Mentoring is now a given in most workplaces. It provides a road map for guidance and support. It helps having someone there who can ask the hard questions, and get you thinking of different ways of approaching a problem.
Mentoring is particularly critical in the IT industry and reseller business with the industry facing an acute skills shortage. Studies show mentors and mentees have higher job satisfaction and are better equipped to perform their jobs. Ultimately, that contributes to the bottom line.
A mentoring culture allows for a mentor, usually a senior-level person in the company, to provide career guidance and advice to a mentee, an employee with less experience but who has potential to go far.
This philosophy enriches the workplace by facilitating peer learning and interdepartmental relationships that can help with a mentee’s career development.
How does mentoring improve retention? Consider the factors that contribute to low retention rates. They include low self-esteem, a lack of people to turn to for support, and discouragement from pursuing one’s chosen career.
Mentoring addresses that by providing access to a support system and help with career planning. It provides support and guidance in overcoming hurdles. Also, some companies offer online mentoring that’s immediate and accessible.
In this economic climate, it’s particularly important for people to hear from someone who has seen slowdowns and recessions. It’s critical this time around, with many people in their 30s having never experienced tough times.
Mentoring has become even more important now with the hollowing out of middle management. In many companies younger staff are being promoted with relatively little experience or background and without spending much time working for somebody who was a role model. Should mentoring be formal or informal? How many mentors does a person need? Mentoring is no science. There are as many different answers to these questions as there are mentoring practitioners.
Experts say the person should also be someone who can be trusted and who has runs on the board from their time in the business world. What makes a mentor? Obviously being a good listener is an important attribute.
But specialists say the real skill lies in picking up what is being said between the lines. They pick up the whole of the communication and that includes body language, tone of voice and gestures. They know how to detect hints of self-doubt that a younger staff member would not normally discuss with a manager.
They also know how to ask hard questions that help the person being mentored understand their strengths and weaknesses. How many hours do you think you’ll need to work? Can you hack the initial 24/7 pace? How will you balance that with your family life?
Mentors are also facilitators, they’re not managers. Mentoring is a partnership between the mentor and mentee, it’s not your employment relationship between a manager and employee. It might be difficult for mentors to step back and not take control of a situation. What they have to remember is that if they were acting as managers they could solve the mentee’s problem – and that defeats the purpose of mentoring which is really designed to empower employees.
Instead, they need to share ideas, provide resources and offer wise advice when appropriate. That’s quite different from solving the mentee’s problems. It’s also important to understand things from the mentee’s perspective. You don’t have to agree with their perspective but the mentee needs to feel you are there and have genuine concern for them.
One of the big mistakes mentors make is trying to get the mentee to be like them. Another mistake is making the mentee dependent upon their mentor – thus weakening their confidence and creating confusion.
There are different types of mentoring programs. Some companies have group mentoring systems. Others use peer mentoring. They might bring in an expert for facilitated mentoring. Or they might have lower-level employees teach higher-level employees in reverse mentoring. Some even use a speed-dating format for “flash mentoring”.
Certainly, the most common type of mentoring program is one-to-one pairs. As a result, the most common conundrum is how to pair mentees and mentors. Some companies have mentors and mentees fill out an information sheet about what they hope to offer or obtain from a mentoring relationship. Some have systems for making mentoring matches that includes a questionnaire or phone interview. Alternatively, they can use a committee recommendation for each mentor and mentee.
Another way may be to offer the mentor or mentee options for a partner. Doing that would allow them to choose the one they think is best suited.It is also important to evaluate the progress of the program. Ask mentors and mentees how their experiences went. Managers can look at productivity and measurable improvement in the areas the program was targeting.
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