Elevating Team Performance Through Inspired Mentorship
Jul 01, 2024
Laura W. / Jason Muhammad
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.
A Mosaic is a bunch of pieces, put together, to make up the whole in a beautiful way. Here at Mosaic Business Consulting we discuss the various pieces of a business throughout the course of its life, and throughout all industries, and how these pieces, when put together, can help develop a better, more efficient, and effective running of YOUR business. Find our more or register for a course today: Mosaic Business Consulting
Be sure to visit BizRadio.US to discover hundreds more engaging conversations, local events and more.
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.
A Mosaic is a bunch of pieces, put together, to make up the whole in a beautiful way. Here at Mosaic Business Consulting we discuss the various pieces of a business throughout the course of its life, and throughout all industries, and how these pieces, when put together, can help develop a better, more efficient, and effective running of YOUR business. Find our more or register for a course today: Mosaic Business Consulting
Be sure to visit BizRadio.US to discover hundreds more engaging conversations, local events and more.
Laura:
I'm your host, Laura Voddenknecht, owner of Mosaic Business Consulting, and you're listening to the Mosaic Life with Laura W. A mosaic is a bunch of pieces that, when put together, make up the whole in a really beautiful way, and this show plans to discuss the various pieces of a business throughout all these different industries and how these pieces, when put together, can help develop a better, more efficient and effective running of your business. To reach me, contact bizradious. Today, my guest is Jason Muhammad. I've been looking forward to this interview. So, as an author, speaker, trainer and founder of JM Leadership Development, Jason is dedicated to transforming organizations by identifying and developing emerging leaders. Leadership coach from St Thomas Christian University in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Jason collaborates with corporations, county agencies, nonprofit organizations and educators to improve their capacities as leaders and expedite change in the workforce. Through this process, he emphasizes a growth mindset, employee engagement, team cohesion and team development. Welcome back to the show, Jason. It's great to have you here.
Jason :
Hey, Laura, thanks so much and it's absolutely a pleasure being back on your show.
Laura:
Yeah Well, I know it's been so sorry, I know it's been a little while since you've been on the show, but I think it would be great to discuss how leaders can better mentor their staff to become the next generation of leaders. And I mentioned this because several leaders I've worked with recently have struggled with the aspect, this particular aspect, of their business. And I was wondering, in your experience, what have you noticed about where leaders struggle with mentoring their employees to become those better leaders?
Jason :
Yeah, thank you so much for that excellent question. First, it's being honest about the 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 do this X, y and Z authentic and being transparent and realistic about their schedules, about their commitments, about their role and responsibility, starts the process of receiving a mentee. Then number two is looking at okay, what are you going to mentor them on?
Jason :
Because yeah because sometimes you know, being someone's mentor can create attachment, and in any business do you have an exit strategy if this attachment becomes too much for either yourself or your mentee. And then number three is basically committing to or setting a commitment and staying committed to the commitment.
Laura:
OK, wait, wait, wait. So let me go back, because I want to clarify something. So I was thinking about mentorship from a boss to an employee, but you're talking about mentorship maybe throughout a company, where the mentor may not be their boss.
Jason :
No, I was real. I was speaking of a leader. That's why I said making sure that they are in tune with their actual uh, do they first, first of all, do they have the time to do so?
Laura:
Absolutely, I get that part. And then the second item was uh, what was that? Again, it was my apologies.
Jason :
Yeah, no problem. So it's uh, we're so you being staying. I'm sorry finding the time and then looking at the attachments, you know, they're like looking up to you so much, they have so much respect for you, they have so much admiration for you that the mentor mentee relationship can mutate into something else. And so, with that being said, do you, as a leader, have an exit strategy of being able to get out of that relationship right, or changing that relationship without dissolving the person in the process?
Laura:
Right Without breaking the tie per se, absolutely, absolutely. It's sort of like a soft landing, in a sense.
Jason :
Yeah, because then you produce or create an estranged relationship in the job and then next thing you know you start seeing it in three areas. If this relationship is estranged due to an attachment or a bad way of breaking the relationship, you'll see it in their attendance you will see it in their communication and of course you will see it in their communication and, of course, you will see it in their performance.
Laura:
Yeah, and I really appreciate you identifying those elements too. These are things that you could measure the impact of that mentor-mentee relationship, both positive and negative. Absolutely the attendance, the performance and communication.
Jason :
Absolutely the attendance, the performance you know, and communication and, and communication meaning that they become either shut down or that. Yeah, so it's. You know, it's not only what they will be saying, but remember, communication is 93 percent nonverbal. Communication is 93% nonverbal. So it would be the body language, it would be how they communicate to others via email. It would be, you know, all of these things. That will be how they, let's say, for instance, in customer service, right? And so you would have someone who's supposed to be selling this and selling that, or answering this or answering that, the how they do it, with the rolling of the eyes and closing of the eyes, sucking of the teeth, right? So, if that, what are you communicating to a person? You're communicating. I really don't want to serve you and that's what I'm supposed to do, but I really don't want to do you and that's what I'm supposed to do, but I really don't want to do that.
Laura:
Right, right yeah.
Jason :
So something has happened to that individual because, were they always like this? They didn't sign up to the job for the job to be this kind of person, so something happened. And so, if it's if it's a, if it's a, it's like a bad divorce, you know? In other words, if something is happening where you know this customer service representative was getting mentorship from a leader who did not know how to effectively and using emotional intelligence to be able to change or exit this you know this mentor-mentee relationship then yeah, that's what you produce schedule to actually devote to being a mentor for the mentee and that employee and dedicate that time to that person, either weekly or biweekly or whatever the agreement is.
Laura:
And I so appreciate that, because so many people think they have time when they really don't and then they cram it in or make worse, they make the employee feel that they're an invasion of their time.
Jason :
Yeah, yeah, exactly. It's like okay, so you're giving me, you know, points, you're giving me mentorship, but I can't even accept it, because I remember watching an old Cosby show, Right, and he was talking to his son, I believe it was, and he was talking about how his son was having some problems with his girlfriend. And he says well, ok, son, what's your favorite food? And his son said bacon, dog burger or something like that.
Laura:
And he says yeah, and he says how do you like it?
Jason :
He says I like it with seasoned fries. And he says, okay, do you like ketchup? 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 give you your favorite food but I serve it on the top of a trash can lid you? Yeah, yeah, would you eat it? He's like no, dad. He says well, sometimes, son is not what you're doing, it's in your delivery.
Laura:
Oh nice.
Jason :
Yeah, and so leaders have to be careful of making sure that they are, that we are actually have time to process this request of being someone's mentor and really looking at the schedule. So I would say don't agree to it 100 percent. I don't know, I'm sorry, don't agree to it right away. You know, always have give yourself time to process, look at your schedule, look at your commitments and then give an answer. And so your answer may or may not be no, it may be not yet, and there's power in not yet you know, because it's a positive and a negative.
Jason :
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:
So what does the mentor do if they're being told they have to mentor a different employee and so they are being it's sort of part of their requisite of their own performance? What do they do to? You know, what do they do in that circumstance If, let's say, their boss is telling them they have to mentor somebody and you know they have to physically figure out how to carve out time. Is that what you're saying?
Jason :
Absolutely. I would say that if it is a prerequisite of their job requirement, accept the challenge. See, I remember listening to Brian Tracy. Brian Tracy said because what, what that does? Is that OK, if a person is not ready to do that, it produces a problem for them.
Jason :
And a problem if you look at it in math, the problems can be solved using math. Right, you're going to either add something or subtract something. So when I was listening to Brian Tracy, he said there's three ways to look at a problem. He said number one look at it as a situation. He said number two look at it as a challenge. He said but the number three and best way to look at a problem is to look at it as an opportunity. And so, therefore, if it is a prerequisite for a leader to be a mentor to someone else, yeah, accept the challenge, look at the situation and then take the opportunity. The difference between a positive person and negative person is that a negative person can have an opportunity but only see the problem. But a positive person can have a problem but see the opportunity.
Laura:
Exactly, yeah, yeah, yep, and that is a big thing is and we're going to get to that that mindset right that you're talking about. But I'm also thinking about that third element. So we talked about time, we've talked about the attachment of the leader and making sure that you have an exit strategy before going in, and so what do you feel is that third element that you were talking about?
Jason :
Yeah is. Can you stay committed to the commitment?
Laura:
OK.
Jason :
Right. So staying committed to the commitment, which means that it's about keeping your word. If you look at the word commitment, the prefix C-O means two or more. So, which means that it's not just their responsibility to meet the requirements of the mentor mentee relationship, but, as the leader, it's your responsibility to make sure that adherence to the mentor mente. This is why going back to number one is most important is looking at your time, because you can say well, you know, yeah, I'm going to do it. Yes, I'm going to do it. This is our schedule. Now, in that communication, in that conversation about commitment, you want to leave in there some room for flexibility. What that means? Is that okay? So, just in case, if an emergency leadership situation comes up and I have this schedule for X, y and Z, look, I have a contingency plan for that.
Laura:
Yeah, yeah, so you want to leave yourself some room.
Jason :
So even if you did not make this date, you had a plan in place that still keeps you in the commitment aspect of your mentor mentee relationship mentor and you help sorry, you help, or you figured this out with the employee.
Laura:
You're scheduled. What is the? You know what are some of the first steps, if you will, that a leader or mentor can do to help the next generation of leaders the next generation of leaders.
Jason :
Well, in this aspect of mentor-mentee relationship is first is have a conversation, and in this conversation you want to practice attentive listening, and with attentive listening you're listening for clues. Unfortunately, most people in conversations are listening to win, listening to fix, but never listening to learn. You can absolutely learn what you need to do to fix and then, of course, you could win the relationship with your mentor mentee. So it starts with. It starts with having a conversation.
Laura:
And when? You Sorry, my apologies, I was just kind of wondering. You know, there's a way where we listen and these days we're hearing about like a very short attention span and out of a goldfish yeah, exactly so we're.
Laura:
we're sitting here having a conversation with somebody and and it's not that we're not listening and we're trying to learn, we're trying to take that in, right, but maybe we capture one thing and then miss something else, just as I did in the beginning, right. And so what is it that we can do to? You know to really learn, you know to have that listen, to learn approach?
Jason :
fully organized concentration until success, better known as focus F-O-C-U-S focus fully organized concentration until success. One of the problems that we have when we are listening is we don't focus on what we're listening to. We don't listen to the words we don't listen to the person, our minds start to wonder and going off into other things. Number one. Number two is that we have to suspend judgment right.
Jason :
Yeah, we have to suspend judgment, which means that, okay, we're listening in this conversation, but you know we're wondering, like, who is this person to say what they're saying, or why are they saying this? And then you miss something right or something catches your attention. You know, many of us claim ADHD, you know attention deficit disorders and whatnot, and so our attention span, of course, research shows that it's almost less than that of a goldfish listening. You're listening for the clues, because a person would tell you what they need.
Laura:
As long as you allow them to talk.
Jason :
Eventually they will tell you exactly what you need and what you're looking for, as long as you're listening. Now you're practicing attentive listening, which includes, you know, nodding, you know sometimes you are saying yes, you know to the person and then but one of the things that most of us have to practice in terms of listening is we have to. There's something that's called a 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 four steps to this loop of understanding, Right? Because you want to understand, you want to communicate, you want to observe, and then you want to make sure that you're correct. So step one is understand what the person is saying. Number two is communicate what you understood, Right?
Laura:
We don't do that.
Jason :
No, no, we don't, we don't. Number three is observe their reaction and check to make sure you got it right, right. Then number four is correct your understanding and check again.
Laura:
Yeah.
Jason :
So we go through this loop of understanding as we're having a conversation, with using attentive listening, we can see so. So you know, back to the beginning of your question, the first thing is having a conversation and from a conversation, if you're practicing, let them doing, let the mentee do most of the talking, the initial conversation, and probably for the rest of the conversations that you're going to have, because you want to listen, to see if there's any growth and progress. As you have conversations, you want to see the mindset in the mentee, to see if their mindset is changing from growth to fix growth the fix, going back and forth, back and forth.
Laura:
Yeah, yeah, no, that's great. And so now we've had this lovely conversation. Now what?
Jason :
So now what we have to do with the mentee is what we did with ourselves. We have to look at what kind of time do they have for this commitment, what kind of time do they have for this? So the same practice that you put on yourself as a leader, you put that on. Or as a mentor leader, you put that on your mentee. So now let's check your schedule 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 able to do the mentee? Well, at a certain point your times lapse. If you come in from nine to five, they come in from three to 10 or three to 12. You're going to have that time span there where you could potentially get together for 30 minutes or an hour to be able to talk. So first you got to look at what you're, so you got to do the same thing with them that you did for yourself.
Laura:
Right now. So I hate to interrupt, but we're already out of time. It's insane. So I know that we have more options to talk about more, but here's the great thing If you want to learn more about him and what he's going to offer, as the next steps, you're going to have to listen in for another episode or go ahead and reach out to him right away. And how can they contact you?
Jason :
Yeah, they can send me an email at jmemergingleaders at gmailcom.
Laura:
So J-M M as in Mary right. Yes jmemergingleaders at gmailcom Fantastic.
Jason :
Yep and I will respond promptly.
Laura:
Wonderful, wonderful. Well, this has just been super fast and super great. I really appreciate all that you've shared. Thank you so much. I want to thank you for listening to the Mosaic Life with Laura W, and you can listen to this episode again and get this great content because it was really great, or listen to other great hosts and their shows by going to bizradious and click on shows. Thanks so much for listening and have a great rest of your day.
