According to a study conducted by coaching and training company Bravely, 70% of employees avoid difficult conversations with their boss, colleagues or direct reports. Unfortunately, achieving positive outcomes often requires awkward interactions in the workplace, including those in the form of a promotion or raise.
A recent study by UK-based Reed Recruitment found that more than half of employees surveyed are hesitant to broach the topic of career progression, with 16% admitting they simply don’t know what to say. What if someone could help them find the words? AND prepare them for every possible response?
A GenAI-powered coach from the Mentora Institute, the global institute dedicated to developing exemplary leaders and accelerating performance, does just that.
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The newly launched Mentora LiFT is designed to accelerate progress in performance at work with personalized, actionable coaching with “the innovative lead-in-flow method,” shared Dr. Hitendra Wadhwa, founder of Mentora and professor at Columbia Business School Harvard Business Review.
The tool became available to businesses on April 2, and individuals will be able to access LiFT in waves with priority given to those on the waitlist and those who sign up today and throughout the week. Its three-tier pricing tier includes an individual version for $45 per month, a professional version for $195 per month, and an annual subscription for $1,995.
How do you raise the possibility of a promotion or raise when the path to career advancement is unclear?
In January I had the opportunity to attend Wadhwa’s business course at Columbia and see the technology in action. Wadhwa, also author of the book Inner Mastery, Outer Impact: How Your Five Core Energies Are the Key to Success, teaches the university’s most popular course on leadership and success. Wadhwa asked for class participation to show what Mentora LiFT can do: Has anyone had a difficult situation at work that they would be willing to share and address with the tool?
The selected student revealed a common problem: How do you talk about the possibility of a promotion or raise when the path to career advancement is unclear? In this student’s case, however, an industry-specific constraint added some complexity. As a professional working in academic medicine, he said the hierarchical structure and established trajectory of those working within it meant that those who chose to stay could expect a slow climb to the top, which would ultimately depend on the departure of their superior – by choice. or otherwise.
What if the only way to get a promotion is for your boss to… die? Naturally, his question got a few laughs, as did his admission that he had offered his boss cheeseburgers to speed up the process, but the general premise – how to start a difficult conversation in the workplace – was exactly what Mentora LiFT had needed to do its job.
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The Mentora LiFT has added possibilities – and lots of them – to an otherwise dull situation.
The student prepared for a meeting with his boss that could change the trajectory of his career and, by entering his specific goals, received recommendations for concrete actions and a personalized plan complete with intention setting, action review and practices centering and visualization – and all in just 10-15 minutes. The tool also offers a simulated role-playing option for those important real-world conversations.
The student still had a significant challenge ahead of him in changing the status quo, but Mentora LiFT added possibilities – and lots of them – to an otherwise overwhelming situation. And that’s exactly what it was built for.
In early tests of LiFT by executives at major organizations like Google, IBM, Amazon, Citibank, Mastercard and others, executives mostly or completely achieved their performance goals 80% of the time with the tool, which also provided an immediate average increase of 20% in achieving performance goals, increasing to 135% over time after 10 uses.
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“After fifteen years of scientific research and field testing, we have devised a simple yet profound methodology that emphasizes that true leadership and performance begin with activating the right energy – the right thoughts, emotions and intentions,” Wadhwa said in a statement announcing MentoreLiFT.