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Mentoring @ Duke -- Mentor/Mentee Tools

Types of Developmental Opportunities

Researchers at the Center for Creative Leadership have studied successful managers and have identified five broad categories of developmental that can provide challenges for both mentors and mentees. The broad categories with suggested activities are:

• Challenging Jobs: start ups, fix ups or expansions, time limited projects, coping with pressure, learning on the fly, dealing with challenging subordinates.
   
  • Lead a task force
  • Be a campus recruiter
  • Run a large scale organizational social event
  • Troubleshoot a problem for another entity
  • Negotiate with a customer
  • Supervise a study team
  • Make speeches for the organization
  • Represent concerns of other staff to higher management
     
• Other People, Mostly Bosses: these can be positive or negative examples; from bosses who are models of management and integrity to those who demonstrate poor management or a lack of ethics.
   
  • Keep a Learning Journal
  • Study the characteristics of most admired bosses
  • Reflect on and learn from those you admire in your personal and professional life
     
• Hardships: making the most of mistakes, getting unstuck from a dead-end job, having to fire people. For those who are open to learning and reflection, these kinds of events can result in significant development.
   
  • Keep a Learning Journal
  • Solicit feedback
  • Receive 360 degree feedback
  • Find a coach
  • Create and monitor a development plan
     
• Coursework: less for the content and more from what can be learned from others; tips, alternate decision making styles, comparing themselves with others.
   
  • Teach someone a new skill
  • Do a self-study project
  • Study in a new technical area
  • Attend a self-awareness course
  • Spend a day with an expert
  • Study history, draw parallels
  • Shadow higher management
     
• Off-the-Job Experiences: often times in community service. Excellent way to develop the powers of persuasion.
   
  • Become active in a professional organization
  • Serve with a community agency
  • Serve as a tutor or mentor
  • Coach children's sports
  • Work with a charitable organization

Adapted from: Lombardo, Michael M. and Robert W. Eichinger. Eighty-Eight Assignments for Development in Place. Center for Creative Leadership, 1989.

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