In today’s hypercompetitive business climate, companies must make tough choices. To stay ahead, they keep an eye on the bottom line, on productivity, or even on innovation. All too often though, mentoring falls by the wayside with potentially disastrous consequences.
One reason that some companies eliminate formal mentoring programs so readily is that they may misunderstand what mentoring is and how it contributes to their culture, sustainability, and bottom line. As the business world has changed over the past few decades, so has the role of mentoring. Just as few people have a single, 50-year career with one company or industry, mentoring relationships have transformed from the stereotypical model of a wise, experienced sage offering guidance to a young protégé. Today’s mentoring relationships are fluid and increasingly peer based. These relationships are much more than a morale booster or “feel good” frill, they are essential to building a strong team and the success of your work.
Intel’s mentoring program, developed at the height of the company’s growth in the early 2000s, provides a great example of how mentoring can support rapid expansion and knowledge transfer. Instead of a traditional model in which the company matched mentors and mentees by job title or years of service, the company supported mentees in selecting their own mentors and focused on knowledge and skills that were most in demand. A senior manager could have a lower-level mentor and any one employee could have multiple mentors across different areas. Though the program was formally structured, with internal supports and contracts, the mentoring itself was kept loose. Meetings could be virtual or in person and could be formal or done on the run. Politics stayed out of the mentoring program and the focus remained on teaching, inspiring, and reconnecting employees to the company’s work and culture.
A quick look at Toyota circa 2010, in contrast, shows what can happen when a company sacrifices mentoring in the name of growth. For decades, Toyota’s mentoring program was central to its culture and success. In a traditional model, senior managers transferred their knowledge and values to assigned up-and-comers in their division. Ironically, the success of the system lead to rapid growth that outstripped Toyota’s ability to grow its roster of mentoring senior managers. Instead of scaling sustainably, Toyota prioritized rapid business growth. As a result, the mentoring system crumbled, with promotions coming to junior team members not yet ready for leadership positions. The result: a decrease in quality that lead to more customer complaints and a recall of millions of flawed cars.
For today’s companies, a modern mentoring program can give them a competitive edge and can become a long-term investment. But they don’t just happen overnight and in order to ensure success, they must be championed by senior leadership. In Jane DiRenzo Pigott’s Best Practices In Mentoring, Coaching, and Championing, she notes that in law firms, even formal mentoring programs fall apart as senior attorneys are often reluctant to forgo activities with high billable hours in order to mentor young attorneys. This ignores how mentoring could help increase billing rates for the younger employees as well as investing for the long-term future of the firm.
The key is to develop a mentoring program that works with your culture. Mentoring can happen anywhere—in the office or the gym. Mentors can be mentees and vice versa. It can be a formal relationship or happen simply through observation of strong leaders. And significantly, research shows that these relationships are most effective when the mentees choose their own mentors.
In our own work with clients, Farrington Partners has seen firsthand the impact of mentoring programs on both mentors and mentees. A recent client survey revealed that over 90% of mentors and mentees participating in the program for a year felt that it was a valuable use of their time and 81% reported that it had increased their enjoyment in coming to work. Mentor programs are long-term investments; we would not expect to see concrete business gains in the first year. But the fact that programs in place only a year have created a more enjoyable work environment for the team is a strong foundation for growth and success.
Does your company have a mentoring program? How do you promote mentoring in your company? What impact have you seen? What might you be able to do differently to make your program stronger?