Imagine you have been asked to introduce a mentoring programme within your own organisation. How can you make it work successfully? Here is an overview of three steps you may wish to consider.

1) You can set-up the mentoring programme to succeed.

Start by getting the backing of the leadership team. Even though they may say ‘mentoring is a good thing’, it is vital to get their support - or at least their permission. If possible, ask for 2 hours with the team. After briefly positioning why the organisation is planning to introduce mentoring, invite people to tackle and then present their answers to the following exercises.

* Mentoring - the benefits.

People are to outline the benefits of mentoring: a) For the organisation; b) For the mentee; c) For the mentor. The benefits for the organisation may include: passing-on corporate wisdom; mentees becoming more self-managing; acting as a retention tool. The benefits for the mentee may include: getting an overview of their situation; making better quality decisions; expanding their repertoire of tools for achieving success. The benefits for the mentor include: clarifying what they know, because ‘the best way to learn is to teach’; staying close to the ‘coal face’ and getting energy from their mentees.

Mentoring: the benefits

The benefits for the organisation are:

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The benefits for the mentee are:

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The benefits for the mentor are:

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* The Mentoring Charter.

People are to outline what the mentor’s role is and is not in the organisation. Different organisations have different views, so this is a vital exercise. One company included the following points in their mentoring charter. The mentor’s role is: focusing on the mentee’s agenda; acting as a confidential sounding board; passing-on tools the mentee can use to achieve their goals. The mentor’s role is not: acting as a political ‘door opener’; replacing management; communicating confidential information about people. Mentees should know what they can and can’t expect from the sessions.

The mentoring charter

The mentor’s role is:

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The mentor’s role is not:

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* Mentoring - the respective responsibilities.

People are to outline: a) The mentor’s responsibility; b) The mentee’s responsibility. Here is the approach taken by one company. The mentor’s responsibility includes: making sure they really want to be a mentor - it is quite a commitment; completing a ‘mentor profile’ - showing what they can and can’t offer as a mentor; familiarising themselves with the ‘5C model’ for facilitating a mentoring session. The mentee’s responsibility is: driving the process; preparing properly for the sessions; attending a mentee workshop.

Mentoring: the respective responsibilities

The mentor’s responsibility is:

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The mentee’s responsibility is:

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Once you have got the leadership team’s support, begin to build your mentoring faculty. Outline what is and isn’t expected of a mentor and invite selected people to attend a mentor’s workshop.

2) You can educate the mentors and mentees.

Many years ago an organisation called me, saying: “We have launched a mentoring programme, but we may have made a mistake. The senior managers have started running sessions, but they are all using different approaches. Some are acting as supervisors, some are sharing anecdotes and some are practicing deep therapy. Can you create a model that everybody understands, but that acts as a framework, not as a straitjacket?” We educated people to use the ‘5C’ model for facilitating the mentoring sessions. This provided a common framework, but also encouraged the mentors to express their personalities. Here are three things that organisations can do to enable people to succeed.

* Educate both the mentors and mentees.

Air Miles, Microsoft and Sony, for example, offered one day workshops for mentors. These focused on following topics: clarifying the qualities of good mentors; clarifying what you can and can’t offer as a mentor; practicing the ‘5C’ model for facilitating a session. The mentee’s workshop covered similar themes, but from the mentees point of view.

* Enable the mentee to choose the mentor.

This is vital – because it is important for the mentee to choose somebody with whom they have a values-fit. You can find many ideas on this theme in The Strengths Toolbox piece called 3 tips for choosing a mentor.

http://www.strengthsacademy.com/3-tips-for-choosing-a-mentor

* Encourage the mentee to drive the process.

Looking at the potential mentors, the mentee sets-up an initial informal meeting. If both people get along, they make a clear contract about: a) The goals of the mentoring relationship; b) The kind of challenges the mentee would like to explore; c) The specific things the mentor can and cannot offer; d) The frequency and length of meetings.

3) You can implement the mentoring programme successfully.

Good organisations provide a clear framework. They then encourage the mentees and mentors to make it work for them. There are two other points worth bearing in mind.

* Provide ongoing education for the mentors.

Mentors also need encouragement. So you can provide support in the shape of them meeting with external mentors and also attending advanced mentoring workshops.

* Provide evidence that the mentoring is working.

“How do you measure the effects of the mentoring?” is the age old question. At first sight is difficult to answer. We often look back in later years, for example, and realise the ‘mentor’ we had was invaluable in our development, but it was hard to quantify the value at the time. Nevertheless, it is vital to provide some evidence that mentoring is benefiting the organisation. One approach is to ask the mentees to complete a feedback form every quarter. Within the bounds of confidentiality, they are to list: “Three specific things I have got from the mentoring sessions that I have used in my work.” They must also show how these have benefited the business. One HR director said:

“Three months ago I received a note from one of our highly promising stars. She explained that she would have left the company if it had not been for her mentor. Replacing her would have cost us over £30k in search fees, plus the time it takes to get somebody up to speed. Fortunately the mentoring enabled her to create a new role in the business. Mentoring is not always measurable, but in this case it produced real financial results.”

Mentoring can produce many benefits – but the key is to introduce it properly. You will then give everyone the greatest chance of success.

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