KEY POINTS:
By helping others, mentors often gain insights into their own career progress.
The benefits of being mentored are often discussed. But why would a busy, successful person give up his or her valuable time to mentor colleagues further down the career ladder?
The reasons aren't just for the personal satisfaction of "giving something back". In many cases mentors find the relationships mutually beneficial. Mentors often say the relationship helps build their management skills and learn to extract the best from others. Some value the networks mentoring helps them build.
While anyone can pay a professional coach or mentor to do the job, the vast majority of mentors aren't paid for what they do. Some relationships are so informal that the mentor may not even identify their role.
Big corporates such as Telecom run formal mentoring programmes teaming graduates or other employees up with more experienced staff. It was through such a programme that Jo Allison, head of marketing at Telecom subsidiary Gen-i, began mentoring.
She enjoyed the experience so much that soon afterwards she took on a financially disadvantaged Manurewa High School student through the First Foundation, which provides scholarships to talented young people without means. The mentee has since left school and is studying midwifery. Allison meets with the young woman about once a month over coffee or even a shopping expedition. She's even been known to meet some of her other mentees at Eden Park for a rugby match.
Although Allison began mentoring because she wanted to "give something back", she soon realisedthe relationships would be mutually beneficial.
At a senior level in the company she found herself constantly involved in problem solving and wanted to empower others to come up with answers to problems as well. Her manager at the time recommended becoming a mentor to learn how to pass on that skill.
It has also helped her "re-engage" with younger people and now understands their mentality. Although only 39, Allison realised that she was getting a bit "old and fusty" and had forgotten what it was like to be starting out in a career.
Andrea Midgen, director of customer care at Vodafone, has mentored more than 500 people in her 10-plus years with the company. At any one time she has had up to 10 mentees under her. Some she meets every few months, others only need one or two meetings in total to overcome a difficulty or reach a specific goal.
Her motivation is first and foremost to benefit the company. Happy staff often result in happy customers. Personally, it helps Midgen understand people better. By mentoring "you see their value and their sparkly bits", she says.
Midgen first began mentoring as she rose through the ranks of the company and was approached by others, often women, who wanted to do the same. She took an in-house training course with a mentoring and coaching module.
Over the years former mentees have worked their way up to her level right across corporate New Zealand and Midgen also values this network. Business Mentors New Zealand chief executive Ray Schofield says that a significant proportion of his organisations' mentors come from sponsoring companies that want to develop the leadership skills of their staff by them becoming mentors.
Schofield says that his mentors are not only passing on their knowledge of business. "It often widens the mentor's knowledge within the business sector. Mentoring brings a whole lot of benefits back to the individual."
Just because someone is good at his or her role, doesn't necessarily make them a good mentor.
Gen-i's Allison admits she would have been a "horrific mentor" if she hadn't attended two half-day training courses, one run by Telecom and the other by the First Foundation. "I was like your mum. She wants to give you all the answers." Instead she learned how to empower people to find their own solutions. "At the courses I learned about the need for mutual trust and respect." She also honed her questioning and listening techniques.
Business Mentors NZ requires its mentors to take a one-day training course in which they learn the rules of engagement, including what a client can expect, how to utilise their business knowledge and experience in a mentoring relationship, how to deal with difficult clients or those in denial, what tools are available to them and how to access advice for clients. Experienced mentors also provide case studies for the new mentors.
In many cases, the only way to get formal mentoring training is to mentor on behalf of a charity organisation such as the First Foundation or Project K. Private companies, such as the NZ Mentoring Centre, provide training courses.
Adrienne Smith, chief operating officer at New Zealand Finance, took another route. Smith, a prolific reader of business books bought two books about mentoring from Amazon.com, The Elements of Mentoring by W. Brad Johnson and Charles R. Ridley and Crisp: Making the Most of Being Mentored: How to Grow from a Mentoring Partnership, by Gordon F. Shea.
Smith mentors four people: two at ASB/Sovereign, where she previously worked, one former finance industry worker who is now in the food business, and one new colleague at NZ Finance, who approached her as soon as she arrived. Reading the books has put theory behind the practice and has encouraged her to take a more structured approach to the meetings, making the most of the time available.
At mentoring meetings, says Smith, they talk about situations and approaches to take to overcome them. Smith often brings her own experiences to the table and is prepared to pass on what she has learned from mistakes in the past.
By sharing past failings, and not just successes, she's been able to reflect on them and learn as a result. "That is the most enlightening thing."
Smith began mentoring because she says she's genuinely interested in growing people, which in turn benefits the company. The mentees become part of Smith's large network, who she can visit when she has problems to solve. Some of her mentees, while working mostly in the same industry, are in different fields and she can often call upon their assistance when necessary. Part of building a career, she adds, is learning to get the best out of others.
From an employment point of view, having mentored others can be a bonus. Recruitment consultant Kim Smith, of Robert Half Finance & Accounting, says that for someone looking to break into management roles, mentoring can look good on the CV. "If you are a mentor before you start officially managing staff it is a good way to parlay into a position," Smith says. "It is good experience to have had a successful mentoring relationship."
The benefits of becoming a mentor:
* Improved management skills
* Build a bigger network
* The feel-good factor about helping others
* Learning from your own mistakes
* Something to show off in your CV
* Improved employment opportunities for yourself
Tips for new mentors
* A mentor leads by example and is a role model
* He or she should act as an experienced friend or wise old uncle type
* Prepare for meetings with information that someone starting out might want to know
* Be clear about the purpose of the relationship and the boundaries
* Create an agenda with your mentee
* Do less talking and more sympathetic listening
* Experiment with new ways to mentor such as role plays, brainstorming
* Beware of solving problems
* Be a collaborator, not a preacher
* Always be ethical and honest
* Work out the best location for meetings. It may be going for a walk together rather than over coffee
* Be a positive role model
* A good checklist for setting up a mentoring programme can be found at: mentoring.unitecnology.ac.nz
