A Mentor's Guide to Successful Business Mentoring Programs

Employees are the most important asset of a company. Businesses use mentoring programs for employee orientation, to train managers, for executive coaching or to retain and advance high potential employees. The existence of a formal mentor program within a business organization illustrates a commitment to staff development, an investment that ultimately helps a company to achieve its strategic goals as an organization. Successful mentoring programs do not just happen, but are the result of careful planning and preparation.

Defining the Mentor's Needs

A mentor is capable of having a profound impact on a mentee's career development. The mentor will, in great part, serve as a coach: teaching the mentee about business practices or helping to develop skills in a specific business function. For the mentor, a mentorship is generally about enabling the professional dreams of others. For the mentee, a mentorship can help her overcome obstacles to achieving career goals by seizing upon the seasoned instruction and influence of a mentor. A well developed mentorship program is tailored to the specific needs of the mentee, sets forth clear goals and a plan of action and includes monitoring and evaluation components. Three dynamics make this professional relationship successful: preparation, preparation, preparation.

Goals of a Mentorship

Goals should be clearly defined at the beginning of a mentorship. Mentorship goals should be SMART, a goal-setting acronym for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time-limited. In developing goals, start with the following questions: What does the mentee specifically aim to achieve from the mentorship? Where is the mentee right now in his development? It is within this variance that the work of the mentor will serve the most value.

A mentor's role can vary widely. For example, some mentorships are informal, while others are formal. Some mentorships are one-on-one, while others employ a panel of mentors as an advisory board for a mentee. A mentor might give advice to a mentee about available professional training or provide the hands-on training on how to perform a particular trade-related task or transaction. Also, a significant amount of leading-by-example might occur within the mentorship relationship. This is where soft skills are transferred through observation -- such as those related to problem-solving, networking, team work and professionalism.

Formal Plan of Action

Set out a formal mentor plan after the goals and expectations have been developed between the mentor and mentee. You can always change the plan, but only if you have one. If your company has an employee handbook, start here for details on policy and procedures that may exist for business mentorships within the organization. If there is no treatment of mentorships within an employee handbook, nor a specific handbook for mentorships, consider developing a written mentor handbook for your organization to provide clarity for future business mentorships within the company. This will likely require consulting with the business owner, senior manager or human resource professional within your organization.

A mentor plan will provide clear instructions to the mentor and mentee about their responsibilities. According to the Catalyst guide, Creating Successful Mentoring Programs, the mentorship plan should, in part, provide the following:

    - define the purpose of the mentorship program
    - establish contact frequency and duration between the mentor and mentee
    - provide steps that will ensure that the mentor is accessible, and
    - set-out an outline for starting, managing and ending the mentorship relationship

For example, a mentorship program designed to help new managers might pair them with experienced managers with specific goals to transfer skills in time-management, project-management and delegating duties within the organization.

Course of the Mentorship

Leadership commitment is important for a mentorship to be successful. Effective performance during the course of the mentorship will depend upon both the mentor and mentee moving the goals and plan of action forward. The mentor should prepare for the time commitment necessary to fulfill the responsibilities of the mentor role. To maintain accountability, a mentor should calendar times to meet with the mentee to stay abreast of developments. Place your mentee on your to-do-list: “call mentee” or “send note to mentee”. Also, invite the mentee to a monthly business-related function to help with networking to expand her professional circle.

Monitoring and Evaluation

Ensure that your mentorship program includes monitoring and evaluation components. Monitoring will help participants stay on track towards the goals and objectives set out in the mentorship plan. Depending on the length of the mentorship, monitoring assessments might be performed monthly or quarterly.

Mentorship program evaluations also have a broader goal, namely, to assess the ultimate impact of the mentorship program on the company's business objectives. "Findings from other studies can be used as benchmarks against which to gauge a program’s relative effectiveness," according to Dr. Jean Rhodes in her article "Gauging the Effectiveness of Youth Mentoring,” for National Mentoring Partnership. Evaluations can show where changes are needed in the program and the impact, if any, it is having on the mentee's performance.

By using effective preparation and planning tools, a company can help to deliver dividends to all the stakeholders invested in a mentorship program. A mentorship can be a critical component in a person's career development. It can also help an employee increase his business performance, which ultimately contributes to the success of the organization that is investing in the employee's development.