{"id":811,"date":"2008-01-08T01:00:30","date_gmt":"2008-01-08T09:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/?p=811"},"modified":"2008-01-08T01:01:43","modified_gmt":"2008-01-08T09:01:43","slug":"failing-your-employees-through-mentoring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/?p=811","title":{"rendered":"Failing your Employees Through Mentoring"},"content":{"rendered":"

Harvard Business Review\u2019s article \u201cThe Set-Up-to-Fail Syndrome\u201d places the blame on failed mentorships squarely in the hands of the mentor, not the mentee.<\/p>\n

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  1. You start with a positive relationship.<\/li>\n
  2. Something\u2014a missed deadline, a lost client\u2014makes you question the employee\u2019s performance. You begin micromanaging him.<\/li>\n
  3. Suspecting your reduced confidence, the employee starts doubting himself. He stops giving his best, responds mechanically to your controls, and avoids decisions.<\/li>\n
  4. You view his new behavior as additional proof of mediocrity\u2014and tighten the screws further. ((Manzoni, Jean-Francois and Barsoux, Jean-Louis. March-April, 1998. \u201cThe Set-Up-To-Fail Syndrome.\u201d Harvard Business Reivew.))<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    This is not an outlandish scenario, and in fact, it\u2019s a common leadership problem. As we know, leaders can be the inspiration or the downfall of an organization, group of employees or individual producer. In this case, high potential employees can be displaced from an organization simply by mismanaging simple interactions. There are however, some pretty serious costs assicoated with the demoralization of HiPo\u2019s.<\/p>\n