by Center for Mentoring Excellence | Dec 6, 2013 | Making Mentoring Work For You
It is not too early to begin thinking about your new year’s resolutions. We’d like to suggest that while you plan on improving your health, fitness, and financials in 2014, you also think about powering up your personal mentoring practice.
If you are motivated to raise your bar on mentoring next year, here are a few ways to turn your intentions into to a reality:
#1: Identify lessons learned. Make time to sit back and reflect on your mentoring experiences this year. What did you learn from your mentoring partner(s)? How are you using what you learned?
#2: Celebrate strengths. Think about what it is you did or said that worked particularly well in your mentoring relationships. Be as specific as you can. If you’ve kept a mentoring journal, now is the time to take another look at it. Plan to maximize your assets in the New Year.
#3: Recognize missed opportunities. We all have experiences that we wish had gone better. We may not have expressed something that needed to be said, candy-coated feedback when we could have been more forthright, or not followed through on something we’d promised. What do you wish had gone better in your mentoring relationships this past year? What got in your way? Ask your mentoring partners for feedback.
#4: Identify growth opportunities. In what ways have you grown as a mentor or a mentee? What new approaches have you tried this past year? In what ways, have you challenged and stretched yourself? Are you more effective in your mentoring role now than you were a year ago? How can you accelerate your gains this coming year?
#5: Develop a game plan. Identify specific skills, approaches and competencies you need to learn and develop to take your personal mentoring practice to the next level. Then, consider how you are going to go about acquiring the skills and knowledge you need to move forward. Craft a development plan that includes milestones and time frames and opportunities to try out new skills.
Remember: No matter how many times you engage in mentoring you can always get better at your practice. There is no better time to start than right now.
by Center for Mentoring Excellence | Dec 6, 2013 | Uncategorized
We recently asked participants at a seminar to raise their hand if they were informally mentoring someone. Almost everyone in the room held their hand up. We told those folks to keep their hand raised if the answer was yes to the following question: “Would that person, if they were sitting next to you right now, say they were being mentored by you?” Almost all the hands dropped. (more…)
by Center for Mentoring Excellence | Sep 19, 2013 | Facilitating Learning
You’ve created a mentoring agreement with your mentoring partner and your work plan is in place. Now it is time to roll up your sleeves and get to work, and make the most of your mentoring relationship.
If you are a mentor, it means providing support to your mentees as they work on their goals, challenging them to get out of their comfort zone and try new approaches, and helping them see new possibilities for themselves as they pursue achievement of their goals.
If you are a mentee, you will want to let your mentor know the kind of support you need to be successful. Identify ways your mentor can challenge you to stretch and reach your goals. Think about what your mentor can do to help you envision and move towards your desired future.
We’ve asked dozens of mentors and mentees about what works for them. Here is a list of strategies mentors have used successfully.
SUPPORT
- Set up networking opportunities
- Establish intermediate goals and reward their achievement
- Share personal examples of successes and failures that match the situation under discussion
- Share lessons learned and best practices
- Provide positive feedback
- Offer guidance and assistance in executing or resolving a challenging issue
- Be empathetic and show sincere concern
CHALLENGE
- Ask probing questions to stimulate your mentee’s thinking
- Help mentee discover their own answers rather than give them yours
- Encourage specific activities that focus on a goal area of improvement (external assignments, challenging internal rotations or projects)
- Suggest relevant articles and books to read
- Enhance mentee’s exposure through presentations and briefings to leadership
- Teach mentee a new skill or identify courses/training opportunities to improve skills
- Encourage continued formal education
- Offer feedback when results fail to measure up to expectations
VISION
- Create opportunities that demonstrate new knowledge and skills
- Develop specific plan/timeline with intermediate goals
- Arrange for interactions with senior leaders when possible
- Monitor and celebrate progress
- Encourage mentee to get feedback from peers, supervisors and senior leaders
Takeaway: Review these three lists with your mentoring partner, discuss additional options and get to work!
by Center for Mentoring Excellence | Aug 25, 2013 | Uncategorized
Some of the many mentoring benefits for individuals include accelerated learning, expanded and diverse perspectives, increased tacit organizational knowledge, additional insights about other business units, improved skills in specific areas ( for example, listening, building relationships). Mentoring also offers individuals a trusted sounding board, role model, and/or go-to individual. Individuals often say that as a result of mentoring they feel more self-aware and self-confident, connected more closely to the organization, and find work more satisfying and meaningful. (more…)
by Center for Mentoring Excellence | Aug 25, 2013 | Mentoring Training
Why should our organization invest in mentoring training? Don’t most people just naturally know how to do it?
The fact of the matter is that most people are either unprepared or underprepared for their mentoring roles. Mentoring training builds more confident and competent mentors and mentees. It promotes participant readiness, creates a standard of mentoring practice, provides guidelines for ensuring mentoring success and offers a safe climate of support.
Senior leaders in our organization are excused from training. Are we missing the boat?
Yes you are. Mentoring is a leadership competency and that means even veteran mentors can grow in the role and become better at the work of mentoring. It is not uncommon to hear comments like, “I am not sure what I am doing here. I’ve mentored people all my life,” or, “I’m showing up because I was told to… not sure there is anything new under the sun on this topic.” 
When leaders show up for mentoring it sends a clear message about the value of mentoring and mentoring training that cascades down into the organization. It also enhances the quality of the mentoring experience for everyone gathered in the training room. Programs morph over time and your mentoring program may have changed from when it first began. You will want to make sure everyone is on the same page when it comes to mentoring. Mentoring training is just the ticket.
What kind of mentoring training is best?
Your mentoring education “menu” should include an array of training opportunities. You will want to consider providing training opportunities for those engaged in formal as well as informal mentoring. Provide options for meeting diverse learning needs at multiple levels and entry points, whether acquiring basic mentoring information and concepts, mentoring relationship preparation, mentoring skill competency, advanced mentoring, and renewal opportunities.
What approach should we take to creating an action agenda for our mentoring training?
There are many innovative practice models and ideas for delivering mentoring education and training, including some very novel approaches. Some organizations adopt an annual thematic approach (usually linked to organizational priorities) to keep mentoring education and training fresh. Some offer introductory, mid-level and advance mentoring courses on a rotating or cyclical basis. Others have certain basic requirements for core courses and electives and award CEUs (continuing education units) or mentoring certificates for fulfilling these requirements.
by Center for Mentoring Excellence | Aug 12, 2013 | Uncategorized
Mentoring is a proven way to promote employee growth and development, accelerate learning, fast track leadership, improve retention, elevate morale, strengthen recruitment and promote diversity. Too often, people step into their mentoring roles without sufficient training, relying on their good intention or past experience to carry the day.
Successful relationships require a mentor to be adept at building trusting relationships with mentees, who often may be intimidated working with a more senior leader, or uncomfortable sharing vulnerabilities or challenges. Mentors need to understand the key components of mentoring, including negotiating agreements, creating accountability assurances and how to avoid common pitfalls and that tend to upend mentoring relationships.
Meet Mike, Kim and Jeff. Each of them had good intentions but missed the mark because they weren’t fully prepared for their role.
In the past, Mike had informally mentored a number of junior associates, and enjoyed these relationships. However, this was the first time he had actually participated in a formal mentoring relationship. After four months, his mentee, Aaron, had made little progress. Aaron’s low level goals were getting him nowhere and he frequently cancelled meetings at the last moment. More than once, Mike encouraged Aaron to become a more active participant in his own growth and development, but nothing seemed to shift. Mike was not enjoying this relationship.
Kim had been assigned as Trina’s mentor. Since she and Trina had worked together on projects, Kim thought it would be easy to mentor her. She assumed that they could skip over the relationship-building component and dive right into goal setting. Kim was confused when Trina seemed to be withholding, and profoundly disappointed when, after three months, the relationship completely stalled out.
Jeff held a deep passion for helping young talent in the company come up through the ranks. He took great pride in his role as a mentor and relished the opportunity to share his wisdom and provide sound advice. He always had a list of business books and journal articles to recommend to help mentees acquire leadership skills. Despite his own enthusiasm for mentoring, his mentees never seemed as satisfied or committed. He didn’t understand why.
Mike, Kim and Jeff all had good intentions. They all wanted to help their mentees grow and develop. Like most mentors, they assumed their past experiences with informal mentoring would be sufficient. As it turned out, they could have each benefited from mentoring training.
With training, Mike would have discovered why Aaron was lacking enthusiasm and energy for achieving his goals. He would have learned how to set expectations up front that put the mentee in the driver’s seat. He would have learned strategies to help his mentee set robust and SMART goals that facilitate growth and development.
Even though Kim knew Trina in a work setting, a successful mentoring relationship requires trust and safety. Mentoring training would have helped Kim understand the importance of taking the time to set the stage for the work ahead. She would not have made the assumption that Trina felt safe enough to be open and honest with a senior colleague. Kim would have learned which questions to ask to get to know Trina in a different way. She would probably have been surprised to learn that she had skipped over the most important phase of the mentoring cycle, preparing the relationship.
Jeff was driving his mentoring relationships instead of creating a partnership with his mentees. While his mentees might have appreciated the many resources he shared with them, mentoring isn’t about reading books and journals. Mentoring isn’t about listening to the wisdom of the mentor and hearing about their experiences. In this kind of relationship, the mentee never fully engages. Had Jeff had some training under his belt, he would have discovered that open two-way conversation was an essential part of mentoring right from the get-go. He would have learned that the only way for mentees to achieve good results is to feel a sense of ownership in the relationship. Knowing more about the different learning styles of his mentees would have helped him better support them in their learning.
Learning Point: Being an effective mentor requires more than just good intention. It also requires knowledge, competency and skill to be successful. Mentoring training plays a key role in the development all three of these important keys to success. It also impacts the quality of mentoring relationships. Mentors who are well-prepared do indeed report more fulfilling and mutually satisfying mentoring relationships.
by Center for Mentoring Excellence | Jun 28, 2013 | Mentoring Questions
Q: How important is it to reward mentors?
A: It depends on the culture in your organization. Some organizations reward everything. Some do not. Appreciation and recognition go a long way and are often sufficient.
Some institutions of higher education for example offer their mentors release time for mentoring or count mentoring time as committee service time. In professional service firms, a special code is sometimes developed for mentoring so that it is not docked from hours.
Q: What are the right incentives for the mentors to spend more time with mentees?
A: Each organization needs to create its own compelling business case for mentoring that speaks to those engaged in mentoring in significant and meaningful ways. We call it the WIIFM (what’s in it for me). Your WIFFM should speak to the organization benefits, individual benefits in a language that is meaningful to them.
Q: How long should a mentoring relationship last (e.g., 1 year, 6 month, etc.)?
It depends on the goals of the program and/or the nature of the learning goal. There is no “should” standard but most last from 9 months to 18 months. Some last two years and encourage mentoring closure conversations at the end of each year.
Q: Is there a risk in never closing a mentoring relationship, if it is okay with both parties?
A: Without a closure conversation, you lose out on a powerful opportunity to reflect and leverage your learning, and plan your next development step with someone who really knows and gets you.
Q: What is the recommended regular meeting /contact frequency?
A: The rule of thumb is to meet regularly and consistently, whether it is weekly, bi-weekly or monthly. Having a pre-established meeting date on the calendar helps ensure mutual accountability for making sure that meetings take place or are rescheduled.
Q: If your mentor appears always busy and harassed, how do you handle this as a mentee?
A: You might be making assumptions, so check them out! What you see is not always what you get. Engaging in a frank and honest conversation is a start, i.e., “I’m concerned….” “Is this working for you?” Checking in and checking things out once you have established a relationship will help you stay on track.
Q: How do you evaluate the impact of mentoring programs?
A: Carefully! Set goals for each of your mentoring programs and identify success factors. You will want to use qualitative, quantitative and baseline data to measure your success. See Creating a Mentoring Culture in which Lois Zachary discusses the issue of evaluation and measurement in depth.
by Center for Mentoring Excellence | Jun 28, 2013 | Uncategorized
Creating and building a mentoring culture requires ongoing participation and commitment of executive leadership. (more…)
by Center for Mentoring Excellence | Jun 26, 2013 | Uncategorized
If your organization is preparing to launch a mentoring initiative, you may be wondering where to begin. Here are six tasks to add to your to-do list:
1. Make sure the business case for mentoring aligns with your organization’s strategic direction.
2. Develop job descriptions for your Mentoring Oversight/Advisory Team, their individual member roles and responsibilities, and the person who will manage your mentoring program.
3. Develop a policy statement outlining mentoring expectations.
4. Create a budget that covers training and resources, including a salary/stipend for the mentoring point person.
5. Develop a strategic communication plan for broadcasting mentoring messages to all stakeholders.
6. Allocate virtual space to house information and mentoring resources.
by Center for Mentoring Excellence | Jun 12, 2013 | Uncategorized
A good mentoring closure experience offers mentors and mentees an opportunity to take stock and plan for the future. Not everyone is comfortable with having a closure conversation.
“There’s a trick to the ‘graceful exit.’ It begins with the vision to recognize when a job, a life stage, or a relationship is over — and let it go. It means leaving what’s over without denying its validity or its past importance to our lives. It involves a sense of future, a belief that every exit line is an entry that we are moving up, rather than out.” (Ellen Goodman)
The Payoff:
- Good closure offers an opportunity to maximize and leverage learning. Spend time creating a shared sense of progress as you bring your relationship to a close. Whether you are a mentor or mentee, preparing in advance for final mentoring meeting will help you maximize and leverage your learning. Ask yourself the following questions: In what ways have I grown and developed? What have I learned about myself? How has that learning contributed to my professional development?
- Good closure offers an opportunity for both mentor and mentee to move on gracefully. Never close the door to a mentoring relationship without opening the next door. Once you’ve reviewed what you’ve learned, spend time talking about the future and the next step in your learning and development journey.
- Good closure creates developmental momentum that extends far beyond the lifecycle of the mentoring relationship. Mentoring partners often come away with significantly deep learning that is sustainable over time. Think about your mentors, past and present. Chances are your mentors’ wisdom resides within you as the “voice in your head.”
- Good closure offers an opportunity to return. Your relationship with your mentoring partner will be different once the mentoring relationship ends. You may decide to continue the relationship on an ad hoc basis or informally. Be proactive and talk about these changes before they take place. Once you have redefined your relationship, it is time to “let go” of the relationship as it was and embrace it as it will be.
Takeaway: According to author Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot , “We’re always in a hurry to move forward. We don’t like to look back,” to reflect (USA Weekend, September 9, 2012). And yet, this is precisely what is required to experience good closure of a mentoring relationship.
