Mentoring for Individual and Organizational Effectiveness is a program designed to facilitate the development of mentoring relationships that build organizational cultures committed to high performance through the development of people.
This unique program is based on 25 years of research and practice on creating and sustaining mentoring programs that really work. By promoting these kinds of relationships, the mentoring program helps retain talent as well as capture the “tacit” knowledge possessed by highly experienced leaders. When executed effectively, employing the right balance of structure and flexibility, a mentoring program can ensure that the knowledge needed to sustain the organization is passed from mentors to those they mentor.
Typical Steps in Launching and Sustaining a Customized Mentoring Program
1. Create mentoring oversight committee
• Internal group responsible for overseeing the logistics and ensuring appropriate customization of the process
• Ideally an HR manager plus two-three prospective mentors and two-three prospective mentees
2. Convene meeting with oversight committee and consultants to create project plan
• Establish timelines for rollout
• Determine mentor pools, criteria, expectations
3. Communicate launch of program to organization
• Enlist appropriate sponsorship
• Extend invitations to target participants
4. Conduct “Key Success Factors” cultural assessment
• Conduct focus groups and interviews re: “What it takes to be successful around here”
• Synthesize data to create list of “Key Success Factors” for use in mentor orientation
5. Administer Self and Other questionnaires to participating mentors
• Mentors complete self assessment on “likely use” of various mentoring behaviors
• Mentors’ colleagues (4-5) complete assessment on mentors’ “likely use” of various mentoring behaviors
6. Conduct one-on-one mentoring program orientation sessions with mentors
• Meet individually with each mentor for one hour
• Orient mentors to the process, mentoring model, mentee training and “key success factors”
7. Conduct mentee training
• Conduct one-day training for groups of twenty mentees per session
• Orient mentees to the process, engage in seven step career development profiling to facilitate mentoring relationships
8. Conduct initial mentoring mixer
• Invite all program participants to a half-day meeting
• Provide program participants with an opportunity to meet each other and begin building the “mentoring community”
9. Conduct quarterly “mentoring mixers”
• Invite participants to quarterly events to reinforce relationships and further build community
• Conduct events including trainings, executive visits, social gatherings, etc.