Mentoring

Gadget · May 2006

Has anyone got a mentoring program they are willing to share?

Thanks,

lukkieseven · May 2006

My organization has a mentoring program for students. Is this something you're interested in? If so, give me your email and I'll direct you to our website

Gadget · May 2006

Thanks - the program I'm putting together is mentoring within the Company for purposes of fostering diversity in management and developing a succession plan.

Paul in Cannon Beach · May 2006

I think mentoring is one of those much discussed but very rarely practiced concepts.

I have a mentor. He is my director. He has mentored me in a semi-deliberate, semi-formal manner for the past 10 years. We never use the term "mentor" but I observe him, learn from him, and am a better person for it.

One reason it works is that we get along. We have some shared activities (golf) and a lot of common life experiences although he is much farther along the road.

He has some stake in mentoring me (succession) and I have some stake in being mentored (growth and opportunity).

What I wonder about is how successful an "artificial" mentoring relationship can be? I am sure that there are organizations that have created successful mentoring programs but I imagine that it must be very difficult.

I would think you would need to pair people who have:

- compatible schedules and naturally occurring points of contact
- shared interests, activities, beliefs
- mutual stake in the success of the mentoring relationship
- a desire to spend time together
- a mutual willingness to share and recieve information

Ok, just some thoughts.

Brother Bluto · May 2006

I'm with Paul on this one. My first director in HR would have been a boss instead of a mentor if it were not for our relationship which occurred naturally because of our similarities and the succession planning. Some employees are very protective of their jobs and will limit the amount of information they are willing to pass on as a way of maintaining "job security". If this exists in your organization, you should address it first or the mentor program will blow up in your face. So, you would first have to look at the organizational need of a mentoring program. If your organization is fluid, in that people are transition from one business unit to another or there are several folks nearing retirement age and your preparing for it, than a mentoring program is a good thing. So, what is your purpose in having a mentoring program to begin with? Answer that and you may answer your own questions thinking through it or decide it's not the best avenue. Good luck!

Gadget · May 2006

Thanks Paul & Bluto -- I agree with you as I too have had excellent informal mentors through the years.

However, our company wants to make the relationship formal as part of our diversity program. I am fairly new to the Company and was hired with a mandate to change the culture which was in disarray and functioning under a company-wide consent decree due to class-action suit in 2001.

We are making so much progress at our plant that we get to be the pilot for the program.

I am trying for a minimally formal program.

Thanks again.

Paul in Cannon Beach · May 2006

So is the goal of the mentoring program to promote diversity? Or is the mentoring business related with the idea that diversity will be promoted as a side benefit?

If diversity is the goal, would the mentor program put an african american manager with a caucasian supervisor? A female VP with a male manager?

I like my goals very clear and defined. I would be worried about a mentoring program with too many goals or undefined goals.

Our new senior pastor who starts in August is apparently HUGE into mentoring and I am personally excited to learn more about how to do it in a way that works.

Gadget · May 2006

Diversity in management is the goal. My problem is not lack of clarity -- it is lack of simplicity in everything I've seen or come up with.

I really believe in the K.I.S.S. principle.

pork1 · May 2006

Gadget: You may want to look at the military system of development which without mentors the organiztion could never get the individuals to rise to the top of the peer group. At ever level of command authority we developed mentors without whom my little day to day activities would never rise to the level of expectations. My bosses were the ones with the know how to get the light shinning on me at the right moments and opportunities. I was challenged daily to be the best that I could be and it paid of in simple ways by being competitive with my peer groups. In the civilian world in which I have lived since 1986, the mentoring aspects have not been visible and the career development aspects of life in a particular company has no guarntees.

In the military if "I kept my nose clean", "did not step on peer and bosses toes", enhanced my education level", and took the right assignments in 3 year or 1 year assignment blocks and "then performed a head of my peers regardless of the nature of the boss or bosses" I advanced in responsibilities to the level of Lt. Col. It was at this level that I met my downfall. My boss was a flaming A__ that made BG, and took my ass out of an advancing career. I was headed for greatness, but was stopped in my path by a "bull dozer". The BG never made it beyond BG, his mentors left him sitting high and dry with his mistreatment of subordinates at all ranks.

With out his negative actions, I might never have arrived into the civilian world of work as an HR. God was on my side and directed my future outside of the militarty life and I am happier for it. So much for mentoring, it can work but do you really have enough time? Is your company big enough to absorb some individuals moving to new and exciting opportunities to learn and perform? Projects management is about the only way in todays world for there to be real diverse opportunities to excell and fail.

We currently have 6 management trainees on-board and working but we have no one in management that is going to move. We have been creative and now have Barn Managers verses Barn Supervisors, with no place to go. Our ability to mentor and develop is now in the position to make management moves, but we have no place to go.

PORK

PORK

Gadget · May 2006

Pork:
You raise a good point -- we have "supervisors" in the plant who will be retiring and we generally promote these from within the ranks of hourly employees. We also have nonexempt (who I'm thinking of as the mentees) who have come through the plant and could use advice and counsel on advancing.

It sounds like your military experience was overall a positive one and that you made a soft landing.

Mentoring

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