Mentoring - Taking Notes

Coaching and Mentoring both depend on a reflective style of guiding people, hence many breakthroughs and solutions are achieved during the process of discussions and interactions. It has been reported by coaches that while the sessions might have gone wonderfully well, participants often say that they don’t find the same drive when they sit down to work at their homes or offices.

That’s because many of them don’t take notes of their achievements in the coaching rooms. This is the reason behind many coaches and mentors asking their mentees to carry a workbook that will keep a track of their progress and all the improvement-oriented inputs that were shared with them.

The following tips will help the mentees to take quick notes while their coaching sessions are on, so that they can reflect back on what the coach had told them and how he had motivated them during the session so that they can have the same drive at a different time and space.

• Jot Pointers − Don’t attempt to write everything. Our rate of speech is about five times our rate of writing. Only jot down pointers.

• Use Shorthand − Represent common words with symbols (‘&’ for ‘and’)

• Reduce words to short-forms − (‘Approp’. for ‘appropriate’)

• Use code − avoid writing words like “therefore”, “nevertheless”, etc.

• Use "formula" for calculative statements − “4X>= than him”, instead of “four times bigger than him”.

• Jot Main Ideas − Write only those statements that identify main concepts.

• Recognize and repeat − Jot only relevant things and repeat them.

• Write down Questions − In case of any confusion, write questions on these areas.

• Review Notes after Class − Check the details and corroborate with others.