AGE OF THE MENTOR
We’re in the age of the mentor.
Wherever you look it’s now an accepted belief that businesses should have a system by which experienced staff pass down their experience to new starters. This isn’t rocket science; our species survival has been based on the premise of elders passing down insights and experience. Isn’t that what parenting is all about?
The success of the concept is not just in its wide scale adoption, but more in its strict systematisation across the world. How many of us have been assigned a ‘buddy’ while starting out in a new company, or ourselves being obliged to mentor a young person? It’s so widespread one would struggle to raise any hint of surprise at the prospect.
Let’s flip the idea for a second.
Much is made of the act of ‘mentoring’ another person – it’s seen as an honour – an opportunity – to share what you have, what you know and what you’ve seen. Yet despite the best of intentions why do so many mentoring programs (and by that I mean those set up within organizations) result in underwhelming experiences from both mentors and mentees?
MENTORING : ROAD TO SUCCESS?
We’ve spent many years supporting mentors across as range of different disciplines – business mentoring, peer mentoring, youth mentoring and the wider education context. We’ve seen thousands embark upon their journeys and observed a variety of different outcomes.
For all this experience there’s been a factor which often goes overlooked. It relates to the Mentor himself, that seems self-evident, right? Yes but not for the reasons we often assume. So much of our recruitment is based upon competency and qualifying factors. Does Joe Bloggs have the requisite experience to mentor person B? Does he or she have the correct qualifications and therefore credibility?
WHAT QUESTIONS ARE WE ASKING?
We believe that there’s another series of questions which need to be asked. In working with entrepreneurs we’ve often observed that other entrepreneurs don’t always make the best mentors. It’s not through a lack of sector experience, insight or knowledge – ironically all things that those starting up would value highly. Instead it’s a mix of two things –
A lack of understanding of what their own personal ‘win’ is.
Our ‘professional win’ is somewhat different from your person win, your core, your underlying motivation for taking on the role of mentor. In our experience, we’ve spent a significant amount of time helping mentors really drill down at their key drivers. What would give you the greatest sense of contentment?
There is a marked lack of emotional investment in the process of mentoring.
Investment in the concept is different to an investment in the process. The concept, neat and tidy with a clear roadmap and definitions of success. The process is the opposite, it’s badly cut and requires space and patience. Which for many, can trigger a feeling of frustration as we feel an element of control being taken away from us. The assumption is that mentoring is to assist – to help – and if we’re not in control of that process…what’s the point?
In supporting others we need the right qualifications (beyond purely just academic). We need the right experiences. The process and commitment becomes even more important. How comfortable are you with that?
How comfortable with that are you as a mentor?