Creating a career mentorship program is an investment in your team members, managers, leaders and organizational success.
A well-planned mentorship program offers many benefits, including better:
- retention of great talent, who value how mentorship builds their skills and career pipelines.
- recruitment of top candidates, who view mentorship programs as a perk.
- mentee performance, as their development and progression is supported.
- mentor satisfaction, as stronger relationships are forged and they feel valued and their experience appreciated.
- loyalty and commitment from employees.
- inclusion of diverse candidates, particularly women and people of colour.
- community goodwill as mentors and mentees talk with others about the mentorship program.
- customer service, as team members benefit from guidance.
- succession planning strategies.
- cost savings for human resources, as mentoring helps to mitigate hiring mistakes and bolsters underperforming employees.
We’ve talked before about how important it is for employees to feel their personal values align with the company because this relates to job satisfaction and motivation. Mentorship programs are an important way to help team members see how their own motivations and values can align with the organization’s, and why what they do matters.
Why Some Mentorship Programs Fail
There are plenty of organizations that boast of having mentorship programs, and yet they either aren’t sustained or they fall short of achieving the successes mentioned above.
Here are some reasons why mentorship programs flounder:
- Little to no program management
- Inadequate preparation of mentors
- Undefined structure
- Lack of resources for mentors and mentees
- Struggles to include employees who work remotely or in a hybrid environment
- Poor mentor-mentee matching
The outcomes of mentoring programs that are not designed well and supported adequately will not have the same utilization rates. Employees will disparage the quality or just quietly drop out of participating, rendering the outcomes of the mentoring partnerships underwhelming.
The Right Environment for a Successful Mentorship Program
A formal mentoring program will flourish in a workplace that encourages a mentoring culture at all levels. How well does your workplace engage older leaders and long-serving team members? Would you say that your organization is good at onboarding new leaders? Is there a real effort to build strong relationships?
Ideally, everyone from the middle rank managers up to those in the C-Suites will take an interest in the work and professional development of their peers and those who are junior to them. If they make time for positive conversations in the moment—in the hallways, after a meeting or while getting a coffee—then mentoring becomes part of every day. It might look like briefly asking someone very junior about where they went to school, complimenting a coworker on an excellent presentation or inviting someone to give an opinion about something.
These micro-exchanges of effective feedback are examples of organic mentoring, which strengthen relationships in the workplace and foster a safe environment for the kinds of pairings that build successful mentor-mentee relationships in a formal mentorship program.
Tips for Creating a Successful Mentorship Program
There are specific strategies that will help ensure that your mentorship program works well for everyone—mentors, mentees and the organization overall.
1. Curate the Pairings of Mentors to Mentees
For a mentorship program to work, mentors and mentees have to build rapport. If they don’t feel they share anything in common, it’s hard to build trust and respect. One-to-one meetings build a solid culture of engaged employees, but a little social engineering will help you match employees so that they feel drawn to human connection. This is especially important if either (or both) of the mentor and mentee work virtually. Some organizations find it helpful to build in some socializing ahead of the matching where prospective mentors and mentees have a chance to meet and figure out who they might fit well with.
2. Define What a Mentor is (and is Not)
Most folks need tips for how to be an exceptional mentor because mentors are there to share their experience and be sounding boards, but let their mentees solve their own problems. It can be helpful to give mentors permission to talk about work and life more generally because bonds with mentees are usually formed more holistically when conversation isn’t limited to the office.
3. Establish a Clear Purpose for the Mentorship Role
Generally mentorship programs are grounded in organizational values, and the intention is clearly defined (perhaps it’s to develop and practice career goals—or to build connections between departments that have historically been siloed). If the goal is to prepare staff for management roles, the way the mentor will approach the relationship will be very different than helping a high performer who doesn’t play nicely with others. Find the WHY and give it clarity. That might include openly discussing the “Not Why”—for example, helping mentees to understand this isn’t a new name for the “old boys network” or something similar—their mentor isn’t necessarily going to open doors for them but rather will help them figure out how to open some of those doors themselves.
4. Establish Goals and Track Milestones
Setting a few SMART goals will help mentors and mentees stay on track. Without goals and milestones, conversations can build relationships, but the mentee likely won’t feel like progress is being made.
5. Help Mentors Build Connections with their Mentees
Some mentors will intuitively know how to approach mentoring, but others may need some practical tips and practice so they don’t start directing or micro-managing their mentee. It might be helpful to offer mentors the opportunity to learn how to incorporate in-the-moment coaching into their leadership style. Additionally, effective coaching programs and peer support will give mentors the tools and confidence they need to mentor others. While mentoring is different from coaching, primarily because being a mentor involves sharing a lot of your own experience and your own lessons learned, using a coach approach to engage the mentee is always helpful. Sample conversation starters might also help:
“I see you’re working on X. What’s going well? Are there any challenges?”
“I am working on Y project. What thoughts do you have about Z?”
“Are there resources that would help you?”
“What is the most surprising thing about this new role for you?”
“Early in my career I encountered something like this. Could I share a bit about that?”
“What do you hope to do next after this role?”
“I’m interested to know how things are going for you. Is there anything you’d like to share with me? I’m here to be your sounding board.”
6. Be Consistent
Mentors and mentees benefit from meeting or connecting regularly. Weekly check-ins are valuable, particularly when there are steps the mentee can work toward to achieve a goal.
7. Make the Most of Technology
There are online apps and platforms that facilitate communication and connection among coworkers, allowing for collaboration in real time despite geographic distances. Additionally, for some personalities, it might be harder to speak freely face-to-face, so building a rapport electronically might establish a safe way to communicate. It’s possible to share skills digitally, thanks to project software and virtual whiteboards. Some mentors make a habit of connecting by cell phone with a mentee while they drive home and chat hands-free or FaceTime while both mentor and mentee enjoy a coffee or tea.
8. Encourage Mentors to Celebrate Mentees
It’s possible to celebrate wins even remotely —but remember that different personalities prefer to be celebrated in different ways. For some folks, a quiet “way to go” is welcome while public acknowledgement is overwhelming and uncomfortable. Mentors should get to understand the preferences of their mentees. It’s also essential that mentors help mentees learn from (and even celebrate) failures as learning opportunities.
9. Make Certain the Mentees Understand their Role in the Relationship
Mentees are expected to drive the relationship, but they might not realize that. They need to take an active role in setting meetings with their mentors, establishing goals and working hard to meet them. Just as mentors are encouraged to celebrate mentees, it’s valuable for mentees to have a way to acknowledge mentors who have been particularly helpful.
When companies invest in well-planned mentorship programs, the mentor-mentee pairs will both benefit. It’s also likely that mentoring in the moment will become part of the culture, and a web of supportive, stronger relationships will be woven across the organization.
Coach’s Questions
How could you establish a successful mentoring program? Who are your untapped mentors? Who would benefit from mentorship? What is your mentoring culture like at the moment? What can you do to initiate some mentor-mentee relationships?