Why structured mentor programs fail
I just read an article touting the use of a mentor programs as a good way to help new hires integrate into their new company and to develop people long-term. However, it’s been my experience that such programs yield limited results, often creating more busy work than results.
Some common problems with corporate mentor programs
Finding natural mentors
The real key is to identify natural mentors within organizations as well as to look for strong natural mentoring skills whenever you are conducting an external search to fill key executive positions. Natural mentoring skills aren’t easy to learn and it takes a certain kind of personality.
Perhaps the best way to develop new mentors is to have talented people work with the great “natural” mentors you identify within your organization. My experience is that some of the very best mentors are those people who were once under the wing of a great mentor themselves. But this is a long process that results in long term benefits. In a world driven by a short term focus - this is not something many companies deem important.
Jump start the number of good mentors in your organization
One way to expand mentoring is to encourage and reward “productive” mentoring, not just busy work, and to steadfastly seek mentoring skills with every key executive search you conduct. With most hiring managers this is nothing more than an afterthought and often not part of the selection criteria at all.
The most important thing to realize is that the best mentor programs are not the result of institutional processes developed by corporate and pushed out to managers in glossy manuals. That would be akin to taking glass and putting it under man made pressure and calling it a diamond.
Far better is to have the real thing and it starts with looking for them.
Also read “Re-discovering the value of mentors” for more detailed information.
