How to Start a
Mentorship Program
Feb 06 2009
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Set the Rules for Engagement
Goal: Make sure people meet regularly — and know what to talk about when they do.
Before employees launch into their mentoring relationships, help both people determine the focus and purpose of why they’re doing this. Is it to develop a particular skill, create a career plan, or orient new employees? Encourage them to share learning styles, goals, bios, and resumes to build a development plan. “Because the mentee knows what they want to get out of the relationship, it’s a good idea to let them schedule the meetings and decide what they should talk about,” Plimmer says.
Partners should also establish how often to meet and how they’ll communicate. Without that, the mentor may not build the time into his or her schedule, leaving the other person feeling frustrated. Monthly meetings that last an hour or two are pretty common, but in some more intensive mentoring relationships the partners could chat daily or weekly. To build trust, Forte-Trammell says both partners should know that nothing about the relationship is to be reported to anyone in the company and that no one will be evaluated or given a “grade.” Encourage employees to do periodic checks to be sure they’re on track to hit goals and determine if the relationship is really working.
In some cases, setting an end date can be helpful, so the two can part ways and avoid a messy and awkward “breakup.” “There is a point where you can continue the relationship or it’s time to move on and learn from someone else,” Plimmer says. Be sure those who work well together know they are free to extend the relationship if they want to. IBM’s McIntyre and Sadowski have kept their relationship going for more than four years. On the phone and over e-mail and instant message, McIntyre has walked Sadowski through several job changes within the company and provided a sounding board within a huge organization. “I can’t imagine my career without Lindsay-Rae,” Sadowski says.
Case Study
Establish an Agenda
MemorialCare Medical Centers started with loose guidelines for its mentoring program but later found it was better to have a prescribed agenda, says CEO Barry Arbuckle. The hospital network now offers assignments for each of the one- to two-hour monthly mentor meetings, complete with agendas and questions for both participants. For example, mentors are asked to talk about an ethical dilemma and how they handled it and then talk about barriers to creating change in the organization. Meanwhile, proteges must talk about their career aspirations and what leadership skills they need to develop. Later they revise their resumes and write a two-page summary of their mentor meetings. As part of the leadership program, the hospital network also requires those receiving mentorship to do research projects that the company would otherwise outsource to a consulting firm and go to their mentors for help with it.
Keep Tabs on the Program
Goal: Make sure mentoring is providing the results you want.
Although the relationships are mostly left up to participants and are best not micromanaged, businesses should keep tabs on how the program is going and check in at least once a quarter, says Les McKeown, author of The Complete Guide to Mentoring and Coaching Program Design, who has helped create programs for Siemens, Pella Windows and Doors, and United Technologies.
“Don’t assume no news is good news,” says Roberta Chinsky Matuson, president of Human Resource Solutions, based in Northampton, Mass. Measure whether your program is meeting your goals. If your goal is to increase the number of women in senior management, what do those numbers look like? If it’s to identify high fliers for promotion in the company, then be sure deserved proteges are getting promoted. Surveys or one-on-one interviews can offer feedback on training, problems, and matchmaking. To figure out if the program is helping junior employees, McKeown recommends that businesses check in with their direct mangers, because they can tell better than anyone else if the relationship is working or not.
Be patient: the payoff for mentorship is hard to judge and can often take years to show results. At Memorial Care, mentoring of middle managers has paid off in succession planning. Ten years ago, when the program started, the hospital network hired internal people for top management jobs just 35 percent of the time. Today it’s up to 73 percent of the time.
Other Resources
Related Mentoring Books
Creating a Mentoring Culture: The Organization’s Guide by Lois J. Zachary
The Mentor’s Guide: Facilitating Effective Learning Relationships by Lois J. Zachary.
In Action: Creating Mentoring and Coaching Programs by Linda Strome.
Crisp: Mentoring, Third Edition: How to Develop Successful Mentor Behaviors by Gordon F. Shea.
The Complete Guide to Mentoring & Coaching Program Design by J. Leslie McKeown.
Coaching and Mentoring for Dummies by Marty Broustein.
