Mentoring: A Two Way Street

Kathy's Story Charlie had a successful career as a well respected and loved physician for twenty plus years. Five years ago, he was invited to leave his clinical practice behind and become the first Chief Medical Officer for a hospital that existed only on paper. Almost three years ago, I walked in as Charlie's new CEO. Our mentoring relationship began shortly thereafter. Charlie and I shared a wall (and a thin one at that) and I quickly noticed (and heard) how he mentored young physicians in a straightforward and honest way that only another physician can do. I watched people come to him for guidance, clinical expertise, or sometimes just a chat about the family. I noticed that Charlie's effectiveness was, in large part, the result of his genuine curiosity and interest in others. I saw opportunities for Charlie to become even more effective. Charlie invited my feedback and I was fully invested in his success. I began to ask Charlie questions like "Did you get the outcome from that meeting that you had hoped for? What's it like to go from being an expert physician at the top of your game to a role where you aren't yet an expert? Does the feedback you receive in this role come close to what you received from patients and staff as a practicing physician? What's missing? How do we fill that gap? What is it about you that cause others to seek your input? How does this role feed your passion? What gets in your way of being all you wish to be?" The conversations that resulted from these questions became more honest, more impactful, and ultimately, I believe, more transformational for Charlie (Daloz 1986; Mezirow & Associates, 1990). Interestingly, I learned something about myself and my leadership with each conversation as well (Zachary, 2000). During one of our early conversations, Charlie shared his desire to move into a hospital CEO role within the coming years. This served as a great platform for many further mentoring conversations about his passions, skills, and options. Even though I was Charlie's supervisor and was mentoring him, I invited him to teach me the organizational history, the sources of pride for the team, and the highest priority opportunities for making our good hospital great (Bell, 1996). He was courageous (Daloz, 1986) and provided me with the critical feedback (Folkman, 2006) that a new executive needs. I was able to establish personal credibility with my team sooner by listening to Charlie's feedback. Nearly three years have passed and Charlie has been promoted to another position in the company. I can't hear him through the wall anymore, but I watch with pride from a distance and I know we are both better people and more effective leaders as a result of this relationship. Charlie's Story Shortly after Kathy started as CEO, she wanted to learn about the senior operational and administrative teams, their dynamics, and the overall culture of the hospital as quickly as possible in order to become a more effective leader. She held individual meetings with different leadership levels and senior operational members. From the beginning, what I started to appreciate about Kathy's managerial style was how easily she could transition from being the leader to being a mentor or mentee. She posed open ended questions to the group and to each of us individually. Addressing her questions allowed each of us to show our strengths and weaknesses as well as our opinions. Through this type of questioning she learned about our personalities, desires, and goals. Within a short time, Kathy was able to mentor us and make us more accountable to ourselves and to our teams (O'Neil & Marsick, 2007). Kathy has a unique ability to open up my mind to allow better ways of thinking and communicating when mentoring and coaching my own peers and teams. Through her different approaches (either as a leader, mentor, or coach), she taught me how to be more self-reflective, intentional, and balanced in my approach. …