Portfolio Category: Recognition

How to ensure mentoring success as a mentor

 

You’ve accepted a request to become a mentor. You want to give back, help another person move forward personally and professionally. But what now? The task seems a bit daunting—What is expected? What am I supposed to do? How can I be the best mentor I can be?

In my experience in working with mentoring initiatives across many industries and cultures, I have found 5 basic actions that support mentoring pairs in their success. Setting expectations about regularly practicing these actions is where mentoring begins.

1. Listen first. Mentors who listen well learn much. It is not just listening to the information that mentees express, but seeking to understand what mentees really mean. It is listening to the heart and passion of mentees, and listening for the best ways to encourage them and hold them accountable. It is resisting the temptation to give advice. Instead, help mentees find their own way to the best solutions. It is being a sounding board for mentees to work through their issues.

 

2. Prioritize building trust in the relationship. Human growth cannot happen in the absence of safety. Mentees need to know that your loyalty to them is first and foremost. When mentees feel safe, they can be vulnerable and open to new learning and growth. You can build trust by following through on what you say you’ll do, spending time together, working on goals together, remaining open-minded and curious to learn from other, and giving positive and corrective feedback well. Be careful not to break confidentiality, be dishonest, blow off meetings, not return calls, show up late, or behave in a way that expresses condescension, rudeness and disrespect.

 

3. Inspire your mentee by believing in them and believing they have the best of intentions to grow personally and professionally. Personal and professional growth is difficult. Mistakes will be made. Mentees will procrastinate. There will be setbacks. The important thing is to know and believe that your mentee can do what the two of you have set out as goals. Know that your mentee intends to do his or her best, even if life and reality sometimes get in the way. Make sure your mentees know that you have their back and believe they will be successful.

 

4. Set goals and write them down. When you put structure like this to your mentoring relationship, it allows you to evaluate specifically how things are going, and appreciate the work that has been done. It allows you as a mentor to be very specific with your accountability and encouragement. When writing goals, consider character development as well as competency objectives. Mentoring allows your mentees to integrate all aspects of their lives into their goals for more robust growth.

 

5. Give both encouraging and corrective, or constructive, feedback. Feedback is a critical part of building trust and spurring growth. Regular feedback is the best way for mentees to know how they are doing. It gives them another perspective to learn from. Aim for a 4 to one ratio: 4 specific things you have noticed that they are doing well to every 1 constructive or corrective suggestion.

 

If you practice these skills, you will become a good mentor. The mentors I have worked with who are diligent with these five skills are adept and feel confident in their mentoring. I hope this encourages you to say “yes” the next time you are asked to be a mentor!

 

Written by Dr. Liz Selzer

Developing the next generation of leaders in your organization

 

Providing mentoring for the Millennials at your workplace is a solid business strategy. Not only do Millennials seek out organizations that provide mentoring, but mentoring raises engagement levels, retention, and develops leaders in your company.

• In a survey of Millennials (2016) 63% reported that their leadership skills are not being fully developed. The study also found that those intending to stay with their organization for more than five years are twice as likely to have a mentor (68%), than not (32%). (Deloitte, 2016)
• Retention rates are higher for mentees (72%) and for mentors (69%) than non-mentoring participants (49%). (Sun Microsystems)
• People are 77% more likely to stay in a job if they are in a mentoring relationship—particularly the younger generations. 35% of employees who do not receive regular mentoring look for another job within 12 months. (Emerging Workforce study by Spherion, 2012)
• 83% of professionals would like to be involved in a mentoring program, yet only 29% are in workplaces that offer them (Robert Walters recruiting).
• Seventy-five percent of millennials want a mentor, and 58 percent of them turn to baby boomers first for advice (HireVue)
• 78 % of people felt more engaged in work when in a mentoring relationship. (PeopleFluent). Engaged people are 40% more productive.

 

What needs can be addressed through mentoring?

Mentoring is a great way to provide what Millennials want in a job and organization. In my experience, Millennials have voiced the following desires related to their work.

• From their supervisor or leader: They want sponsorship, support on a career path and regular feedback. Mentors are encouraged to advocate for their mentees, work on goals that reflect a strategy to move along on a career path, and give encouraging and constructive feedback frequently.
• From their workplace: Millennials want development of skills, work-life balance, and an understanding how the values of the organization and their values work together. They want more engagement–more than just a paycheck. Mentors can come alongside them and support the attainment of new skills and the further development of existing ones. They can talk through issues of work-life balance and values match to increase their engagement with the organization.
• For personal and professional development: Millennials hope to develop technical skills, work on EQ (emotional intelligence), and their leadership abilities. Mentors can provide the role modeling for these attributes as well as help their mentee find learning opportunities that support development.

 

What are types of mentoring that work well with Millennials?

If mentoring is a healthy strategy for engaging and developing Millennials, how should we go about it? What structures for mentoring work best?

• Group mentoring. Millennials work well in groups, so group mentoring makes sense to them. Group mentoring utilizes one mentor who advises and leads the group, and then the group discusses personal application.
• Peer mentoring or reciprocal mentoring. The members of mentoring pairs take turns being the mentor one time and then switch roles to mentee the next time they meet. Since the power of structured mentoring lies in the accountability and encouragement that it provides, these parings work well when there are not enough senior leaders to mentor.
• Micro mentoring. This kind of mentoring utilizes shorter, more informal opportunities for mentoring. Mentees can reach out via social media like Twitter or LinkedIn to someone with more experience or expertise in a certain area. They can then learn specific knowledge or skills. through brief interactions
• Reverse mentoring. This type of mentoring puts the Millennial as the mentor to a person of an older generation. They mentor on skills they are more adept at than people of older generations (e.g. technology or social media).
• Traditional mentoring. This form of mentoring pairs a Millennial with a leader from an older generation. The Millennial mentee learns from the wisdom, skillfulness, and different perspective of the older mentor.

 

Mentoring is a critical part of developing the Millennials in your organization. It is important to intentionally develop a support network and appropriate structure for easy access to mentoring opportunities for all your employees.

 

Written by Dr. Liz Selzer

 

 

 

How to develop Millennials leadership in your organization.

Millennials. A huge topic of conversation within our current workforce. Often laced with frustration, these conversations take up valuable energy that could and should be spent addressing the demands of our VUCA* work environment.

What is the issue? Simply put, older generations often characterize Millennials as entitled and too dependent on technology. While these generations still appreciated that millennials as the most tech-savvy and creative at work, (Workfront) they complain that Millennials are often uncooperative, responsibility resistant and the first to complain; as inexperienced and not willing to pay their dues

But the fact is that more than a third of American workers today are millennials (Pew Research), and they will comprise 75% of the workforce by 2025 (Forbes). Regardless of your personal feelings about this generation, they are an important force to be reckoned with. So, encouraging millennials to step into leadership, and helping them to do this well becomes key business strategy.

While older generations sometimes think Millennials don’t want to take responsibility, my research and experience show that Millennials are ambitious and ready to take on leadership positions to bring needed changes to work environments. They believe technology has the ability to transform work, and they value innovation.

Millennials believe what makes businesses successful in the long term is employee satisfaction, loyalty, and fair treatment (Deloitte). They exhibit a more inclusive and empathetic leadership style, and value leadership development through the entire organization, not just for “high potentials.” The problem is 63% of Millennials feel their leadership skills aren’t being fully developed (Deloitte).

How can we provide the leadership development that Millennials need and want?

Create a learning environment focused on everyday leadership development. Millennials are avid information gatherers and 35% see training as a benefit that they look for in a prospective employer. Providing training also helps with retention—new research has found that personal and professional development is the number one reason millennials stay in a job. The following strategies will encourage needed learning and leadership development for the Millennial generation:

• Organize active coaching/mentoring. Set up a framework so that it is easy for your young leaders to find mentors. Communicate the benefits of being in a mentoring relationship for both mentors and mentees. Help them set aside time each month for mentoring meetings.
• Provide micro-learning burst/just in time learning. Proactively develop short learning experiences that can be immediately applied to their work efforts. Customize actions to fit job demands.ch
• Encourage social learning. Create opportunities for young leaders to learn together and from each other.  Form groups from different departments to encourage a higher level understanding of how the organization works together.
• Develop virtual learning. Make this interactive and practical, and available when people have time to engage with it. Add incentives for completing each block of learning.
• Tie learning to professional development/career plan. Clearly communicate how developmental and learning activities fit in to the overall career plan for each employee. Let them know how their role fits into the mission of the organization.
• Model and train for emotional intelligence (EQ). Due to increased interaction with technology over face to face interaction, Millennials need additional help developing emotional intelligence. As Daniel Goleman asserts, a high EQ is worth twenty IQ points. Emotional intelligence can be taught, so putting purposeful action to developing these skills is a must.

Intentionally building an environment that encourages learning and leadership development for Millennials will reduce turnover and help this growing part of the workforce be more effective as they step into management and leadership positions. Because of this, it becomes is a critical strategy for businesses that want to stay competitive in today’s markets.

*VUCA stands for volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity

 

By Dr. Liz Selzer