Five Steps To An Effective Mentoring Program

Editor’s Note: Steve Browne is a good friend of Rehaul and has conducted local HR forums in Cincinnati for several years. One of their most recent forums focused on mentoring programs. What follows is an edited version of the results of that discussion. You can follow Steve on Twitter.

Like many HR initiatives, “Mentoring” became an off-the-shelf program versus what it actually is.  To delve into this the Roundtable tackled the following questions:

1. How to you define “mentoring”?
2. Why don’t people mentor others or get a mentor themselves?
3. What components make mentoring effective?

After some “heated” discussions, this is what they came up with . . .

How do you define “mentoring”?

Mentoring essentially boils down to this:

• The sharing of knowledge that furthers the professional growth and success of both parties. That’s the broad version of it.
• Being the best version of yourself. If people don’t strive to be their best through mentoring, it won’t be effective.
• Expectations defined by the mentee. Without expectations, mentoring can either float or flame out because there isn’t direction.  One caution to this is that if the expectations are so self-serving and slanted, it may not be a good mentoring environment either.
• Coaching. Coaching has value if it addresses behaviors that need to be changed, improved or removed.  It is definitely a method within mentoring if it is healthy in its outcome.
• Mutually beneficial relationship of trust. This may be one of the best utopian ideas ever shared.  It rings true, but is truly difficult because it goes against the base of humans tending to be one-sided and selfish. (We’ll cover this in the next section.)

Why don’t people mentor others or get a mentor themselves?

It is the usual litany of excuses:

• Fear. Fear of failure.  Fear of rejection.  Fear of a loss of productivity.  Fear of being taken advantage of.  Fear of success.
• I don’t have time. HR people who say this should be punished, removed from HR and banned to a profession that has no contact with people!  That may sound harsh, but if people don’t matter, then why are YOU in HR?
• You can get hurt. That’s true however it shouldn’t limit people from moving forward to have mentoring relationships.  Learning from disappointment usually leads to breakthroughs in growth.
• Lack of a mentoring culture in your organization. Mentoring can’t succeed if it’s only good for “others” and not all.
• All the good mentors are taken. Even if this is true, I bet if you approach them, they would help you in some way and possibly introduce you to others who are also good mentors.
• Prior bad experiences. You had a bad mentor, or a mentee was actually disguised as someone who wanted to be mentored.  Hopefully people can move past any bad experiences and stick with mentoring.
• Lack of perceived value. When this happens, you have a sign that “mentoring” is no longer viable and has migrated over to a cliché HR program.
• We don’t like to change! HR people hate hearing this because we feel we are supposed to be the company’s “change agents”, but we have to face the fact that change, at any level, is hard and that people will resist it as much as they can.

What components make mentoring effective?

Given these reservations about a mentoring program, how can you make sure your program doesn’t fall into the same trap? Here are five ways the group decided had to be a part of any effective mentoring program

1. Don’t have false expectations. Mentoring is for professional development.  It may lead to higher positions, but a great expectation is to strive to have sustained personal growth.  That sticks and makes people better contributors.
2. Look for someone externally. Internal mentoring in organizations works, but it tends to be more “how to maneuver and succeed” internally vs. long-term development.  External mentors have fresh eyes, different cultural perspectives, see your blind spots and tend to be more candid because they don’t have to follow “internal norms.”
3. Give trust first. Giving trust is so much more effective vs. someone having to earn trust first.  It does make things more vulnerable and potentially opens you to get hurt.  However, it shows that a mentor is there for the benefit of the relationship and not for personal gain.
4. Set a time frame. Mentoring should have a start, peak and end. Set the expectations, work through them and then move forward.  Healthy mentors usually do keep long-term relationships with mentees, but they also see them turn into mentors themselves!
5. Don’t be a mentor unless you have a mentor. Great mentors are mentored themselves.  People who proclaim themselves as mentors too often are focused on how great they are.  To teach others you must also be willing to be taught.

What do you think? What has been your experience with mentoring programs? Have you ever had to plan one?

Tagged as: development, Leadership, learning, mentor, mentoring, mentorship, personal development, steve browne