British expert will help NZ firms develop a mentoring culture, writes Steve Hart
KEY POINTS:
New Zealand organisations are increasingly embracing mentoring and coaching as being essential to their organisation's toolbox of learning and development strategies, says Aly McNicoll.
The New Zealand Mentoring Centre training director says the benefits of mentoring include helping to develop leaders, drive change and address management and human resources issues.
While mentoring staff and grooming them for advancement may be all well and good, McNicoll says showing the benefits on the bottom line - generating a return on investment - is something some firms struggle with. But help is on its way in the form of a mentoring expert from Britain.
"Britain is about five years ahead of us in terms of where mentoring and coaching sits in organisations," says McNicoll. "One survey found that 86 per cent of organisations [in Britain] were using mentoring and coaching as part of their day-to-day performance management practice.
"If you are a manager in a large UK organisation, you not only have your own car park, you also have your own personal coach or mentor."
To help get firms up to speed here, McNicoll is flying in Professor David Clutterbuck to give a talk on creating and sustaining a coaching and mentoring culture in Kiwi firms.
She says Clutterbuck is one of the world's leading authorities on mentoring and coaching.
"With David's experience, and pioneering research in the field, he is well placed to share the practicalities of managing the change to a culture fully supportive of coaching and mentoring behaviours," she says.
Clutterbuck is one of Europe's most prolific and well-known management writers.
"He has written more than 40 books and hundreds of articles on cutting-edge management themes. His latest book, Coaching the Team at Work, was released last year."
While McNicoll says mentoring is in its infancy in New Zealand, among the companies that have already established a mentoring programme is accounting firm Deloitte.
It runs two formal mentoring schemes, an informal scheme, and a buddy programme for new graduates joining the company.
While it is happy for staff to seek out mentors to help them develop particular skills, the company has compulsory mentoring for those studying to become a qualified chartered accountant as they are seen as future partners at the firm.
The company's learning development manager, Liam McGee, says about 10 members of staff can expect to be groomed for partnership each year.
And out of those one will typically fall away. "Around one in 10 will decide that being a partner is not for them - once they understand what is involved - and opt to remain as a PAYE employee," says McGee.
When it comes to mentoring a prospective partner, McGee says a senior member of the firm will take on the job of grooming the staff member for between one and two years. Mentoring is seen as helping the firm retain talented people and increase the sharing of knowledge and experience.
Staff on the road to gaining a chartered accountant qualification can choose a mentor from a list of registered New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountant mentors working at the firm. "The relationship lasts until the trainee achieves their qualification," says McGee.
For the more informal mentoring scheme, he says the firm encourages a collaborative approach - with the mentee and mentor selecting each other, rather than being directed by the firm. The relationship lasts as long as the two parties want it to, but often comes to a natural end after 12 months.
McGee says people who show an interest in being mentored - and who don't fall under Deloitte's two formal schemes - aren't assigned a person to work with. Instead, they are interviewed so the company can find out what they are looking for in a mentor.
"We'd need to know what they hope to get out of working with a mentor," says McGee. "Once we've had that conversation, we may help them approach suitable individuals and talk to them about whether they would want to be a mentor.
"But outside of that, and providing any support they might want to go through the mentoring relationship, we'd leave it up to the individual.
"The best way these relationships work is by the mentee being upfront and saying what they want to achieve out of it and, once those goals have been achieved, then a decision has to be made as to whether there is any value in continuing the mentoring."
Once a mentee and a mentor agree to work with each other it is up to them how often they meet to discuss performance, goals and training. McGee says a monthly meeting is often all that is required. The firm had tried structured mentoring and almost insisting staff work with a mentor but it had not been successful. Research had also shown enforcement was not the ideal method to use.
Professor Clutterbuck will speak at the New Zealand Association for Training and Development's conference in Auckland from May 21-23. He will also speak on creating and sustaining an organisational coaching and mentoring culture on Monday, May 19, at the Tamaki Yacht Club.
ON THE WEB
www.nzatd.org.nz
www.mentorcentre.co.nz
Contact Steve Hart at www.stevehart.co.nz
