I find that everyone is fascinated by the concept of mentoring, but few feel capable to actually mentor someone.  Too often the extent of our mentoring is giving someone a book or a CD and telling them to listen to it so they can “learn” to be a leader.  But simply dispensing information like this does little to produce transformation.  So let me give you Three Easy Steps for Mentoring.

EXPLORE – The first thing you want to do is get your mentee to THINK about a specific leadership skill or principle.  You can do this by giving them something to read, watch, research or listen to. Give them some time to explore and think about the material you’ve given them.
EXPERIENCE – Next you want the mentee to TRY it.  Just reading about a leadership principle doesn’t mean you really get it.  We learn best by putting something into practice.  So take one of the leadership principles they learned from their reading or listening (Explore) and give them a challenging assignment that will give them the opportunity to put that prnciple into practice.
EVALUATE – Finally you want the mentee to TALK about their experience.  Once they have tried the new skill they need the opportunity to discuss how it felt, how it went, what they learned. Ask them questions like:  What did you do well?  What would you do differently?  What kind of response did you get from others?  What did you learn from the experience?

This process is so powerful because it’s more than dispensing information, it actually produces transformation. 
EXPLORE + EXPERIENCE + EVALUATE = TRANSFORMATION

Who will you try this with this week?  Check back in tomorrow because I am going to actually give you a mentoring session that follows this format you can use with your mentee or your team.