Today’s post is our first from our cofounder, Chevy. In addition to his warm and passionate personality, he holds three degrees in psychology and is an expert in both the art and science of leader development.
Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash
The particular earth toned aroma of coarsely ground coffee beans fills your lungs like the updraft in a hot air balloon as soon as you crest the Starbucks door. It’s such a unique feeling and smell that it simply never gets old. Who doesn’t like a good ol’ cup of joe, right? Banter abounds as usual; it is an extrovert’s cavern. Starbucks can be a cool place to meet, but you’re not here to hang out and you didn’t make this trip to just sit around and contemplate whether there really is water in those rivulets on Mars. Your visit is as purpose-driven as the fervor of the green and black clad baristas smiling back at you. You came to meet a potential mentor.
The military quite literally runs on caffeine. You would be hard pressed to find a command post that doesn’t have a warm pot ready. Coffee warms you up on a cold day at the rifle range and keeps you alert during your watch. More importantly, a cup of coffee is a powerful social lever – offer one to fellow veteran or service member and you’ll be rewarded with a warm smile and a welcome break from the day’s stress.
As with crafting your favorite cup of wake-me-up, mentorship can happen in a variety of ways. I came across a blog that broke down the Starbucks experience into three parts: the connection between the customer and the barista, the persuasion of the drinking experience, and the quality of the drink itself. The author probably never knew that she would be succinctly describing the artifacts of a good mentorship relationship, but I tell you that it’s not that far-fetched.
The first facet is connectivity. Connections matter in general, but they are paramount in the mentorship process. You can’t have a real connection without being authentic and building rapport. The interaction between the mentor and the mentee is formulated at this first level, and the other two parts won’t materialize if there is no connection. How well do you know each other? What do you share? What’s in-bounds and what’s off-limits? All of this plays right into the next level, the persuasion of the interaction experience.
Having a connection and enjoying the process is two different things. Think of the setting for this also. Is the exchange worth the time invested? Are you always meeting at work, in one or the other’s office, or is it neutral territory like Starbucks? Do you sit next to the person and actively listen or are you swiping away at your touch screen device and rarely making eye contact?
The final level deals with quality. Mentorship isn’t about just hanging out, though it doesn’t have to be rigid either. It doesn’t need a formal lesson plan, but it must be purpose driven. Does the mentorship work? Are you both growing from the experience? Have you laid out a developmental goal and used outside resources to enhance the quality of the first two levels?
These levels may seem complicated but they are just the layers to a structured developmental experience. Research (1) suggests that 91% of those that use a codified mentorship process found the experience moderately or greatly beneficial to their success.
Every piping hot mug of ground bean juice has a certain level of complexity and balance. You don’t just make a pot to make one if you’re really into java. The same ideas should be applied to the mentorship exchange. As with a crafted cup of coffee, one must carefully orchestrate the ingredients of their mentorship relationship. With this visual in mind, Kathy Kram, a Boston University researcher, identified two general functions for the mentorship process that we must be cognizant of – career and psychosocial (2). Career functions of mentorship enhanced career development, while the psychosocial functions clarified personal identities and feeling of competence. Each had their own components. She found five career functions – sponsorship, coaching, protection, visibility, challenging assignments, and exposure-and-visibility (3). She also found four psychosocial functions – role modeling, acceptance-and-confirmation, counseling and friendship (4). Some people need coffee to wake up and stay going all day (think career). Others may drink it more socially or just for the feeling and taste (think psychosocial). Both are important. More often than not, our lovely intricacy makes mentorship a quaint mix of the two.
They’ve spelled your name right on your cup and you happily trod away from the counter after receiving your liquid gold. You plop down with your goblet of warmth, invigorated by both a fresh sip and the possibilities of this meeting. You wonder how much will this first sit down play into the ingredients of the connection you’re about to foster. That edgy nervousness definitely isn’t the caffeine just yet, but you’re poised and confident that you want this opportunity to blossom. You’re ready to start a conversation and spark a transformation. As you see the person you’re meeting swing open the door, you hop up to greet them like a new friend, with hands warmed by an old friend… a cup of coffee.
1: “Leadership Needs Development”, Training, February 2006, 7.
2, 3, 4: Robert Kreitner & Angelo Kinicki, Organizational Behavior, 10th ed. (New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2008), 85.
Photo Credit: InHabitat.com
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