One of the goals of effective mentoring is not to make people dependent on us, but to help them grow in confidence, responsibility, and independence. This can be challenging. When we care about someone, it is often tempting to solve problems for them, step in too...
When people share a struggle or difficulty, our instinct is often to move quickly toward solutions. We offer advice. We try to fix the problem. We search for the right words. We try and rescue them. While these responses are usually well intentioned, they can...
People may forget advice, but they rarely forget a story. There is something uniquely powerful about story. It captures attention, engages emotion, and makes ideas memorable in a way that information alone cannot. This is why story plays such an important role in...
Long before people follow our advice,they observe our lives. In mentoring, it is easy to focus on what we say—our guidance, our questions, our stories. These all matter. But there is something even more powerful at work: People are constantly learning from who we are....
Think about a time when someone encouraged you. It may have been a simple comment. A word of affirmation. Someone noticing something in you that you had not fully seen in yourself. Moments like these often stay with us far longer than we expect. Encouragement has a...
The best mentors and coaches are not the ones with all the answers.They are the ones who ask the best questions. Curiosity is one of the most underrated and powerful skills in mentoring and coaching. It shifts the focus away from telling, and towards understanding....
