When it comes to professional development, a mentorship program can be invaluable. By pairing up more experienced employees with those who are new to the workforce or a particular role, you can provide them with the resources and guidance they need to be successful. But how do you build a mentorship program that works? Below are key tips:
Set expectations.
It’s crucial to set expectations from the beginning. For example, mentors should know what their role is and how much time they can commit. Mentees should know what sort of support they can expect from their mentor. This ensures that both parties are clear about what is expected of them, and it helps prevent problems later on.
The expectations you agree upon should be realistic and reasonable for both parties involved in your mentorship program (you don’t want either person feeling overwhelmed or underutilized). It’s also important that these expectations are met by all parties involved in order for the program to be successful.
Provide guidelines and tips for mentoring newbies.
A mentor is someone who has been through a similar situation or faced the same challenge and has learned from his or her experience. Mentors can help you to think about your own experiences in new ways.
Mentoring is a two-way street: mentors provide guidance and support, but mentees should also be willing to share their thoughts and ideas with their mentors.
In order for any program or initiative to succeed, both sides must be prepared for the exchange of information. If you are prepared as a mentor, then your mentee will find it easier to open up and share what they know with you.
Be a cheerleader for your program.
- Be a cheerleader for your program.
- Share the benefits of participating in a mentorship program.
- Define mentor and mentee roles, clearly communicating expectations of each party and their responsibilities to one another (and to yourself). Understand that mentoring is a two-way street, so make sure you’re setting up all parties for success by providing support and guidance throughout the process.
Make clear the benefits of participating in a mentorship program.
The first step in creating a successful mentorship program is to state what you are trying to accomplish clearly. Making your goals clear will allow you and your employees to understand better why they should participate in this program and how it will benefit them.
Here are some examples of benefits that could be included in an employee handbook:
- Mentoring helps you make better decisions by allowing you access to someone who’s been there before, giving them unique insight into the challenges and opportunities facing companies like yours (and how they’ve navigated through those challenges).
- Mentoring helps you develop soft skills such as communication, listening, empathy and teamwork. These are all important for any company or organization because they allow workers to build relationships with each other that can then translate into more effective working environments overall.
- Developing career goals is another reason why employees may want to become involved with mentoring programs—mentors have the ability to teach their protégés about setting objectives so that both parties know where they’re going next! This process allows everyone involved (including mentors!) to stay focused on achieving mutual success over time without losing sight of long-term objectives due to only small ones being met at once.
Set up schedules and timelines.
Now that you’ve established your goals and the person you’d like to mentor, it’s time to set up a schedule for meetings. Whether you’re working with a single individual or several people at once, it’s important to set formal time aside on a regular basis so that mentees can get the most out of their experience.
Schedule meetings in advance and keep track of them through whatever app or calendar system works best for you. If possible, make sure these dates are written down somewhere visible so that others know when they’re coming up (and so they don’t forget). The same goes for deadlines: if there are any assignments or projects due during your mentorship program, let your mentee know as far in advance as possible so they can plan accordingly.
Decide how to handle conflicts and other challenges.
Mentors and mentees will inevitably have disagreements. The best way to handle these conflicts is for you as the mentor, or both you and your mentee, to talk about them directly. This means that if your mentee comes to you with a problem, they’re having with your guidance, or vice versa, don’t ignore it! As long as conversations remain respectful (and this goes for any conflict resolution process), there should be no issue in talking through issues that arise.
If talking isn’t enough (and sometimes it won’t be), try coming up with solutions. If one party is unwilling to compromise their position even after a fair amount of discussion has taken place, always remember that time can heal wounds, and eventually, things will get better—or at least more manageable—with time passing by.
Consider a team-based approach.
When developing a mentorship program, consider implementing a team-based approach. Team-based mentoring provides mentees with multiple mentors who work closely together and can help each other collaborate on projects. In this type of environment, mentors can also share knowledge with one another and create an environment where new skills are developed across the board. This collaborative environment can be beneficial to both mentor and mentee because they will get to know people they would not normally interact with on a daily basis.
The definition of mentoring is changing, which means the benefits of participating in a mentorship program are changing, too!
Mentoring used to be about the mentor guiding the mentee through an experience or skill set that they had already mastered and knew well. Now, it’s about teaching each other; both parties learn from each other and grow together. Mentoring is not just about developing skills—it’s also about building relationships with people who have different perspectives than you do. And while there are many benefits to these relationships, we’ll focus on employee engagement and retention.
Dshanya Reese, CIC 