Amicitia Maloon-Gibson, an executive coach and co-author of the best-selling book “Stepping Stones to Success,” recommends you begin a mentoring relationship with two documents: a worksheet/questionnaire for your mentee and a set of binding agreements between you and your mentee. The worksheet/questionnaire is intended to help your mentee conduct a rigorous self-assessment of his strengths, weaknesses, short-term goals and long-term goals. The resulting information should help you both identify the focuses of your future coaching sessions, which skills you should help the mentee develop and which obstacles you should help him conquer. For example, suppose the mentee’s worksheet reveals that…

If you become a mentor, you too will benefit will probably be repaid in spades for your efforts. Here’s why: * You will gain satisfaction from contributing to a worthy professional’s success. Take it from someone who has mentored hundreds of professionals — if not thousands, through individual sessions and seminars — it is exhilarating to help hard-working, smart and persistent professionals succeed, and then to rightfully take part in the resulting celebratory high-fives, back slaps and toasts. * As most educators say: The more you teach — and mentor — the more you learn yourself. Any type of teaching, including mentoring, helps…

Aside from the obvious — work hard — here are 10 get-ahead tips: 1. Follow the money, power and controversy. Unfair though it may be, employees who work in front offices with senior executives and political appointees almost always climb the career ladder faster than comparably productive employees who work almost anonymously in back offices. Why? Because front offices usually have the power and funding to promote worthy employees. Pick projects that involve interacting with or working in front offices. 2. Be proactive. Don’t wait to be assigned ho-hum projects. Instead, design and ask to complete projects that would advance…

My Aug. 23 column reviewed some of the formal awards used to reward high-producing feds. Here are some informal, creative and low-cost ways to honor star producers: • Show them that they have earned your trust by loosening the reins and giving them work-at-home and alternative work schedule options. If appropriate, give them more discretion and less day-to-day supervision. • Thank them for their contributions in public forums, such as staff meetings, and explain to attendees what was special about their work. • Invite them to serve in acting positions that would give them more responsibility, broaden their skills and…

Countless blue-ribbon panels, reports and training classes have addressed methods to discipline wayward feds. But much less airtime and ink have been devoted to rewarding prized employees. So, to help even the score, here are descriptions of the most common types of awards you may give to honor your star players. • Grade increase: Most grade increases for General Schedule employees are computed under the “two-step” rule: First, determine the salary two steps higher than the employee’s current step; then, at the next higher grade, find the two steps in the GS range that straddle the employee’s “two-stepped salary”; the…

There’s an adage for public speakers: “Tell your audience what you’re going to say, say it, and then tell them what you said.” A similar principle holds true for change managers. If you plan to steer your staffers into new territory, you should initially tell them about their new destination or goal, repeatedly describe it as they approach it, and then applaud them once they reach it. Some ways to help you do so: * Present a compelling case for your new goal — whether it is changing your office’s procedures, rearranging your office’s division of labor, adapting new technologies or…

Whenever you receive criticism from a boss or colleague, you have a choice: You may respond defensively and make an instant enemy out of someone you will have to interact with for a long time, or you may attempt to take the high road by responding in ways that defuse, rather than aggravate, tensions. Some tips on doing so: • Respond in person. Even if you’re criticized via e-mail, respond in person, if possible. Why? Because e-mail is devoid of body language and tone of voice. In addition, angry e-mails are frequently fired off quickly without due consideration. E-mails tend…

President Obama’s recent executive order on federal hiring instructs managers to “become more involved in the hiring process.” Some suggestions on how managers might do so: End preselection. In competitive service agencies, a manager can’t simply promote a prized employee who has reached the General Schedule ceiling of his job. Instead, he must create a new, higher-level job and then — in the name of fairness — advertise and fill the new job by an open competition designed to select the most qualified applicant, whether or not he turns out to be the favored insider. But sometimes, managers only consider…

Remember that old Allman Brothers’ song “Whipping Post,” which vividly described the whipped feeling that is commonly generated by life’s trials? Sadly, the song reminds me of the emotional pain commonly caused by verbal floggings from managers, colleagues and others. Nevertheless, by using self-control, tact and thought, you can minimize the pain, speed your recovery and even glean some helpful advice from professional criticism. Some tips: • Don’t take criticism personally. No matter how tactlessly or viciously criticism is delivered, it’s really about something you may or may not have done — not about who you are or what you’re…

My May 3 column explained how to give negative feedback and correct otherwise diligent staffers in a humane, respectful way. Some more tips. * Remember your purpose. Your negative feedback should be designed to provide constructive feedback that will help your staffers increase their contributions to your office — not to embarrass or demean or “gotcha” them. * Watch your voice. When you criticize or make suggestions to subordinates, your tone should be as calm, tactful and respectful as when you speak to your superiors. * Don’t pry into personal matters. Don’t relate your staffer’s mistakes to his personal problems…

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