Originally Published in Today’s Veterinary Business October 2018
Although mentoring is not a new concept in the workplace, modern partnerships are not necessarily like those in the past. According to HR Magazine, formal mentoring relationships in previous eras would have typically lasted at least a year. Informal ones? They could last a decade. In today’s workforce, though, these relationships are often shorter and more specialty-oriented than before.
Because of this shortened timeframe and accelerated pace, lines between mentoring and coaching can be blurred. Increasingly, mentors are no longer necessarily higher on a company’s organizational chart. In fact, reverse-mentoring now exists. In reverse-mentoring situations, newer staff members are teaching older, more experienced ones about new technology, as just one example. As one scenario, a Millennial employee may be teaching her Baby Boomer supervisor about how to effectively use social media and crowdsourcing, while also sharing insights into new ways of thinking about business.
According to a survey taken by the Association for Talent Development in 2017, 29 percent of organizations have a formal program in place for mentoring, with 37 percent of them having an informal one. Mentoring opportunities are also available through professional organizations, either online or in person.
A skilled mentor can help the mentee become his or her best possible self. This happens when a mentor takes the time to really understand the person he or she is mentoring, including where the person is in a career path – and where he or she wants to go, career-wise. Once this is discerned, then each of the actions by the mentors should help the mentees participate in the types of behaviors that allow them to become aligned with their own best selves.
Now, here are seven keys to creating the best possible mentor/mentee relationship.
Key #1 Be very clear about the goals established for the mentoring program.
Are there specific job-related skills that the mentee needs to gain? If so, what are they? Is the mentor guiding someone to an understanding of a practice’s culture? Perhaps the mentee worked for a private practice that was recently bought out by a corporate one, and the mentor is serving as a guide and sounding board to an employee during a transition period. Whatever the goals are, make sure they are clearly defined and understood by all involved parties.
Key #2 Make sure the two participants are well matched.
Synergy and mutual commitment fuel mentoring relationships, so it’s crucial to put the right pairs together. As mentioned above, mentoring is no longer limited to an older and/or more experienced person at the practice mentoring someone younger and/or newer. The goal of this evolving process is to have one member of the team fill in gaps of the skills and/or experiences of another employee, so form your pairings for that purpose. It can be tempting to put together people because they’re so much alike that they’re sure to get along. They probably will get along, but that alone doesn’t fulfill the purpose of mentoring. Remember: fill in experience and skillsets through mentoring opportunities at your practice.
Key #3 Mentoring usually takes significant time and energy, so don’t expect quick results.
There are exceptions to this rule, of course. If a Millennial is paired up with a Baby Boomer to teach the use of Instagram, this can all come together rapidly. If, though, that same Millennial is paired up with that same Baby Boomer to help transition the mentee to a telecommuting role at the practice, this can take time and energy for mindsets to evolve.
Key #4 Multiple mentors sometimes make sense.
Some companies pair up a mentee with a primary mentor and are then open to people having numerous more informal mentors to boost the diversity of the learning experience. It can be very helpful, even enlightening, to have mentors from different demographics – whether that’s age, gender or something else. Being exposed to different points of view from thoughtful members of the practice can be quite beneficial.
Key #5 Mentors should provide guidance rather than setting strict requirements.
Your practice will create an overall structure for its mentorship program and, yes, participants should follow the structure you set. But, a mentor is not there to enforce rules or to lecture. Rather, a quality mentor may spend more time asking questions and listening to answers than speaking, offering advice rather than rock-solid answers. Mentees should be encouraged to listen closely to what a mentor has to say and then carefully evaluate how it fits into his or her life and career path.
Key #6 Mentees should prepare and ask questions.
The best mentoring relationships are two-way streets, with the mentee being an active partner in the relationship. Passive listening will only go so far in helping a mentee develop skills and gain knowledge. Instead, engaged mentees should share what has been helpful, what gaps exist in his or her knowledge base and skill sets, and so forth. In a sense, being mentored should also empower the mentee to pass on knowledge to the next person in the practice who needs assistance.
Key #7 Effective mentoring focuses on relationship development.
Near the beginning of this article, we shared how modern mentoring resembles coaching, at least more so than in the past. But, at its core, mentoring has been and should remain relationship-oriented. The mentee should feel safe and nurtured as he or she learns professional skills through mentoring. Although this knowledge will likely enhance the mentee’s ability to perform tasks, mentoring is not as task-oriented as coaching.
Mentoring should help employees at your practice become more self-confident and able to juggle his or her work/life balance. While coaching can be performance-driven, mentoring focuses on developing the employee, both to improve his or her skills and knowledge today and to prepare him or her better for the future.
Starting a Mentoring Program at Your Practice
Be very clear about what you want to achieve through this program and have a plan in place to measure its effectiveness. Determine who can participate, both as mentors and as mentees. Can someone, for example, volunteer or will you select them? Decide how formal or informal the program will be, how often you expect partners to meet and so forth. Explain the program to your team, adding specifics to the employee manual, and strategically pair up mentors and mentees. Invest enough resources to allow the program to be successful, be available to mentors if they need guidance, and use this program to develop your team in a way that dovetails with practice goals and dreams.
Link to the article on Today’s Veterinary Business: https://todaysveterinarybusiness.com/modern-mentoring/
