Last week we talked about the need to lead with questions. You can read that here. Have you ever had one of those conversations that changes everything? How did it go? Were you expecting that? I know the conversations that were most impactful to me were least expected. Hold on, I’ll come back to one of those moments.
I’ve mentored a lot of people in my church over the years. I’ve read and studied, trained to be a better mentor, and had conversations with a lot of people. I’ve had a lot of methods by which I’ve worked with guys I’ve mentored over the years. Having several methods to be able to mentor is like having several tools in my belt that I can pull out at any time. [Tweet That] I used different methods with each person and it worked well at first.
The problem isn’t method but consistency.
This I’ve found true in many places in life. From blogging, to work, to friendship, to family. Method isn’t usually ever the issue. Consistency is. When you’re not consistent, you can almost never expect good results over the long haul. [Tweet That]
I now use the same 4 questions consistently
These questions came at an unexpected time during a seemingly normal conversation. Again, it seems the conversations that are most impactful are always least expected. [Tweet That] I had a conversation with a friend who told me what his board who holds him accountable ask him. It was basically 4 questions:
- Faith
- Family
- Finances
- Fitness
They’re great questions to ask and cover the a good overall section of life. I’ve found that using these questions consistently lends a structure to conversations and helps me to invest for the long-term. There’s definitely a lot more that goes into mentoring people, but this is the basic skeleton for me.