Navy Cmdr. Tim Weber, mentoring team chief for the Afghanistan National Police Surgeon General
Navy Cmdr. Tim Weber, MSC, is mentoring team chief for the Afghanistan National Police Surgeon General (ANP SG) and his staff as part of the NATO Training Mission – Afghanistan (NTM-A). The team is in their eighth month of a one-year deployment. The mentoring team concentrates on coaching the ANP medical leadership in implementing Afghan-wide systems to improve care for over 105,000 police officers. Up-to-date information on the NTM-A mission can be found at http://ntm-a.com.
As my eighth month of mentoring begins in Kabul and R&R on the very near horizon, I’ve spent considerable time reflecting on my mission in Kabul. You should know that any mentoring mission in Afghanistan is a worthy one that can bring great personal and professional satisfaction, particularly when you are fortunate to be teamed up with Afghan leaders who are motivated to improve.
Nonetheless, questions still persist in reflection. How do you define progress? Whose timetable are we on? Are my expectations of success the right expectations? Until recently I don’t think I could have given good answers to these questions.
However, they are more easily answered with the lessons I’ve learned:
- Afghanistan is not a Western country. Sounds silly but it is important to realize this when mentoring. Mentors need to adapt to Afghanistan; not the other way around. It’s taken me several months to fully appreciate that even the most educated Afghans, such as ANP medical staff, are not driven by Western, 21st century thought and technology that we are so used to. My guess is that management, strategic planning and business acumen is circa 1950’s, Soviet-influenced at best. This has a significant impact on expectation management and must be the starting point.
- Afghanistan is a land of proud warriors and survivors. Good or bad, Afghanistan has seen many “mentors” in the past. There isn’t much they haven’t been through and while they are often willing to accept our “good ideas” it is more important for Afghans to come up with their own ideas. Sustainability of the idea depends on it. It is important to accept this fact.
- Afghans own Afghanistan. My first lesson on this particular topic was when another team of mentors asked me for several thousand first-aid kits for Afghan troops out of the ANP SG’s warehouse. I said, “No problem,” this was a good proposition for everyone. The problem was that requesting mentors, and I didn’t follow the Afghan logistic system, so I was having difficulty getting the kits released for delivery. I admitted defeat and had to call the ANP SG to direct his warehouse supervisor to release the kits. The ANP SG did and then nicely asked for an apology from me. After my apology he explained that the warehouse is under his control, not mine (true); that his department’s inspector general will ping him, not me, for not following the right procedures (true); and that if I asked 10 days ago he would have released them and worried about the paperwork later because he “will always provide assistance to police and worry about the bureaucracy later.” Lesson learned.
Executive medical staff discussing hospital expansion.
Understanding the above points is central to successful mentoring. So are having clear, Afghan/mentor agreed upon objectives which provide an endpoint.
I believe mentors must, paradoxically, understand that mentoring success means spending less time with the Afghan leader. If the goal is for the Afghans to learn then we must be willing to allow failure. (Isn’t this how we learn? Why should it be different?). Unfortunately, this takes time which is something this mission doesn’t have a lot of.
What does successful mentoring look like? It’s providing coaching services that allows for Afghans to lead Afghans. I believe one of the best pictures of successful mentoring is included in this blog. The picture above shows ANP hospital medical staff, mentored by our team medical director, having early discussions on where to put departments in a new hospital expansion. This scene could be found in any hospital, anywhere in the world. Of particular note … there are no mentors in this picture.
