The mentoring trap I used to fall into as a healthcare clinic owner

I used to be a terrible mentor…

Why?

Because I was trying so hard to do everything for everyone, to have all the answers, all the time.

And to be honest, it really sucked!

Firstly, because if I didn’t have the answer I felt like I wasn’t fulfilling my role as a mentor, that I was failing.

And secondly, because the people I was mentoring just didn’t seem to improve… So my workload just seemed to be forever increasing as the size of my team increased.

I was craving a team that took initiative, thought for themselves and who could problem solve on their own two feet; and I couldn’t see at the time that I was creating this learned dependency on me…

It’s common isn’t it. To work so hard at something that you end up swimming in the opposite direction.

So what changed to create a team of empowered humans?

I switched up the need to have all the answers, with the need to challenge my team using the 7 powerful questions below, from the book ‘The Coaching Habit’ to provide more value in mentoring sessions, without needing to have all the answers, all the time!

• What’s on your mind?

• …and what else?

• What’s the real challenge here for you?

• What do you want?

• How can I help?

• If you’re saying yes to this, what are you saying no to?

• What was most useful for you?

And we also implemented the 1 problem, 3 option model.

Game changer!