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HELP technique in mentoring
H – what Happend (What happened?)
E – Emotions (What emotions accompanied it?)
L – Learning (What is the lesson learned?)
P – Plan (What is the plan of action?)
This is a questioning technique that will work in a work situation with a person who is distracted, has difficulty determining the essence of the problem, and is unsure of what to do in a given situation.
HELP Technique
HELP is an acronym for:
- H – What Happened?
- E – Emotions
- L – Learning
- P – Plan
When to use:
- When the Mentee is not sure what the problem is.
- When the Mentee doesn't know what they really want to talk about.
- When the Mentee doesn't know what to do in a given situation.
Props:
- Not required
Instructions:
Start with Exploration ("H")
What happened? This stage is intended to gather and examine facts. Take your time in this phase; insight and time spent here can help the Mentee reveal facts they didn't want to talk about or were unaware of. Create a space for the Mentee where they can share everything freely without fear of judgment.
The following questions will be helpful:
- Tell me what happened?
- What happened?
- What happened first?
- What happened next?
- What happened next?
- What did you do in this situation?
- What effect did it have?
- Why do you think you acted that way?
- Who was involved?
- Who else?
- What did they do?
- What effect did it have on you/them?
- Why do you think they acted that way?
- Why do you think this happened?
Look at the emotions ("E")
This can be difficult because it's much easier to talk about facts than about the emotions it evoked. However, emotions are crucial in the learning and development process, so try to encourage the mentee to look at the emotional layer surrounding a given situation.
The following questions will be helpful:
- How did you feel at that moment?
- How did you feel before it happened?
- How did you feel after it happened?
- How did you know that this was the feeling (sadness, regret, joy, anger, excitement, disgust, rage, fear, anxiety, resentment, disappointment, etc.)?
- Why do you think you felt that way?
- How did they feel?
- Why do you think they felt that way?
- What would you like to feel in that moment?
What lessons can be learned from what happened ("L")?
The third step is to talk about "L," meaning what lessons can be learned from what happened? What did the Mentee learn?
The following questions will be helpful here:
- What did you learn about yourself?
- What lesson can you learn from this?
- What did this situation teach you?
- What did you learn about others in this situation?
- What conclusions can you draw now?
- Would you do the same next time?
- Would you change anything?
- What would you change?
- Do you see this situation differently now? How?
- Does this situation remind you of any other situation you've been involved in?
- Do you see a pattern here? What is it?
Next Steps ("P")
In the final step, encourage the Mentee to take the next steps. "P" - or action plan - is intended to encourage the Mentee to take appropriate action in a given situation.
The following questions will be helpful here:
- What do you plan to do in this situation?
- What actions can you take?
- What actions do you want to take?
- What solutions do you see?
- How determined are you to take this action on a scale of 0 to 10?
- What do you need to do this?
Finally, you can ask your Mentee to share key observations and reflections from this meeting.
Own work based on: "Coaching and Mentoring: Practical Techniques for Developing Learning and Performance" Eric Parsloe, Leedham Melville, Newell Diane
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