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mentor pool Mentoring

How to Increase Your Mentor Pool

Updated: November 30, 2023

Here at Fast Mirror we get a chance to talk to lots of companies about how they use mentoring or coaching in their organizations. We often explore issues or pain points they are having with their mentoring programs or issues they anticipate they’ll have while developing them. One of the biggest challenges we hear about is that there are more people that want to be mentored than those willing to serve as mentors.

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importance of feedback Career development

The Importance of Feedback – Why You Should Care…

Do you believe in the importance of feedback? Do you value it and think of it as an important component of your career development? If so, you don’t need to read any further  – although this post will validate your perspective. This post is for those of you who do not believe in the importance of feedback. You know who you are! You’re the ones that say things like “I don’t care what other people think”, “I’d rather not know the truth”, or something similar that rationalizes why it’s ok to ignore or deny other people’s opinion of you.

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interview career development Career development

How To Interview Candidates That Will Own Their Career…

Updated: December 1st 2023

If you’ve ever hired an employee, whether you’re a recruiter or a hiring manager, you’ve probably experienced the challenge of finding qualified candidates who are willing to take ownership of their career development. You probably have not thought of the issue in this way, or even realized that you have this problem.

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development planning Experiential learning

Lies and Truth About Development Planning

When it comes to development planning, there’s no shortage of excuses for falling behind and taking shortcuts. Which of the following sound familiar to you?

  • “I just don’t have the money to spend on developing my skills.”
  • “I wish I could do something but my manager is holding me back.”
  • “I just don’t have the time to focus on development planning activities.”
  • “I can’t come up with development goals that are measurable enough.”

Read more “Lies and Truth About Development Planning”

leadership development activities Experiential learning

SMART Goal Examples Part 2: Leadership Development Activities

In my last post, I provided a few examples of SMART goals for developing competencies or “soft skills” (as opposed to technical skills). Samples were written for the common yet vague goals to “be a better communicator” and “improve leadership skills.” If you haven’t already done so, I recommend you read that post first before continuing with this one, because this post is a continuation of that example. This post will focus on leadership development activities as opposed to leadership development goals.

Read more “SMART Goal Examples Part 2: Leadership Development Activities”

SMART goal examples Individual Development Plan

SMART Goal Examples for Competency-Based Development

If you’re reading this blog you’re probably looking for SMART goal examples targeting a competency or “soft skill” for development in your IDP template (or perhaps helping a client to do so.)  When setting development goals, people have little trouble translating the tangible ones into SMART goals. “Increase revenue by X% within six months”….”Reduce customer wait time on the phone by 4 minutes by end of Q3”….and so on.

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performance reviews Feedback

Performance Reviews: Are Adjectives Really Better Than Numerical Ratings?

The redefining of performance reviews and the feedback that goes along with them continue to challenge HR. Companies are continuing to drop or revamp their performance reviews. Some changes are more drastic than others. I recently found this SHRM article describing how some organizations are shifting their performance reviews to be adjective-based as a replacement for the now-doomed numerical rating scale. Surely words are better than numbers! The rationale is that adjectives are more personal than numbers, provide more information, and therefore increase employee motivation.

Read more “Performance Reviews: Are Adjectives Really Better Than Numerical Ratings?”