Five Steps to Identifying Key Areas for Growth

When starting sessions with a new mentee or supervisee, mentors have the essential task of creating a contract and a plan with their new client. The contract protects both the mentor and the mentee/supervisee and allows both parties to review legal requirements, clarify roles and set professional boundaries. This is also the time to look forward and create a health plan together.

Creating a health plan is an opportunity for the mentee/supervisee to share their goals and struggles and for the mentor to help them identify key areas for growth. This sets up the trajectory of discussions and provides some big-picture objectives that will give the sessions, and the mentee’s life, some structure. It can be difficult (impossible, even) to understand a mentee/supervisee’s deep needs and flaws within a single session, so I have a few steps that can help get both mentor and mentee started: 

Five Steps: 

1. Ask about goals for the future. Where does your mentee/supervisee see themselves in a year? Five years? Ten years? 
2. Introduce your mentee/supervisee to the Five Core Competencies. Any mentee/supervisee hoping to become a leader needs to develop the following:

• Vital Spirituality
• Thriving Relationships
• Emotional Intelligence
• Sustainable Life
• Reduced Risk

3. Have them take the Verve Lead Well-being Q Snapshot. This is a five-minute quiz that will ask your mentee/supervisee to gauge their health across the five core competencies. It will provide an overview of strengths and weaknesses.   https://vervelead.com/tools/#health-snapshot
4. Discuss the results. Which competencies are already strong? Which requires growth? How can these competencies aid in reaching their goals? 
5. Go deeper. Between now and your next session, have your mentee take the full Well-Being Q and send their results to you. Take time to reflect on the results and how you can help them grow in the areas that need growth. 

“The health plan” should be revisited at least once a year. Plans change. Goals and hopes change. Circumstances change. All these will impact the vision for health. Therefore, it is necessary to return to the foundational plan and alter it as needed. This will also be a chance to remember why their plan was important to them in the first place, how far they have come and where they still need to grow. Over time, this will help the mentee/supervisee develop their sense of self-awareness and see themselves in a more honest light. 

Reflection Questions for the Mentor/Supervisor: 

• After seeing the results of the Well-being Q, what do I now know about my mentee/supervisee? 

• How can I help them see what they don’t see? 
• What are my next steps in aiding their goals?