Military Leadership: Team Development

Through Mentoring and Coaching 1

By Will A. Gunn

One of a leaders key tasks is developing the people on his or her team. Some observers suggest that
a leader who fails to groom his or her successor is a failed leader. For example, John C. Maxwell
writes in his 1995 book Developing the Leaders Around You that if you really want to be a
successful leader, you must develop other leaders around you. You must establish a team. Jack
Welsh, former CEO of General Electric (GE), was widely considered a great leader not only
because he increased GEs profits but also because he ran a hugely successful leadership
development program that grew leaders for GE and for many other companies. While developing
leaders is important to corporations, it is critically important to military organizations in which the
possibility always exists that lower-ranking individuals will be forced to step in for their superiors
with little or no warning.
During the course of my military career in the U.S. Air Force, I made it a priority to develop leaders
around me. My motivation came largely from a sense of duty; many individuals had contributed to
my own development by providing me with training opportunities, mentoring, and coaching.
Coaching and mentoring are essential tools in a leaders tool box. As my career progressed and I
began to fill leadership positions, I became a strong proponent of mentoring and coaching. In this
article, I define mentoring and coaching and offer some tips on how leaders can leverage these
concepts to develop their people and enhance the effectiveness of their teams.
Mentoring
The term mentor is often traced back to Homers Odyssey, in which King Odysseus appoints
Mentor, a wise teacher, to care for and instruct his young son, Telemachus. King Odysseus was
gone for more than 20 years, so Telemachus grew up under the care and guidance of Mentor. In
contrast to the extended relationship experienced by Mentor and Telemachus, modern-day judge
advocate (JAG) leaders find themselves in environments characterized by change and short time
frames. Whether its a deployment lasting a few days, weeks, or months or a permanent
assignment lasting two or three years, JAG leaders must be prepared to make their time count when
it comes to developing members of their teams.
Mentoring is near and dear to my heart. Ive been a mentor and have benefited from mentoring
throughout my life. My earliest mentor was my father, who provided me with helpful hints and
made sure I stayed on track. On those occasions when I veered from the approved course, he
provided gentleand at times, not-so-gentleencouragement to get back in line. Mentoring, like
all leadership, is about relationships. More specifically, its about a reciprocal relationshipone of
giving and receiving. We dont always have control over the mentoring we receive, but we exercise
a great deal of control over the mentoring we give.
In his 2010 book The Mentor Leader, former NFL coach Tony Dungy wrote that mentor leaders
look beyond themselves, focusing on the people they lead and where they should be going
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http://www.americanbar.org/publications/gp_solo/2016/septemberoctober/military_leadership_team_development_through_mentoring_and_coaching.html, accesat in 21 NOV 2016.

together. With that in mind, I offer seven tips for being an effective mentor leader and building
high-quality mentor-mentee relationships:
1. Be accessible and available. A mentee needs to be able to contact his or her mentor when
problems and issues arise in order to get questions answered and to receive guidance. This
does not mean that a mentor has to be available on a 24/7 basis, nor does it mean that
effective mentors have to coddle their mentees. For example, when Ive been approached by
mentees who might have a question about a matter, I like to know that the mentee has first
attempted to research the matter independently. In my opinion, requiring this type of effort
helps develop the mentee and avoids wasting the mentors time.
2. Be prepared to take the initiative in mentoring relationships. This will not always be
necessary, but I have found that sometimes simply checking in on a mentee can be
invaluable. This is especially the case early in a mentoring relationship when a foundation of
trust hasnt been established. This leads to the third tip for effective mentors.
3. Build trust. Perhaps the most effective thing mentor leaders can do to build trust is to let
their mentees know that they are not operating in a zero-defect environment. In other words,
mentors must let their mentees know that good-faith mistakes are part of the learning
process and contribute to leadership development. Mistakes are expected and tolerated. Ive
found it helpful to let mentees know about some of the mistakes Ive made in the past and to
be open about mistakes I continue to make.
4. Invest most heavily in teachable mentees. Mentoring can be time consuming and requires
an investment from mentor leaders. The time taken for mentoring could be spent achieving
short-term results. For this reason, mentors must invest most heavily in teachable mentees.
Several years ago while watching television, I heard an evangelist named Mike Murdock say
that the person who is easiest to correct is easiest to correct. His comment immediately
resonated with me because Ive seen the benefits of working with people who eagerly
receive feedback and criticism in a positive manner. Military leaders rarely get an
opportunity to choose all the members of their team. As a result, they are likely to have team
members with varying abilities and temperaments. Some mentees may relish the opportunity
to be mentored while others might choose to opt out.
Author John C. Maxwell encourages leaders to abandon the notion of treating everyone the
same. Leaders should strive to treat everyone fairly, but as Maxwell suggests in Developing
the Leaders Around You, the notion that everyone must receive the same treatment is not
only unrealistic but destructive. While leaders have an obligation to develop all team
members, it is wise to invest most heavily in team members who demonstrate an interest and
willingness to learn and develop.
5. Take time to share and document lessons learned. While mentoring is often done on a
one-on-one basis, this is not always necessary. For example, one development tool is to give
mentees opportunities to reflect on what they have learned through after-action reviews.
During these review sessions, group members can share the lessons they have learned with
other group members, and mentors can share their own experiences in order to assist team
members.
In order to preserve the memory of lessons learned, it helps for mentors to engage in activities
such as journaling and writing after-action reports. As a young JAG officer, I benefited
tremendously from feedback sessions conducted by presiding military judges shortly after

courts martial concluded. During these sessions, I was able to get direct feedback from a more
seasoned lawyer who had observed and presided over the entire trial.
6. Be transparent. By this, Im suggesting that whenever possible, mentors should share with
members of their team why they have made various decisions and the thought process they
went through in making decisions. Transparent leaders take advantage of the fact that
mentoring opportunities often appear without notice. While serving as general counsel for
the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), I had the good fortune to serve as legal
advisor to VA Secretary Eric K. Shinseki. Secretary Shinseki had retired as a four-star
general and had served as U.S. Army chief of staff. One of his greatest attributes was that he
was a transparent leader who often shared with staff members why he had made various
decisions. Because of his commitment to transparency, I often left staff meetings feeling as
though I had just gone through a personal mentoring session.
7. Diversify your mentoring. Because leaders tend to be busy, mentor leaders may be tempted
to spend time mentoring the stars on their staff or those who are most outgoing or those with
whom they are most comfortable. However, I encourage mentor leaders to take the risk of
mentoring the person who isnt an obvious superstar or who doesnt remind the leader of
him- or herself. Diversity enriches teams, but diversity efforts can be snuffed out when
leaders fail to make efforts to relate to team members who are of a different race, ethnicity,
or gender or those who simply have a different style. Research conducted by Jeri-Elayne
Goosby Smith and Josie Bell Lindsay suggests that employees who receive mentoring feel
more included in their organizations (Beyond Inclusion: Worklife Interconnectedness,
Energy, and Resilience in Organizations, 2014). Although many organizations, including the
military services, invest in attracting diverse talent, such investment is negated when
employees leave the organization or dont reach their full potential because they were never
made to feel included.
Coaching
Like mentoring, coaching is a relationship-based activity that can be used to develop people and
teams. In his book Christian Coaching: Helping Others Turn Potential into Reality (second edition,
2009), Gary R. Collins describes coaching as the art and practice of guiding a person or group
from where they are toward the greater competence and fulfillment that they desire. Similarly, in
his 2005 book Leadership Coaching: The Disciplines, Skills, and Heart of a Christian Coach
(2005), Tony Stoltzfus defines leadership coaching as the discipline of using relational influence to
develop and empower individuals. In mentoring, the mentor is a more senior individual who
imparts wisdom. In coaching, however, the focus is more on the person being coached, and
typically the coach asks questions and listens in order to help individuals achieve their goals and
objectives. In Stoltzfuss words, coaching is about helping people learn instead of teaching them.
Coaching can be conducted by people external to the organization or by leaders within an
organization. I benefited from mentoring during the early stages of my military career, but as I got
more and more senior, most of my development as a leader came in the form of informal coaching.
For example, I typically had one or two trusted colleagues with whom I could discuss challenges
that I was facing. My colleagues would listen and ask questions as I talked my way through
situations I was confronting. While I didnt think of it at the time, these colleagues were essentially
serving as coaches for me. It wasnt necessary for my informal coaches to be experts in my area of
the law or in the internal dynamics of my office. They provided what was needed: a listening ear.

Collins suggests that one reason coaching works is that in coaching, the coach assumes that the
client is the expert. Because the clients are the experts, the coachs main role is to help clients to
discover their own solutions. In his article Coaching Conversations: Seven Essential Behaviors
(Leadership Excellence Essentials, June 2015, 32:6, tinyurl.com/orv9hzw), leadership coach Alan
Fine details seven specific behaviors for coaches. First, Fine suggests that coaches need to believe
in the greatness of the person theyre coaching. He points to research showing that what we
believe about the people we coach is a key driver of their performance.
Second, coaches should serve as a human mirror for those they are coaching by providing
objectivity to help them more accurately observe their own thinking and behavior. Fine suggests
that a coach can do this by providing feedback to the person being coached on how the coach
perceives the persons actions.
The third essential behavior Fine identifies is for the coach to create a context of possibility. He
suggests that great coaches offer possibilities that the person being coached may otherwise be
unable to see.
Fourth, great coaches help by being clear about responsibilities and not giving the people they
coach the answers to their problems. Instead, coaches help them in a way that allows them to be
able to do it for themselves in the future.
Fines fifth essential behavior is for coaches to create a safe environment. One of the primary
ways a coach can do this is by not being judgmental about those they are coaching. However,
creating a safe environment can be challenging when the coach is also a supervisor responsible for
writing a performance report on the person they are coaching.
Fines sixth essential behavior is for coaches to help bring focus. In other words, the coach can help
those being coached to establish and clarify their priorities.
Seventh, Fine suggests that coaches need to be comfortable with the uncertainty that goes with not
knowing where the path of a coaching conversation might lead and what the discussion might
reveal. Being comfortable with uncertainty is important because coaches are seeking to place those
they are coaching in a place where they can solve problems for themselves.
Mentoring and Coaching as Force Multipliers
Colin Powell, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and secretary of state, wrote in My
American Journey (1995) that perpetual optimism is a force multiplier. I believe that mentoring
and coaching are also force multipliers. By investing in people, military leaders and leaders
everywhere can establish a legacy of excellence for their people and enhance the effectiveness of
their teams.