November 14, 2012

QUESTIONS TO ASK AS A MENTOR TO A PROTÉGÉ


QUESTIONS TO ASK AS A MENTOR TO A PROTÉGÉ
 By Chris Carnduff

In my line of work people often assume that a Management Consultant has all the answers at the outset to the problems faced by a client. This is not necessarily true although having some subject matter expertise or industry experience is often useful. One of the real tools that a Consultant uses which I am going to share with you here in this article is the ability to ask quality questions from their clients which result in a meaningful dialogue and discovery process that in turn lead to the root cause or underlying issue being identified which then can be resolved by other means. The questions listed below I believe are helpful in discerning how to help a Mentee improve and by design are very general. If you find them useful, please feel free to adapt them to your purposes.

  1. How can I be of greatest help to you in our relationship?
  2. What was the best mentoring or coaching experience you have ever had? Why was it so effective for you?
  3. What are your most important goals right now?
  4. What questions can I help you answer?
  5. What is your time frame for achieving these goals?
  6. What are the most important obstacles you are facing?
  7. What have you tried so far? How has it worked?
  8. What are your greatest abilities or strengths?
  9. What has been most helpful for you in this conversation?
  10. What are your aspirations?


Posted on behalf of Chris Carnduff

No comments:

Post a Comment