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Mentoring has proven again and again to be an
effective workforce development tool. A 2009 study by Triple Creek
looked at the impact of e-mentoring (specifically “open mentoring”)
on productivity and effectiveness. Eighty-eight percent of open
mentoring users agreed that their productivity increased due
to mentoring, and 97 percent of users who spent at least one hour
per month on mentoring were satisfied with their experience. Participants
rated “expanding my network,” “interpersonal
effectiveness,” and “confidence in role” as the top three areas
in which they improved the most as
a result of mentoring.
Five shifts in mentoring
The practice of mentoring has changed during the
last decade,
expanding into the world of virtual
relationships and multiparticipant
interactions. Those who lead
mentoring programs need to help
reposition the user mindset around what mentoring is, what it can
be, and how it can affect participants.
Today’s definition of mentoring
allows for a richer experience and more utility than mentoring
of the past. Understanding five significant shifts in the practice
of mentoring can help lay the groundwork for creating a new mentoring
mindset.
Mentoring can occur in one-to-one,
group, and situational interactions. Too often people
only think of mentoring as one-to-one encounters where senior
leaders groom their successors through relationships that last
for years. While this is undoubtedly an effective use of mentoring,
it is not the only use.
One-to-one interactions can occur that are not as
intensive or as long lasting as a grooming or succession-planning
relationship. These shorter engagements can form around one person’s
learning needs and another person’s ability to help meet those
needs. The relationship can last several weeks or months and end
when learning needs are fulfilled. Although not a lifelong relationship
focused on career advancement, this type of engagement certainly
achieves each individual’s goals.
In addition to one-to-one interactions, mentoring
can also take place in group and situational engagements. Group
mentoring describes a number of people coming together to learn
about a particular topic—typically one to two leaders or advisors
and several mentees or learners. People join these groups because
they have an immediate need around a specific topic. Participants
practice how to apply their newfound knowledge in a group setting,
receiving feedback from the advisors as well as the other learners.
They can apply their learning from the group events immediately
to their jobs to address their needs.
Topically driven group mentoring proves powerful
in the transition of knowledge to productivity, as seen from research
conducted by Triple Creek. This form of mentoring is a great alternative
to classroom training and provides the option for people to learn
about something without having to feel exposed as they might in
a one-to-one relationship.
Situational engagements are structured to allow learners
to receive quick answers to their immediate needs from one or more
advisors who can help with shorter-term issues. This is the newest
form of mentoring evolving over the past few years. Due to the
emergence and growth of social networking, people are now much
more comfortable with posting an issue online and looking for several
responses from others whom they most likely don’t know and may
never meet in person.
Situational mentoring takes this process and formalizes
the learning by ensuring that there is a competency focus, defined
objectives, and desired outcomes for every situational engagement.
Several people can offer answers at once, and the individual learner
can synthesize this knowledge into a solution that fits her needs.
It is a unique process in that the learning focuses on just one
individual, with several simultaneous advisors offering insight.
The terms “learner” and “advisor”
have a broader reach than “mentee” and “mentor.” For years,
mentor and protégé were the accepted terms to describe who was
involved in a mentoring relationship. Yet, through their very
definitions, these terms only offered a limited view of the participants,
because protégé is often associated with a person who is being
groomed for a specific role by the mentor. To broaden this idea,
the terms mentor and mentee found their way into our lexicon.
While traditionalists balked at mentee as a replacement for protégé,
it fit, because it helped to support the expanded idea of what
one-to-one mentoring relationships could be.
Today, the language is shifting again to adjust for
the growth of group and situational mentoring, as well as to make
room for the notion that people can be in multiple engagements
at one time and fill various roles. Instead of mentees and mentors,
today’s participants are learners and advisors. This distinction
is important, because it helps lay the proper foundation for understanding
the various types of mentoring engagements. By using the term “learner”
to describe anyone who is seeking knowledge, we can help participants
set appropriate
expectations for what they will gain from mentoring.
Conversely, by using “advisor” to describe anyone
who shares his knowledge, we broaden the scope of who can be a
mentor. We remove the barriers that surround the traditional ideas
of mentoring by expanding the concept that everyone has something
they can teach. We all have talents, skills, and knowledge from
which someone else could benefit.
The broader term advisor
allows participants to easily slip into the role of expert. It
also helps set
expectations around what role they will play in the mentoring engagements.
They are not there to advance someone’s career or become her sole
source of advice for years to come; they are simply available for
a
moment in time to offer expert
knowledge on a specific topic.
Lastly, the use of learner and advisor helps open
up people’s views of who can be a mentee or mentor. Too often,
people see a seasoned employee and assume that person is the mentor
in the relationship; yet, that person could be the mentee. In fact,
reverse mentoring is gaining ground in organizations as more senior
employees seek knowledge and skills from newer and younger employees.
Using the terms learner and advisor helps to eradicate the assumption
that a person who has a longer tenure or more organizational power
is the mentee.
Advancement can be a benefit
of mentoring, but it is not its purpose. The sole purpose
of mentoring was once career advancement and promotion, which
explains why mentoring was often seen as merely an activity to
groom the next generation of leaders. The goal of mentoring today
has shifted to focus on helping anyone gain new insights and
abilities.
This is not to say that mentoring can’t assist one
in getting a promotion. Once the learner has closed his skill gap
or incorporated new knowledge into his work, advancement could
very well occur, because he has met his particular learning needs.
To help people create a new mindset around mentoring, it is important
to communicate that advancement is sometimes a benefit of mentoring,
but not necessarily the goal.
Mentoring should be used to
learn across the hierarchy of an organization. Spanning
mentoring engagements across the hierarchy of the organization
can result in many benefits, such as exposure to new points of
view, experience with different methods for accomplishing work,
and interactions across the organization. To make the most of
these opportunities, it’s best to look for mentoring engagements
that are outside one’s organizational level.
Peer-level mentoring is the fastest growing type
of mentoring today. When people engage in peer mentoring, they
may be in different functional areas of the organization, but they
have the same level of authority and responsibility. As a result,
peers can be a great source of social support and encouragement.
They understand and experience the same organizational pressures
and can provide breakthrough insight and advice.
Subordinates can also offer unique advice, particularly
around technical areas and emerging practices. Those in subordinate
roles can be great advisors in reverse mentoring scenarios where
learners are looking for fresh perspectives. They can also help
those with higher levels of authority to understand how decisions
affect people who are lower in the power structure.
Finally, engaging superiors as advisors in a mentoring
relationship can help learners understand the big picture and stretch
their ability to see into the future. People who are higher in
the organization’s hierarchy are typically used to handling more
complex issues and looking into the future by three to five years.
These factors can help people lower in the organizational hierarchy
to prepare for larger responsibilities and gain skills that can
set them apart.
Mentoring does not need to
be time consuming or face-to-face. Many people hear the
word mentoring and picture those grooming relationships that
last for years, when in fact engagements can be quite effective
and worthwhile over the course of merely a few weeks or months.
Helping the workforce understand that mentoring is not going
to be a lifelong commitment to one individual goes a long way
toward building the right mentoring mindset.
The other major shift for mentoring today is the
reality that engagements can take place online. People are employing
mentoring in the same way that they work, which is often virtually.
Face-to-face is great for those who can manage it, but with dispersed
organizations and employee populations, mentoring connections are
taking place more often via email and the Internet. Triple Creek’s
research has shown no significant difference in the quality of
learning or overall satisfaction when people engage virtually versus
in person.
Strategies for educating
the enterprise
Bringing these concepts to the enterprise at-large
to change your organization’s mentoring mindset can seem daunting.
To assist with this initiative, consider these tips:
1. Conduct webinars
or e-briefings that not only promote current mentoring programs,
but also inform people how to get the most out of their informal
mentoring engagements. Help people understand that they are involved
in informal mentoring every day, and encourage them to formalize
their learning so others can benefit from shared knowledge resources.
2. Use various media
(for example, podcasts, webinars, and newsletters) with target
audiences to show how the vision for mentoring can extend beyond
current programs. By using different messaging with targeted audiences,
you can address participants’ unique concerns and use terminology
that will resonate with them.
3. Present brief “commercials”
at other training events to highlight the benefits of discussing
learning with advisors. Methods can include
showing a video in which people share how mentoring has benefitted
them, or asking a single presenter to discuss a few stories that
help bring the practice of mentoring to life.
4. Sponsor road shows
or “lunch and learns” where mentoring participants share their
experiences. Offering a venue for mentoring participants to meet
and mingle can help energize your program and provides another
opportunity for people to network and make learning connections.
5. Organize town hall
meetings where a brief presentation could be followed by a question-and-answer
session about how mentoring has affected participants. Use this
time to communicate to the audience what mentoring is, what it
can be, and how it can benefit participants. Sharing testimonials
can be a powerful way to show the process in action.
These are only a few strategies to consider when
educating your organization about mentoring. However, the possibilities
for communicating with your potential mentoring participants are
endless. Deliver a message that they’ll identify with, to ensure
greater success as you create a new mentoring mindset.
Randy Emelo is president
and CEO of Triple Creek (www.3creek.com). With more than 20 years
of experience in management, training, and leadership development,
Emelo has worked with hundreds of clients to show them how to
blend formal and informal learning into an interactive, relational,
and measurable process with enterprise mentoring; remelo@3creek.com.
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