Ann Rolfe's Mentoring Works Blog

Mentoring: Put Your Program to the Test

2012-05-22T13:06:00.001+10:00

Is mentoring just something that you have because everyone else does? Or, is it a strategy that produces important outcomes for people and the organization? Put your program to the test.

On a scale of zero, one or two, rate your mentoring strategy on each of the following:

1. Specific Objectives

Objectives are the foundation of your mentoring strategy and to score a two you must have looked carefully at why you want mentoring. You’ve identified organisational issues, problems or needs that mentoring helps solve. You know exactly how mentoring adds value, why the target group have been chosen and how mentoring makes a difference to them. Finally, to score a two you have specific, realistic objectives and ways to measure them. So score a two only if your mentoring strategy has very clear and measurable objectives, linked to important organisational outcomes

A rating of zero, means mentoring doesn’t have objectives clearly linked to organisational needs. And, please know that you are not alone, if this is the case! Many, many mentoring initiatives don’t do this. However, it can become a problem and lead to funds and enthusiasm for mentoring drying up.

Score a one if you’re somewhere in between. Your best guess on this is fine for now, just so you have a number.

Rate 0, 1 or 2

2. Real Needs, Able To Be Addressed By Mentoring, Identified

It is important to realise that mentoring is not a magic bullet that can fix everything!

Score two only if you are very confident you have analysed organisational and individual needs and identified ways that mentoring will make a difference. Score zero, if you have not done a needs analysis. Score one if you’ve had a bit of a look and think mentoring will help.

Rate 0, 1 or 2

3. Engaged stakeholders in the planning process

This is something I find many organisations skip and it has far reaching implications.

Score two only if you had the key stakeholders involved in planning. Score zero if your program was planned in isolation, or had little real pre-program planning. Score one if your planning was somewhere in between.

Rate 0, 1 or 2

4. Evaluation Criteria and Methods

You need to plan evaluation from the outset. If you identified strategic objectives you are half way there because you already have the overall aims of mentoring and measures. All you have to do is decide on methods.

Score two if you have qualitative and quantitative measures of mentoring outcomes. Score zero if you don’t have a plan for evaluation that list success indicators and how you’ll measure them. Score one if you collect feedback from participants in a survey at the end

Rate 0, 1 or 2

5. Responsibility and Authority

To implement a mentoring strategy you need a person or a team who has the delegated authority and resources, as well as responsibility to coordinate and manage mentoring, and an adequate budget to implement the plan.

Score two if there is a person or team with the responsibility, the authority and adequate time and budget. Score zero if you don’t have a coordinator or budget. Score one if someone is designated but it’s an add-on to their job with no extra time allocation.

Rate 0, 1 or 2

6. Communication Plan

Not everyone will be instantly committed to giving mentoring priority over conflicting demands. So you need to get and keep senior and mid-managers, the supervisors of participants, as well as mentors and mentorees, convinced of the value of mentoring.

Score two if the mentoring program is widely known, well regarded and supported. Score zero if, other than the participants, few people know or care about your mentoring program. Score one if it’s somewhere in between

Rate 0, 1 or 2

7. Attracting and Engaging Participants

If you’ve done your communication well, attracting and engaging participants, should not be difficult - unless there are obstacles in the way. However, often there are problems recruiting mentors and sometimes it’s hard to get mentorees to join. So you wouldn’t be alone if this is a challenge for you.

Score two if you have a waiting list of mentors and mentorees. Score zero if you struggle to get the people you’d like. Score one if it’s somewhere in between.

Rate 0, 1 or 2

8. Supportive Managers

Gaining the support of the participant’s managers is often overlooked. You may have support from the top and enthusiastic participants ready to go, but look out if you haven’t got the their managers on board!

Score two if you have actively engaged the participant’s managers and they are really on-board. Score zero if you have not included them in your plan or they are actively resistant. Score one if it’s somewhere in between

Rate 0, 1 or 2

9. Selection and Matching

What qualities do you want in your mentors? Who is eligible to be mentored? How do you match them?

Score two if you are very satisfied that this is done well. Score zero if you have no systematic approach. Score one if it’s somewhere in between

Rate 0, 1 or 2

10 Information, Guidelines and Resources

Preparing people for mentoring means more that selecting, matching and training. Right from the get-go people need information, guidelines and resources. These might include written guidelines, audio-visuals, books, FAQs, a Mentoring Code, and reference material, to help them stay on track.

Score two if you have a comprehensive range of participant resources. Score zero if you don’t have any. Score one if it’s somewhere in between.

Rate 0, 1 or 2

11. Training and Education

Every reference you’ll read on mentoring best practice is emphatic - training mentors is critical to success. Mentorees also need to know what’s expected of them and how to get the most from the relationship.

How well are participants trained for their roles?

Rate 0, 1 or 2

12. Program Support

A lot of mentoring fizzles out because there is no structured program of support. People are busy, and after the fanfare of a mentoring launch dies away, enthusiasm can wane. So it is critical to support people and keep them engaged.

Score two, if two-way communication is maintained, resources and activities are provided for the duration of mentoring, participants have opportunities to network, assistance is available, and they are monitored and followed up regularly. Score zero if there is little or no follow-up and support. Score one if it’s somewhere in between.

Rate 0, 1 or 2

13. A Documented Plan

There should be a written blueprint that spells out all aspects of the mentoring strategy. I’ve seen plenty of situations where someone was running a successful mentoring program but when they left it fell over because there was no written plan for how the scheme worked. That could mean reinventing the wheel in order to start again.

How well documented are the details that make mentoring work in your organisation?

Score two if you have a coherent plan that could be handed over, understood and implemented by a new team. Score zero if it’s all in someone’s head or just their file with a few notes. Score one for something in between.

Rate 0, 1 or 2

Scoring

The idea of this quick quiz is to see where the strengths and weaknesses of your mentoring strategy are.

Items 1-5, plus 13 are all to do with Planning. If you scored low on these you need a well thought-out blueprint that clearly ties mentoring to important outcomes and maps out how they will be achieved and evaluated.

Items 6,7,& 8 come under the heading of Promoting Mentoring. Low ratings impinge on your ability to communicate so that mentoring is recognised and welcomed by stakeholders.

9, 10 & 11 focus on Preparation of People. This determines how well mentors and mentorees are recruited, selected, trained and equipped to succeed in mentoring.

Item 12 is about Program Support - a structured program that includes ongoing assistance, follow-up and feedback. A low score here increases the risk mentoring will fizzle out.

So out of a maximum of 26 how did mentoring in your organisation rate?

Perhaps you’ve identified some areas for improvement?

Need Help?

Planning, promotion, preparation and program support are the core topics in our Develop Your Mentoring Strategy online course.

Here is some of what we’ll cover:

What is mentoring – in your context?
Strategic aims, purpose and outcomes
Success indicators and measurement
Mentoring infrastructure – logistics, communication, support and buy-in
Getting the mentoring message across – your communication plan
Recruitment, selection and matching mentoring partners
A timeline for your mentoring program

I ran Develop Your Mentoring Strategy as a one-day workshop in the USA in March and here is what people said:

“I loved the workshop! Great Information for improving the mentoring program”
Andrea Williams, Intern Program Coordinator, US Navy.

“Her written works are Insightful, interpreted live and in person by Ann herself they are brilliant – what a facilitator!”
Roxanne Reeves PhD(c)

“An engaging day, Ann was able to assist me in breaking down the design steps necessary to implement a mentoring program into manageable pieces”
Michelle Brosseall, Labour Relations Officer, Ontario Nurses Assoc.

“Great workshop, love the tools provided all will be extremely useful as we continue to build our mentoring program”
Pat Caldwell, Labour Relations Officer, Ontario Nurses Assoc.

“The session has widened my horizon, enriched and consequently deepened my understanding of the science and the art of mentoring. It is a complex process but indeed liberating. It humanizes the mentor and the mentee!”
Dr. Severina Villegas, Ed D in Educational Administration.

“I came to the conference with absolutely no background in designing a mentoring program. Now I have a framework to use for implementing the program in my high school.”
Cessy Mallory, Principal Intern

“My Aha moment is now that I know the right questions to ask my mentoring program consultants”.
Keenam Smith, Assistant Director, City of Columbus.

“Amazing workshop…truly beneficial to launching a program”
TJ Anderson, Director Financial Planning and analysis, Chep.

“Ann Rolfe’s ‘Planning Your Mentoring Program’ is well worth the investment – both time and money. Her expertise and knowledge of mentoring is superb and I came away with a wonderful understanding of how to implement a successful program.”
Cindy Simpson, Director, Association for Women In Science

I think running Develop Your Mentoring Strategy online is even better than doing a one-day intensive workshop because:

It’s so convenient

You have access to all the resources anytime you want for the duration of the course;
You can work through the process as quickly or slowly as you want; and
It's all right there online to access via your computer, so no need to leave your desk.

You have ongoing access to expertise

You don't have to start from scratch, attend expensive conferences, read a stack of books or do a lot of research;
I'll share all the experience that I've gained over the last sixteen years by working with hundreds of organisations, as well as my own learning in this field; so that,
You can create a best practice program.

It’s cost-effective

When I run this course as a one-day workshop, in-house, the fee is AUD$3800.00. So, at AUD$1900.00 this costs a lot less.
Yet, it is more effective learning this way because the course runs over a period of time, allowing you to absorb and act on the information needed to develop your strategy.
The fact that there are action plans and regular check-ins through the webinars and one-to-ones, means you set your own milestones and deadlines for tasks to get done.

At the end of the course you will have a blueprint for your mentoring program, then, benefit from continued assistance to get it up and running.

Here’s what else the course includes:

One-to-one mentoring with me, by phone, online or email;
The “Works” package in hard copy (normally $180.00). If you’ve already purchased this we’ll take it off the course fee;
Additional resources, such as articles, all our 2010-2012 webinar recordings, ebooks, templates and models will be available from a password-protected webpage. If you have purchased our Fast Track Pack, we’ll take that off the course fee, too.
A manual and course notes;
Self-paced online learning modules – access whenever you want, work through them as quickly or slowly as you wish;
Weekly e-course notes and activities – to help you progress;
Membership in an invitation-only group for course participants within he Mentoring Network Online; and
Answers to all your questions.

All this for just AUD$1900.00!

Reserve your place right now, simply email me: ann@mentoring-works.com and we’ll get the ball rolling.

2012-05-14T14:39:00.000+10:00

Working with graduates is fun, challenging and stimulating! I can tell you that the future is in good hands with such bright young people coming through. But Gen Y sometimes get a bad rap from the older generations. I'm a "Baby Boomer" and I think us oldies have to work to improve our ability to understand, communicate and collaborate with tech-savvy youngsters.

Last month I worked with several groups of graduates. What was enlightening was the wisdom one confided over lunch: “Some people mistake why we feel we have to go far, fast. We feel we have to do amazing things because we’ve been given so much. Our parents, other older people, have done so much for us, we have to give back.”

Doesn’t that put a new perspective on the massive ambition Gen Y is often criticized for?

Complimentary Webinar - Your Questions Answered

2012-05-11T08:00:00.000+10:00

Something a little different this month in our regular complimentary webinar!

Usually, we focus on a specific topic but I get such a variety of questions that I can’t always cover them. So this month, I’m going to try a different approach.

Here’s how it works:

You send in a question you’d like me to answer or a topic to talk about when you register for the webinar;
I’ll post all the questions in the forum in our Mentoring Network Online – if you want you can visit and see them and add more there;
I'll also make some time available during the webinar itself for questions. But I'll give priority to the questions you send in advance.

The webinar is on Monday 21 May at 12 noon Sydney time. Don't forget to check your local time - click "Show in my time zone" next to the webinar information when you register.

I look forward to speaking with you soon.

Ann

PS. We had some technical problems and were unable to upload our recording of last month’s webinar: How To Match Mentors and Mentorees but I have put together a succinct written version with all the slides as an ebook. Check it out here.

Mentoring - Not an Optional Extra

2012-05-08T11:41:00.000+10:00

Charles Darwin, was speaking of animals when he said that it is not the strongest nor the smartest that survive but those best able to adapt. The same is true in the evolution of organisations. Changes in society, technology, the economy and environment, as well as the political landscape, mean that only the most agile organisations thrive. Those that cannot adapt die.

It is not enough to keep pace with change, organisations must evolve, building new and different capabilities. That means that:

Continual and effective learning and development must be an absolute priority;
Managers and leaders must become better mentors; and
A mentoring strategy that generates individual and organisational capacity is needed.

Learning and Development

Ten per cent of the learning and development needed for the workplace happens in formal education and training settings. Twenty per cent comes from exposure - observing role models, reflection and conversations with others, and seventy percent comes from hands-on experience.

Mentoring is vital. It not only provides role models and opportunities for conversations and reflection, it also provides leverage to get more out of both learning from experience and formal education and training.

Without mentoring or coaching, less than twenty per cent of learning from training courses is transferred to the job. Participants need to have conversations and support before and after an off-job learning event otherwise it can be a waste if time and money!

Managers As Mentors

Managers who are focussed and effective at developing their people have teams that out-perform those that don't by around twenty-five per cent. Yet, few managers use mentoring to get the best out of their people. They haven't been shown how to lead a conversation that inspires self-directed learning. They often don't know how to give positive and corrective feedback in constructive ways to shape performance. They may not realize it is their job to grow the talent on which the future depends. They not only need mentoring skills they need to value and engage in a mentoring strategy.

A Mentoring Strategy

Mentoring can be used to attract, retain and develop employees. It can nurture and grow your current and future leaders. It builds skills, transfers knowledge, creates wellbeing and better perspective. Random mentoring happens informally but in an era of such rapid change you can't afford to leave it to chance. Using mentoring strategically means identifying organisational outcomes to be achieved, zeroing in on where mentoring can provide the most leverage, then planning a program that develops mentors and enables them to facilitate conversations and relationships that make a difference.

Mentoring is not an optional extra. It’s time to get serious and put in place a strategy that delivers important outcomes for the organisation as well as tangible benefits for participants. That means planning and resourcing it properly so that the mentoring works.

Develop Your Mentoring Strategy Online

If you are considering implementing mentoring, or planning or reviewing mentoring in your organisation, I will share thirty years experience in learning and development and sixteen years developing and implementing mentoring programs with you. You will benefit from the insight I’ve gained working with hundreds of organisations.

You need to hurry because there are only nine places left and this is only public Develop Your Mentoring Strategy online course I’ll run this year!

Delivered right to your desktop, wherever you are in the world.
Access all materials 24/7 and complete e-course activities at times that suit you.
Includes exclusive live webinars, which will be recorded and available exclusively.

What You Get

One-to-one mentoring with Ann Rolfe (phone, online or email)
All Current Mentoring Works printed books
A manual and reading materials
Six exclusive webinars
Self-paced online learning modules
Weekly e-course notes and activities
Membership to a study group within The Mentoring Network Online
Answers to all your questions

Usually $2500.00, the special price available only to the next nine people to sign up is $1900.00.

Course Starts 12 June 2012 (if you have previously purchased “The Works” kit we will deduct that from the price you pay.)

Reserve your place now.

Managers as Mentors

2012-04-23T09:00:00.000+10:00

One of the great benefits of mentoring is having access to an objective sounding board for your ideas. A mentor is someone with whom you can have a confidential conversation about your aspirations, share your dreams and your challenges, plan the next steps in your career development, or just vent your frustration before figuring a practical solution to problems. That’s why we choose mentors who are “off-line”, not the managers, or in a direct line of authority above the mentoree. Yet, shouldn’t all managers be mentors? Is there really any difference between good leadership and mentoring?

Ideally, all managers would mentor their subordinates. Mentoring is definitely part of leadership if you want a team that consistently performs. Mentoring develops individuals and their increased capability builds the capacity of the team. But mentoring those who work under you is different from other forms of mentoring. In some ways it takes greater skill and maturity.

Managers and team leaders have responsibility for the day-to-day performance of subordinates. There is a power dynamic not present in other forms of mentoring. The immediate demands of getting the job done may take precedence over strategic objectives, particularly in today’s lean organisations. This means managers and leaders who want to mentor need to:

Create opportunities for mentoring conversations to occur;
Aim for trust and openness but realise that subordinates may not speak as candidly to them as they might to a mentor outside the team; and
Mentor constructively to enhance performance.

Creating Opportunities

Most people are busy, so finding time to sit down for a mentoring conversation can be difficult and could even be intimidating to the subordinate. So managers who mentor may keep it light and informal, creating opportunities to extend normal interaction into purposeful engagement. A simple “how are things going today?” can be built on with questions like “what do you think is working especially well?” or, “what is the most difficult challenge”. Good questions, excellent listening and genuine interest are key skills for mentoring. You don’t launch into a full-blown mentoring conversation right away but gradually move towards exploring the person’s development needs.

Trust and Openness

The nature of communication depends on the nature of the relationship. Naturally, there are things a person doesn’t want to discuss with their boss. Although some people willingly discuss the skills or abilities they lack, or their plans to move on or up, many will not and some have good reason to be guarded about full self-disclosure! It takes maturity not to see a skill discrepancy as deficiency and a visionary leader to put the long-term benefits of supporting an individual’s career move above the possibility of losing a key performer. So managers must act with integrity to ensure that frankness is encouraged not penalised.

Being Constructive

Mentoring is about building strengths, abilities and confidence. Scientific research demonstrated long ago that feedback is the most effective method way of getting what you want from people. They need positive reinforcement and corrective guidance. More recently, the magic ratio of positivity and negativity, that makes the difference between people who flourish and those who flounder has been identified as 3:1. That’s right, we need three times as much positivity in our lives as negativity - makes you want to reach for the remote and turn off the TV news, doesn’t it? For managers who mentor this is great because there is a very simple way to reduce stress and make lives better – yours and others. Just ramp up the amount of recognition and praise you give and use corrective guidance only when needed. Get the ratio of 3:1 right. A lot of managers struggle with this concept but imagine a yacht, positive feedback is like the wind in the sails. When the wind drops only the boat’s momentum carries it forward, then it stops. Corrective guidance is like the rudder, vital to keep the boat on course.

60% of workers say they get no praise and even the most self-motivated people need acknowledgement and encouragement if they are to sustain performance. If you are like most people, you don’t get enough positive feedback. Interestingly, when you give sincere praise to others their endorphins (feel-good chemicals in the brain) go up – and so do yours!

Secrets of success in giving constructive feedback…

It must be sincere;
give it soon;
make is specific:
state the benefit/outcomes;
it’s shaped to suit the person; and
shared appropriately (celebrate wins, correct quietly).

Managers can and do mentor. They model, they teach attitudes and behaviour, they lead conversations that create insight, they stimulate development. Mentoring by managers is a little different, perhaps more directive and less overt but it is a vital part of the leadership role. Make it positive and mentoring works!

Emerging from Uncertainty - A Formula for Success

2012-04-10T10:05:00.000+10:00

Most of them were dedicated family men, devastated because their career of long-term service and steady rise to a senior role, well paid and respected in their community, was shattered.

Twenty-five years ago, during the “Recession we had to have” here in Australia, the world of work changed forever. Job security disappeared. Any expectation of a “job for life” was extinguished.

I was plunged in the deep end, helping managers who had been retrenched, to restart their careers and move on in their lives. My mentor, Paul Stevens, founder of Worklife, knew how to turn adversity into opportunity – he’d been there himself. He had developed a formula for career transition that guided people through the crisis to career satisfaction and work/life balance.

The formula, developed by Paul Stevens is:

M+V+T= CS

Fleshing out this formula with practical tools and techniques we were able to help thousands of people discover how understanding their Motivation plus personal Values and particular Talents leads to Career Satisfaction. Mentors are uniquely placed to lead conversations based on this formula.

Motivation

Everyone has strong emotional drivers, desires that cry out for satisfaction. We strive to achieve goals, to meet needs and wants felt consciously or unconsciously. So the first-step is to explore and make explicit a person’s career motivation. This may be done with psychometric instruments, personality questionnaires, inventories and the like. However, conversations led by perceptive career counselors, coaches and mentors can elicit a mentoree’s motivation.

A mentoring conversation causes reflective thinking. A mentor, alert to what “lights up” a person as they speak, can draw out the threads of desire and help weave them into a mantle of success. Short-term and long-term goals, a sense of purpose and vision all emerge as motives become clear. Motivation is at the heart of what we do; values are the heart of who we are.

Values

Some people liken values to stars by which we navigate. They are the attitudes, beliefs and principles that guide our decisions and actions. Our notions of good/bad, right/wrong, worthwhile/unworthy stem from a system of values and beliefs.

Like motivation, values often dwell below the surface of consciousness and need to be brought to light for examination. Are they useful? Do they serve us? Are they really ours or have they been implanted by social or environmental influence?

Values can be elicited using inventories, card sorts and other exercises. Again, a mentoring conversation helps untangle values and beliefs, to form a coherent, individual set of personal guidelines. This is powerful because it provides decision-making criteria that allow a person to make choices quickly and easily.

Talent

We are born with ability, strength or a predisposition in particular areas. We develop specific competencies. Talent, in this context, refers to those skills and attributes we excel at and enjoy using. Doing what you love, doing it well and getting paid for it may seem like a dream come true but you don’t have to be a rock star, elite sportsperson or celebrity to make it a reality.

Again, there are plenty of tools available that help discover strengths that can be used in the workplace. Everyone has talents, though they may lie dormant forever if no opportunity arises to apply them. Mentors tease out capability. By reflecting on the past and exploring future possibilities,mentors guide development of the skills and attributes most likely to bring career success and satisfaction.

The Stevens formula for career satisfaction is as relevant now as it ever was. It is applicable to people in difficult or easy times, at the beginning, middle or end of their career. In fact, I’d recommend an annual review, using this formula, at any stage of career. It provides a basis for decision-making, a point of reference for planning and a level of certainty in an uncertain world. That’s how mentoring works.

Want to know more?

Five self-paced online tutorials take you through the career development process described above in our Tools For Mentoring series in the Mentoring Works Learning Portal.

Audio-visual presentations and worksheets to download and print ensure people are engaged in a learning experience that they retain and use.

I’ve taken the content of my popular live workshops and designed online tutorials so people can learn at their own pace whenever it suits them.

There are three programs, and a total of twelve modules now, with new ones added regularly.

Getting The Most Out Of Mentoring gives you the how to’s of a mentoring conversation and building the relationship.
Tools For Mentoring contains activities for mentoring that focuses on personal goal setting and career development.
Mentoring Master Classes are designed for advanced and experienced mentors and those who want to enhance their skills.

Participants can access all the material anytime but we do guide them through a twelve-week program with an email each week.

This is a great way to support mentors and mentorees and right now your participants get all three programs for just $99.00 per person.

View a short video with the details here.

Matching

2012-03-21T10:06:00.001+11:00

Making good matches starts before you get your participants on board because who you match with whom depends on the aims, focus and objectives of mentoring. The first step then, is to be clear about what you want mentoring to achieve for the organization and the participants. This allows you to specify who will mentor and who will be mentored.

Once you have identified your target groups, you have to choose the matching method and there are basically three choices:

Match-make – you, or your team decide who will be paired with whom;
Set and search – you help the mentorees find mentors for themselves;
Populate a pool – you select and prepare a number of mentors and mentorees choose the one they want

Or, a combination of all three.

The most common form of partnering involves a systematic sort through information submitted by potential mentors and mentorees to make the match.

Whether a manual system, where organisers physically review applications, or software is used to match, you’ll need to think through selection and matching criteria. Criteria depend on the purpose of mentoring, and the nature of the participants.

Here are some things to take into account when matching:

Mentoree’s needs = Mentor’s expertise/experience - it’s pretty obvious that you need to match a mentoree’s needs with the experience or expertise of a mentor. However, mentorees don’t always know what they need and sometimes what they think they want is not what they need. So, to make this work you need to: educate people about mentoring before they apply; help them determine realistic expectations; and, provide some ways for them to self-assess their needs.

Off-line - the mentor is usually not in a direct line of authority above the mentoree. This reduces conflict of interest and potential difficulties with the mentoree’s manager (you wouldn’t want the mentoree’s manager’s manager as the mentor for example). Someone a step away is better placed to be objective.

Location - people often say that being far away geographically is a problem because they want to meet face-to-face. Although there’s no doubt meeting is valued by participants, a lot of very successful mentoring happens without it. Technology allows people across the world to develop and maintain relationships. I like to get people together at the beginning, middle and end of a program. Then if they can meet, great; if not, there are plenty of alternatives that will work if they are willing to make the effort.

Common/Different - it’s easy to build rapport when you have a lot in common with someone else but it’s working with people different from you that allow you to stretch and learn. Educate people to value diversity, facilitate some ice-breaking that allows them to find what they have in common. Make matches where people have some common ground and plenty of difference.

No matter how sophisticated your matching system is, these are the things that matter most:

Desire- both parties genuinely want to be involved;
Good will - they have positive intentions and want to make it work;
Rapport- they have, or can find, enough in common. They have skills or attitudes that enable them to respect one another, regardless of difference;
Communication - they both have the ability to listen well, ask good questions and to be open and share thoughts, opinions, ideas and experience;
Time- they are able to make mentoring a priority. Commit to the relationship and give it the attention and energy it deserves.

Invest time in planning your recruitment, selection and matching of mentors and mentorees because you’ll increase the probability that the mentoring works.

Need to know more?

A succinct written version of all that was covered in the webinar is available as an ebook. Just $10.00 here.

Prioritising the Gender Agenda

2012-03-06T11:02:00.001+11:00

The game has changed. Equity just moved up the priority list of Australian organisations. CEOs who are not paying attention now are blind to a risk to productivity and profitability greater than the GFC.

The Risk

It is finally clear that equity is not purely a matter of fairness. Action to achieve diversity is not a case of bowing to feminism or an aspiration championed by a minority. It is a business imperative to ensure a better balance of women and men at senior executive and board level. The simple fact is, successive reports, based on substantial data collecting and analysis over the last decade, by respected global specialists, reveals that organisations with more senior women outperform others by a staggering 30 to 40%!

What CEO or board can afford to ignore that, especially in the current economic climate?

The Response

So vital is the impact of women on company performance, that this year, for the first time, the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) will force companies include the numbers of women staff, senior management and on their boards in annual reports.

In addition, businesses won’t just be required to report to the federal government on equity plans. From this year, they’ll have to specify results. The Hon. Kate Ellis, Minister for Status of Women says: “No more good intentions – we want good outcomes”.

The federal government has mandated that to achieve better balance, all its boards will have at least 40% of women and 40% men by 2015. A number of our biggest companies have promised to do so too. Currently, around 10% of board members are women.

The Pipeline for Women Leaders

Having women join men at the top is suddenly critical, but where will they come from? John Colvin, CEO of the Institute of Company Directors says the pipeline of senior women executives is only 8%.

We need to do something and do it fast. My recommendation, (no surprise here) is mentoring for high potential women. Identifying, encouraging and skilling capable and experienced women is critical to quickly address the shortfall of women ready to step up.

However, a stand-alone, quick fix approach is shortsighted. Mentoring needs to be an integral part of a long term, overall strategy that builds equity for all women and men into the culture and addresses future needs.

The pipeline to leadership is a long one and women traverse their life stages and careers in a different pattern to men. Their untapped and undervalued talent is often overlooked and sometimes lost altogether.

Preparing For Prosperity

Women’s participation in the Australian labour-force is extremely low by international standards - 44th in the world. Our country needs more skilled workers to take advantage of the minerals boom and manage the challenges of an aging population. Women are vital to our nation’s economic success. Kate Ellis says: “In context, the booming mining sector currently contributes around 8% to our GDP. Improving women’s workforce participation could boost our GDP by 11%. That’s an entire mining sector and then some.”

Mentoring can make a difference at all stages of workforce participation. Imagine lifting the trajectory of entry-level employees, enabling workers to get traction early in their careers and increasing engagement through the personal attention of a mentor. Envisage the value of transition to management programs that combine formal education, career development opportunities and the guidance of a mentor. Think about the productivity implications of an effective return to work after a parental career break, supported through mentoring. Consider reducing the vital knowledge and experience, usually lost to organisations as older workers leave, through mentoring. These are just a few examples.

Organisations preparing for a prosperous future capitalise on the strategic leverage mentoring offers. Long-term and short-term, it’s an investment that delivers a good return. That’s why mentoring works.

If you would like my assistance to plan and implement mentoring for equity outcomes call me now 02 4342 2610 or email ann@mentoring-works.com

Is There Support for Mentoring in Your Organisation?

2012-02-10T11:28:00.000+11:00

Jane wants to conduct and employee survey to determine where the need for mentoring is greatest and if there is sufficient support for a mentoring program in her organisation.

Here are my thoughts:

Surveys and focus groups will gather important and useful information and generate support for mentoring. I recommend that you ensure that participants in the data gathering get a summary of the results and the intended actions that arise from their input.

To make mentoring a success in your organisation however, you’ll need more. You’ll need to ensure:

1. Potential mentors and mentorees make informed decisions about participation. They have realistic expectations and understand the requirements of their role;

2. Their managers are see good reasons to support mentoring (as Doreen said, many people see mentoring as time away from other demands). Managers can derail mentoring if they are not on board; and, most importantly,

3. Senior managers understand the strategic value to the organisation and why mentoring is a mission-critical initiative. They must provide visible evidence of real commitment.

So, I recommend that you analyse the strategic objectives of your organisation. Think about its goals and challenges and determine where mentoring can make a valuable contribution. Mentoring benefits individuals but it also adds value to the organisation. You need to be able to clearly demonstrate how, communicate this at all levels and keep selling the message to maintain support for mentoring.

Mentoring Strategy - Will Your Program Produce?

2012-02-10T08:30:00.000+11:00

Despite current talk of job losses, there is strong competition for certain specialist and high potential employees. It’s costly to recruit and even more expensive to lose them. Mentoring is rightly identified as a winning strategy. If you want to attract and retain talented employees and meet their aspirations for career development opportunities, then mentoring will be part of your offering. But how do you ensure that mentoring produces?

With resources tight in the current environment, it is tempting to use a set and forget approach to mentoring. You introduce the concept, match people and leave them to it. That’s fine if you just have to tick the box to say: “we have mentoring”. What is the estimated success of this approach? About 20%. The reason? 80% of people will either:

be so busy that they’ll struggle to make time and other priorities will take precedence;
lack the skills and understanding for the role; and/or
not fully commit to the process and therefore gain little value. That means that maybe eight out of ten people will be disappointed or dissatisfied, not just with mentoring but with the empty promise of development offered by their employer.

Let’s get serious. If you want mentoring to produce strategic outcomes – that is, to add real value to the organisation and deliver tangible benefits to your people, you need to make mentoring more than a buzz-word, get clear about its strategic intent and take a structured approach. That means you’ll need to invest in planning.

More Than a Buzz-word

The word mentoring is thrown around easily enough, but it’s harder to define and people have very different ideas about what it means. You will need to transform a nebulous concept into a concrete and explicit description, applicable in your situation. You need to define the relationship, the roles of mentors and mentorees and how to have productive conversations. You won’t be able to do that unless you have clarified the purpose of mentoring from the point of view of the organisation and the people you want involved.

Clear Strategic Intent
Mentoring must produce worthwhile outcomes, otherwise why bother? You need to get clear about what outcomes matter to your organisation and where mentoring will make a difference. What strategic issues can mentoring influence? Which employees should be targeted? What do they need? What do you want mentoring to produce?

Here are just a few examples of outcomes that mentoring programs I’ve been involved with recently, have delivered:

Improved client service;
Increased transition to management of Aboriginal staff;
Safer workplaces – policies and procedures developed and implemented;
Added viability of small businesses - opportunities, profitability and effectiveness nurtured;
Transfer of classroom learning to the workplace;
Operational consistency of technical functions;
More women in the leadership talent pipeline;
Greater cross-functional communication – breaking down silos;
Employee engagement - staff staying positive, productive and feeling valued during tough times;
Tangible support for young people in the workplace;
Intergenerational relationships and communication improved;
Leadership skills enhanced;
Individual career goals and plans documented;
Support networks established for people in non-traditional, regional and remote locations.

Clarifying what’s needed and why mentoring is important helps stakeholders get on board and provide the commitment and support necessary to make mentoring work.

A Structured Approach

Deciding on a strategy is one thing, putting it in place is another. Workplace mentoring needs a structure: people, policies, procedures, technology and resources to support it. Just some of the questions you’ll need to answer are:

Who will lead and manage the program?
How will momentum be maintained?
How will senior management commitment be gained and made visible?
What communication methods will keep everyone in the loop?
How will you recruit, match, train and support participants?
What will you do about people who don’t participate?
How will you monitor progress?
When, how and what will you evaluate?

Invest in Planning
All of this means that you need to have a plan. The best programs start with a group of people, passionate about producing outcomes from mentoring. HR people are usually keen and switched on but you need a broader base of input and commitment. You need support from the top, of course but you also need champions, advocates and allies amongst the line managers and thought leaders of the organization. You are also best to involve some potential mentors and mentorees in the planning. Pull together a steering committee as a project team that represents the interests of all concerned. It may take time and effort to work from high-level planning down to the nitty-gritty details but the investment will be worthwhile because that’s how mentoring works.

Agree/disagree or share your thoughts here!

Is it too soon to think about mentoring?

2012-01-31T11:00:00.000+11:00

I reckon it takes at least 100 days lead-time to set up a successful mentoring strategy.

There’s no “one size fits all”. You have to tailor mentoring to the people, the situation, and the outcomes you want to achieve.

There are a lot of variables and many decisions to be made and of course you’ve got to get the mentoring message out and the stakeholders on board. You’ll need to have a plan to recruit, match and train mentoring participants and have the infrastructure in place to train and support them. Then there’s monitoring and evaluation, which must be planned from the outset.

So, can you get all that done in less than a hundred days (that's 14.3 weeks)? What do you think? Post your comment below

When Mentoring Doesn't Work

2012-01-27T10:02:00.000+11:00

When Mentoring Doesn't Work

If a couple of mentoring pairs fail to thrive, there are lessons to be learned but if more than a few people involved say mentoring didn’t work, you have a problem you have to fix fast.

You’re not alone if you worry about poor results from mentoring. If mentoring doesn’t work, valuable resources have been invested without return and people feel disappointed and disillusioned. The failure of mentoring to deliver to expectations reflects badly on organisers and champions and may make it more difficult to fund and introduce future initiatives of any kind. That’s why using the experience to bounce back quickly is critical.

Mentoring does work. Evaluation usually reveals tangible evidence of results. People report a satisfying, even inspiring, experience and positive outcomes. Over the longer-term, the impact on retention and development of people is apparent and the organisation’s reputation is enhanced, making it more attractive to potential employees.

You’ll only get one chance to recover from a failed mentoring initiative, so you need to get it right. Here’s how:

Find out what went wrong;
Get your model right;
Start and continue a properly planned strategy.

What Went Wrong?

Investigate, don’t guess, what problems impeded mentoring. Being careful not to stir up blame or shame, ask participants about their experience. It’s usually not the people but the program that failed.

It’s not uncommon for first attempt mentoring to hit obstacles. The most frequent problems are:

Unclear strategic value
Insufficient lead-time and planning
Under-resourcing
Inadequate support
Not enough training
Lack of structure and follow-up
Ineffective monitoring, feedback and evaluation

The Right Model

Many first attempts at mentoring begin with good intentions and not much else. So model your strategy on what has been proven to deliver results. Four key elements must be addressed if your mentoring strategy is to be successful:

Planning – producing a blueprint that clearly ties the strategy to important outcomes and maps out how they will be achieved and measured;
Promotion - your ability to communicate so that the value of mentoring is recognized and welcomed by stakeholders;
Preparing – training and equipping participants to succeed in mentoring; and,
Program Support - a structured program that includes ongoing assistance, follow-up and feedback.

Start and Stay On Track

If you think through all the issues and develop a blueprint before you begin, you are off to a good start. Make sure that you have adequate budget, time and people allocated to follow through. Put a system in place so that daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly tasks get done. Look at what can be automated. Review the plan regularly and adjust as necessary.

You need to check in with participants and see how they are doing soon after the start and keep up two-way communication. Be creative in how you keep participants engaged. That’s how mentoring works.

Mentoring Works provides:

Consulting to help you plan and implement your mentoring strategy;
Workshops to enable participants to initiate successful mentoring relationships;
Resources - books, e-learning, Mentoring Tips, webinars and more.

Don’t wait! Book an appointment now so that we can discuss what it will take to make sure mentoring works for you. Email today or phone 02 4342 2610. Your first consultation is free.

Working Class Anthem

2012-01-25T18:28:00.003+11:00

Happy Australia Day! Enjoy Adam Hills do our national anthem to the tune of Barnsie's Working Class Man.
Perhaps we should all pay attention to the lyrics of the second verse (which most people conveniently forget) "For those who've come across the sea, We've boundless plains to share". 97% of us arrived, or descended from, people who came in boats, since 1788 and later in planes. As Australian of the year, Charlie Teo, calls for greater acceptance of refugees and migrants, it's a good time to remember that the best way to prevent terrorism is a safe peaceful environment and education.

Year Of The Dragon - What's it to you?

2012-01-23T12:53:00.000+11:00

The start of the luna new year is celebrated in many Asian cultures. To the Chinese, this is the year of the water dragon and very special. It signifies innovation and creativity. The lion dance that I snapped yesterday, is meant to scare away evil spirits and summon good luck and good fortune.

Maybe the joyful, family celebrations I saw will attract good luck. Certainly, I believe that you are likely to attract good fortune if you focus on what's good in life and business. I was delighted to find scientific evidence of this in Dr. Barbara Fredrickson's book, Positivity. Much more that "thinking positive", positivity is not simply affirmations, positive thinking, or feel-good daydreams. Increasing heartfelt positive emotions such as joy, gratitude, serenity, interest, hope, pride, amusement, inspiration, awe and love has been shown to transform people and help them become their best.

You don't have to be Chinese or believe in dragons to choose to make this year one of innovation and creativity. Or, perhaps there are other words that you would to like to make the focus of your year? I chose three words for my business and three words for my personal life and say them like a mantra each day to help me stay focussed. If you were going to choose 2-3 words as your focus for the year, what would they be?

Mentoring for Graduates - Fulfilling The Promise

2012-01-13T09:55:00.000+11:00

Mentoring is high on the list of what graduates are looking for from employers. Organisations know it is attractive to graduates and frequently mention mentoring on websites, at interviews, in offers and during on-boarding. So expectations are high. The question is: is the promise fulfilled?

Recently, I asked graduate coordinators about mentoring in their organisations. Here’s a sample of their responses:

“We say we have a mentoring program but in reality we don’t.”

“Basically, we introduce grads to a mentor and leave it up to them.”

“We offer mentoring but it’s very informal and we don’t know how much actually happens.”

Organisations invest significant resources in recruiting graduates. They compete to get the best and make a commitment to graduate development. It is important to deliver on promises. So how do you ensure graduates get the mentoring they expect?

Basically, you need to:

Induct first – mentor next
Ask don’t tell
Plan and deliver

Induction

Graduates are usually more interested in bonding with their cohort in beginning. They may also benefit from a buddy, rather than a mentor, to welcome them and show them the ropes. Definitely sow the seeds of anticipation by having some previous graduates tell how much they gained from mentoring and outline how your mentoring program works. The goal during the first weeks is to build interest and excitement about the opportunities presented by mentoring.

Ask, Don’t Tell

Once they’ve been on board for a few weeks you can start to prepare them to get the most from mentoring. Graduates will want some input in choosing a mentor but you’ll need to educate them in what to look for. They need to understand the role of a mentor and their role as a mentoree. You want them to have realistic expectations of mentoring. Workshops that provide information but also ask them about their goals and aspirations and get them thinking and talking about what they need to do to achieve them, pave the way to successful mentoring.
Establish a pool of mentors – make sure you’ve selected them well, equipped them with the understanding and skills they’ll need and that they are ready and willing. Set up ways that the graduates can interact with potential mentors and then allow them to register their preferences so that you can finalise the matches.

Plan and Deliver

Planning should start before graduates join you. You need to have firmly in place the structure and support program that will ensure mentoring doesn’t fizzle out. Plan regular communication and activities to keep people informed and engaged in mentoring. You’ll need to have ways to keep mentoring a priority in the minds of everyone involved. Prepare a blueprint describing everything needed before you begin so that you can ensure your mentoring strategy has an adequate budget and resources.
When mentoring is properly planned and implemented, graduates value the experience and so do mentors. Both are developed and, as their skills and capabilities grow, so does the capacity of the organization. That’s how mentoring works.

Mentoring Works provides:

Consulting to help you plan and implement your mentoring strategy;
Workshops to enable participants to initiate successful mentoring relationships;
Resources - books, e-learning, Mentoring Tips, webinars and more.

Don’t wait! Book an appointment for the new year now, so that we can discuss what it will take to make sure mentoring works for you. Email today or phone 02 4342 2610. Your first consultation is free.

Back After The Holidays?

2012-01-11T09:09:00.000+11:00

This is my grandson Josh playing Santa when the family came to lunch - turkey and all the trimmings!

Are you:

· Easing into work with a bit less pressure because the rest of Australia isn’t back yet?

· Taking the advantage of quiet time for goal setting and planning? Or,

· Sad your break is just a memory because you’re flat-chat already?

If you’re like most people starting back at work after the holidays, you’ve probably got a lot on your plate this year! So now is the time to set some priorities - after all, there’s less than 350 sleeps before this year will be gone too.

If mentoring is on your agenda, I suggest you take a few minutes, right now, to think about what you want to achieve and why that’s important to you. If you’re serious about achieving that goal, post it below - or just share the most exciting this you did on your holiday!

Boxing Day Cricket – the secret of success

2011-12-26T13:00:00.000+11:00

Much loved former Australian captain and now cricket commentator, Mark “Tubby” Taylor, discussing Ricky Ponting’s form and future in the current team, shared the advice one of his mentors gave to him when he was going through a tough time. He said his mentor told him to take a break: “Go away and do something else. Come back when you are ready to enjoy the game.” Taylor concluded: “Enjoying the game is the secret to success in cricket.” Sounds like good advice to us all at this time of year!

Enjoy your break, I’m going back to the cricket to enjoy mine!

Ann

Happy Christmas Aussie Style

2011-12-21T10:38:00.000+11:00

We do it a bit differently, here is Australia. Usually no snow because it's summer and, while some of us wouldn't be without the traditional turkey and Christmas pud, we're just as likely to enjoy a platter of prawns and tropical fruit!

Here are a some of my favourite Aussie Christmas songs:

Tim Minchin: White Wine In The Sun

Paul Kelly's How To Make Gravy

Bucko & Champs Aussie Jingle Bells

Enjoy!

Happy Holidays,

Ann

What’s Wrong With Mentoring?

2011-12-21T08:00:00.000+11:00

I was recently asked about why mentoring sometimes goes wrong. In my opinion, most problems in mentoring are caused by lack of:

Focus - being unclear about, or having unrealistic expectations. Having no goals or not knowing what to do;
Skills - poor listening and questioning. Too much or not enough rapport. Inability to use both facilitative and authoritative communication styles; and
Structure - not having simple but effective models to apply within the relationship. And the organisation not providing a support structure to help maintain mentoring.

Ann

Mentoring for Career Starters

2011-12-16T13:50:00.002+11:00

Remember when you started out in your career? It can be a daunting task to find your way, especially when you are young, ambitious and keen to get going. For all their apparent confidence, many career starters find themselves in uncharted territory. Without a guide they may wander, waste valuable time or become disillusioned. You may lose them and that’s expensive.

However, just appointing a mentor for them can do more harm than good. If an appointed mentor relationship doesn’t take, it may turn off both parties and make them reluctant to invest time and energy in future.

Mentoring is high on the list of what in-demand potential employees, are looking for in organisations. You can’t afford to do it badly because word will get around - proactive candidates and social media will make sure of that!

Mentoring is a proven strategy for attracting, retaining and developing talent. Mentoring is popular because it works. It inspires people and makes them feel valued. It builds the knowledge and skills of those mentored and the mentors themselves. It breaks down barriers and builds cross-functional communication and networking.

To get good results you have to prepare people to make the most of mentoring. First, decide whether you will match mentors to mentorees or help individuals seek their own mentor. Either way, you will need to facilitate the early stages to lay a foundation for good mentoring. Give them some structure and guidance.

Next, help them understand their roles and responsibilities and equip them with the knowledge and skills that make mentoring work. Provide a framework for building and maintaining a relationship. Help them focus on goals and positive outcomes.

Then, ensure that you have a program of support in place including personal follow-up. Stay close to participants, be (or have) a mentor of mentors and a go to person for mentorees. Regular tips, updates and events help maintain momentum. Review sessions are also a good idea to keep people on track and enthusiastic.

Finally, monitor and evaluate mentoring. Gather feedback about what’s working well and what needs to be improved. Mentoring is not a set and forget activity. It is a strategy designed to produce positive outcomes for individuals and organisations. It is an investment that should produce a return. When you plan and promote mentoring well, prepare people and engage them with a program of support, mentoring works.

Mentoring Works provides:

Consulting to help you plan and implement your mentoring strategy;
Workshops to enable participants to initiate successful mentoring relationships;
Resources - books, e-learning, Mentoring Tips, webinars and more.

Don’t wait! Book an appointment for the new year now, so that we can discuss what it will take to make sure mentoring works for you. Email today or phone 02 4342 2610 before 20 December. Your first consultation is free.

Wishing you a safe and happy festive season!

2011-12-14T09:00:00.000+11:00

Our office will be closing for the Christmas break from 20 December 2011 and will reopen on 30 Janaury 2012.

You may contact Ann on her mobile for any pressing matters.

Wishing you a safe and happy festive season!

Facebook Competition Winner

2011-12-05T10:04:00.001+11:00

Thank you to all who participated in our Facebook Competition.

The draw has now taken place and the winner is HelenVillalobos.

Congratulations Helen, you will receive your copy of our popular webinar and flashbook combo, Evaluating Mentoring, shortly.

We hope to connect with you all on Facebook soon!

Ann.

Mentoring Has Changed

2011-12-02T10:19:00.000+11:00

Traditionally, a senior person identified the heir apparent and groomed them for power, handing down their wisdom. Now, many older, experienced just people want to “give something back”.

Optimistic “Baby Boomers” used to see mentoring as a way of getting ahead, a way of developing themselves and the younger generation. Now, ongoing personal and professional growth is expected for all workers and mentoring or being mentored is an ideal way of ensuring it happens.

Flexible and independent Gen X regard mentoring as a way to collaborate, build the team, learn from others and show their own credentials. Self-directed learning is a feature of contemporary mentoring.

Nurtured for success, raised in a digital world of information and shocked by the GFC, Gen Y want mentors who respect their abilities while helping them progress their career - fast. Mentoring feeds a lean, keen learning machine!

Yes, for those of us who are older, mentoring may mean leaving a legacy but it’s not about choosing successors and shaping them in our own image. Today, mentors will share their knowledge with those who ask in the right way.

Mentoring is not necessarily one-to-one or a formal program. It’s conversations, networks and relationships. It lasts a minute or a lifetime or may be intermittent over time.

Mentors no longer take others by the hand. Mentoring is driven by a seeker, one who is on journey, who knows enough to know they don’t know it all and proactively searches for knowledge.

Mentors don’t have all the answers, they’re still learning themselves! They facilitate. They listen. They ask questions. They stimulate reflection. They make you stop and think. Mentors help you figure out what’s really important to you. They help you focus on outcomes. Help you choose what you want and go for it.

Mentoring skills and indeed, the mentoring mindset, don’t always come naturally. The ability to mentor can be developed and must be nurtured. When it is, mentoring works!

Join the discussion here or in the Mentoring Network Online.

A Question From Doris

2011-11-25T10:40:00.001+11:00

Please I have a question . If you are given an essay to write on good communication skills as quality of mentorship. Do you need to go into details on the types of communication ?

thanks
Doris

I think you need to speak with your tutors, who set the essay, about the amount of detail they are looking for. It also depends on the length of the essay. My approach would be to write and introduction that briefly and generally outlines good communication for mentoring. Then, in the body of the essay, specify the types of communication shown to produce the best outcomes and detail those. Finally, write your own conclusions and insights based on the merits (or otherwise) of the types of communication you have described. However, as I said, your best results will come from talking with whoever set the essay, about their expectations. After all, being clear on outcomes and expectations is a crucial part of mentoring and other forms of learning and development.

Ann

Online Mentoring - what are you doing?

2011-11-17T14:27:00.001+11:00

I have received a request from an Australian government agency who is reviewing their pilot mentoring program. They want to find out what other government departments are doing, in terms of online mentoring. If you are able to comment or share, please do so below. If you are willing to talk with them about your program, please let me know.