Anne Sullivan mentored Helen Keller. And while you may or may not be familiar with the mentors mentioned above, their protégés are quite well known all across the globe. I found this to be especially fascinating because although our memory of the mentors may have quickly faded into history, the impact their protégés made upon history still lives on. In the work environment, having a mentor can be just as impactful and long lasting to an employee’s professional and personal development.

There are many companies who boast that they have a “mentorship program” but what exactly does that mean? Workplace mentorship programs are based on the idea of matching new employees with more experienced staff that will advise and provide insight. They help with career advancement, provide professional development advice, and build networks. So far so good, I already love this idea. But before I started to jump for joy, I had to pause, allow my joy to subside and do some inner reflection. I realized that mentorship programs in the workplace are far from what I just described. I’ve worked with countless organizations both as a consultant and an employee and let me tell you, mentoring in many instances means assigning a new hire a “buddy” to help them get the lay of the land. The transfer of knowledge or insight rarely occurs. It is my belief that the reason these programs often are ineffective, is due to poor execution at the outset. The mentor selection process is flawed.

As a part of a company’s onboarding process a new hire’s mentor should be carefully selected. Unlike the historical examples I mentioned above, new hires and their potential mentors have yet to establish a relationship. So if we were to use the dictionary’s definition of the word mentor, we’ll immediately see the fallacy in our reality.

A mentor is considered a wise and trusted counselor or teacher or an influential senior sponsor or supporter1. The first thing that came to mind when I read the above sentence was the phrase “trusted counselor”. In the context of the workplace and the assignment of a mentor to a new employee, no trust has been established so strike one. Next, a mentor is a “senior sponsor or supporter”, again the ball is dropped here because being senior in an organization does not necessarily mean that the individual would be well suited to mentor a new employee or any employee for that matter so strike two.

Before a mentor is assigned a mentee, the mentor must have critical skillsets in order to be truly effective and provide the “professional development advice” workplace mentorship programs aim at accomplishing. The following are fundamental skills that allow a mentor to analyze ways to improve performance, plan mutually acceptable actions, create a supportive and helpful climate, and influence employees to change behavior in positive ways:

  • Interpersonal communication skills: These skills are the pathway by which all interactions between you and other people are made clear. In busy workplaces, we can easily shift from two-way, meaningful communication, to one-way order giving communication, which can lead to communication barriers. Of all the skills, this one is the most important because if an employee feels like you aren’t approachable, and they can’t talk to you, none of the other skills are going to matter very much.

 

  • Helping skills: This skill requires you to allow employees to solve problems but you must first provide them with problem solving tools, such as determining pros/cons of various options. It is important to ask them to identify options and make a recommendation as to which option they favour, and then analyze the consequences of each option. Those communication skills should kick into high gear at this point because asking good questions and actively listening is key.  A point of caution, it is quite easy to want your mentee to do it your way. Stay open-minded if their ideas aren’t your ideas. Your goal is not to try creating a mini you.

 

  • Teaching skills: While it may seem obvious that a mentor should possess teaching skills, this is not always the case. There are so many things we may take for granted when it comes to teaching others. One of the biggest areas has to do with patience. When employees make mistakes, use them as learning opportunities or teachable moments. It’s so easy to get frustrated and throw in the towel. Remember, the employee is new the company, which includes the company’s culture. They may have been brought on with the skills the do the job, but understanding the company culture is a whole different ball game. As a mentor, it is your job to help the employee get acclimated to how things are done within your organization. Leaving those not so desirable characteristics out of the picture and perhaps soliciting feedback from them on what they think could turn an undesirable cultural behavior to a desirable one.

 

  • Challenging skills: A primary goal as a mentor is help the employee reach their full potential. You can only do this by being clear in your own mind of what you expect the employee to do. Don’t expect your mentee to be a mind reader, discuss those expectations them. Spend time with the employee so that you have a better sense of progress. Help them set SMART goals and put a plan in place for reaching these goals. Challenge them by ensuring that you are monitoring them but are making them accountable to the goals that have been mutually agreed.

 

  • Other critical mentoring skills: Onboarding is so important to employee retention, yet it is often overlooked. Bad idea. As a mentor you should find ways of introducing the new employee to other people in the organization. Arrange for them to sit in on meetings that would be of interest to them, when appropriate. Help them find other mentors in areas where you have very little knowledge and they have interests. Talk about their future with them so you can learn more about what they want to do and help them see opportunities for getting there. Keep your eyes open for positions they might be interested in applying for in the future.

So as you can see, mentoring is not an easy task and should not be taken lightly. It requires skills that go far beyond just showing the new employee where all the restrooms are located. Companies with mentorship programs that resemble a “buddy system” should reconsider or better yet revamp their system. If you want mentoring to work, then take some of the points mentioned above into account and start the journey to creating true leaders within your organization starting now.

 

Endnote:

1 Dictionary.com