Mentorship is a crucial component of talent development for all businesses. According to Forbes:
- 84% of U.S. Fortune 500 companies have mentoring programs.
- 90% of U.S. Fortune 250 companies have mentoring programs.
- 96% of U.S. Fortune 100 companies have mentoring programs.
- 100% of U.S. Fortune 50 companies have mentoring programs.
Mentoring provides a process where a mentee can expand their skills, obtain career guidance, and prepare for advancement opportunities. Whether the mentoring process is formal or informal, developing a strong culture of mentorship within all levels of your organization is essential to long-term, sustained growth.
Discover how to mentor developing leaders below.
How to Recognize Leadership Potential in Team Members
According to Gallup, while only one in 10 people naturally excels at leadership, an additional two in 10 have the potential to develop into highly effective leaders, Sadly, only 40% of staff have a workplace mentor to guide them on this journey—and leadership skills don’t flourish in isolation. Organizations play a critical role in preparing high-potential individuals for future leadership roles.
Here are the top five signs of leadership potential:
- Builds relationships with others
- Solves problems
- Accepts feedback
- Uses failure to grow
- Manages stress and maintains composure
It’s important to note that potential leaders do not need to possess all of these qualities to be considered for a mentoring engagement. Even having a few of these qualities or other important attributes shows their ability to learn new skills.
Use our Leadership Development Assessment tool to identify leadership strengths, gaps, and build potential leaders in your organization.
The Most Important Leadership Skills to Cultivate
To fill talent gaps in any organization, mentors need to work with mentees in reinforcing their core leadership strengths, competencies, and behaviors. Furthermore, a mentor can help introduce new and expanded skills that will serve mentees well now and in the future. A few of these skills are described in more detail below.
Communication
Communication includes many subcomponents. Proficient communication requires the following skills:
- Listening actively
- Asking questions
- Communicating effectively with others (verbally and in writing)
- Understanding personality styles
- Demonstrating emotional intelligence
Decisiveness
Team members rely on leaders to make the right decisions. A leader must process the available information and try to anticipate future outcomes. Guiding and practicing decision-making while participating in a mentoring program—and therefore, when the stakes are low—allows the mentee to grow with limited pressure and risk.
Adaptability
Business demands change daily, and rather than panicking, leaders must be flexible and demonstrate adaptability when change is suddenly imposed on them. Whether the situation involves customers, supply-chain issues, employee turnover, or teams failing to meet expectations, leaders need to focus on how to reach goals when changing dynamics are at play.
Problem-Solving
Leaders face a multitude of problems and issues every day. They need to be able to diagnose the root cause of a problem or issue and find the appropriate resolution. Regardless of whether challenges are internal or external, being able to lead others effectively through problematic situations will build confidence and loyalty in their teams. Additionally, learning how to apply creativity to the problem-solving process when resources are limited is crucial to guiding teams toward a positive outcome.
Different Types of Leadership Mentoring
When considering a mentoring program for your organization, it is important to determine what can be implemented successfully, provide the most value for your people, and integrate with other talent-development activities. Consider these four common mentoring approaches when structuring your program:
1. One-on-One Mentoring
This traditional method involves the mentor and mentee working together on various projects and growth strategies. In this scenario, the mentor and mentee meet periodically to discuss needs, evaluate progress, provide advice, and create a forward-looking plan of action.
The benefit of this form of mentoring is that the mentee has easy access to their mentor to ask questions, seek support, and receive feedback. The mentee receives expertise from a skilled mentor that best suits their learning preferences and needs. It also develops a deeper relationship between the mentor and mentee.
2. Group Mentoring
In this scenario, one mentor will work with multiple mentees in a group format. Often conducted in roundtable-style meetings, a mentor can provide direction, model key behaviors, provide direction, and challenge the thinking of mentees. The mentor and mentees can work together to exchange expertise and set each other up for success in their work.
If you have a small number of mentors or your mentors have limited time, group mentoring allows multiple mentees to engage in the development process simultaneously. This group approach also helps to build internal networks where mentees can support each other and serve as a sounding board once the formal mentorship is completed.
3. Self-Mentoring
When motivated leaders want to take learning into their own hands, they can “self-mentor” or develop their skills on their own time using tools such as books, learning management systems (LMS), and virtual or live workshops.
This form of mentoring is good for self-starters who may have to wait to start a formal or structured mentorship and would prefer to get going right away. It also allows them to explore different ways to learn and enhance their skills.
4. Reverse Mentoring
Reverse mentoring happens when team members develop, guide, or teach something new to senior leadership. This creates a balanced mentorship between both parties because they learn from each other. For example, a team member could introduce a new technological tool to improve operations while a senior leader can provide ideas or suggestions on how to communicate differently when working with senior leaders or less-savvy technology users.
Reverse mentoring is a great resource when an organization has hit a plateau with operations. Getting fresh and refined guidance from both parties can create new perspectives and solutions to problems that would not have been thought of before.
Building a Sustainable Leadership-Mentoring Culture
Building a lasting leadership-mentoring culture requires thoughtful planning and effort. To be successful, organizations must follow a series of steps to create a world-class program and sustainable mentoring mindset.
Define the Framework for the Mentoring Program
First and foremost, define what your organization aims to achieve with its mentoring program. Prioritize the most important goals and objectives, such as knowledge-sharing, cultivating top talent from within, or accelerating career advancement. Collecting input from key stakeholders ensures the program meets both organizational priorities and individual growth needs and objectives.
Next, design or implement a general model that mentors can follow when mentoring team members. Provide a framework that offers enough flexibility for mentors to add their personal touch to each relationship. The mentoring culture will strengthen as mentors work together to create better experiences and learning opportunities for mentees.
Identify and Select Your Mentors
The next most critical step is to identify who your designated mentors will be. Mentors should be skilled leaders with good interpersonal skills who are capable of providing constructive coaching, feedback, and guidance. Selecting the wrong individuals as mentors can undermine and damage the program’s reputation and the credibility of the experience. Mentors can be hand-selected, nominated by leaders or peers, or selected through a formal process. Keep in mind that these individuals will be developing your talent pipeline so you need to select them with care.
Match Mentors and Mentees Well
The right mentor-mentee relationship is crucial for a mentoring program to be meaningful and productive. When pondering potential matches, consider the personalities, learning styles, and end goals of each party. The wrong match can derail what could otherwise be a great development opportunity.
Provide An Orientation to the Mentoring Process
While mentors may have a lot of experience in formal leadership and management roles, they may lack specific tools, tips, and guiding frameworks to cultivate an effective mentoring relationship. Providing both parties with a basic orientation to the process and expectations related to mentoring will help build a strong foundation for success.
- For Mentors: Introduce them to the mentoring process, provide them with a toolkit of resources they can apply, define their role and responsibilities, address common challenges, and provide useful tips.
- For Mentees: Provide context as to why they have been selected for the mentorship. Explain their role and responsibilities in the process and provide information about how a mentee can engage the mentor in helping them to reach their goals, whether that’s advancing in their career, deepening their technical knowledge, or improving their leadership skills.
This doesn’t need to be a complex effort and can be done in person, virtually, or through a digital format.
Share Consistent Feedback
Mentors need to give consistent and constructive feedback to their mentees to ensure their growth. Make sure mentors give relevant feedback to their mentees so they understand where they are excelling and where improvements need to be made.
To maintain a mentoring culture within your organization, emphasize to everyone that the focus of the mentoring process is primarily on growth and not always on performance.
Celebrate Successes
As each mentorship moves in a positive direction, make sure to celebrate and share these success stories with members of the organization. Don’t limit the definition of success to when someone gets promoted; instead, focus on moments when team members have applied a new capability that has created a meaningful result.
Recommended: How to Create a Leadership-Development Plan in 9 Steps
Create Exceptional Mentors and Future Leaders with CMOE
Great leadership rarely appears on its own—it’s achieved through hard work, dedication, and proper guidance. Whether you’re seeking to improve your team’s mentoring skills or establish a mentorship training program for your emerging leaders, CMOE can help you navigate complexities and streamline your efforts, all while saving you valuable time and resources.
Our workshop, Mentoring for Success, is built on proven methodologies and approaches to ensure that your people have the tools they need to drive effective mentoring relationships and build your organization’s mentorship culture. Contact us for more information about our Mentoring for Success workshop.
