Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Iron Sharpens Iron – Peer-to-Peer Mentoring



For the last two months I have had the luxury and uniquely rewarding experience of having a professional peer-to-peer mentor.  It all came about quite accidentally and now appears to have organically taken on a life of its own.  What started as just two people with complimentary skill sets getting together occasionally to chat has evolved into a capacity building tool.  I started to look at this ‘reciprocal mentoring process’ through the lens of Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People but with an unconventional twist and you may want to experiment with your own version.  So, here are some tips on how to make the most of your  peer-to-peer mentoring experience:

The 7 Habits with a peer-to-peer mentoring twist 

1.       Be Proactive – Set a firm date to meet once a month to discuss our goals, plans, key challenges, and exchange information, resources, and come to each meeting armed with a good shot of authenticity encouragement. Bring the real you to the meeting.

2.       Begin with the end in mind – Visualize what the Best Version of Yourself would look like and work collectively to that end.  

3.       Put First Things First - Assist each other with figuring out what your top priorities are and the next realistic steps that will take you there. 

4.       Paradigms of interdependence – Optimize, leverage, and exchange valuable information.  In the sessions that I’ve attended I’ve always come away feeling more empowered by the generosity of information exchanged and knowing that each of us is trying to serve the highest good in one another.

5.       Seek first to Understand – Peer-to-peer mentoring is a great opportunity to really understand your peer and can actually provide you with the opportunity to use and improve your listening skills.

6.       Synergize – Cooperating to achieve a common goal can be one of the noblest endeavours that an individual can undertake.  Again, this is an opportunity to apply structured teamwork.

7.       Sharpen the saw – There’s an old biblical phrase in Proverbs 27:17 that states “As iron sharpens iron, so one man/woman sharpens another”.  Isn’t it amazing that when we hang around someone who is much smarter than we are that it automatically causes us to up our game?  My Mother always told me “show me your company and I’ll tell you who you are”.  Well, judging by this generous and brilliant individual I’m in very good company.  In “sharpening your saw or your iron” you can take advantage of reviewing your physical, mental, social/emotional and spiritual philosophy from an objective viewpoint and move towards personal growth in each of these areas of your life.  Covey indicates that by “sharpening our saws” we are actually preserving and enhancing the greatest assets that we have ---ourselves! 

So today I challenge you to go out and find the other iron to sharpen your own!

Cheers to the best in you,
Carol

1 comment:

  1. You've found an interesting way to re-interpret the Seven Habits, Carol. It's amazing how accountability leads to results :)

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