Executive Mentoring

I now think of mentoring as a process within a relationship of equals that enable participants to:

Understand themselves and others.
Learn from experience.
Align themselves congruently with the vision and values of the group.
Value difference between people.
Grow in maturity acknowledging their motives for the continuing endeavour.

So who is likely to be mentored?
The idea that someone is assigned a mentor from whom to learn the required performance is clearly not envisaged in the definition given. The prerequisite is that the individual wants to learn from their own experience, is willing to listen and be listened to, and has the courage to change. Since it is increasingly hard and tough for those who manage organisations today, it is likely that Leaders and Managers will benefit from and want to engage in Mentoring

What do I provide as the Mentor?
I will need to be someone who has experience in related aspects of the Mentee's world though not necessarily expert in that world. I will be someone who is evidently a self reflective practitioner and is demonstrating a personal mastery rather than only a technical one. Empathic communication will be an essential characteristic of the relationship provided since the aim is to facilitate your growth in your own way and in your own world.

So Executive Mentoring might provide for you:

A culture to work in that reduces stress.
Being a otivated person that has high energy to align yourself with the corporate endeavour, not only share the values of that endeavour, but to model them congruently and influence others. It is not hard work, difficult problems, or change that necessarily gives rise to destructive stress responses but beliefs and actions contrary to stated values will certainly do so.

You can be helped to:

Surface and harmonise differences when you or others take sides and follow their own versions of the vision.
Hold the tension maturely and creatively when you perceive the gap between reality and the vision and become discouraged.
Take time to learn from reality in the light of the vision when the tasks of today block out the light of the intended future.
Regain a sense of being in an endeavour together with those who share the same values when the stress of today seems to cause a distancing of team members from each other and yourself.
Overcome a fear of powerlessness, of failure, of rejection, and of conflict are common human experiences. Unacknowledged, these give rise to behaviours that generate resistance to the best intentions of the enterprise and its leaders. Acknowledged, such fears are the experiences which give opportunity for change.

Formally, I have experienced in senior management in the IT industry and as a senior Minister in a city centre church for 19 years.
My training as a counsellor/psychotherapist equips me to facilitate the development professionally and personally of my clients.
My experience over the past 12 years facilitating management and leadership development gives me the confidence that I have good experience of organisational cultures

You can contact me at peter.bowes@blueyonder.co.uk