, chief executive of a large professional Industry body, said: “You would think that moving from the UK to Australia would be pretty similar, with the English language, English legal system and so on in common. However, there is a fundamentally different approach here and I needed advice to help me cope.”

In the southern hemisphere decisions were made much more quickly, he said. “In Australia, if you have 80% of the facts you will take the risk and move forward. In the UK there’s more a tendency to keep talking through the issue to get more than 90% or 100%. I was not prepared to push on much faster.

“By moving halfway round the world my old network of support was no longer as valuable because they didn’t understand the new situation. I needed someone I could talk to who understood what was happening in Australia.”

“When you take on a chief executive’s role, people think it’s plain sailing. But many chief executives will talk about the loneliness at the top. There’s a lot of isolation because you have to make the tough decisions alone. You need a sounding board, preferably an experienced one, to help with the many challenging decisions facing you.”

James’ instinct was to find a mentor who could help him manage this change. He got a couple of introductions and spoke to two or three people on the telephone, looking for someone who would not only suit his personality but also provide a confidential sounding board based on his broader business experience.

He said: “It was important to have someone who could understand what was happening in Australia as well as understand me. It had to be someone who was simpatico, someone you could treat as a friend. Picking someone who was a mismatch or with whom you had a prickly relationship wouldn’t help.”

James said that such a relationship would mean a commitment of at least 12 months. And if your role involved implementing substantial change it would probably have to continue for three years or so.

“The time to curtail it is when the mentor says we are beginning to go over old ground and you realize you’re coping,” he said. “A mentoring relationship is enormously helpful because you can focus on all the challenges facing you.”

For example, the mentor would help you get your work-life balance right and ask what you are doing to stay fresh and receptive to new ideas.

People in senior management roles were not invulnerable, James said. “We all need support and help.”

But mentoring should not be seen as something just for chief executives. It is perfectly valid further down the tree, particularly if you have a major change process in hand.

James’ choice eventually fell on a specialist in mentoring chief executives from the Melbourne based Carnegie Management Group. “Geographical location of the mentor was not the issue for me,” he said. “Finding the right person was!”

Paul Smith, Carnegie Management Group’s founder, believes a gap is opening in the ranks of senior management as age catches up with them.

“As more and more people retire, the problem is accentuated by the inexperience of their successors,” he said. “The average chief executive now is 15 years younger than he would have been in the same job 20 years ago. They simply don’t have the miles on the clock.”

Smith believes these executives with limited experience will suffer. “It will be what you don’t know about that will derail you, never what you know about. But a mentor is a great way to reduce the risk.

Having a mentor who can look round the corner and see the risk because he has been there before is a great help. If you work with a mentor who has no axe to grind and no hidden agenda, it’s much safer.”

Research from CMG clients shows 77% of them felt their business model would not stand up to future challenges in the markets they served.

When a group of chief executives was polled about issues that kept them awake at night, they came up with three in particular. The first was that they blamed themselves for a failure to execute strategy they had formulated – somehow the brilliance in the boardroom got lost on the way to the outside world. The second was how to deal in the international village that the world has become. And third was how do you recruit and hold talent.

Get these right and you might not even need a mentor.

These were not Paul’s employees, bosses or friends. They included corporate or government leaders, business owners and executives who engage him as a business mentor (and coach) and who felt free in a one-to-one setting, to confess how they were really feeling about their jobs. Big pay packets and titles are no buffer to human needs and emotions.

It’s a cliché, but life at the top really can be lonely or isolating, says Paul, because few employees can imagine that their “superiors” might sometimes feel vulnerable and bewildered. He’s been there too!

Few employees realise that they might lock their bosses into a projection in which they become a figment of someone else’s imagination, he says. “Leaders can be ascribed all sorts of motives and circumstances that they just don’t want to have.”

As an executive goalkeeper™ and Chief Executive of the Carnegie Management Group, the Sydney-born Smith, is hired by leaders to be the “deep, tough friend”, with whom they can develop enough trust and rapport to allow them to navigate the issues of leadership – both personally and professionally – hired by both the organisation and the individual alike.

“They benefit by getting stuff off their chest. I often find myself caring for people that others don’t care for. If we can talk about an issue and then isolate the source, we can then work with it”, Paul says.

He also leads workshops on the question of how to bring more meaning, more heart, into a working life. He individually mentors employees who have suddenly been elevated into tough new roles – or help them to get there.

“Not everyone is immediately perfect for a new job, so I help them to get the job under their belt.”

He is well qualified for this role, as he has experienced these dynamics first hand over the earlier part of his career. Graduating from Sydney University as a Bachelor of Economics he rose through the ranks of the Oil Industry with a heavy bias towards Marketing, Corporate Planning and profit centre accountabilities involving “big numbers” he proudly says. These General Management roles were followed by senior executive roles in the Logistics Industry.

Paul therefore understands workplace pressure and the need to perform – particularly in a multi-functional role that requires the leadership of managers.

However then his transition occurred, shifting his passion to work with the “real people”, he says. Hence his drive to assist executives as their third party support base, their work colleague “removed”.

“Sometimes I used to recruit them, so my background, by definition, also involved career transition.” he says. “But then my focus shifted and I became more interested in what was happening to individuals, rather than what was happening to organisations in the first instance. Hence clients also include business owners in their own right. They are no different!”

As an Executive Goalkeeper™ Paul consults with men and women from all walks of life, in those existing leadership roles – including those aspiring to leadership – “by bringing another way of looking at things that should matter.” 

The ability to seamlessly transfer from mentor to coach is the cornerstone for him, and for them.

Some of the relationships, conducted in regular two-hour meetings that encourage reflection and feedback, have lasted for years. “Human change doesn’t happen overnight.” This includes empathy, passion for the job, future vision, life balance and vulnerabilities.

The soft stuff is that which allows connection to the client and to the colleagues. It allows connection on the basis of feedback. A simple example: asking a client how they feel.

It allows people to reveal their vulnerability to him and, in some cases, to employees. “It’s a risky phrase nowadays,” he says, “but to get to empathy with employees and clients, a person has to do an awful lot of hard, intimate work on themselves, particularly the leader.

“It sounds benign, but it is necessary for leaders to do the soul searching that brings them back to the specifics and that leads to new insights.”

This then culminates in goal setting, milestones and ongoing review – particularly important in an ever-changing world. However as far as possible, stick to the game plan he says.

“They do have to be willing to fumble and to get to the fuzzy edges where they discover something and create new models and potentials. Also they need to be able to embrace new behaviours perhaps. Followers pick up on the authenticity of the leader.”

Coming from such long experience within corporate Australia, Paul now sees here a rather adolescent working culture that is under-confident and that still emphasises skill-based competency above all else.

“Most people tell me their organisation is only interested in their competencies, when what they really want to feel is some more purpose in their work.”

“Some of the briefs I’ve had from organisations have requested me to help people to bring more of their heart to work. They want to know how to breathe life into their work.”

This can happen if an organisation permits and nurtures whole human beings at work. “When that occurs, and an individual starts to seek more meaning, they become more creative, passionate, engaged and empathetic. They are happier and more fulfilled,” he says.

This is an adult working culture where there is a balance between work and culture and where “love” does play a part. The baby boomers (executives) are moving into adulthood (parenthood) at work and they are beginning to deal with issues of “generativity” and care.

“Generativity” means rather than producing everything oneself, the aim is to help others to be more productive. However there must be, also, a positive commercial outcome at the end of the day.

“It is a broader sense of membership and yet a lot of organisations here are still based on competency and tribalism. Also hand in hand with this, we as a business community do not seem to encourage a learning culture for the next generation of leaders.” he says.

“Therefore it’s all about strategy development and execution – for both the individual and the organisation.”

“Executive Goalkeepers™ don’t kick the goals – they guide people on how to kick.”

Paul says that when organisations allow individual workers to become fully engaged, words like productivity become almost laughable. “People will transcend their job descriptions and kick the ball right out of the park!”

The emphasis he maintains for all people – Executives, Business Owners and Family Business – is to become fully focused and know precisely where you are heading at any point in time. “The development of this clarity does not happen overnight” Paul states. It requires careful and considered personal introspection via a process to determine what it is you really want to do, develop the strategies and plans – then implement, he adds.

“At CMG this is just so important for us when teaming with our clients – we believe that our work with our clients is a journey. Accordingly our logo – our brand – reflects this journey. It succinctly depicts what we do.”

• Be technologically savvy. There is not a single area of business that will remain immune from the advancements of technology.  Good managers do not need to be experts in all facets of technology, but they need to stay abreast of technological development, and work out which ones will improve productivity and effectiveness.

• Pursue knowledge management. Information will continue to be an invaluable asset, and the new manager will have to have the skills to retrieve, understand and repackage information swiftly.

• Able to achieve emotional balance. Stress is unavoidable; balance is a key to managing it. The successful manager must be able to help others maintain that balance.

• Have interpersonal skills; managing relationships, not employees. In the dynamic workplace of full-timers, part-timers, free-lancers, temps and flexi-time workers, new managers will need to understand the weaknesses in these varying groups and utilise their inherent strengths.

• Be flexible and adaptable.  In the changing world of work, a successful manager will have to adapt to dynamic environments. This means they will have to switch from strategist to mentor and to team leader.

• Know resource management. As companies peel back to the essentials, their main competitive advantage will be the experience and expertise of their employees.  Coaching, mentoring and succession planning will be mandatory in a good manager.

• Adopt ethical practices. Sound ethical practices will be required, as they are the key to promoting loyalty, pride and commitment in employees.

• Be able to thrive in the midst of diversity. Managers will have to learn to appreciate the customs and beliefs of their staff and the people that they do business with globally.

• Be able to lead, not manage.  Managers perform a critical function, but essentially they maintain the status quo and focus on systems.  In comparison, leaders are innovative, look long term, and focus on people.  The key skills that people identify as being important for leadership are the ability to inspire trust and the ability to motivate.  A good manager will have to show these attributes as well as bear the hallmark of a good decision-maker.

• Be able to demonstrate vision. Vision is something more than a quarterly objective or personal aim. In the tough new competitive world, managers will need to have a vision – or be able to share a vision – of where their company should be, and what is needed to achieve that vision.

• Finally, please remember life is not all about work – working smarter – not harder – is the key. Have your goals all mapped out, stay fit and healthy – then you will note some marked work/life balance. Not just doing the “do”.

All these factors can be influenced by managers to a greater or lesser extent.  The message is clear; don’t rest on your laurels.  To do so is risky and could result, worst case, in your joining the growing pile of business and management corpses on the scrap heap.

It is the greatest of all mistakes to do nothing – because you can only do little. But first you must know for which harbour you are headed, if you are to catch the right wind to get you there.

The study finds the bulk of workers (61 per cent) are not engaged and do little more than is necessary to keep their jobs. Worse still, 21 per cent are actively disengaged, saying they view their workplaces unfavourably and are highly likely to spread their negativity to others.

The report further finds that engagement is associated with business outcomes. A third (33 per cent) of workers who are not fully engaged have taken at least three sick days in the past month compared to only 11 per cent of engaged workers. This difference amounts to millions of dollars of lost productivity.

Companies who had overall engagement levels in the top quartile experienced nearly four times higher earnings per share growth than the median growth of their competitors. The findings are part of a global study of 47,000 people in 120 countries conducted by Gallup Consulting.

“These findings impact issues such as absenteeism, quality of work, staff turnover, company productivity and profitability. This cannot be a good sign for organisations seeking to lift their business performance post the GFC,” says Allan Watkinson, Senior Specialist Consultant atGallup’s Australian arm.

Source: Management Today – June 2011

1. Communicate the vision of change you want.

2. Identify, and communicate, at least two behavioural changes you plan to work on personally

3. Have senior executive do likewise

Do this and there will be much greater commitment to organizational change than if leadership makes out they are OK and the problems lie with everyone else.

How do you do this? Contact Carnegie to discuss.

What is mentoring? Several experts have published their definitions over the years.

Kathy Kram, well known author of multiple papers and books on mentoring and Professor in Management at the Boston University School of Management, defines a mentor as “someone who may provide a host of career development and psychosocial functions, which may include role modelling and sponsoring.” These insights were published in her book Mentoring at Work: Developmental Relationships in Organisational Life in 1984.

Fast forward some 26 years and today, in less academic terms we understand mentoring to be the offering of advice or guidance by a person typically with more experience, skills or expertise for the benefit of another individual’s personal and professional development.

Mentoring is often used in the same context as coaching yet they have very different applications.

According to Kram, the career functions of mentoring involve sponsorship, protection, challenge, exposure and visibility. Each of these tends to relate to on-the-job activities aiming to enhance an individual’s capability and standing in an organisation. Coaching however focuses on an individual’s inner self; including behaviours and values, clarity of identity and effectiveness in a role.

We define mentoring as “a collaborative relationship that uses an experiential learning framework to help the mentee identify and remove any interference that limits the expression of their full potential.”

There are also times when mentoring is required, when a colleague wants the benefit of someone’s knowledge, experience and advice on what course of action he/she should take.

Then there are times when a coaching conversation is called for, when a more structured approach is needed and professional experience and beliefs are not what’s required, and may even get in the way. In times like these, the goal is to facilitate the process of self-discovery, helping the individual commit to action based on their own conclusions.

The difference between these two situations is significant and requires very different conversations. Whilst there are clear differences between mentoring and coaching, what they do have in common is a shared objective to help a person enhance or realise their capability and potential.

Mentoring involves at a minimum three parties -the mentor, the mentee and the organisation who all stand to benefit from the positive effects it can deliver. Mentoring:

• supports the development and growth of people- people are the source of value creation and innovation. Unlike other types of assets that can be purchased or traded, it is the people that differentiate a company from its competitors, providing a strong incentive for organisations to invest in their development. Another way of looking at this is to consider the cost of replacement including recruitment, training and time

• is a development tool that can send a positive message to employees. It offers the opportunity for employees to broaden their skills, be sponsored by senior people, gain more visibility and move into more senior roles

• provides a channel for transferring knowledge from senior, experienced managers to those with less experience; it can also bridge generational gaps and retain valuable IP

• is one approach to retention. It communicates to employees that they are valued and the organisation is interested in developing their career. It increases employee engagement by building a bond between an employee and the organisation and enhancing job satisfaction

Translating the benefits of mentoring into financial terms is not as clear. Whilst employee engagement, satisfaction and individual performance can be measured, determining the financial savings as a result of mentoring is difficult. That said, our intuition and experience tells us that the benefits of mentoring are real and many executives today see mentoring as part of their role and responsibility.

This leads us to the discussion of who should be mentored? Taking a general view, one may think all employees are entitled to a mentor. Whilst this may be an equitable approach, the reality is that some people will not benefit from mentoring. These people tend not to have career or learning aspirations; they are content to remain in their current role and have little if any interest in a mentoring relationship and don’t see anything to gain from the process.

Employees likely to gain the most from mentoring are those individuals more career oriented than job oriented, typically at a entry point or mid-management level, or they may have moved into a more senior role or have just joined an organisation. Suitable candidates do not necessarily have to be in the high performer category. There may be employees struggling technically with their job who demonstrate a positive attitude towards learning and development but can’t seem to find their way. They too are deserving of the opportunity.

To get the most out of mentoring, it is important for mentees to have a level of self-awareness; a sense of their strengths and development needs, be eager to listen, learn and have ambition in terms of advancing and taking on more responsibility.

So what makes a good mentor? Ideally someone well respected in an organisation with greater experience and knowledge so they can share and guide the mentee by reflecting on their own experiences. It is preferable that the mentor is someone other than the mentee’s manager so as to avoid cross-over with the two roles. In terms of style a mentor needs to be a good listener; to be able to empathise and support. They typically have and set high standards and make themselves available and are willing to invest time and effort.

Effective mentors create developmental experiences for their mentees, have access to information and people who can help their mentee with their career and most importantly communicate in a candid, honest manner.

In business today it is common for mentees to seek multiple mentors depending on their needs and what they think is likely to work best for them. For example, they may identify one person to focus on their career, another to develop or enhance a particular skill or gain functional knowledge of a particular business unit. Whether a mentee opts for a one on one or one to many approach, the most important thing is identifying a good fit so as to reap the value of developing and building a long term relationship.

However a word of caution here – we do not necessarily subscribe to this view – unless all mentors act in close collaboration to the benefit of the mentee. Mentor conflict is not a productive outcome with the resultant confusion for the mentee. Gold is found by the mentee when a mentor is found who fits all prescribed roles!

Any Organisation should foster a Learning Culture – characteristics to look for

Continual learning supports organisational success. When skilled employees share their knowledge and experience across an organisation all parties stand to benefit. Most organisations today have some form of mentoring happening, whether it be a more formal program or a less formal arrangement.

For a mentoring relationship to be successful, it requires the commitment of both parties where there is mutual agreement of each other’s expectations in order to maximise value. Mentoring is a dynamic process. Depending on the career and learning stage, the requirements of a mentee and mentor will be quite different in terms of needs and insights to be shared.

Being approached to be a mentor either by your organisation or directly by an employee can be a flattering experience. You are identified because you are respected and credible, with knowledge and experience that can be shared for the benefit of helping others to learn.

Smart mentoring will take into account the interests of the organisation and the individual. Apart from it being a motivating experience for you and your mentee, the benefit to the business is about the investment making a positive contribution to the bottom line through skill development and retention.

It is not just the mentee in these relationships who seeks value from the process. Mentors invest their time and impart their learning and skills, providing career advice as well as both personal and professional enrichment. A mentor wants to see that their efforts have been a success and that the agreed goals are being achieved. Mutual benefit can only be achieved if both parties commit to honesty and having open and frank conversations: even when the feedback may be challenging or confronting. It is important that a mentee has an open mind about listening in order to learn and move forward.

Getting the most out of mentoring is about defining goals, ensuring the relationship is reciprocal and fostering a learning culture. It is not limited to the development of a specific skill or behaviour, but addresses the whole person and his or her career.

Businesses should realise that people are an intelligent investment. Mentoring broadens perspective and provides an opportunity for growth and success.

You, the individual, should be on the lookout for these businesses!

Effective leadership, both personally and professionally, will take many forms. But at its core, it necessarily includes the ability to:

• Articulate a strategy – for yourself and the Organisation
• Establish guiding principles
• Make decisions quickly, efficiently and effectively
• Earn the trust of people, include them in the process, treat them fairly, keep them informed and above all else communicate effectively
• Keep yourself, people and hence the organisation focussed on the positive outcomes

Therefore we believe a definition of Leadership could be -

“To maximise the expectations, the positive hope of the outcomes that come from change – while minimising the fear of change for those involved.”

And the 10 Ways to be your Best are

• Ask yourself – am I fulfilled
• Reflect on what you really want to do and achieve
• Devise a Strategy to achieve your goals
• Work hard at that strategy – right now
• Identify and overcome limiting patterns and thoughts
• Don’t be dissuaded or sidetracked
• There is no success without hard work
• If needs be, seek a mentor or motivating coach
• When you succeed, reward yourself
• Be proud and celebrate in the new you!

So what do we do – what is our Intent – to facilitate this focussing & clarity?

“What do we do? Well it’s all about People – Strategy Development and Execution. Managing transition, we work with Business Owners, Executives and Managers to get them to where they really want to be.

As Goalkeepers we don’t kick the goals – we work with them on how to kick. We re-focus, plan and then keep them on track to achieve their goals.

We recognise and respect that in life, we can only realise meaning and purpose, when we know, that our dreams are directions, and our minds are our means. Success is indeed a journey, not a destination. We also know quite well that without a plan, we are tourists.

We firmly believe it is the greatest mistake of all to do nothing – because then you can only do little. But first you must know for which harbour you are headed, if you are to catch the right wind to get you there.

Importantly we have to go for what we think we’re fully capable of, not limit ourselves by what we’ve been in the past.

We fervently maintain, that as adults, we have a responsibility to:

• find our area of specialty
• develop it into an area of excellence
• apply it to the benefit of others
• believe in what we are doing and believe in who we are.”

These were not Paul’s employees, bosses or friends. They included corporate or government leaders, business owners and executives who engage him as a business mentor (and coach) and who felt free in a one-to-one setting, to confess how they were really feeling about their jobs. Big pay packets and titles are no buffer to human needs and emotions.

It’s a cliché, but life at the top really can be lonely or isolating, says Paul, because few employees can imagine that their “superiors” might sometimes feel vulnerable and bewildered. He’s been there too!

Few employees realise that they might lock their bosses into a projection in which they become a figment of someone else’s imagination, he says. “Leaders can be ascribed all sorts of motives and circumstances that they just don’t want to have.”

As an executive goalkeeper™ and Chief Executive of the Carnegie Management Group, the Sydney-born Smith, 55, is hired by leaders to be the “deep, tough friend”, with whom they can develop enough trust and rapport to allow them to navigate the issues of leadership – both personally and professionally -hired by both the organisation and the individual alike.

“They benefit by getting stuff off their chest. I often find myself caring for people that others don’t care for. If we can talk about an issue and then isolate the source, we can then work with it”, Paul says.

He also leads workshops on the question of how to bring more meaning, more heart, into a working life. He individually mentors employees who have suddenly been elevated into tough new roles – or help them to get there.

“Not everyone is immediately perfect for a new job, so I help them to get the job under their belt.”

He is well qualified for this role, as he has experienced these dynamics first hand over the earlier part of his career. Graduating from Sydney University as a Bachelor of Economics he rose through the ranks of the Oil Industry with a heavy bias towards Marketing, Corporate Planning and profit centre accountabilities involving “big numbers” he proudly says. These General Management roles were followed by senior executive roles in the Logistics Industry.

Paul therefore understands workplace pressure and the need to perform – particularly in a multifunctional role that requires the leadership of managers.

However then his transition occurred, shifting his passion to work with the “real people”, he says. Hence his drive to assist executives as their third party support base, their work colleague “removed”.

“Sometimes I used to recruit them, so my background, by definition, also involved career transition.” he says. “But then my focus shifted and I became more interested in what was happening to individuals, rather than what was happening to organisations in the first instance. Hence clients also include business owners in their own right. They are no different!”

As an Executive Goalkeeper™ Paul consults with men and women from all walks of life, in those existing leadership roles – including those aspiring to leadership – “by bringing another way of looking at things that should matter.”

The ability to seamlessly transfer from mentor to coach is the cornerstone for him, and for them.

Some of the relationships, conducted in regular two-hour meetings that encourage reflection and feedback, have lasted for years. “Human change doesn’t happen overnight.” This includes empathy, passion for the job, future vision, life balance and vulnerabilities.

The soft stuff is that which allows connection to the client and to the colleagues. It allows connection on the basis of feedback. A simple example: asking a client how they feel.

It allows people to reveal their vulnerability to him and, in some cases, to employees. “It’s a risky phrase nowadays,” he says, “but to get to empathy with employees and clients, a person has to do an awful lot of hard, intimate work on themselves, particularly the leader.

“It sounds benign, but it is necessary for leaders to do the soul searching that brings them back to the specifics and that leads to new insights.”

This then culminates in goal setting, milestones and ongoing review – particularly important in an ever-changing world. However as far as possible, stick to the game plan he says.

“They do have to be willing to fumble and to get to the fuzzy edges where they discover something and create new models and potentials. Also they need to be able to embrace new behaviours perhaps. Followers pick up on the authenticity of the leader.”

Coming from such long experience within corporate Australia, Paul now sees here a rather adolescent working culture that is under-confident and that still emphasises skill-based competency above all else.

“Most people tell me their organisation is only interested in their competencies, when what they really want to feel is some more purpose in their work.”

“Some of the briefs I’ve had from organisations have requested me to help people to bring more of their heart to work. They want to know how to breathe life into their work.”

This can happen if an organisation permits and nurtures whole human beings at work. “When that occurs, and an individual starts to seek more meaning, they become more creative, passionate, engaged and empathetic. They are happier and more fulfilled,” he says.

This is an adult working culture where there is a balance between work and culture and where “love” does play a part. The baby boomers (executives) are moving into adulthood (parenthood) at work and they are beginning to deal with issues of “generativity” and care.