Remember the time when you have received a promotion into a leadership role for the first time. Unforgettable, right. Now allow me to ask you a couple of questions related to it. What did it feel like? I mean the moment you got to know about your promotion. It must be surreal, and why shouldn't it be. Many of us dream of getting into such a position. Also, the feeling of getting a chance to do something new will forever be exciting. Yes, simultaneously, you must be grateful for the promotion and opportunity that comes with it. If I’m not wrong, you might even be a bit nervous and scared of the challenges that lie ahead. Also, did it ever occur to you if you were even ready for it? Yes, this will have mostly mixed reactions, but the truth is most weren’t.
Lack of Development for New Leaders
The reason to state that most weren’t ready for the leadership position is that most never had the leadership training when they got promoted. Even though few leaders got themselves through various leadership programs, they largely failed to impact the presence of the seasoned and senior leaders present in your company. Senior and seasoned leaders often hold the edge over junior or young leaders because of their experience. As a result of this, not only do they receive the most attention, they even end up overshadowing them too.
To combat such challenges, young leaders have started taking up mentoring programs to compete equally, if not more, with their respective senior leaders. Therefore, if you are a mentor who is running or planning to run a leader mentoring program, then, ideally, you should cover some important topics in leader mentoring and even mentoring can improve communication skills.
Topics to Cover for Leader Mentoring Program
While there are so many things that you can cover as a leader mentoring, here are the few key ones that must be a part of any leadership mentoring program. Also, a lot of it revolves around having developmental conversations with the leaders. So let's take a look at them.
New Mindset for New Leaders
Often we have seen leaders that operate with a fixed mindset that tends to be ineffective. They have a hard time dealing with negative feedback and adjusting to the situation. Also, their fixed mindset tries to avoid challenges and even forces them to quit or give up on tough times easily.
However, the new mindset is about the mindset that grows. We can call it the growth mindset that allows leaders to reflect on their mistakes and even learn from them. As a result, they develop the flexibility and vigor to take on any challenges in the best possible manner. Leaders often lack this knowledge out of lack of experience. Hence, this is a great topic to explore in the leader mentoring program.
New Skill Set for New Leaders
It is a common occurrence that a person gets more because of her contribution than because of her ability to fit in a leader's role. For example, a salesman gets promoted to a leadership role because of his technical abilities. However, it isn’t guaranteed that he has some technical skills to take on the leadership role. Leaders like him often struggle a lot. Therefore, a mentor should include a topic highlighting the important leadership skills new leaders should learn about in their leader mentoring program.
New Relationships for New Leaders
It is natural to develop new relationships in your new leadership role. New relationships are essential for both personal and professional growth. However, in the process of developing new relationships, we often ignore or avoid the past relationship with our co-workers and peers we used to work with and even became friends. Mentors should talk about why leaders need to maintain a balance. They can even teach them how to lead the people they were previously co-workers with seamlessly without causing any friction and rift.
New Perspective for New Leaders
Leadership brings all new experiences with a whole lot of responsibilities. While you were only responsible for your personal growth and targets set by the administration in your previous years, now you have much more to do. Others will be looking at you for guidance and support, and for it, you will gain a whole new perspective that mentors can teach in their leader mentoring program, as explained in efficient mentoring.
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