The Mentoring Circles© Facilitator’s Manual Manual-EN.pdf · NLP Communication Model ... write...
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MENTEE – Mentoring, Networking and Training for European
Entrepreneurs
Proj.no: 2014-1-PL01-KA202-003383
The Mentoring Circles© Facilitator’s Manual
This report has been drafted by Inova Consultancy Ltd. with the support of the MENTEE project Consortium for the
purposes of the MENTEE project: mentee-project.eu
August 2015
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Contents
Contents .................................................................................................................................................. 1
Overview of the Mentoring Circles ™ ..................................................................................................... 2
Recruitment Process ............................................................................................................................... 3
What are Mentoring Circles ™? .............................................................................................................. 4
Mentoring Circles ™’ Purpose and Methodology ............................................................... 4
Mentoring Circles ™ - Underpinning Philosophy ............................................................... 5
Outline of Mentoring Circles ™ Content ................................................................................................. 7
The Facilitation Process – Introductions: Building Rapport .................................................................... 9
The Facilitation Process – Managing Expectations: Professional Distancing ....................................... 12
The Facilitation Process – Contracting & Developing Ground Rules: Honesty ..................................... 13
Developing Ground Rules .............................................................................................. 15
The Facilitation Process – Active Listening ........................................................................................... 18
NLP for facilitators ................................................................................................................................ 18
What is NLP? ............................................................................................................... 19
NLP Communication Model............................................................................................ 20
Distortions – Changing Meaning .................................................................................... 20
Generalisations ............................................................................................................................. 22
Deletions ....................................................................................................................................... 22
Utilising Values in the Real World ......................................................................................................... 23
Detailed Overview of Mentoring Circles Process .................................................................................. 24
Working through the Manual for Entrepreneurs ................................................................................. 27
Closing meeting ..................................................................................................................................... 37
Annexes ................................................................................................................................................. 39
Bibliography .......................................................................................................................................... 39
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Overview of the Mentoring Circles ™
As part of the MENTEE Project (Mentoring, Networking and Training for European
Entrepreneurs), two series of Mentoring Circles™ will be carried out in four consortium
countries. An initial pilot will take place from 01.09.2015 to 30.11.2015. Following this, any
adjustments necessary will be made, and adaptations to suit both the target audience and
local needs will be made. A second pilot will be run from 01.01.2016 to 31.03.2016 in order
to test how effective the modifications prove to be with the target group.
Mentoring Circles ™ will be carried out by the following partners:
INnCREASE Sp z o.o.(PL)
Quality Program SAS Di Nicola Martulli & C (IT)
Mentortec Servicos de Apoio A Projectos Tecnologicos SA (PT)
Knowl (GR)
Mentoring Circles ™ E-learning tools will be developed by:
• Vitale Tecnologie Telecomunicazioni - Viteco S.r.l.
Each Mentoring Circle™ will consist of 5-10 mentees (new, potential and aspiring
entrepreneurs with priority given to those who have participated in the EYE programme)
who are thinking of starting up in business or are open to considering running a business as
a career option. There will be a different facilitator per pilot (ideally experienced and
inspiring entrepreneurs) who will facilitate the group in each country, following the
attendance of the “Training the Trainers” workshop in Sheffield, UK held by Inova
Consultancy in September 2015.
Each Mentoring Circle™ pilot will meet for three sessions (as a minimum), it is expected that
the length in between sessions will be agreed upon by each Mentoring Circle™ separately as
this depends on group availability. Each session will last approximately three hours and
should take place in a room where participants are able to contribute in confidence. At the
end of each piloted Mentoring Circle™ phase there a dissemination event should be held by
each partner to showcase results and enable participants to meet existing entrepreneurs.
Depending upon the number of learners in a Mentoring Circle™, the style becomes more or
less directive by the facilitator. For example, for a bigger group with more than seven
learners, more tools will be used with more direction from the facilitation. In a smaller
group with seven or fewer learners, fewer tools would be used and greater use of the time-
slots method to discuss and question over individuals’ issues. This facilitator’s guide aims to
guide the MENTEE Mentoring Circle ™’s facilitator through both approaches.
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After each session, participants will complete an evaluation form and the facilitator will
write up their working notes from the facilitator’s perspective in their own facilitators’ log.
In addition, during the first session participants will complete a skills profile evaluation. The
facilitator will keep all evaluation forms at the end of each session. At the end of the third or
final session, participants will complete a second skills profile evaluation and a final
outcome evaluation form. Following this the participating partner will write up a summary
report in English which summarises the individual evaluation forms per session, the final
outcome forms and their own facilitator’s notes/experiences as per the template given in
Annex II: Pilot Summary Report Format. The report should contain interesting quotes from
participants and audio files/photos of the Mentoring Circle ™ where possible. This summary
report should be approximately 5-10 pages A4, the first should be sent to Inova by
December 4th 2015 in order to be collated into an interim summary report in January 2016.
The second should be sent to Inova by 8th April 2016 in order to be collated into an overall
summary report in May 2015.
Recruitment Process
As with any programme it is important to start as early as possible with the recruitment process; this not only ensures that the appropriate number of participants are enrolled but also gives the facilitator an opportunity to shortlist candidates who are truly motivated to participate in the programme. It is beneficial to put into action a variety of recruitment tools, some suggestions are listed below: - Contact with EYE organisations as identified in your Stakeholder Database - Posters in Careers Services or Chambers of Commerce - Social Media outlets - Unemployment offices - Word of mouth, for instance by utilising your current networks - Sharing details with your Needs Analysis participants - Advertisements in local newspapers - E-blasts It is important to log and evidence the recruitment procedures that you carry out. This information is required for the partner piloting reports and will help create an understanding of how the procedures can be adapted in the future. who would consider it. Potential participants should be asked to complete an application form, of which there is a template in Annex I: Application Form Example, however individual partners may also wish to create an online form for ease of collection.
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What are Mentoring Circles ™?
This guide has been produced to give facilitators knowledge of Inova Consultancy’s
approach to the Mentoring Circles™ and to outline our recommended process for working
with Mentoring Circle™ groups for the MENTEE project.
We recognise that starting or being in the early stages of a business can be a daunting
prospect, especially for those for whom it is a new prospect and have not yet gained strong
sustainable networks. Inova has developed a unique group mentoring process which brings
together skilled facilitation using action learning techniques, coaching and mentoring,
combined with career development/self reflection tools. In order to support entrepreneurs
with increasing their career options and in order to foster the associated entrepreneurial
spirit, the Mentoring Circles™ methodology has been adapted and will be piloted for
MENTEE. In a Mentoring Circle™, a facilitator works with approximately 5-10 beneficiaries (5
aspiring entrepreneurs) in a group setting. The programme blends group discussion and the
individual airing of issues, reflection, goal setting and personal action planning. Mentoring
Circles™ are led by skilled facilitators with expertise in action learning or by facilitators who
have been trained in the methodology by Inova Consultancy directly.
Mentoring Circles ™’ Purpose and Methodology
Mentoring Circles™ enable an individual to share their problems, issues,
opportunities and challenges with others.
Mentoring Circles™ provide a safe yet challenging environment where ideas for
starting a business can be explored and tested.
Possible options for action can be generated and discussed.
The individual is helped to find the next steps forward in furthering their idea to start
up in business.
Encouraging development of self-reflection and self-belief.
There are also other benefits of participation:
Opportunities to network with other wanna-be entrepreneurs facing similar issues.
Opportunities to make new contacts and expand their networks.
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Start -Present your challenge, problem,
issue or your question
Set members question you constructively to challenge views and
understanding, perceptions, assumptions
Insight? New understanding, ideas on taking
action?
Test out taking action in the workplace
Bring results back to set- what
worked/what didn’t? Why?
Mark learning, draw conclusions, define learning
from experience.
Mentoring Circles ™ - Underpinning Philosophy
Mentoring Circles™ are learner led and learner focused. The concept of a Mentoring Circle™
is built on the process of learning as a journey which requires that the individual can be
helped to reveal what they need to know, that some knowledge is already within and needs
to be brought forward, and that shared knowledge and learning from others can be
valuable. The focus is very much on questioning to reveal insights - whether this is through
group discussions, completion of exercises and guided questioning from other participants.
For example, through guided questioning sections within a Mentoring Circle™, participants
take it in turns to have a time slot to talk about their problem or opportunity and the other
group members offer questions. The questioning is about discovery, trying to understand
more fully any underlying issues which it would be fruitful to explore further. Thus the focus
is on questioning rather than advice giving. Similarly when completing exercises regarding
self-development or self-reflection, participants are encouraged to question their responses
and to support other group members in questioning why they responded to an exercise in a
certain way. This process strengthens the development of self-reflection. The two models
below (Action Learning Process and Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle) are useful in further
explaining the purpose and process of Mentoring Circle™.
Fig 1. Action Learning Process
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Fig 2. Kolb’s Experiential
Learning Cycle (1975)
Mentoring Circles™ - Facilitation Aims
Mentoring Circles™ are generally facilitated in a fairly non-directive manner; however each
facilitator will have their own style which may be more or less directive. It may be necessary
to use a more directive approach when appropriate e.g. when an individual might be about
to undertake risky or damaging actions which can be foreseen. As mentioned previously, the
size of group dictates the level of direction required. Larger groups tending to be led in a
more directive fashion than smaller ones.
We would expect the learning process to feature some of the following exploration for
participants:
Exploration of what may cause particular conditions or consequences; reviewing
decisions or actions and reveal how this has led to the current situation. Could
problems have been avoided? What are the implications if a similar situation occurs
in the future? What have they learned from this situation?
Examining their own thinking that led them to believe something or act in a certain
way. Is a decision built on fair assumptions? Have assumptions been tested?
We can also learn from mistakes; Argyris (1993) suggests that learning occurs
whenever errors are detected and corrected.
The facilitation should also be future focused and solution focused. It is useful to
assist members in predicting possible outcomes. Have they taken everything into
account? What is the back up or contingency plan? Have they considered all the
options in a situation?
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Your facilitation will explicitly get people to commit to goal and action plans, report
on their own progress, redefine goals and review outcomes.
The facilitation should also involve awareness of group dynamics and group process;
this may occasionally require that the facilitator may have to intervene to protect
someone’s time, to keep issues on track when challenge may be causing distress,
when someone is perhaps using power inappropriately or behaving in a way that
frustrates or blocks the group’s learning.
Participants might wish to experiment with behaviours in the Mentoring Circle™
(with the agreement and support of their colleagues) and obtain feedback. Perhaps a
member would like to be more assertive and offer more suggestions in group
settings or develop the confidence to disagree with people.
Encourage group members to be creative, to work outside comfort zones and to
maximise opportunities.
Contracting: defining an agreement with the Mentoring Circle™ members about
roles and responsibilities in order that a) you can best facilitate: b) they can get most
out of the process in a climate which is conducive to learning. Agreements need to
be revisited frequently and rules of operation need restating at the start of each
session. The following section on Contracting outlines this process in more detail.
Outline of Mentoring Circles ™ Content
Session indicative content Suggested tools/exercises MEETING 1
Preliminary contracting (p12)
Personal introductions-your introduction about
the project (including handing out of
Entrepreneurs’ Manual) and Mentoring Circle™
member introductions
Introduction to Action Learning principles (p5)
Administration and materials signatures on
attendance record, check agreements signed,
show and explain the Entrepreneurs’ Manual
pack
Tools can be used as and when the facilitator feels it is appropriate.
What does a typical entrepreneur look like? (tool 2)
Mind maps and ideas generation (tool 3)
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Completion of skills profile evaluation (tool 1)
Go through examples - approach, difference
between advice giving, using questions, turning
questions into statements, outline way of
working
Ground rules agreement (p15)
Exploration of issues (p24 – Describe current
Issues)
Goal setting and action planning
Summary of actions and learning
Session evaluation form to be completed
Ensure you have agreed next session, date,
time, venue (may be prescheduled)
Encouragement of participants to use the
online community to check goal progress in
between sessions
As a facilitator you should keep notes of the
sessions and how you feel they went as your
own learning log and to improve the
methodology
MEETING 2
Re contracting- checking agreement on ways of
working
Progress review: discussion of successes,
difficulties with each member this can be as
part of their set time or going round the room
depending on number of attendees
Articulation of new challenges and
opportunities for each participant as above
Exploration of issues as in previous meeting
Goal setting and action planning
Summary of actions and learning
Session evaluation forms to be completed
Ensure you have agreed next session, date,
time, venue (may be prescheduled)
SWOT Analysis (tool 4)
Entrepreneurial Resilience (tool 5)
MEETING 3
Re contracting - checking agreement on ways of
working
Progress review: discussion of successes,
What are your motivators to start up? (tool 6)
Goal Setting (tool 7)
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difficulties
Articulation of new challenges and
opportunities
Exploration of issues as in previous sessions
Goal setting and action planning
Summary of actions and learning
Complete skills profile evaluation (discussion of
outcome in comparison to the one completed
during session 1 )
Evaluation forms
Exchange contact information, agree any
further informal networking or use of the
online community
Just for fun: Quick Quiz (tool 8)
The Facilitation Process – Introductions: Building Rapport
a) Your personal introduction
This will probably include:
Your name.
Personal history, how you got to where you are in life-focused on yourself as
someone in business who has perhaps participated in some form of company
placement programme and therefore role model to the group members
Fields you have worked in, career trajectory
Professional qualifications if relevant, credibility to be able to facilitate.
How you like to work, anything in particular that you value e.g. openness, honesty,
sharing.
Explain your role- process expert rather than technical expert.
Finally give the Manual for Entrepreneurs to all members. Ensure all attending have
signed the attendance sheet and mentoring agreements have been signed.
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b) Engaging Mentoring Circles™ members introducing themselves to one another
This need only be brief at this initial stage. It can help to give people a framework to contain
their introduction and a set time e.g. two minutes per person.
Write headings on flipchart paper and ask them to summarise their introduction by
asking the following:
Name.
Background (only what they are comfortable sharing – perhaps previous jobs,
interests etc).
Business idea.
Three key challenges you face when thinking about starting up in business at the
moment.
What you want to get out of attending the Mentoring Circles™.
It is also useful to check any prior exposure of participants to action learning or coaching
and mentoring, and to introduce the concept of developing self awareness and self-
diagnosis as an important part of being involved in Mentoring Circles™.
c) An introduction concerning Mentoring Circles ™
Explain how Mentoring Circles™ work; that they provide a facilitated space where
individuals can complete tools, share discussions and have a dedicated time slot each to
present their issues, problems and opportunities. Through questioning, the group members
help them to gain more insight into their situation; the aim is to help them find ways
forward in taking purposeful action.
The method works because it places the learner to the centre of the situation; it works in
real time on live issues of importance to the individual. It integrates any theoretical learning
with real experience; it’s about action and implementation.
The benefits of this action learning approach are:
It enables you to generate more insight into the situation you are facing, perhaps
helping you to generate more options and solutions.
It tests assumptions on which your plans are built.
It enables you to reality check plans, ideas and solutions; are they appropriate,
comprehensive and appropriate to your context?
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By bringing more brain power to look at issues, you have more opportunity to spot
issues which you haven’t already thought of; it can help expose blind spots. Your
colleagues may help you look at potential consequences or outcomes; they may help
you generate more innovative and creative ideas or find new ways to approach
situations.
It offers a way of constructively challenging your ideas, in order to help you develop
them to maximise your chance of success
d) Establish the meeting process; give a model for how each meeting will work.
The general process of what happens in a Mentoring Circle™ is as follows:
Each Mentoring Circle™ has a trained facilitator who helps shape the sessions. You meet for
4-5 hours. Each person has allocated time to use to explore an issue they are facing or
complete tools as guided by the facilitator. The facilitator will help participants develop
action plans and goals to go forward and test out new ideas or implement solutions.
Participants then bring issues back to the Mentoring Circle™ next time it meets. Mentoring
Circle™ colleagues can help hold individuals to account, give them confidence to push
themselves out of their comfort zone. After each time period they will report back to the
Mentoring Circle™ to review their achievements, difficulties and success. Learning is about
being resilient in the face of difficulty. Participants may not achieve everything that they set
out to achieve, however they will be encouraged to review difficulties and learn from them
and find ways forward or new paths for action.
You may wish to refer them to the diagram of the action learning model or draw one of your
own on a flip chart.
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The Facilitation Process – Managing Expectations: Professional
Distancing
e) Communicate expectations about evaluation.
It is a requirement of participating in the MENTEE programme that Mentoring Circles™
members agree to take part in evaluation. There are many materials provided to enable this
to happen in the Entrepreneurs’ Manual (evaluation section).
At the end of all Mentoring Circles™, evaluation forms are required. It is helpful if you can
get them completed at the end. The response rate is not as good if you allow people to take
the form home. Allow ten minutes at the end of the session for them to be completed.
f) Communicate needs regarding administration procedures: initial contract signing, attendance register, evaluation materials.
At meeting 1 there is a requirement for the following administration for the programme:
Provide each participant with 2 Mentoring Circles™ agreements, ask them to read
them and sign and date both. The participant retains one for their records. One copy
is kept by the facilitator.
At the start of each meeting participants are asked to sign in on the attendance
register. This is an important record for the administrators and provides evidence to
funders that the event has taken place. Please retain it and return to Inova. If
possible please also record the session and take photos if participants agree to this.
The summary report of the Mentoring Circles™ once completed should also be sent
to Inova.
g) Elicit any expectations the group members have of you as facilitator.
This will vary according to your facilitation style and experience, but you might check the
following:
What level of challenge are people comfortable with?
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What experience do they have of self-regulating in a group and therefore how much
do they expect you to intervene?
What would be a useful role for you regarding time keeping, enabling time to be
shared?
Do they require group or individual feedback from what you observe of behaviour in
the group?
Do individuals have any particular requirements or sensitivities?
h) Exchange any expectations you have of them in terms of contribution or behaviour or the way meetings run.
It is worth reiterating your expectations about confidentiality.
What do you expect about openness and honesty?
What level of awareness do you expect people to aspire to?
What are your expectations about people being responsible for what they find useful
and unhelpful in the group and asking for help?
Attendance; explain any expectations you have regarding attendance, informing of
non-attendance, timekeeping, communicating with you or others if there are
problems, getting messages to one another in emergencies.
Explain your expectations about doing work between meetings whether that is
logging progress, reflecting, preparing for next sessions.
The Facilitation Process – Contracting & Developing Ground
Rules: Honesty
Contracting
Block (1981) suggests that a contract with a client is a social contract and is developed to
enable the consultant or facilitator to have equal power with the client. It forms an explicit
agreement about expectations of one another of the respective parties and develops detail
about how they are going to work together.
The facilitator needs to develop an informal contract and way of working with the
participants. The concept of action learning and Mentoring Circles™ needs to be explained.
Each new Mentoring Circle™ will begin with a contracting element which will be described in
detail here.
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Preliminary Contracting Overview
A structured contracting session to start off the first meeting would include:
- Your personal introduction as facilitator.
- Engaging Mentoring Circles™ members introducing themselves to one another.
a) An introduction concerning MENTEE project, Mentoring Circles™, how they work,
why this methodology has been chosen.
b) An introduction to the theme: women & business
c) Establish the meeting process; give a model for how each meeting will work.
d) Communicate expectations about evaluation and commitment
e) Communicate needs regarding administration procedures: initial agreement signing,
attendance register, evaluation materials.
f) Elicit any expectations the group members have of you as facilitator.
g) Exchange any expectations you have of them in terms of contribution or behaviour
or the way meetings run.
h) Develop ground rules.
i) Introduction to the method and ways of working, trying out the method.
i) Develop ground rules.
Developing ground rules with each new Mentoring Circle ™ is a crucial way of ensuring that
the group starts off working in a way that fits with the methodology. Potential issues to
discuss as part of developing ground rules could include:
Confidentiality and respecting others’ intellectual property
Attendance and commitment
Use of time
Questioning and levels of challenge
Giving feedback
Respect
Communication style
Different types of ‘helping’ in the group- what people would prefer. What helps?
What hinders?
You may have different approaches to developing ground rules. Feel free to use your own
ideas.
We will outline two examples of methods used to develop ground rules.
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Confidentiality and
respecting others’ intellectual property/ideas
Attendance and
commitment Use of time
Questioning and levels of
challenge
Giving feedback
Respect
Communication style
What helps? What hinders?
Developing Ground Rules
Method 1
Write up a list of bullet points/questions on the flip chart headed ground
rules:
Invite a brief discussion around each theme and invite
people to articulate their thoughts around topics. Write
up any additional items, checking all the time that
everyone feels able to sign up to what has been agreed.
Probe to check that issues resonate with all participants.
Pick up on any body language or discomfort that might
suggest there is covert disagreement. Summarise the
consent. This flipchart can then be taken by the
facilitator to the following sessions.
Method 2
Write up the following question on a flip chart headed Ground Rules:
Invite a brief discussion around the above question. Invite people to share their thoughts
around topics. Identify themes and agreement. Write up notes, checking all the time that
everyone feels able to sign up to what has been agreed. Probe to check that issues resonate
with all. Summarise the consent. Check your list in the guidance to see all angles have been
covered. Introduce new ideas if anything has been missed.
A Mentoring Circle ™ agreed ground rules might look something like this:
What are we prepared to do to help us work together?
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At the end of session one, type up the flip chart rules agreed and e-mail them around to each
member of the group and keep a copy for the final summary report of your Mentoring Circle™. Print
off a copy and keep it in your file to refer to. You may need to re-contract around ground rules if
issues arise during the work. Check if people are happy with giving one another consent to e-mail
one another and share e-mail addresses with one another. This is not usually a problem at all. You
can also disseminate other ways of keeping in touch in between meetings in the email e.g. the
MENTEE platform.
j) Introduction to the method and ways of working, trying out the method.
In your first session you need to give people experience of trying out the method and draw
attention to:
The role of the presenter and conventions- e.g. asking for input
The focus on questioning rather than advice giving; an exercise or examples may be
needed to communicate how to question and how to avoid advice giving.
GROUND RULES EXAMPLE
We are prepared for any questions and value being challenged and pushed.
Be open and honest with one another, face the reality, what’s happening now, don’t gloss over problems.
Be open if we are not comfortable with level of challenge.
We will take individual ownership and take action in between sessions.
We will be open to new ideas, criticisms, and will articulate what is working and not working.
We will develop trust to combine and offer creative ideas to one another.
Respect one another’s ideas and don’t take them, seek permission if developing ideas- partnerships are possible.
Protect reputations and promote one another.
Be ourselves, be authentic.
If not able to attend because of illness we will phone Inova and get a message through to the facilitator/ group as early as possible.
A special request from Sue: she is not very assertive and would like to be invited to articulate her thoughts more. If she is not being assertive she welcomes feedback.
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During your first session you will need to outline not only the general process of working but
the behavioural elements of your role and the roles of participants.
Explain that the Mentoring Circle™ and way of working is learner led and therefore
presenter led. The ‘presenter’ is the person speaking explaining their issues in their time
slot. The presenter is encouraged to state what they need and to regulate contributions
from others if too directive or unhelpful.
If input is required the presenter is expected to initiate it, asking for input from others when
required. Ensure that people understand your definition of ‘advice giving’, in its unhelpful
sense of directing the presenter towards a particular way of thinking or course of action. .
Look for sentences starting with:
‘Have you thought about….?’
‘Have you tried…?’
‘You could try…..’
Also explain how statements may be focused on a questioner’s experience when the focus
should be on the presenter.
‘When I managed the restaurant we used to….’
‘When I worked as a Manager in London I always found …’
Give examples of how advice can take the presenter’s time and be detrimental to personal
learning, bypassing an opportunity for the presenter to learn and explore for themselves.
Explore unhelpful comments such as:
‘If I were in your situation I’d…..’
However also give an example of when advice, if asked for, might be constructive.
Example
A presenter might ask for advice about contacts.
‘I’m looking for a recruitment agent in my local area. Does anyone know one to
recommend?’
This may be appropriate; it may help them to save time finding a new agent. However also
offer caveats. Each individual would need to take responsibility and check out the credibility
of people personally by asking for proof of qualifications and testimonials. They would be
expected to make a judgment for themselves concerning competence; the Mentoring Circle
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is not a substitute for professional advice. Sometimes learning from others’ experience can
provide a useful shortcut. You might wish to explain about your role in offering support and
challenge and how it is boundaried within the specific meetings.
The Facilitation Process – Active Listening
Communication among people consists of speaking and listening. In the long run one-way communication will create dissatisfaction for the speaker, who will need feedback from the listener. All participants of the Mentoring Circle™, in addition to the facilitator, are expected to partake in active listening, a key mentoring characteristic, this enables the presenter to fully immerse themselves in the thinking process and feel valued by their audience. The four main forms of verbal communication are listening, speaking, reading and writing. These are in the order in which we learn them as children. They are also in the order in which we tend to use them: on average, listening (45%), speaking (30%), reading (16%) and writing (9%). You can develop your active listening skills by: - Empathising with the speaker by being sensitive to their emotions - Checking your own understanding by asking questions at the end to clarify issues - Avoiding assumptions or stereotypes - Summarising to demonstrate your interest - Reflecting back - Avoid ‘jumping in’ and interrupting - Asking open ended rather than probing questions - Accepting alternative view points, think back to the “old/young lady” exercise - Not getting lost in the detail - Listening to the speaker’s tone as well as content - Showing you are attentive by your body language, remember the majority of communication is non-verbal!
NLP for facilitators
The goal of this chapter is to give some useful and practical tips that will help to facilitate
the Mentoring Circles™ and workshops, based on the Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP)
methodology created by Richard Bandler and John Grinder in the 1970s.
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They will help you to enable change in the paradigms of your participants, build a better
rapport with them and, through using the right meta-questions, help participants tap into
and recognise their unconscious barriers and achieve their goals.
According to the NLP methodology people tend to fall into one of 4 representational
systems (visual, auditory, kinesthetic or auditory digital) which influence how we learn and
process information. As a facilitator, if you can recognise these preferences in your
individual participants you can work to present information in a way that is more likely to
engage the group1.
In Annex I you will find a test you can give to your participants to fill out at the beginning of
the programme to help you both understand which representational system they favour.
Annex II gives a short overview of the 4 systems with practical tips on how best to interact
with your participants taking these preferences into account. Annex III contains a list of
predicates you can use, sorted by the 4 systems.
What is NLP?
NLP is the acronym for Neuro-Linguistic Programming.
Neuro stands for our five senses through which we gather and process information:
Sight – Visual
Hearing – Auditory
Touch – Kinesthetic (although Kinesthetic also refers to emotions)
Smell – Olfactory
Taste – Gustatory
Linguistic refers to language, also including non-verbal cues, which give meaning to our
Internal Representation (IRs).
Programming is about behaviours we run internally to achieve our outcomes, like patterns,
programmes or strategies.
Put together, ‘NLP’ is about “How we use the minds own language to consistently achieve
our desired and specific outcomes.”
1 N.B It is quite common for an individual to score highly in 2 systems so don’t worry if this is the case!
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NLP Communication Model
The below model shows how an external event is put through our different filters to
categorise the information we receive. The amount of filters (e.g. language, memories,
attitudes etc) show that an event is judged by more than just the most obvious elements,
like what exactly someone said, but also how he said it, in what context and how he
behaved whilst saying it.
Source: www.nlpworld.co.uk
Distortions – Changing Meaning
The following three chapters will give you some practical tips to lead a conversation with
participants in order to influence how they think and encourage them to question why they
respond in a certain way to a given situation/event. In this way you canl help them to
rethink their current perception of an issue and become open to new suggestions and
viewpoints. This might be the paradigm shift they need to come up with the solution to a
problem or a great new idea for their business.
21
Surface Structure Question/ Deep Structure
Mind Reading (knowing someone’s internal state – but not saying how) e.g. “She doesn’t like me”
How do you know she
doesn’t like you?
Recovers the source on information
Lost Performative (Value judgements – where the person doing the judging is left out) e.g. “It’s bad to be rich”
Who says it’s bad?
According to whom?
How do you know it’s
bad?
Gathers evidence criteria Recovers missed info
Cause – Effect (A>B) Where Cause is wrongly put outside self e.g. “He makes me mad”
How does what he’s
doing cause you to
choose to feel mad?
Or – How specifically?
Recovers choice
Complex Equivalence (A=B) 2 experiences are interpreted as being synonymous e.g. “She’s always yelling at me, she doesn’t like me”
How does her yelling
mean she doesn’t like
you?
Have you ever yelled at
someone you like?
Gives a counter example
Presuppositions: e.g. “If my husband knew how much I suffered, he wouldn’t do that.”
How do you choose to
suffer?
How is he reacting?
How do you know he
doesn’t know?
Put back at Cause What does he do? Bust the mind-read
22
Generalisations
Universal Quantifiers: - All, every, never,
everyone, no-one etc.
e.g. “He never talks to me”
Exaggerate the universal quantifier ... Find counter examples...
Never?
What would happen if
he did?
Recover counter example – effects outcome
Modal Operators e.g. “I have to work hard.” e.g. “I can’t stop smoking”
What would happen if
you didn’t?
...Or?
What prevents you?
What would happen if
you did?
Recover effects/outcome Recover causes
Deletions
Nominalisations: Process words, verbs – turned in to nouns e.g. “We have a problem with our communication.”
Who’s not
communicating what to
whom?
How would you like to
communicate?
Turns the verb back in to a process, recover the deletion.
Unspecified Verbs: e.g. “He rejected me.”
How specifically did he
reject you?
Specify the verb
Comparative Deletion: e.g. “That’s expensive!”
Compared to what? Recover comparison
23
Utilising Values in the Real World
In order to build rapport with a participant it is helpful to find out about their values and
priorities. Several tools, like the ‘Motivation to Start Up exercise (see tool 6), can help you
with this.
Once you have an understanding of the values held by an individual you can use this in
conversations to gain a higher level of engagement. Below you can see an example of 5
values and how the facilitator used those in a sentence to speak directly to the participant.
Of course in real life it is very seldom possible to use all values together like this, but after
identifying some of the participant’s values you should try to work them in whenever it is
appropriate.
1. Results
2. Satisfaction
3. Fun
4. Money
5. Fulfilment
“Well Sarah, because I am committed to assisting you in achieving your RESULTS and getting
SATISFACTION, let me tell you about a new programme that will teach you in a FUN way to
make more MONEY whilst gaining greater FULFILMENT from life. Does that sound like a
training programme that would be of value to you?”
A sample values hierarchy that
you established with the client.
24
Detailed Overview of Mentoring Circles Process
DETAILS ON THE MENTORING CIRCLE™ MEETING PROCESS
Your first meeting is dominated by more preliminary contracting; however
subsequent meetings generally follow a similar process. The table below summarises the
‘exploration stage’ in each lesson plan, where depending on the number of participants,
each is given 25 minutes to focus on themselves in the following manner:
EXPLORATION STAGE
- INITIAL
“CHECK IN”
- DESCRIBE
CURRENT
ISSUE(S)
- ISSUE
EXPLORATION
- DEVELOP
SOLUTIONS
AND OPTIONS
- ALTERNATIVES
FOR ACTION
- SUMMARISE
ACTION AND
LEARNING
- CURRENT
SITUATION
- NOW
- PERSONAL
EMOTION/
MOTIVATION
LEVEL
- THE PROBLEM
- CHALLENGES
- OPPORTUNITIES
ARE AIRED
- PARTICIPANTS
QUESTION TO
HELP EXPLORE
THE ISSUE
- COMPLETE
TOOLS &
EXERCISES
- FACILITATOR
AND
PARTICIPANTS
HELP
INDIVIDUAL
DECIDE ON NEXT
STEPS AND
ACTIONS
- INDIVIDUAL
PRESENTER
SUMMARISES
NEXT STEPS
THEY WILL
TAKE/
ACTION AND
WHAT THEY
HAVE
LEARNED
FROM THE
PROCESS
DISCUSSION
25
Below are more details about the process and how each stage within it works:
Check in.
This is the introduction when you find out how people are, what they have been working
on, what challenges they have been facing, what progress they have made, their review of
any changes. It helps to structure a format.
You might wish to write the following on the flip chart to help structure the individual
presentations.
How are you feeling?
What’s been happening?
What actions did you take?
What progress have you made?
Describe current issue(s)
At this point the individuals have separate time slots for airing issues. Allocate equal time
for each person leaving enough time for a summary and evaluation at the end. Establish a
turn-taking order. Then in this section the ‘presenter’ talks about the issue they wish to
discuss at the moment. The ‘presenter’ (the person airing the issue) gives enough
information to give the Mentoring Circles™ members an understanding about what they are
facing.
Materials which can be used for this include the sheet ‘My problem or issue I want to talk
about is…’ (under Resources in the Manual for Entrepreneurs). Individual thinking time can
be given prior to starting this stage.
Then the Mentoring Circles™ members question the presenter. At the early stage questions
are probably information questions to provide enough understanding to grasp the context.
It can be time consuming to do 2 rounds, 1 for a check in, the second to air the issue, so
decide if it’s best to combine the check in with the airing of the issue. This will depend on
numbers, time available, and talkativeness of the members and complexity of issues. If this
is your approach add other questions on the flip chart to structure the format. You are
enabling the presenter to articulate and describe their issue at this stage.
What’s your priority/challenge now?
26
What do you need help with today?
It can sometimes be difficult for participants to prioritise which issue is requiring work.
Some questions that may help include:
What’s the issue?
What makes it an issue now?
Who owns this issue/problem?
How important is it on a 1-10 scale?
How much energy do you have for a solution on a 1-10 scale?
Are you concerned with a number of issues, if so what does it make sense to tackle
first?
Some problems are so complex that sequential goals are needed to get to a solution;
therefore be flexible, and keep them on track. Also be aware when a participant is flitting
from one issue to another that it might be symptomatic of other issues which may need
tackling, confidence, poor self-organisation, fear of failure, or procrastination in avoidance
of committing to one decision.
You will use your judgment as a facilitator when to probe usefully to maximise learning.
There can be value in exploring why actions have worked and why things don’t work at the
check in stage too.
Issue exploration
By now the participants should have a grasp of the situation and be able to question to
probe and explore. Questions are used to create more options, to elucidate, to probe more
deeply, to ask discovery questions which might lead to insights or new ways of seeing things
or more alternatives for action.
Judge whether or not you need to offer some input on how to question here, particularly in
the early stages. It may be necessary to explore closed and open questions, hypothetical
questions, discovery questions and leading questions. Discovery questions help uncover the
hidden assumptions and limiting beliefs that may be preventing the individual from taking
useful action.
As part of issue exploration, a series of tools/resources are available in the Learners’ Kit for
the facilitator to choose to work with in order to support participants. Suggestions for tools
27
to use in each session are provided under ‘Outline of Session Content’. A description of each
tool is provided under the Manual for Entrepreneurs.
Develop solutions, options, alternatives for action
Following questioning, discussion or completion of tools, the process then moves onto
resolving issues. Issues may only be resolved slightly; sometimes opportunities may have
been explored so there may be further actions identified rather than solutions. This stage is
characterised by people moving from ‘not knowing’ to ‘knowing what to do next’.
Summarise action and learning
At this stage ask the individual members to summarise their actions and verbally commit to
goals or actions. The Goal and Task Worksheet is the key tool to help participants make sure
they have concrete goals recorded after the first session which they would like to focus on
during the MENTEE Mentoring Circle™ programme.
Working through the Manual for Entrepreneurs
The Manual for Entrepreneurs contains five main sections:
Introduction: Summary of Mentee and the Mentoring Circle™ process
Introduction to soft skills and the entrepreneurial levels
Entrepreneurial Competences Level Assessment and Evaluation
Skills Development Tools: Several tools to support self-reflection and business/idea development
Resources: Several resources to support the tools
All exercises and tools will be demonstrated during the Training the Trainers workshop for
MENTEE Mentoring Circles™ facilitators. In addition, the Manual for Entrepreneurs exercises
contain instructions for participants on how to complete each tool. These can be useful as a
reminder for facilitators. We will also provide an overview of several of the tools focused on
during the Mentoring Circles™ here.
Participants should initially complete Annex III, the Entrepreneurial Competences Level
Assessment. This will enable participants to understand which level they fall under on the
Entrepreneurial Cluster Levels (Annex IV) and can help you both plan the skills they could
28
look at developing throughout the Mentoring Circles™, however this is only indicative and
as many soft skills are interrelated, it should be the core focus of discussions and issue
exploration. As with the Skills Profile Evaluation below, this assessment can also be
repeated at the end of the final Mentoring Circle™ session to indicate progress.
Tool 1: Skills Profile Evaluation
1
2
3
4
5
Self
Mo
tiva
tio
n
Net
wo
rkin
g Sk
ills
Effi
cien
cy
Co
mm
un
icat
ion
Ski
lls
Kn
ow
led
ge o
f h
ow
to
mo
tiva
te o
ther
s
Neg
oti
atio
n S
kills
Co
nfi
den
ce
Kn
ow
led
ge a
bo
ut
men
tori
ng
Kn
ow
ing
ho
w a
nd
wh
ere
to g
et …
Kn
ow
ing
wh
at I
wan
t n
ext
Sen
se o
f ac
hie
vem
ent
at w
ork
Ass
erti
ven
ess
Entr
epre
neu
rial
sp
irit
Lead
ersh
ip S
kills
Pro
ble
m S
olv
ing
Skill
s
Sen
siti
vity
to
oth
ers
Enth
usi
asm
Man
agem
ent
of
Stre
ss
Del
egat
ion
ski
lls
Pre
sen
tati
on
Ski
lls
Sen
se o
f H
um
ou
r
Bu
ildin
g n
ew r
elat
ion
ship
s
Tim
e M
anag
emen
t
Go
al S
etti
ng
Get
tin
g th
ings
do
ne
Un
der
stan
din
g w
hat
's im
po
rtan
t to
me
Kn
ow
ing
clea
rly
wh
at I
wan
t to
ach
ieve
Kn
ow
ing
clea
rly
wh
at m
y lim
itat
ion
s ar
e
Wo
rk li
fe b
alan
ce
P1: Self Assessment
At the start of the Mentoring Circles
At the end of the Mentoring Circles
Ask participants during both the first and final session to complete the skills profile
evaluation form on a scale of 1 (poor) – 5 (excellent). They should not spend too long
reflecting on the skills and competences and as facilitator you should take the completed
form for the future. However, after completion during the final session you should return
the first profile evaluation to them and as a group reflect on the changes, reducing a score is
not always a bad thing, it shows that participants are more aware of their weaknesses and
you should support them in setting goals to strengthen them. You can insert the scores in
to the Annexed Skills Profile Excel Table (Annex V) to create a graph as above.
Tool 2: Stereotypes - The old and the young lady
What do you see in this picture? An old lady or a young lady?
Most people look at the picture and can see one thing first- the old
or young lady. If you can’t see both, ask someone else to take a look
and see what they can see. How do you feel when someone else sees
something different to you and you can’t see it? Maybe you felt
frustrated, annoyed, stupid, curious, amused? Can you see both now? We often get ‘stuck’
seeing ourselves or our lives in certain ways and once these ways are set; it can be very
29
difficult to alter it. Try and look at your hobbies and interests and see if any of them could
be turned into a business. For example, you’ve always been a keen cook at home but you
haven’t thought about turning your love of making home-made chutneys into a business or
you make beautiful wall art for your house but have never considered yourself doing it for
money (Tool 3).
Self- reflection, looking at and assessing our skills, is not something we do out of habit and
can be a hard skill to learn as we are not used to it.
As a facilitator you should encourage the group to describe the stereotype of the people
that work for themselves – Are they male or female, old or young, well qualified, already
from money, lots of experience?
How does this stereotype relate to people that you know that are self-employed? Does it
confirm the stereotype ? If not, why do we have stereotypes in mind and why do we let
them constrict us?
Now you should ask the group to try looking at themselves differently, from the perspective
of someone who doesn’t know them very well. What skills/passions would they see?
For pre-start ups: Can any of your skills or passions be turned into a business?
For start-ups: Do these skills and passions reflect your work and current company values?
Tool 3: Mind Maps and Ideas Generation
Mind maps (originally
created by Tony Buzan)
can help you to quickly
write down your
thoughts on one piece of
paper and are very useful
for seeing thoughts and
ideas in relation to each
other in a simple visual
representation. Draw a
mind map with you or
your business name in
the middle. You can use
different colours to show different issues.
30
For start-ups: You can use this map as a way of showing a landscape of all the issues in your
business, current & future (you might want to add things that you might have found useful
in the checklist we have just discussed).
For pre-start ups: Or if you are looking for business ideas then you can use it to brainstorm
your interests, hobbies and skills to see where you might be able to generate a new idea as
below!
Strengths & Achievements Mindmap
Transferable skills or strengths are
those you’ve gained in life that you can
move around and use in a different
situation. Start by thinking about the
skills you’ve built up with your current
or past jobs and how these could be
useful to you in running a business.
Think also about your strengths (could
be in terms of attitude & personality)
that can be useful for running a
business. You can then start to think
about other transferable skills you
could use in your business that come from different areas of your life such as parenting,
hobbies, sport or doing voluntary work. There may even be some that you weren’t aware
you had or that could be applied to a business setting.
Drawing their business idea/s as a mind map is a good way to express the complexity and
uniqueness of the business. Here are some tips to give to participants. An example mind
map is in the mentee pack.
Use key words, or wherever possible images.
Start from the centre of the page and work out.
Make the centre a clear and strong visual image that depicts the general theme of
the map.
Create sub-centres for sub-themes.
Put key words on lines. This reinforces structure of notes.
Print rather than write in script. It makes them more readable and memorable.
Lower case is more visually distinctive (and better remembered) than upper case.
Use colour to depict themes, associations and to make things stand out.
Anything that stands out on the page will stand out in your mind.
31
Use pictures or images.
Use arrows, icons or other visual aids to show links between different elements.
Don't get stuck in one area. If you dry up in one area go to another branch.
Put ideas down as they occur, wherever they fit. Don't judge or hold back.
Break boundaries. If you run out of space, don't start a new sheet; paste more paper
onto the map.
Tool 4: SWOT Analysis
Explore your Strengths: Something many people can relate to when it comes to work is that
we often tend to be overly critical of ourselves. Instead, it would be beneficial for you to
learn and make the most of your strengths. Most importantly, don’t under-estimate them!
As well as thinking from your point of view, try and put yourself inside a potential
customer's head when thinking about your strong points and attractive skills they might see
in you. Avoid false modesty, but also try and be honest and realistic with yourself. Ask
friends and family to remind you of any others that they’ve noticed, or you might not be
aware of. Check that you’re not forgetting any strength that could be transferred to working
for yourself.
Explore your Weaknesses: Conversely, look at your
weaknesses in an honest manner but remember not to over-
estimate them. Many of these could be overcome or reduced
in their importance, especially with support from others.
Knowing your weaknesses is not necessarily a downfall, it can
allow you to avoid and sort issues which might have arisen if
you hadn’t known them.
Exploring Opportunities: Opportunities for your business idea
are out there and you need to be ready to recognise and act on them. They might be
something you may have not even considered before. Don’t hold back on your hopes or
ambitions.
Think about all possible opportunities for you and your business - the sky’s the limit!
S = strengths
W= weaknesses
O = opportunities
T = threats
32
Exploring Threats: Threats are things in the environment or your situation that could be a
barrier to working for yourself. These could come in a range of forms, whether it is financial
worries, market changes or simply not having the confidence to pursue your idea or take it
your business further. Although you don’t always have control over these, you do have
control over how you deal with them to try and reduce their impact on your plans. If you
already have a business then it can be issues that are stopping your business growing or
moving forward.
Tool 5: Entrepreneurial Resilience Questionnaire
Ask participants to complete the questionnaire and to score themselves using the table
provided in the Manual for Entrepreneurs. Explain the following aspects of resilience as
below and using the Mentoring Circle™ methodology to support them in creating an action
plan to develop their weaker aspects.
Aspects of Personal Resilience
What is resilience?
Resilience is the personal capacity to cope with adverse events and return to normal life
Resilience is also the determination to see something through to its conclusion, even in the
face of significant pressures to do something else or give up.
Resilience is a psychological feature that contributes towards the prevention of the
damaging effects of psychological distress; resilient people are able to cope better with
adverse events than people with little resilience.
Resilience is an example of the type of quality or capacity that we at Inova would be trying
to help you work on during our programmes. There are 8 areas of resilience useful at work.
Internal Strengths: What I’m good at now/My business’ strengths
Weaknesses: What I’m bad at now/Areas for improving my business
External Opportunities: What’s out there for me and my business?
Threats: What could get in the way of my business success?
33
1. Self Efficacy. This involves a high level of self confidence and a self belief that one can
meet any challenge. Self Efficacy includes the understanding that, while the world is
challenging, one has the ability to succeed despite these challenges.
“Life is difficult. This is the great truth, one of the greatest truths—it is a great truth because
once we see this truth, we transcend it.” M Scott Peck Quote
2. Personal Vision. Resilient people know what they believe in and have a clear idea of
what they want to accomplish or create in their life. With a personal vision, however blurred
this may be, people use this as a guide through life challenges, and provides them with hope
for the future.
Hope is seen as something that reflects people's motivation and capacity to strive toward
personally-relevant goals. Research shows that hopeful individuals enjoy many benefits not
experienced by their low-hope counterparts including superior academic achievement,
psychological adjustment, and physical health.
3. Flexible and Adaptable. Being adaptable and flexible enables people to respond
flexibly to unknown challenges by seeking out ways of overcoming events, and being able to
adapt to the new reality. This reduces the impact of rigidity in the face of a constantly
changing environment.
Being flexible and adaptable consistently tops the charts of the type of qualities that
employers are most looking for in staff.
4. Organised. Creating a structured approach to tasks that need completing add to
individual ability to maintain personal control in the face of a seemingly chaotic existence,
or uncontrollable external events.
“If” Rudyard Kipling poem – a few lines of the poem that expresses the ability perfectly!
“If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,”
5. Problem Solving. The ability to resolve problems enables people to find causes and
solutions to adverse events that impinge on daily life. Those who train themselves to enjoy
problem solving will enjoy the challenge that adverse events present.
If you can enjoy solving problems the way a child learns how to solve problems like working
out which shapes go into what shape holes in the shape box as I’ve seen my toddler get to
grips with, then you can develop an enjoyment of the process of solving problems rather
34
than just moving instantly into frustration that there is a problem. You’re more likely this
way to develop strengths and strategies for future challenges.
6. Interpersonal Interaction. A key dimension of resilience is an individual’s ability to
understand and empathise with others. Resilient people demonstrate the competencies of
emotional intelligence: a high level of self and social awareness and the ability to use this
awareness to effectively management themselves and their relationships with others.
“success is strongly influenced by personal qualities such as perseverance, self-control, and
skill in getting along with others” – components of Emotional Intelligence.
7. Social Connections. This dimension involves the quality of personal and professional
relationships. Resilient people have a strong relationship with selected friends with whom
they share ideas, problems, solutions, frustrations, hopes, and so forth.
You need to build your network with the right people.
8. Active. Resilient people actively engage in change. Faced with adverse events, resilient
people will be assertive in stating their contribution to the changing situation and will
maintain personal control through their assertiveness and maintenance of self efficacy.
You need to take an active role in change – even if you feel it is an unwelcome change – you
have more chance to control and influence outcomes if you take an active role in being part
of any change that happens to you.
Tool 6: Self-motivation and Enthusiasm
Ask participants to make a list of all the things that they need to do today/over the next few
days. Then ask them to write down in a list next to it, realistically how many are really going
to get done, and how many are going to be pushed back with the classic “I’ll do it
tomorrow”.
Motivation could possibly be one of the hardest
parts of starting a business especially when the list
of tasks seems so great and many are new or
possibly difficult. You may be feeling disheartened
or down due to not finding a job, lacking confidence
in your skills or what you can offer in a company or
just feeling out of touch with the routine of work. All of these can make it hard to pick the
pieces up and get back into the swing of the working environment. When starting up a
business it is important to remember your goals, your intrinsic motivations (things of a
35
personal nature or needs) and extrinsic ones (such as pay or move up in the business world).
Seeing and visualising where you want to end up, and seeing yourself there successfully are
key, small tasks to help keep you on track, determined and encouraged to get there.
Ask participants to complete the chart of their extrinsic and intrinsic motivators for being
self employed. Do they have a balance of both types to allow them to start up or keep
growing their business?
Intrinsic & Extrinsic Motivations
If time allows encourage discussion – Was it easy/hard to think of what motivates you? Did
the chart turn out how you expected it to? If no, why not? Do you think knowing what
drives you will help you to work in a better, more efficient way?
Tool 7: Goal Setting
As facilitator you should ask if the group knows the difference between urgent and
important – allow for 2 or 3 min discussion in pairs and then ask for feedback.
Urgent and important are not always the same – there may be things in your day that are
urgent e.g. buy food as there will be nothing for tea.
Important may be getting the children ready for school on time and it should also be noted
that these, especially importance are terms which are rather subjective; what one may
consider of great importance may only slightly appear on the radar of another and vice
versa.
It is important for participants to look at their list and work out which items are urgent and
which are important so they can then begin to make some items more of a priority. Ask
participants to put the items in their list under which heading they think they fall under and
then compare with those nearby.
Prioritising is key when running a business as you may have many different tasks to do, and
lots of things which require your attention all at the same time. This really is something
where practise makes perfect. Knowing what to attend to first and which is the most
important can be vital for the success and organisation of your business.
This skill can be practised with very simple tasks. For example, you might want to prioritise
the things which you are going to include in your action plan, which will benefit you most to
improve, and indeed which require more work. Remember that things to do can be practical
things such as developing your marketing skills, but other soft skills are as important such as
36
increasing self-confidence, developing clarity of purpose, identifying further internal &
external resources; identifying new working patterns (e.g. flexible hours or part time). Once
you have prioritised your “to do’s” you can then move to your action plan
Think about the following:
Refer to the results of your Entrepreneurial Competences Level Assessment and the results
of other tools or issues that have evolved during the Mentoring Circle™ sessions.
What are they?
How will I develop these skills/attitude? (actions to do)
What help/resources do I need?
How will I measure my progress?
Is this a plausible and realistic task?
Don’t forget that your actions/objectives need to be SMART.
Specific – Objectives should specify what they want to achieve, as oppose to something
vague and non-descript.
Measurable – You should be able to measure whether you are meeting the objectives or
not.
Achievable - Are the objectives you set, achievable and attainable?
Realistic – Can you realistically achieve the objectives with the resources you have?
Time – When do you want to achieve the set objectives?
Aiming high is crucial for goal setting. Setting specific, difficult goals results in better
performance than setting specific easy goals, unclear goals such as “do your best,” or no
goals at all; this is strongly supported by research (eg. Locke & Latham, 1990).
Goals which are set too low become issues in a variety of manners. First, you are limiting
yourself and your potential from the start, and adding more barriers to your business than
the ones you may already face. Even if the end goal seems unobtainable, striving for that
may take you a little bit further than you would have gone otherwise. But it is also
important to allow yourself some forgiveness when setting ambitious goals. Continually
failing to meet the exact high goal can lead to stress and feelings of demoralisation so allow
room for error.
Participants can be led through the information on setting goals before choosing 3 goals to
work on. Remind participants of the SMART methodology when setting goals and make sure
they’re clear of the breakdown of tasks in order to achieve each goal.
37
Tool 8: Quick Business Quiz
Remind participants that this is just a quick fun quiz about starting up in business but they
can complete it in order to start thinking about their answers to the questions and how
ready they feel to start up. Encourage all participants that regardless of their final score,
they can still think about starting up in business but may need more support to plan and
gain business advice in order to feel more ready.
Closing meeting
Ask people to summarise their actions and comment on any learning for the session.
Ask participants to score themselves on the soft skills form and analyse their changes
since the first session The skills profile form results will look something similar to
this:
1
2
3
4
5
Self
Mo
tiva
tio
n
Net
wo
rkin
g Sk
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icat
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lls
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Ass
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ing
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siti
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Enth
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P1: Self Assessment
At the start of the Mentoring Circles
At the end of the Mentoring Circles
Explain any arrangements for encouraging group members to hold one another to
account. You may decide to ask people to allocate a ‘chasing buddy’ to their left
around the table. This person chases them up, asks about progress and generally
checks informally on their success in between meetings. This can also help to build
relationships more strongly within the group.
Ensure everyone has the date of the next meeting diarised and has venue
information.
38
Confirm any action you will take e.g. e mailing the agreed ground rules.
Close the session by asking people to complete the relevant evaluation form.
Closing the final meeting
Ask people to summarise their actions and comment on any learning for the session.
Close the session by asking people to complete the relevant evaluation form and a
final outcomes form.
Confirm any arrangements for continuance or informal networking outside of the
group.
Discuss sustainability plans for the group
39
Annexes
I. Application Form Example II. Pilot Summary Report Format
III. Entrepreneurial Competences Level Assessment IV. Entrepreneurial Cluster Levels V. Skills Profile Excel Table
Bibliography
Arygyris, C. (1993). Knowledge for Action: A Guide to overcoming barriers to organizational
change. Jossey Bass
Bandler, R. and Grinder, J. (1979). Frogs into Princes: Neuro Linguistic Programming. Real
People Press
Block, P. (1981). Flawless Consulting. Jossey Bass Publications, San Fransisco USA
Kolb, D. A. and Fry, R. ‘Toward an applied theory of experiential learning’ in C. Cooper
(Ed.) Theories of Group Process, London: John Wiley. (1975)
Revans, R. The ABC of Action Learning in Mike Pedlar Library: Developing People and
Organisations. (1998).
For more information on Mentoring Circles™ and the MENTEE project, please visit
http://www.mentee-project.eu. The content and methodology cannot be reproduced
without the written consent of Inova Consultancy. If you are interested in becoming a
trained facilitator of the Mentoring Circles™ methodology then please contact Inova
Consultancy ([email protected] ) for licensing details.