This document outlines seven rules for effective mentoring and coaching. It discusses the importance of focusing first on developing relationships and facilitating teams before solving problems. The rules emphasize hands-on experience to build credibility, continuing personal learning, thinking ahead of students, treating all students equally, using analogies and metaphors, and recognizing that data illuminates rather than dictates solutions. Successful mentoring is defined as transferring knowledge so students can apply it effectively in real-world situations. Success is measured by the mentor becoming invisible as the student demonstrates their learning.

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Headquarters U.S. Air Force
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The 7 Rules of
Mentoring/Coaching
(Or why I have all these grey hairs now)
Ernie Shishido
SAF/USMS
2 November 2010

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Caveat Emptor (Buyer Beware)
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It’s all about the people and their relationships,
the human aspect.
No Relationship = No Mentoring/Coaching
(And every situation, relationship, and person is different)
(More about
diversity in
the freebies!)

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The 7 Rules
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1. Think team facilitation first, then the problem
2. Hands on - Credibility
3. Learn and grow personally
4. Think ahead of the Student
5. Treat GB students as BB students
6. Analogies and Metaphors
7. Data (No, it’s not what you think!)
* Remember Your Role (Freebie!)
* And wait, more freebies!!

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BLUF
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BLUF: Successful Mentoring is the ability to transfer
knowledge to the student and have the student
apply it effectively in a real world situation.
3 Keys:
They know how to use it (effectively)
They use it (effectively)
They know when to use it (effectively)

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Measuring success
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How is mentorship success measured?
The ability to be invisible at the event.
You can measure your success by how much you
had interjected with the student and the team.

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Rule #1: Think team facilitation first,
then the problem
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1. The need to mentor and coach the team first – “Third Person Hansei”
• What did you see - people and their behaviors.
• Emotional Intelligence – The art of social engineering
• Facilitating the team to create the peak collective intelligence
• 20/70/10 rule
2. Then worry about the solutions – Through Collective Intelligence
• It is NOT about you getting the right answer
• Best results are the outcome of getting the team to find the answer.
• If you find the answers, they won’t implement , they don’t own
• Get the team to behave like a high performance team
Social Awareness + Relationship Management = Collective Intelligence

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Rule #2: Hands On - Credibility
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You build the best credibility by doing
1. You cannot do this with solely with an academic approach.
• Enduring learning happens in context – education is superficial
• “No input thinking” “receive-mode only” are not effective
• Training alone is “Training alone”
2. You must build the credibility of doing it yourself to enable the
storytelling that helps the student understand it.
3. See one, Do one, Teach one – Nuthin’ fancy here, but Just Do It!
Hard to get the team to follow if you don’t have the credibility

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Rule #3: Learn and Grow Personally
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1. Don’t mentor your student believing you know it all.
• “Pro from Dover” mentality
2. Appreciate what your student knows.
• You will learn from them, I guarantee that.
• Listen to their insights.
• Shamelessly steal their techniques
3. Decide that you want to grow your emotional intelligence.
4. Read new material and never stop learning
• Read a book and give a synopsis to your circle of practitioners.
• Remember, no success with solely with an academic approach.
• Better learning happens in context – Not superficially
• Try it, Teach it – if it works.
Be Humble – Stay Humble – Listen

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Rule #4: Think Ahead of the Student
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1. Think ahead of the student, then let them catch up. My favorite of
mine.
• This is so important, you teach that to the student, too!
2. Have the student think what he/she should do in the situation and
help the student get there.
• Don’t give them the answer.
3. Again, personal growth and learning happens here when your
student comes up with innovative thinking processes.
Think 4 hours ahead of the student (and the team)

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Rule #5: Treat GB students like BB
students
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Why?
1. It gives you more experience – more opportunities to mentor.
2. It helps build trust
3. Builds the students confidence.
4. That GB will be a BB student if you do your job, right?
Logical, right? But why do so many people forget to do this?
Mentoring opportunities are everywhere! Take advantage of them.

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Rule #6: Analogies and Metaphors
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It helps the team visualize how you see the future process and then use
as a way to lead a team to get to an optimal solution.
• An analogy is an aspectual comparison: pachinko machine to a decision tree.
• A metaphor can often lead to an intuitive grasping of what is being discussed
without once mentioning the 'name' of the thing: “Joe the plumber”
1. Teach your student using use analogies and metaphors
• It helps the student gain understanding to the new concepts.
• They don’t know what they don’t know, right? Help them to “get to the
know”
2. Teach your student to use analogies &metaphors when facilitating their team
• Help the team gain understanding of what is in your mind.
“You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know”

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Rule #7: Data (No, it’s not what you think!)
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When well-meaning practitioners believe that data is king:
1. What data do you need?
• What data you need is depends on the context of your process.
2. The better question is defined by successful performance.
• Think ahead to performance measurement & management
• Metrics and Sustainment. Think UDE – DE.
• If we don’t know that or decide not to work on that, then we will chase
the wrong metrics and chase the wrong data.
• CTXs get you to the VOC & VOP.
3. Data illuminates
• Data doesn’t give you the answer or root cause, data illuminates.
• Symptoms, causes, areas of interests –guides you in a direction.
4. Logic (Data) doesn’t change people, you have to want to change themselves
5. Opposing mind thinking (diametric) –Synthesize for results.
Data is Illuminating, Not Everything

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*Freebie – Remember Your Role
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Success depends on the facilitator’s ability to get the team to solve the
problem effectively and efficiently. The Practitioner is a “translator” of sorts.
1. Not all events are the same. People want a recipe on how to do Lean Six
Sigma. You have to “translate” the lean six sigma principles for the event.
• First, “discover.” Have the student think through the context of the
process.
• Doing an event the same way regardless of process type is a recipe for
disaster.
2. Think through the flow of information and materials as the starting point
and work from there.
• Like it or not, no 2 events are exactly alike
• Never be afraid of complex events, work through them and ask for help
– My sensei always sent 2 facilitators to every event.
Don’t Solve Problems in a Vacuum!!

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*More Freebies!!
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1. Take into account the “Diversity Quotient.”
2. Diversity isn’t important, diverse thinking is.
3. Focusing too much on the “ways and means”
• Don’t forget about the “Ends” (Outcomes)
4. AFMS Senior Leader Conference “disruptive thinking” result
• Discovering the 9th type of waste: Bureaucracy
5. Don’t feel like you have to be the hammer, let the team settle it
So much to learn, So little time!