Mentoring Gaining in Popularity and Complexity
by Susan Cohen
Did you read Homer's Odyssey when you were school? My son just
did, and he told me how Mentor, Odysseus' beloved friend, was
entrusted with educating and training Telemachus. "That's
what you're always talking about, Mom," he said, "Mentor."
Derived from this ancient Greek tale, the word mentor became
synonymous with an older person who is the wise and trusted advisor,
coach and guide to a younger person.
In the American corporate world the term has been applied to
any well-placed executive who grooms a younger person for a particular
career success, usually in upper management. The roles of sponsor
and protector have become primary in mentoring, too.
Many corporations have added planned mentoring programs to this
spontaneous activity. These corporations have assigned the tasks
of advising, coaching and guiding to selected supervisory and
management personnel. And have assigned the role of protégés to
selected junior personnel. Planned mentoring acknowledges that
employees benefit from guidance, and that most employees have
much to offer more junior employees.
As companies have extended themselves toward retaining good
employees, some have added the role of career coach to all supervisory
and management job definitions. A career coach acts in a limited
mentoring role by offering each employee advice and coaching
on:
- Job related skills
- Career advancement skills
- Integration of life and career
- The company "ropes" in any area necessary.
The roles of sponsor and protector which are integral to "spontaneous
mentoring" are inappropriate to a career coach, who is responsible
for offering guidance to all direct employees. Sponsorship and
protection are also excluded from planned mentoring program that
focus on coaching, guidance and resources.
Knowledge management, especially in high-technology companies,
has also been incorporated into the mentoring role. Mentoring
provides a means through which technical expertise can be transferred
from experienced, high-performing individuals to less experienced
personnel. In this context the mentoring pair chooses to focus
on technical skills and knowledge transfer rather than upward
mobility. This sharing of knowledge and broadening of expertise
has provided a high level of employee satisfaction in situations
where layoffs and general flattening of an organization have
prevented mobility.
In a teamwork environment, mentoring can provide an effective
tool for communicating corporate goals and values.
Planned mentoring is a flexible, management-driven action-oriented
process that can help your company adjust to the rigors of the
21st century.
If you are considering adopting a planned mentoring program,
here are a few questions to ask..and answer:
- What place would mentoring have in your overall management
plan?
- Who would be involved?
- What would be the key success factors?
- Who would identify protégés and how would
they do so?
- Who would identify mentors and how would they do so?
- How would mentor/protégés pairs be matched?
By whom?
- Would mentoring be a formal or informal process?
- How would it be monitored?
- Would it be a time-limited process (say, an initial one year)?
Mentoring is an excellent way to perpetuate success. Your leaders
will help you develop new leaders. It is a win-win situation
with very little downside.
To discuss what mentoring could do
for your organization, along with some suggestions on how to
set up a mentoring program, drop us a line at info@questcorp.com or give us a call at 1-800-481-2914. |
