Corporate Mentoring Matters

We would like to share with all of you that Management Mentors now has a page on Facebook!  Please stop by to say hello, get some information on mentoring, ask questions, or just to chime in on our discussions.  To go directly to the page, please click here.  See you soon!

Our next set of webinars is directed to Mentoring Program Managers.  We will focus on sharing with you what you need to know to run a successful mentoring program at your organization.  After the session, there will be a sweet treat just for attending!  If you still have not signed up for our popular webinar, please do so because it is filling up quickly.  In fact, there are only a few seats left for our November session.  To learn more about it, or to sign up, please click here.

Currently, we provide in-person mentoring certification in all the various professional roles involved in mentoring programs. Our certification is based upon experience and tested principles of mentoring that we have used for 20 years.

We also offer basic mentor and mentoree certification through our online mentoring training course called Mentoring Success through our Mentoring University organization. This robust course is only $79, and is perfect for mentors, mentorees, and new program managers.

Note: Currently, the rest of our certification takes many hours to complete and it involves much support on our end, which is why, at this time, we offer only in-person certification programs. We are in the process of developing online mentoring certification, so do keep our site bookmarked.

We offer certification for those engaged in the following designations in mentoring:

Mentoring Program Manager (MPM)
Executive Mentor (EM)
Professional Mentor (PM)
Mentoring Trainer (MT)
Group Mentoring Program Manager (GMPM)
Mentoring Group Leader (MGL)

Through our sister company, Mentoring University, we have developed an approach to the certification process that focuses on providing real experiential learning to those being certified. Unlike other organizations that offer “certification” in one- or two-day workshops that promise a lot but deliver less than expected, our mentoring certification program goes much deeper. For most of our clients, we work with one or two individuals at their facility and then stay with them for lengthy periods of time in order to assess their progress so that by the end of the specified certification period they are confident of their new role.

To get more information on each type of program, please click here. Please contact us directly if you'd like to learn more about our mentoring certification programs.

Here are 5 reasons why a mentoring program is essential:

1.  To invest in your organizations future. 

• A small investment used for a mentoring program will help produce a significant array of benefits for the organization as well as the employees.

2.  To assist with your succession planning. 

• Once you determine who will be your future leaders, mentoring will help you prepare them for their future roles.

3.  To help you with your organizational growth. 

• Mentoring will help strengthen communication and networking among employees.

4.  To foster knowledge sharing among employees. 

• Mentoring helps with the transfer of knowledge among individuals. 

5.  To provide an additional benefit to your employees.

• Employees consider mentoring an essential benefit because it allows the employee to interact with a colleague who is willing to assist them obtain their goals and growth within an organization.

A formal mentoring program can be very beneficial to an organization if it is utilized correctly.  Here are 5 things that a mentoring program manager should consider prior to developing a program:

1. Plan your program prior to implementing it.

• It is important to know what type of mentoring you are going to offer.
• Decide beforehand if you plan to start with a pilot program.
• Figure out how long you would like your pilot to last, and then decide how long the length of your mentoring program should be.
• Determine who will be the participants.

  2.  Encourage participation.

• Work with other departments to promote the mentoring program.
• Offer information sessions to help employees understand what mentoring is and what are the benefits.

  3.  Offer an orientation session prior to the start of a mentoring program.

• An orientation session helps participants understand what is expected of them.

  4.  Provide a training session for the pairs prior to the start of a    program.

• Make sure to provide goals for each mentor and mentoree. 
• Have the mentoring pairs decide what their goals will be.
• Bring in speakers to reinforce the benefits of a mentoring program, as well as other topics relevant to your organization.

  5.  Conduct on-going training throughout the program.

• Develop a list of topics used for discussion. 
• Always have a guide line for your sessions.
• Administer surveys to find out if the program is successfully on target.
• Bring in speakers to reenergize your participants.

Forrester Research is an independent company that provides practical and sensible advice to business and technology leaders all over the world.  Forrester Research is based out of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and they have research centers located in more than 27 cities internationally.  Just recently, they published a report titled “Drive Employee Talent Development Through Business Mentoring Programs” and in that editorial, Management Mentors was featured.  The report focuses on mentoring technology and can be purchased directly through Forrester Research.  However, to gain a better insight on what was covered in the editorial, please click here.  

We would like to announce that we have formed a new alliance with Solve Partners located in Poland.  Founded in 2004, Solve Partners focuses on HR management. Its philosophy is a simple, but powerful one: it believes that people are invariably the most valuable asset of each company.  We couldn’t agree more at Management Mentors so this is a perfect partnership for us.  To learn more about our new alliance, please click here.

Dr. Graham H. Beastall is a Professional Advisor on Laboratory Medicine for the UK Government Department of Health, and the recipient of the August 2010 Mentor of the Month for the American Association for Clinical Chemistry.  Dr. Beastall has published well over 150 articles concentrating on biochemical endocrinology and evidence based on laboratory medicine.  Dr. Beastall has held many distinguished roles throughout his career, and has been awarded with numerous awards including an honorary Fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians.  In 2007, he was invited by the Queen to visit Buckingham Palace and was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire.  We would like to congratulate Dr. Beastall for all of his accomplishments, and for being a great mentor to many indiviuals!

A common question I get asked and one that I frequently read about in the literature is whether mentoring matches should be voluntary?  The quick answer is:  "Yes".  But actually the problem is the question itself.  What most people mean when they ask that question is:  "Should matches be made voluntarily by a mentoree or mentor self-selecting their partner or should matches be made by a Mentoring Program Manager?"  When this is asked, most people will immediately cite the self-select choice by as the better option.  That then implies that matches made by an organization's Mentoring Program Manager do not involve choice and therefore, are not as good or, are bad.  This is a false assumption borne out by my own consulting experience of over 23 years.

In all the years that I have been working with organizations in creating and maintaining successful mentoring relationships, 95% have been matches made by the Mentoring Program Manager and would, most often be viewed as "forced matches" by people who don't fully understand the process of making a match.  And, on average, our clients generate a 90% success rate with that approach.  Maybe if we use the term "third-party matching", we can get away from the idea of a "forced match".   

A "forced match" in my mind is one where two people are arbitrarily put together with no meaningful process to ascertain compatibility and where one or both of the partners have been required to do this and don't wish to.  Who would want to run this type of program?  Surprisingly, a number of companies or organizations that have no concept of what mentoring is about and create programs that result in poor mentoring.  This is usually not intentional but done out of a false sense of providing something good to employees which, in effect, overpromises and under delivers.

There are pros and cons to both self-selected matches and third-party matches but both need to be voluntary in the sense that pairs should wish to work together.  Neither is better than the other as such and both should be considered when exploring mentoring.  In fact, in many programs, pairing is done by the Mentoring Program Manager for targeted populations usually under 100:  high pos, leaders, etc. while the self-selected method is used for large numbers of employees and it is not unusual for a client to use both methods in their programs.

So the next time you see the question asked as to whether matching should be voluntary,  reply by asking the person whether self-selection or third-party matching is best and see where the dialogue goes.  It will make for an interesting conversation.

OSTP Director John P. Holdren has been working closely with President Obama on the Siemen’s STEM Institute which is a foundation dedicated to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).  The STEM initiative consists of uniting the most promising STEM teachers from all of the USA in order for them to learn from one another and to also assist them to become strong STEM advocates in their communities.  Earlier last week, Dr. Holdren attended an event hosted by astronaut Sally Ride and during the event it was noted that “he highlighted the importance of having scientists and engineers from local and national companies coming into classrooms to serve as mentors, to do more hands-on science in labs and field trips and to sponsor robotics competitions, science fairs, and other events that can inspire the next generation of doers and makers.”   To learn more about the STEM education initiative, please click here.