Guiding Your Mentees
Mentorship wears many faces. And it means different things to different executives. Many of us were lucky enough to have mentors at key turning points in our lives. While each mentee/mentor relationship is unique to the individuals, if done right, mentoring can have an immensely positive impact for everyone involved.
While mentorship does take time, working with mentees can be good for business as well as personal development.
The Benefits of Mentorship
Even without a direct tangible result, mentorship can provide a strong foundation for your business.
Not only does it help shape future leaders, it helps create a qualified pipeline of A Players who are ready to move up and move into roles vacated due to retirement or other external shifting of positions.
Mentorship also drives happier workers, who have been found to be more productive, more satisfied with their careers and more likely to stay in their current business, according to research. Nearly nine in ten (88%) of mentees agree that their productivity or effectiveness has increased due to their current mentoring experience.
Mentors, too, can benefit from the relationship.
Mentors have reported benefits from the two-way relationship, including developing better leader skills, knowledge sharing, and developing an additional sense of purpose and responsibility. In the classic example of “do what I say, not what I do,” mentoring is yet another way for leaders to re-define the purpose of their business and reconnect with their own purpose.
Research has also shown that while people with mentors get promoted faster than their colleagues, people who serve as mentors also are more likely to get promoted–six times more likely according to a survey by Sun Microsystems. Which means not only should CEOs be mentoring their staff, they should encourage their senior-level staff members to do the same.
As leaders run the risk of getting caught up in the day to day mechanics of managing their business, mentoring can help them define ideal leadership qualities which can re-emphasize those qualities for themselves.
Giving Thanks
It goes without saying that when mentees look back at the people who helped shape their careers and their personal growth, they should incorporate gratitude into their reflection.
But gratitude is a two-way street and not a task limited just to mentees. Mentors who find they’ve received as much from the relationship as their mentees can continue to lead by example by sharing their own words of gratitude.
If you'd like to learn more about developing your internal mentorship program, The PFD Group can help. We would love to talk with you about your vision for your company and how mentoring aligns with that vision.