building a sustainable life.

Featured image for “How to Overcome Discomfort with Difficult Conversations   ”
Over the last few weeks, we have been exploring how to confront and challenge our mentee or supervisee when it is necessary. We have mostly focused on how we, as a mentor or supervisor, can encourage our clients to open up, to speak frankly and to face difficulties in themselves and the world around them. Today, we are turning towards ourselves and how we handle those conversations…

How to Overcome Discomfort with Difficult Conversations   

April 11, 2024
Featured image for “Four ways to handle discrepancies in words and deeds  ”
The role of mentor/supervisor is a reflective practice. Our job is to help our clients learn to see what they are not seeing about themselves and their behaviour and encourage them to become more self-reflective on their path forward. Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as holding up a mirror….

Four ways to handle discrepancies in words and deeds  

April 4, 2024
Featured image for “Four Questions to Help Understand what God Wants for You”
Have you ever finished a session with a mentee or supervisee and were left feeling that something was wrong? That something they said was not aligned with what God wants for them? It can be difficult to see behaviours or attitudes in your mentees or supervisees that you recognise as unbiblical and unhealthy for their lives but it also allows for the opportunity for you to provide some insight and, hopefully, help correct their path forward.

Four Questions to Help Understand what God Wants for You

March 28, 2024
Featured image for “Four Questions to Make Difficult Conversations Easier”
Challenging and Confronting others is a difficult skill set that all mentors or supervisors need to have. Even our easiest and most pleasant mentees and supervisees will occasionally need to be challenged and pushed to grow. Some of the people we work with will need us to address many tough issues; confrontation may be a regular part of sessions. Either way, being able to acknowledge and embrace difficult issues within this relationship, and to take personal action, is key to successful transformation. This is exactly what we will be looking at over the next few weeks. This is an opportunity to self-reflect: how do you handle challenging your mentees? How do you prefer to confront supervisees? Are difficult conversations something you feel comfortable with? How do you go about correcting unhealthy behaviours? 

Four Questions to Make Difficult Conversations Easier

March 14, 2024
Featured image for “Mitigating Psychosocial Hazards Within the Workplace”
When working with mentees or supervisees, we often come across the concept of safety: physical, psychological, social, emotional, and spiritual. While there are many ways in which a person’s well-being can be at risk, we are often unaware of them, especially in our workplaces.  Psychosocial hazards arise from or relate to the design or management of work or a work

Mitigating Psychosocial Hazards Within the Workplace

March 7, 2024
Featured image for “Three Ways Experience Shapes Our Mentoring Sessions”
Every mentor or supervisor uses their own experiences to guide their mentees. It is almost impossible not to use one’s experiences and perspectives during sessions. Here are some to be aware of: Your Experience Mentors and Supervisors often enter into the role because of their personal experience. We have been pastors, coaches, teachers, leaders, and everything we have learned has

Three Ways Experience Shapes Our Mentoring Sessions

February 29, 2024
Featured image for “The Key to Sustainability ”
Do you have a passion for lifting others? Are you a leader in the community, working in a caring profession? Maybe you’re an upcoming mentor or professional supervisor, and Verve Lead wants to help you take the first step! Mentoring and supervising can change your life and others’ lives. Most people in leadership positions struggle with creating a sustainable lifestyle

The Key to Sustainability 

February 28, 2024
Featured image for “How to Offer Constructive Feedback ”
Providing feedback to a mentee is one of the most crucial skills for a mentor but also one of the most difficult. It can be hard to walk the line between helpful and constructive feedback and pushy and demoralising feedback. The last thing a mentor wants is for his feedback to hurt or discourage his mentee… however, feedback is essential

How to Offer Constructive Feedback 

February 22, 2024
Featured image for “Tips and Questions to Hold Mentees accountable to Their Goals”
Last week, we looked at what it means to deal with setbacks when attaining goals and how to redirect your mentee on their course of action. We looked at situations that require a mentee to put their goals on hold or change their goals… and how that is okay if the situation requires this. But what if the setback is

Tips and Questions to Hold Mentees accountable to Their Goals

February 15, 2024