EXECUTIVE MENTORING
WHAT IS MENTORING?
Mentoring is relationship oriented. It seeks to provide a safe environment where the mentoree shares whatever issues affect his or her professional and personal success. Although specific learning goals or competencies may be used as a basis for creating the relationship, its focus goes beyond these areas to include things, such as work/life balance, self-confidence, self-perception, and how the personal influences the professional.
Mentoring is always long term. Mentoring, to be successful, requires time in which both partners can learn about one another and build a climate of trust that creates an environment in which the mentoree can feel secure in sharing the real issues that impact his or her success. Successful mentoring relationships last 9 months to a year.
Mentoring is development driven. Its purpose is to develop the individual not only for the current job, but also for the future. This distinction differentiates the role of the immediate manager and that of the mentor. It also reduces the possibility of creating conflict between the employee's manager and the mentor.
Mentoring requires a design phase in order to determine the strategic purpose for mentoring, the focus areas of the relationship, the specific mentoring models, and the specific components that will guide the relationship, especially the matching process.
In mentoring, the immediate manager is indirectly involved. Although she or he may offer suggestions to the employee on how to best use the mentoring experience or may provide a recommendation to the matching committee on what would constitute a good match, the manager has no link to the mentor and they do not communicate at all during the mentoring relationship. This helps maintain the mentoring relationship's integrity.
WHEN TO CONSIDER MENTORING?
1. When a company is seeking to develop its leaders or talent pool as part of succession planning.
2. When a company seeks to develop its diverse employees to remove barriers that hinder their
success.
3. When a company seeks to more completely develop its employees in ways that are additional to
the acquisition of specific skills/competencies.
4. When a company seeks to retain its internal expertise and experience residing in its baby boomer
employees for future generations.
5. When a company wants to create a workforce that balances the professional and the personal.
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF MENTORING?
Benefit #1 Attracting Talent
Getting talented people is becoming more difficult. Prospective employees conduct more sophisticated job searches and are likely to ask more critical questions to assess what they will gain both short-term and long-term in working for your company. Mentoring has a powerful attraction for prospective employees. In career development surveys, mentoring continues to be cited as an important strategy and can be a significant differentiator between you and your competitors.
Benefit #2 Developing and Retaining Top Talent
When you invest in a corporate mentoring program, you demonstrate to new and junior employees the company’s investment in their future with the organization. Retention affects the bottom line not only by reducing costs, but also by building an effective workforce. Companies often invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in recruiting talent but then stop there and miss the opportunity to get the best return on their hiring investment. Mentoring is one of the most effective strategies as a standalone program or as part of an existing workforce development program.
Benefit #3 Management Development
Where does a new manager go to gain from the experience and wisdom of a more seasoned manager and balance that formal book knowledge with experiential knowledge? Yes, new managers can always turn to their supervisors, but there is an inherent hesitation to do this because the new manager doesn’t want to appear “incompetent” or “weak.” Mentoring is a strategic initiative that pairs less seasoned managers with those who can provide not only the experiential wisdom they have, but also a supportive environment whereby the less seasoned manager can share the real issues impacting success.
Benefit #4 Managing Diversity in the Workplace
There is a strong business case for workforce diversity and diversity initiatives, such as cross-cultural mentoring programs. Today’s workforce is evolving, and the best companies are responding to it by offering and fostering diversity initiatives to expand understanding and encourage collaboration across different demographics. That’s good news, but there’s still a big problem – most diversity initiatives don’t go far enough. And companies that offer insufficient programs are wasting time and money. Mentoring has proven to be a highly effective technique to reduce the barriers to equal opportunity.
Benefit #5 Succession Planning
Mentoring is an ideal strategy for enriching your succession planning program. In succession planning, you're targeting individual talent to take on increasingly more responsible positions and eventually assume a major position within your organization. This requires solid experience and solid advice from seasoned employees. Adding mentoring as a method of pairing such individuals with your talent pool ensures that the right expertise will complement your succession planning goals.
HOW IT WORKS?
Mentoring is based on a relationship between the mentor and mentee. Through this relationship, the mentor and mentee can benefit from a range of personal and professional development opportunities.
Your mentor will:
1. Offer an outside perspective on both you and your business.
2. Listen, confidentially, to the things that are worrying you about your business.
3. Help you by sharing their own experience of both failure and success.
4. Give friendly, unbiased support.
5. Provide honest and constructive feedback.
6. Be a sounding board for ideas.
7. Help you with your decision making by suggesting alternatives based on personal experience.
8. Provide contacts and networks to further your personal and business development.
9. Provide ongoing support and encouragement.
WHAT IS MENTORING?
Mentoring is relationship oriented. It seeks to provide a safe environment where the mentoree shares whatever issues affect his or her professional and personal success. Although specific learning goals or competencies may be used as a basis for creating the relationship, its focus goes beyond these areas to include things, such as work/life balance, self-confidence, self-perception, and how the personal influences the professional.
Mentoring is always long term. Mentoring, to be successful, requires time in which both partners can learn about one another and build a climate of trust that creates an environment in which the mentoree can feel secure in sharing the real issues that impact his or her success. Successful mentoring relationships last 9 months to a year.
Mentoring is development driven. Its purpose is to develop the individual not only for the current job, but also for the future. This distinction differentiates the role of the immediate manager and that of the mentor. It also reduces the possibility of creating conflict between the employee's manager and the mentor.
Mentoring requires a design phase in order to determine the strategic purpose for mentoring, the focus areas of the relationship, the specific mentoring models, and the specific components that will guide the relationship, especially the matching process.
In mentoring, the immediate manager is indirectly involved. Although she or he may offer suggestions to the employee on how to best use the mentoring experience or may provide a recommendation to the matching committee on what would constitute a good match, the manager has no link to the mentor and they do not communicate at all during the mentoring relationship. This helps maintain the mentoring relationship's integrity.
WHEN TO CONSIDER MENTORING?
1. When a company is seeking to develop its leaders or talent pool as part of succession planning.
2. When a company seeks to develop its diverse employees to remove barriers that hinder their
success.
3. When a company seeks to more completely develop its employees in ways that are additional to
the acquisition of specific skills/competencies.
4. When a company seeks to retain its internal expertise and experience residing in its baby boomer
employees for future generations.
5. When a company wants to create a workforce that balances the professional and the personal.
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF MENTORING?
Benefit #1 Attracting Talent
Getting talented people is becoming more difficult. Prospective employees conduct more sophisticated job searches and are likely to ask more critical questions to assess what they will gain both short-term and long-term in working for your company. Mentoring has a powerful attraction for prospective employees. In career development surveys, mentoring continues to be cited as an important strategy and can be a significant differentiator between you and your competitors.
Benefit #2 Developing and Retaining Top Talent
When you invest in a corporate mentoring program, you demonstrate to new and junior employees the company’s investment in their future with the organization. Retention affects the bottom line not only by reducing costs, but also by building an effective workforce. Companies often invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in recruiting talent but then stop there and miss the opportunity to get the best return on their hiring investment. Mentoring is one of the most effective strategies as a standalone program or as part of an existing workforce development program.
Benefit #3 Management Development
Where does a new manager go to gain from the experience and wisdom of a more seasoned manager and balance that formal book knowledge with experiential knowledge? Yes, new managers can always turn to their supervisors, but there is an inherent hesitation to do this because the new manager doesn’t want to appear “incompetent” or “weak.” Mentoring is a strategic initiative that pairs less seasoned managers with those who can provide not only the experiential wisdom they have, but also a supportive environment whereby the less seasoned manager can share the real issues impacting success.
Benefit #4 Managing Diversity in the Workplace
There is a strong business case for workforce diversity and diversity initiatives, such as cross-cultural mentoring programs. Today’s workforce is evolving, and the best companies are responding to it by offering and fostering diversity initiatives to expand understanding and encourage collaboration across different demographics. That’s good news, but there’s still a big problem – most diversity initiatives don’t go far enough. And companies that offer insufficient programs are wasting time and money. Mentoring has proven to be a highly effective technique to reduce the barriers to equal opportunity.
Benefit #5 Succession Planning
Mentoring is an ideal strategy for enriching your succession planning program. In succession planning, you're targeting individual talent to take on increasingly more responsible positions and eventually assume a major position within your organization. This requires solid experience and solid advice from seasoned employees. Adding mentoring as a method of pairing such individuals with your talent pool ensures that the right expertise will complement your succession planning goals.
HOW IT WORKS?
Mentoring is based on a relationship between the mentor and mentee. Through this relationship, the mentor and mentee can benefit from a range of personal and professional development opportunities.
Your mentor will:
1. Offer an outside perspective on both you and your business.
2. Listen, confidentially, to the things that are worrying you about your business.
3. Help you by sharing their own experience of both failure and success.
4. Give friendly, unbiased support.
5. Provide honest and constructive feedback.
6. Be a sounding board for ideas.
7. Help you with your decision making by suggesting alternatives based on personal experience.
8. Provide contacts and networks to further your personal and business development.
9. Provide ongoing support and encouragement.