Shared wisdom a boost for business

By VICKI JAYNE

We can apparently blame the Greeks for the word "mentor."

Legend has it that this was the name of the chap the King of Ithaca left in charge of his son Telemachus for more than a decade while he sashayed off to do warlike things elsewhere.

Of course, the idea that young folk might learn something from their elders - or at least from those who have trodden the same track before - is hardly the preserve of the Greeks. Revering the wisdom of experience was a pretty common aspect of ancient cultures (those who lived to relate their experiences were probably in scarcer supply then) and still features in those modern cultures whose rush into the future is tempered by a sense of history.

Today, the concept of mentoring is undergoing a major revival as a powerful tool for both personal and business development. As one mentoring centre overseas rather lyrically puts it, mentoring is "a community of wisdom," the "gift of flight for your soul" and a means of "balancing heart, mind and spirit."

It not only helps in the "search for meaning" that has perhaps inevitably gained added impetus around the millennial cusp, it also has pragmatic outcomes for businesses.

A study by the American Society for Training and Development found that while training alone increased managerial productivity 24 per cent, a combination of mentoring and coaching increased productivity 88 per cent.

Other studies have shown that companies who have introduced mentoring programmes have substantially reduced employee turnover.

In New Zealand, mentoring is regarded as an integral aspect of leadership training and is increasingly being used to stimulate business and personal growth.

Rapid expansion of the local Business In The Community (BITC) mentoring programme is one indicator of its perceived effectiveness. A private enterprise charitable trust set up in 1991 to stimulate new business growth by mobilising the resources and skills of established business, it is now heading into hyperdrive.

"The number of businesses we've mentored has increased 22 per cent over the past year and we're expecting that to happen again this year," says BITC chief executive Sarah Trotman. "A lot of clients come to us via word of mouth and a KPMG customer satisfaction survey tells us our clients are delighted. So the more mentoring we do, the more businesses hear about and want to use the programme.

"It's sort of snowballing."

Despite this growth there is no shortage of mentors who give their time to the programme voluntarily. Every month, BITC is taking on 30 to 40 new mentors and losing maybe one, says Ms Trotman.

There are now 1200 around the country who largely fall into one of three groups: people who have successfully run their own small business; senior executives from one of the 170 Kiwi corporates who support the scheme; or retired folk from either group. Their role, says Ms Trotman, is to "develop, support, stimulate and challenge."

The mentor serves as coach, not consultant. Their services are given freely and skills cover the business spectrum from general management, sales and marketing, through finance and accountancy to contract negotiations.

"They function as a friend in business, a sounding board, someone independent and impartial to turn to," says Ms Trotman.

While the more traditional concept of "mentor" suggests a top-down, older, wiser head counselling a younger, inexperienced subject, principals of the newly launched New Zealand Mentoring Centre emphasise that the relationship is a two-way street, benefiting both mentor and client.

"One of the key things we'd like to achieve through the centre is to clarify the meaning of mentoring as a learning partnership or learning alliance - a partnership of equals," says co-founder Loretta Brown.

She and business partner Dianne Hawken share an extensive background in business and social agencies, mentoring and working for change. Both have their own businesses (Ms Brown's is Leadership Mentoring NZ and Ms Hawken's Dynamic Peer Partnerships) and have worked together in the past.

Their mentoring model is one of continual learning rather than specific coaching and it extends beyond business issues to encompass the client's role in the organisation and within the wider community.

Although the process has traditionally been one-on-one, Ms Hawken has developed a "trio-vision" approach that has proven effective.

"Having done a lot of mentor training that involved people working in threes with one observing, I've found that the feedback emerging from this process has proved very valuable and a number of people are now choosing to work that way."

In this new context, mentors don't dispense wisdom - they serve as a catalyst for inspiration.

"The process is client-led," says Ms Hawken. "The mentor acts as stimulus or spark for the client to create their own insights.

"That's one of the powerful things about this process - it makes the invisible visible. It's not just a matter of sharing insights but creating new ideas, new knowledge."

Their own experiences involving mentoring has convinced them that in a business environment characterised by complexity, competition and change, this is the most relevant developmental tool.

Says Ms Brown: "It's the tool I've found to be most powerful in achieving change."

* Vicki Jayne can be contacted at vjayne@iconz.co.nz