Understanding Mentoring

A mentor is defined in dictionaries as a trusted and wise counselor or teacher.

In business, traditionally a mentoring relationship has been between a senior member of a company, the mentor, and a more junior member, the mentee. The mentor takes an interest in the younger person, offering advice, coaching, and lots of Socratic questioning to guide the mentee's career.

Mentoring is a crucial component of the learning organization's culture and its devotion to sharing knowledge. Mentors can help instill learning and knowledge attitudes needed in a learning culture. They can also model coping skills for dealing with constant change.

Constant change has left many people with no idea of how to carve out a career path. Mentoring helps put skills and opportunities into perspective.

Becoming a mentor
Perhaps you're thinking about becoming a mentor. Below are some reasons people give for being a mentor:

Ø It helps a promising person.

Ø It helps the company.

Ø It's a form of service.

Ø It makes you influential.

Ø It's a conduit for wisdom that might get lost.

Ø It creates personal growth.

It keeps you young and stimulated.
Or perhaps you're thinking about becoming a mentee. There's a lot of research showing that a mentoring relationship leads to early career advancement, higher income, career mobility, and greater job satisfaction for the mentee.
Learning organizations need mentoring programs. Studies show that mentoring leads to performance improvement. And for today's self-directed learners, mentors are resources for information not available elsewhere.

Mentoring programs
Companies have recognized the benefits of mentoring and have tried to create formal programs based on what has traditionally been an informal process. This has not always worked.

Formal mentors are less willing to take risks on behalf of their mentees. However, even formal programs have their benefits, and there are specific things a learning organization can do to create successful mentoring programs.

The following are some things that organizations can do to promote mentoring:

Design formal programs to emulate informal ones: Traditionally, mentors and mentees came together by choice. Some common bond would draw them together. Let mentors and mentees choose each other, if possible.

Don't make mentoring compulsory: Again, choice needs to be the driving force in a mentorship.

Build in reward systems: Both mentors and mentees may need incentives to participate. Special recognition programs or opportunities to discuss accomplishments are needed.

Use creative approaches: Ideas such as seminars, where groups of mentors and mentees meet together frequently, are being used successfully.

Technology and mentoring

Technology has enabled a creative approach to mentoring being used by many individuals and companies.
Online mentoring is now a viable option, using both synchronous and asynchronous methods. Real-time chat rooms, led by experts in the field, are becoming more popular as Internet technology becomes more familiar. Asynchronous methods, such as e-mail, make it possible for experts to respond within 24 hours to individual questions sent at any time.

Traditional mentoring is still important for an individual's career development, but other options, such as online mentoring and EPSSs, may have more performance-based advantages for this fast-paced business world. Learning organizations should provide both of these options for their knowledge workers.