Business Mentoring Matters

First impressions can often be deceiving.  In this real life mentoring situation that we discussed in our last post, the mentoring program manager suggested that the mentoree give the process time to work by getting to know more about the mentor before arriving at the decision to request another match. 

Reluctantly, the mentoree agreed. When meeting with the mentor, she was perfectly blunt in expressing her concern by saying, "I'm not sure how helpful you'll be given that you're not in my area."  Her mentor replied, "I might surprise you with what I know."

It is now three months later, and this pair is doing quite well.  In fact, recently the skeptical mentoree told the program manager, "It's turning out to be a great relationship.  My mentor has so much experience and wisdom.  I can't believe how great a match this has become!"

Moral of the story: trust your mentoring program managers. Will they have 100 percent success? No. But if they've been properly trained to match mentors and mentorees (like we do at Management Mentors with our program manager certification), then they stand a good chance of making a match that will be worthwhile.