Of course, this got me thinking - I've had some tremendous mentors in both my past and present. And I'm excited about the ones I will continue to meet, especially as my business grows. However, I started reminiscing and realized how I've disconnected from past mentors and am now on the hunt to re-connect. While I probably didn't recognize it then, and certainly took it for granted - they are the people that helped to shape me now. From CEO's and CFO's, to peers and co-workers, to industry HR leaders, to parents and grandparents - I would not be anywhere without all of you in my life - so to that - here is one big shout-out of thanks!
As for mentorship programs in companies - I have tried several times to implement formal programs and then have honestly...failed. And as I write this blog, I'm trying to really grasp why. I mean - I have always had a mentor in a company - it was part of my accelerated growth plan in any company I worked for. Gravitate to those who have excelled and learn from them - politically it was the best advice I was given and actually followed through on. But as soon as I was tasked as in charge of a formal mentorship program, I just found it fizzled. However - it obviously doesn't fail in every organization - check out this link: http://bit.ly/bXlnWB
As I continue to think (and most likely make up an excuse!), perhaps it's because we couldn't ever find enough mentors who had time to be mentors. Formal mentors. I mean, mentors too, gravitate towards proteges they are going to get the most reward back from. I have found myself in several situations, where someone has asked me to help, but then really, they didn't want help - I think they just wanted to gripe or tell their story and then move on. In addition to that, our pool of employees wasn't ever very big - I can see that it would be easier if a company had 1000+ employees in the same city (like the Xerox case above).
Okay - so enough about my failures (I mean, really, who likes to admit they fail...)
A solution that I think would most likely work really well for any company is a formalized mentorship program that can be found OUTSIDE the organization. If you promote the various mentorship opportunities that exist in various cities, employees can learn from others, those same employees can vent "safely" as opposed to someone internally, leadership opportunities can be created and then employees can implement those same skills back into the organization. It's a win-win for everyone.
For example, I stumbled across the mentorship program with the HRIA (Human Resources Institute of Alberta) and have signed up to be a mentor...and now I wait to be matched up with a protege. The HRIA is using a system called Mentor Scout Clients and their client list is quite impressive (Best Buy, Home Depot) and I have to admit, it's really neat how they collect the information and match people electronically. I'll keep posting about where this will go!
This site however, http://www.islandnet.com/~rcarr/mentorprograms.html actually lists a large majority of mentorship programs that are available. How neat - that you could potentially be connected around the world?
So in conclusion - perhaps rather than focusing on building an entire mentorship program internally - you communicate the opportunities and provide resources on the options to be mentored externally. It seems like a really good option - especially for those companies that don't have the resources or time to spend on Mentor Scout. I'm a fan of making employees accountable - as long as you give them the tools to be successful! That's what I think is a great return on investment!
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