July 1, 2024 • 22 mins
What if mentoring could transform your leadership style and elevate your entire team? Join Laura W. as she sits down with leadership expert Jason Muhammad, who shares transformative strategies on how to mentor employees into the next generation of leaders. From the importance of being transparent about your time to setting clear boundaries and having an exit strategy, Jason lays out a roadmap for effective and sustainable mentorship. We discuss how these practices can significantly enhance employee performance, communication, and attendance, and why emotional intelligence plays a critical role in this dynamic.
Discover the power of attentive listening in leadership mentoring in our enlightening conversation with Jason Muhammad. Learn how to manage your time and commitments effectively, even in the face of unforeseen leadership emergencies. Jason introduces practical techniques like the loop of understanding and the acronym FOCUS (Fully Organized Concentration Until Success) to foster a culture of growth and progress. This episode is packed with actionable insights for any leader committed to building a robust mentorship culture within their organization. Don't miss this treasure trove of wisdom that promises to transform your approach to leadership mentoring.
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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-muhammad-consultant
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Email: jmldevelop22@gmail.com
Website: https://knappcreative.org/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Laura (00:09):
I'm your host, Laura Voddenknecht, owner of Mosaic
Business Consulting, and you'relistening to the Mosaic Life
with Laura W.
A mosaic is a bunch of piecesthat, when put together, make up
the whole in a really beautifulway, and this show plans to
discuss the various pieces of abusiness throughout all these
different industries and howthese pieces, when put together,
(00:29):
can help develop a better, moreefficient and effective running
of your business.
To reach me, contact bizradious.
Today, my guest is JasonMuhammad.
I've been looking forward tothis interview.
So, as an author, speaker,trainer and founder of JM
Leadership Development, Jason isdedicated to transforming
(00:53):
organizations by identifying anddeveloping emerging leaders.
Leadership coach from St ThomasChristian University in
Minneapolis, Minnesota, Jasoncollaborates with corporations,
county agencies, nonprofitorganizations and educators to
(01:16):
improve their capacities asleaders and expedite change in
the workforce.
Through this process, heemphasizes a growth mindset,
employee engagement, teamcohesion and team development.
Welcome back to the show, Jason.
It's great to have you here.
Jason (01:33):
Hey, Laura, thanks so much and it's absolutely a
pleasure being back on your show.
Laura (01:38):
Yeah Well, I know it's been so sorry, I know it's been
a little while since you've beenon the show, but I think it
would be great to discuss howleaders can better mentor their
staff to become the nextgeneration of leaders.
And I mentioned this becauseseveral leaders I've worked with
recently have struggled withthe aspect, this particular
(02:01):
aspect, of their business.
And I was wondering, in yourexperience, what have you
noticed about where leadersstruggle with mentoring their
employees to become those betterleaders?
Jason (02:17):
Yeah, thank you so much for that excellent question.
First, it's being honest aboutthe time that they actually have
themselves to do so.
When a leader says that, yeah,I would like to have you as my
mentee and we're going to dothis X, y and Z authentic and
(02:48):
being transparent and realisticabout their schedules, about
their commitments, about theirrole and responsibility, starts
the process of receiving amentee.
Then number two is looking atokay, what are you going to
mentor them on?
Because yeah because sometimesyou know, being someone's mentor
(03:10):
can create attachment, and inany business do you have an exit
strategy if this attachmentbecomes too much for either
(03:30):
yourself or your mentee.
And then number three isbasically committing to or
setting a commitment and stayingcommitted to the commitment.
Laura (03:45):
OK, wait, wait, wait.
So let me go back, because Iwant to clarify something.
So I was thinking aboutmentorship from a boss to an
employee, but you're talkingabout mentorship maybe
throughout a company, where thementor may not be their boss.
Jason (04:01):
No, I was real.
I was speaking of a leader.
That's why I said making surethat they are in tune with their
actual uh, do they first, firstof all, do they have the time
to do so?
Laura (04:12):
Absolutely, I get that part.
And then the second item was uh, what was that?
Again, it was my apologies.
Jason (04:19):
Yeah, no problem.
So it's uh, we're so you beingstaying.
I'm sorry finding the time andthen looking at the attachments,
you know, they're like lookingup to you so much, they have so
much respect for you, they haveso much admiration for you that
(04:50):
the mentor mentee relationshipcan mutate into something else.
And so, with that being said,do you, as a leader, have an
exit strategy of being able toget out of that relationship
right, or changing thatrelationship without dissolving
(05:13):
the person in the process?
Laura (05:15):
Right Without breaking the tie per se, absolutely,
absolutely.
It's sort of like a softlanding, in a sense.
Jason (05:23):
Yeah, because then you produce or create an estranged
relationship in the job and thennext thing you know you start
seeing it in three areas.
If this relationship isestranged due to an attachment
or a bad way of breaking therelationship, you'll see it in
their attendance you will see itin their communication and of
(05:46):
course you will see it in theircommunication and, of course,
you will see it in theirperformance.
Laura (05:50):
Yeah, and I really appreciate you identifying those
elements too.
These are things that you couldmeasure the impact of that
mentor-mentee relationship, bothpositive and negative.
Absolutely the attendance, theperformance and communication.
Jason (06:18):
Absolutely the attendance, the performance you
know, and communication and, andcommunication meaning that they
become either shut down or that.
Yeah, so it's.
You know, it's not only whatthey will be saying, but
remember, communication is 93percent nonverbal.
Communication is 93% nonverbal.
So it would be the bodylanguage, it would be how they
communicate to others via email.
It would be, you know, all ofthese things.
(06:39):
That will be how they, let'ssay, for instance, in customer
service, right?
And so you would have someonewho's supposed to be selling
this and selling that, oranswering this or answering that
, the how they do it, with therolling of the eyes and closing
of the eyes, sucking of theteeth, right?
(07:00):
So, if that, what are youcommunicating to a person?
You're communicating.
I really don't want to serveyou and that's what I'm supposed
to do, but I really don't wantto do you and that's what I'm
supposed to do, but I reallydon't want to do that.
Laura (07:11):
Right, right yeah.
Jason (07:12):
So something has happened to that individual
because, were they always likethis?
They didn't sign up to the jobfor the job to be this kind of
person, so something happened.
And so, if it's if it's a, ifit's a, it's like a bad divorce,
you know?
In other words, if something ishappening where you know this
customer service representativewas getting mentorship from a
(07:36):
leader who did not know how toeffectively and using emotional
intelligence to be able tochange or exit this you know
this mentor-mentee relationshipthen yeah, that's what you
produce schedule to actuallydevote to being a mentor for the
(07:57):
mentee and that employee anddedicate that time to that
person, either weekly orbiweekly or whatever the
(08:20):
agreement is.
Laura (08:21):
And I so appreciate that, because so many people think
they have time when they reallydon't and then they cram it in
or make worse, they make theemployee feel that they're an
invasion of their time.
Jason (08:36):
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
It's like okay, so you'regiving me, you know, points,
you're giving me mentorship, butI can't even accept it, because
I remember watching an oldCosby show, Right, and he was
talking to his son, I believe itwas, and he was talking about
(08:57):
how his son was having someproblems with his girlfriend.
And he says well, ok, son,what's your favorite food?
And his son said bacon, dogburger or something like that.
Laura (09:09):
And he says yeah, and he says how do you like it?
Jason (09:11):
He says I like it with seasoned fries.
And he says, okay, do you likeketchup?
On that thing?
He's like, yeah, I like ketchup.
On that thing, he says, okay,so that's your favorite food.
Now what if I come up and giveyou your favorite food but I
serve it on the top of a trashcan lid you?
Yeah, yeah, would you eat it?
He's like no, dad.
He says well, sometimes, son isnot what you're doing, it's in
(09:35):
your delivery.
Laura (09:37):
Oh nice.
Jason (09:38):
Yeah, and so leaders have to be careful of making
sure that they are, that we areactually have time to process
this request of being someone'smentor and really looking at the
schedule.
So I would say don't agree toit 100 percent.
(09:59):
I don't know, I'm sorry, don'tagree to it right away.
You know, always have giveyourself time to process, look
at your schedule, look at yourcommitments and then give an
answer.
And so your answer may or maynot be no, it may be not yet,
and there's power in not yet youknow, because it's a positive
(10:22):
and a negative.
Some people can look at not yet,like the glass is half empty,
but when you're looking at, oh,not yet, that's glass half full.
Laura (10:32):
So what does the mentor do if they're being told they
have to mentor a differentemployee and so they are being
it's sort of part of theirrequisite of their own
performance?
What do they do to?
(10:52):
You know, what do they do inthat circumstance If, let's say,
their boss is telling them theyhave to mentor somebody and you
know they have to physicallyfigure out how to carve out time
.
Is that what you're saying?
Jason (11:07):
Absolutely.
I would say that if it is aprerequisite of their job
requirement, accept thechallenge.
See, I remember listening toBrian Tracy.
Brian Tracy said because what,what that does?
Is that OK, if a person is notready to do that, it produces a
problem for them.
And a problem if you look at itin math, the problems can be
(11:28):
solved using math.
Right, you're going to eitheradd something or subtract
something.
So when I was listening toBrian Tracy, he said there's
three ways to look at a problem.
He said number one look at itas a situation.
He said number two look at itas a challenge.
He said but the number threeand best way to look at a
(11:49):
problem is to look at it as anopportunity.
And so, therefore, if it is aprerequisite for a leader to be
a mentor to someone else, yeah,accept the challenge, look at
the situation and then take theopportunity.
The difference between apositive person and negative
person is that a negative personcan have an opportunity but
(12:12):
only see the problem.
But a positive person can havea problem but see the
opportunity.
Laura (12:19):
Exactly, yeah, yeah, yep, and that is a big thing is and
we're going to get to that thatmindset right that you're
talking about.
But I'm also thinking aboutthat third element.
So we talked about time, we'vetalked about the attachment of
the leader and making sure thatyou have an exit strategy before
going in, and so what do youfeel is that third element that
(12:45):
you were talking about?
Jason (12:46):
Yeah is.
Can you stay committed to thecommitment?
Laura (12:51):
OK.
Jason (12:51):
Right.
So staying committed to thecommitment, which means that
it's about keeping your word.
If you look at the wordcommitment, the prefix C-O means
two or more.
So, which means that it's notjust their responsibility to
meet the requirements of thementor mentee relationship, but,
as the leader, it's yourresponsibility to make sure that
(13:13):
adherence to the mentor mente.
This is why going back tonumber one is most important is
looking at your time, becauseyou can say well, you know, yeah
, I'm going to do it.
(13:34):
Yes, I'm going to do it.
This is our schedule.
Now, in that communication, inthat conversation about
commitment, you want to leave inthere some room for flexibility
.
What that means?
Is that okay?
So, just in case, if anemergency leadership situation
(13:54):
comes up and I have thisschedule for X, y and Z, look, I
have a contingency plan forthat.
Laura (14:01):
Yeah, yeah, so you want to leave yourself some room.
Jason (14:04):
So even if you did not make this date, you had a plan
in place that still keeps you inthe commitment aspect of your
mentor mentee relationshipmentor and you help sorry, you
help, or you figured this outwith the employee.
Laura (14:22):
You're scheduled.
What is the?
You know what are some of thefirst steps, if you will, that a
leader or mentor can do to helpthe next generation of leaders
(14:50):
the next generation of leaders.
Jason (14:51):
Well, in this aspect of mentor-mentee relationship is
first is have a conversation,and in this conversation you
want to practice attentivelistening, and with attentive
listening you're listening forclues.
Unfortunately, most people inconversations are listening to
win, listening to fix, but neverlistening to learn.
(15:21):
You can absolutely learn whatyou need to do to fix and then,
of course, you could win therelationship with your mentor
mentee.
So it starts with.
It starts with having aconversation.
Laura (15:44):
And when?
You Sorry, my apologies, I wasjust kind of wondering.
You know, there's a way wherewe listen and these days we're
hearing about like a very shortattention span and out of a
goldfish yeah, exactly so we're.
we're sitting here having aconversation with somebody and
and it's not that we're notlistening and we're trying to
learn, we're trying to take thatin, right, but maybe we capture
(16:04):
one thing and then misssomething else, just as I did in
the beginning, right.
And so what is it that we cando to?
You know to really learn, youknow to have that listen, to
learn approach?
Jason (16:23):
fully organized concentration until success,
better known as focus F-O-C-U-Sfocus fully organized
concentration until success.
One of the problems that wehave when we are listening is we
(16:44):
don't focus on what we'relistening to.
We don't listen to the words wedon't listen to the person, our
minds start to wonder and goingoff into other things.
Number one.
Number two is that we have tosuspend judgment right.
(17:05):
Yeah, we have to suspendjudgment, which means that, okay
, we're listening in thisconversation, but you know we're
wondering, like, who is thisperson to say what they're
saying, or why are they sayingthis?
And then you miss somethingright or something catches your
attention.
You know, many of us claim ADHD, you know attention deficit
(17:31):
disorders and whatnot, and soour attention span, of course,
research shows that it's almostless than that of a goldfish
listening.
You're listening for the clues,because a person would tell you
what they need.
Laura (17:49):
As long as you allow them to talk.
Jason (17:53):
Eventually they will tell you exactly what you need
and what you're looking for, aslong as you're listening.
Now you're practicing attentivelistening, which includes, you
know, nodding, you knowsometimes you are saying yes,
you know to the person and thenbut one of the things that most
of us have to practice in termsof listening is we have to.
(18:18):
There's something that's calleda loop of understanding, and
with a loop of understanding,you know there's four steps to
this loop of understanding.
You know there's there's foursteps to this loop of
understanding, Right?
Because you want to understand,you want to communicate, you
want to observe, and then youwant to make sure that you're
correct.
So step one is understand whatthe person is saying.
(18:39):
Number two is communicate whatyou understood, Right?
Laura (18:46):
We don't do that.
Jason (18:47):
No, no, we don't, we don't.
Number three is observe theirreaction and check to make sure
you got it right, right.
Then number four is correctyour understanding and check
again.
Laura (19:01):
Yeah.
Jason (19:01):
So we go through this loop of understanding as we're
having a conversation, withusing attentive listening, we
can see so.
So you know, back to thebeginning of your question, the
first thing is having aconversation and from a
conversation, if you'repracticing, let them doing, let
(19:23):
the mentee do most of thetalking, the initial
conversation, and probably forthe rest of the conversations
that you're going to have,because you want to listen, to
see if there's any growth andprogress.
As you have conversations, youwant to see the mindset in the
mentee, to see if their mindsetis changing from growth to fix
(19:44):
growth the fix, going back andforth, back and forth.
Laura (19:47):
Yeah, yeah, no, that's great.
And so now we've had thislovely conversation.
Now what?
Jason (19:55):
So now what we have to do with the mentee is what we
did with ourselves.
We have to look at what kind oftime do they have for this
commitment, what kind of time dothey have for this?
So the same practice that youput on yourself as a leader, you
put that on.
Or as a mentor leader, you putthat on your mentee.
(20:15):
So now let's check yourschedule because, see, you may
have, you may be a mentor, right, that works a first shift, but
your mentee works a second shift.
So how are you going to be ableto do the mentee?
Well, at a certain point yourtimes lapse.
If you come in from nine tofive, they come in from three to
(20:36):
10 or three to 12.
You're going to have that timespan there where you could
potentially get together for 30minutes or an hour to be able to
talk.
So first you got to look atwhat you're, so you got to do
the same thing with them thatyou did for yourself.
Laura (20:53):
Right now.
So I hate to interrupt, butwe're already out of time.
It's insane.
So I know that we have moreoptions to talk about more, but
here's the great thing If youwant to learn more about him and
what he's going to offer, asthe next steps, you're going to
have to listen in for anotherepisode or go ahead and reach
(21:19):
out to him right away.
And how can they contact you?
Jason (21:22):
Yeah, they can send me an email at jmemergingleaders at
gmailcom.
Laura (21:29):
So J-M M as in Mary right .
Yes jmemergingleaders atgmailcom Fantastic.
Jason (21:37):
Yep and I will respond promptly.
Laura (21:40):
Wonderful, wonderful.
Well, this has just been superfast and super great.
I really appreciate all thatyou've shared.
Thank you so much.
I want to thank you forlistening to the Mosaic Life
with Laura W, and you can listento this episode again and get
this great content because itwas really great, or listen to
other great hosts and theirshows by going to bizradious and
(22:02):
click on shows.
Thanks so much for listeningand have a great rest of your
day.
I'm your host, Laura Voddenknecht, owner of Mosaic
Business Consulting, and you'relistening to the Mosaic Life
with Laura W.
A mosaic is a bunch of piecesthat, when put together, make up
the whole in a really beautifulway, and this show plans to
discuss the various pieces of abusiness throughout all these
different industries and howthese pieces, when put together,
(00:29):
can help develop a better, moreefficient and effective running
of your business.
To reach me, contact bizradious.
Today, my guest is JasonMuhammad.
I've been looking forward tothis interview.
So, as an author, speaker,trainer and founder of JM
Leadership Development, Jason isdedicated to transforming
(00:53):
organizations by identifying anddeveloping emerging leaders.
Leadership coach from St ThomasChristian University in
Minneapolis, Minnesota, Jasoncollaborates with corporations,
county agencies, nonprofitorganizations and educators to
(01:16):
improve their capacities asleaders and expedite change in
the workforce.
Through this process, heemphasizes a growth mindset,
employee engagement, teamcohesion and team development.
Welcome back to the show, Jason.
It's great to have you here.
Jason (01:33):
Hey, Laura, thanks so much and it's absolutely a
pleasure being back on your show.
Laura (01:38):
Yeah Well, I know it's been so sorry, I know it's been
a little while since you've beenon the show, but I think it
would be great to discuss howleaders can better mentor their
staff to become the nextgeneration of leaders.
And I mentioned this becauseseveral leaders I've worked with
recently have struggled withthe aspect, this particular
(02:01):
aspect, of their business.
And I was wondering, in yourexperience, what have you
noticed about where leadersstruggle with mentoring their
employees to become those betterleaders?
Jason (02:17):
Yeah, thank you so much for that excellent question.
First, it's being honest aboutthe time that they actually have
themselves to do so.
When a leader says that, yeah,I would like to have you as my
mentee and we're going to dothis X, y and Z authentic and
(02:48):
being transparent and realisticabout their schedules, about
their commitments, about theirrole and responsibility, starts
the process of receiving amentee.
Then number two is looking atokay, what are you going to
mentor them on?
Because yeah because sometimesyou know, being someone's mentor
(03:10):
can create attachment, and inany business do you have an exit
strategy if this attachmentbecomes too much for either
(03:30):
yourself or your mentee.
And then number three isbasically committing to or
setting a commitment and stayingcommitted to the commitment.
Laura (03:45):
OK, wait, wait, wait.
So let me go back, because Iwant to clarify something.
So I was thinking aboutmentorship from a boss to an
employee, but you're talkingabout mentorship maybe
throughout a company, where thementor may not be their boss.
Jason (04:01):
No, I was real.
I was speaking of a leader.
That's why I said making surethat they are in tune with their
actual uh, do they first, firstof all, do they have the time
to do so?
Laura (04:12):
Absolutely, I get that part.
And then the second item was uh, what was that?
Again, it was my apologies.
Jason (04:19):
Yeah, no problem.
So it's uh, we're so you beingstaying.
I'm sorry finding the time andthen looking at the attachments,
you know, they're like lookingup to you so much, they have so
much respect for you, they haveso much admiration for you that
(04:50):
the mentor mentee relationshipcan mutate into something else.
And so, with that being said,do you, as a leader, have an
exit strategy of being able toget out of that relationship
right, or changing thatrelationship without dissolving
(05:13):
the person in the process?
Laura (05:15):
Right Without breaking the tie per se, absolutely,
absolutely.
It's sort of like a softlanding, in a sense.
Jason (05:23):
Yeah, because then you produce or create an estranged
relationship in the job and thennext thing you know you start
seeing it in three areas.
If this relationship isestranged due to an attachment
or a bad way of breaking therelationship, you'll see it in
their attendance you will see itin their communication and of
(05:46):
course you will see it in theircommunication and, of course,
you will see it in theirperformance.
Laura (05:50):
Yeah, and I really appreciate you identifying those
elements too.
These are things that you couldmeasure the impact of that
mentor-mentee relationship, bothpositive and negative.
Absolutely the attendance, theperformance and communication.
Jason (06:18):
Absolutely the attendance, the performance you
know, and communication and, andcommunication meaning that they
become either shut down or that.
Yeah, so it's.
You know, it's not only whatthey will be saying, but
remember, communication is 93percent nonverbal.
Communication is 93% nonverbal.
So it would be the bodylanguage, it would be how they
communicate to others via email.
It would be, you know, all ofthese things.
(06:39):
That will be how they, let'ssay, for instance, in customer
service, right?
And so you would have someonewho's supposed to be selling
this and selling that, oranswering this or answering that
, the how they do it, with therolling of the eyes and closing
of the eyes, sucking of theteeth, right?
(07:00):
So, if that, what are youcommunicating to a person?
You're communicating.
I really don't want to serveyou and that's what I'm supposed
to do, but I really don't wantto do you and that's what I'm
supposed to do, but I reallydon't want to do that.
Laura (07:11):
Right, right yeah.
Jason (07:12):
So something has happened to that individual
because, were they always likethis?
They didn't sign up to the jobfor the job to be this kind of
person, so something happened.
And so, if it's if it's a, ifit's a, it's like a bad divorce,
you know?
In other words, if something ishappening where you know this
customer service representativewas getting mentorship from a
(07:36):
leader who did not know how toeffectively and using emotional
intelligence to be able tochange or exit this you know
this mentor-mentee relationshipthen yeah, that's what you
produce schedule to actuallydevote to being a mentor for the
(07:57):
mentee and that employee anddedicate that time to that
person, either weekly orbiweekly or whatever the
(08:20):
agreement is.
Laura (08:21):
And I so appreciate that, because so many people think
they have time when they reallydon't and then they cram it in
or make worse, they make theemployee feel that they're an
invasion of their time.
Jason (08:36):
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
It's like okay, so you'regiving me, you know, points,
you're giving me mentorship, butI can't even accept it, because
I remember watching an oldCosby show, Right, and he was
talking to his son, I believe itwas, and he was talking about
(08:57):
how his son was having someproblems with his girlfriend.
And he says well, ok, son,what's your favorite food?
And his son said bacon, dogburger or something like that.
Laura (09:09):
And he says yeah, and he says how do you like it?
Jason (09:11):
He says I like it with seasoned fries.
And he says, okay, do you likeketchup?
On that thing?
He's like, yeah, I like ketchup.
On that thing, he says, okay,so that's your favorite food.
Now what if I come up and giveyou your favorite food but I
serve it on the top of a trashcan lid you?
Yeah, yeah, would you eat it?
He's like no, dad.
He says well, sometimes, son isnot what you're doing, it's in
(09:35):
your delivery.
Laura (09:37):
Oh nice.
Jason (09:38):
Yeah, and so leaders have to be careful of making
sure that they are, that we areactually have time to process
this request of being someone'smentor and really looking at the
schedule.
So I would say don't agree toit 100 percent.
(09:59):
I don't know, I'm sorry, don'tagree to it right away.
You know, always have giveyourself time to process, look
at your schedule, look at yourcommitments and then give an
answer.
And so your answer may or maynot be no, it may be not yet,
and there's power in not yet youknow, because it's a positive
(10:22):
and a negative.
Some people can look at not yet,like the glass is half empty,
but when you're looking at, oh,not yet, that's glass half full.
Laura (10:32):
So what does the mentor do if they're being told they
have to mentor a differentemployee and so they are being
it's sort of part of theirrequisite of their own
performance?
What do they do to?
(10:52):
You know, what do they do inthat circumstance If, let's say,
their boss is telling them theyhave to mentor somebody and you
know they have to physicallyfigure out how to carve out time
.
Is that what you're saying?
Jason (11:07):
Absolutely.
I would say that if it is aprerequisite of their job
requirement, accept thechallenge.
See, I remember listening toBrian Tracy.
Brian Tracy said because what,what that does?
Is that OK, if a person is notready to do that, it produces a
problem for them.
And a problem if you look at itin math, the problems can be
(11:28):
solved using math.
Right, you're going to eitheradd something or subtract
something.
So when I was listening toBrian Tracy, he said there's
three ways to look at a problem.
He said number one look at itas a situation.
He said number two look at itas a challenge.
He said but the number threeand best way to look at a
(11:49):
problem is to look at it as anopportunity.
And so, therefore, if it is aprerequisite for a leader to be
a mentor to someone else, yeah,accept the challenge, look at
the situation and then take theopportunity.
The difference between apositive person and negative
person is that a negative personcan have an opportunity but
(12:12):
only see the problem.
But a positive person can havea problem but see the
opportunity.
Laura (12:19):
Exactly, yeah, yeah, yep, and that is a big thing is and
we're going to get to that thatmindset right that you're
talking about.
But I'm also thinking aboutthat third element.
So we talked about time, we'vetalked about the attachment of
the leader and making sure thatyou have an exit strategy before
going in, and so what do youfeel is that third element that
(12:45):
you were talking about?
Jason (12:46):
Yeah is.
Can you stay committed to thecommitment?
Laura (12:51):
OK.
Jason (12:51):
Right.
So staying committed to thecommitment, which means that
it's about keeping your word.
If you look at the wordcommitment, the prefix C-O means
two or more.
So, which means that it's notjust their responsibility to
meet the requirements of thementor mentee relationship, but,
as the leader, it's yourresponsibility to make sure that
(13:13):
adherence to the mentor mente.
This is why going back tonumber one is most important is
looking at your time, becauseyou can say well, you know, yeah
, I'm going to do it.
(13:34):
Yes, I'm going to do it.
This is our schedule.
Now, in that communication, inthat conversation about
commitment, you want to leave inthere some room for flexibility
.
What that means?
Is that okay?
So, just in case, if anemergency leadership situation
(13:54):
comes up and I have thisschedule for X, y and Z, look, I
have a contingency plan forthat.
Laura (14:01):
Yeah, yeah, so you want to leave yourself some room.
Jason (14:04):
So even if you did not make this date, you had a plan
in place that still keeps you inthe commitment aspect of your
mentor mentee relationshipmentor and you help sorry, you
help, or you figured this outwith the employee.
Laura (14:22):
You're scheduled.
What is the?
You know what are some of thefirst steps, if you will, that a
leader or mentor can do to helpthe next generation of leaders
(14:50):
the next generation of leaders.
Jason (14:51):
Well, in this aspect of mentor-mentee relationship is
first is have a conversation,and in this conversation you
want to practice attentivelistening, and with attentive
listening you're listening forclues.
Unfortunately, most people inconversations are listening to
win, listening to fix, but neverlistening to learn.
(15:21):
You can absolutely learn whatyou need to do to fix and then,
of course, you could win therelationship with your mentor
mentee.
So it starts with.
It starts with having aconversation.
Laura (15:44):
And when?
You Sorry, my apologies, I wasjust kind of wondering.
You know, there's a way wherewe listen and these days we're
hearing about like a very shortattention span and out of a
goldfish yeah, exactly so we're.
we're sitting here having aconversation with somebody and
and it's not that we're notlistening and we're trying to
learn, we're trying to take thatin, right, but maybe we capture
(16:04):
one thing and then misssomething else, just as I did in
the beginning, right.
And so what is it that we cando to?
You know to really learn, youknow to have that listen, to
learn approach?
Jason (16:23):
fully organized concentration until success,
better known as focus F-O-C-U-Sfocus fully organized
concentration until success.
One of the problems that wehave when we are listening is we
(16:44):
don't focus on what we'relistening to.
We don't listen to the words wedon't listen to the person, our
minds start to wonder and goingoff into other things.
Number one.
Number two is that we have tosuspend judgment right.
(17:05):
Yeah, we have to suspendjudgment, which means that, okay
, we're listening in thisconversation, but you know we're
wondering, like, who is thisperson to say what they're
saying, or why are they sayingthis?
And then you miss somethingright or something catches your
attention.
You know, many of us claim ADHD, you know attention deficit
(17:31):
disorders and whatnot, and soour attention span, of course,
research shows that it's almostless than that of a goldfish
listening.
You're listening for the clues,because a person would tell you
what they need.
Laura (17:49):
As long as you allow them to talk.
Jason (17:53):
Eventually they will tell you exactly what you need
and what you're looking for, aslong as you're listening.
Now you're practicing attentivelistening, which includes, you
know, nodding, you knowsometimes you are saying yes,
you know to the person and thenbut one of the things that most
of us have to practice in termsof listening is we have to.
(18:18):
There's something that's calleda loop of understanding, and
with a loop of understanding,you know there's four steps to
this loop of understanding.
You know there's there's foursteps to this loop of
understanding, Right?
Because you want to understand,you want to communicate, you
want to observe, and then youwant to make sure that you're
correct.
So step one is understand whatthe person is saying.
(18:39):
Number two is communicate whatyou understood, Right?
Laura (18:46):
We don't do that.
Jason (18:47):
No, no, we don't, we don't.
Number three is observe theirreaction and check to make sure
you got it right, right.
Then number four is correctyour understanding and check
again.
Laura (19:01):
Yeah.
Jason (19:01):
So we go through this loop of understanding as we're
having a conversation, withusing attentive listening, we
can see so.
So you know, back to thebeginning of your question, the
first thing is having aconversation and from a
conversation, if you'repracticing, let them doing, let
(19:23):
the mentee do most of thetalking, the initial
conversation, and probably forthe rest of the conversations
that you're going to have,because you want to listen, to
see if there's any growth andprogress.
As you have conversations, youwant to see the mindset in the
mentee, to see if their mindsetis changing from growth to fix
(19:44):
growth the fix, going back andforth, back and forth.
Laura (19:47):
Yeah, yeah, no, that's great.
And so now we've had thislovely conversation.
Now what?
Jason (19:55):
So now what we have to do with the mentee is what we
did with ourselves.
We have to look at what kind oftime do they have for this
commitment, what kind of time dothey have for this?
So the same practice that youput on yourself as a leader, you
put that on.
Or as a mentor leader, you putthat on your mentee.
(20:15):
So now let's check yourschedule because, see, you may
have, you may be a mentor, right, that works a first shift, but
your mentee works a second shift.
So how are you going to be ableto do the mentee?
Well, at a certain point yourtimes lapse.
If you come in from nine tofive, they come in from three to
(20:36):
10 or three to 12.
You're going to have that timespan there where you could
potentially get together for 30minutes or an hour to be able to
talk.
So first you got to look atwhat you're, so you got to do
the same thing with them thatyou did for yourself.
Laura (20:53):
Right now.
So I hate to interrupt, butwe're already out of time.
It's insane.
So I know that we have moreoptions to talk about more, but
here's the great thing If youwant to learn more about him and
what he's going to offer, asthe next steps, you're going to
have to listen in for anotherepisode or go ahead and reach
(21:19):
out to him right away.
And how can they contact you?
Jason (21:22):
Yeah, they can send me an email at jmemergingleaders at
gmailcom.
Laura (21:29):
So J-M M as in Mary right .
Yes jmemergingleaders atgmailcom Fantastic.
Jason (21:37):
Yep and I will respond promptly.
Laura (21:40):
Wonderful, wonderful.
Well, this has just been superfast and super great.
I really appreciate all thatyou've shared.
Thank you so much.
I want to thank you forlistening to the Mosaic Life
with Laura W, and you can listento this episode again and get
this great content because itwas really great, or listen to
other great hosts and theirshows by going to bizradious and
(22:02):
click on shows.
Thanks so much for listeningand have a great rest of your
day.
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