For those of us deep into our careers, it’s difficult to remember what it was like to get that first internship or entry-level job. Wide-eyed and unsure of the dynamics of a workplace, each new generation of workers comes along, looking to those before them to show them the ropes.
It’s tough though, with full inboxes and dozens of voicemails to return, to find the time to help this new generation of workers grow and learn.
Mentorship is important when running a successful business and can be mutually beneficial to both the mentor and mentee. It helps both managers and their employees grow as professionals, leads to fewer mistakes, helps the company get better as a whole and gives employees better job satisfaction so that they want to stay longer and learn and grow with the company.
Not sure when or how to implement mentorship into your business? Here are our top tips for providing better mentorship in your work environment:
Establish Goals
Sit down with your mentee and determine what each of you would like to gain from the relationship. Make a list of achievable short and long-term goals and review the list often to ensure you’re headed in the right direction.
Schedule Regular Meetings and Stick to It
Consistency is key to the success of anything, so be sure to carve out time to meet with your mentee regularly. We’re all busy, and it’s easy for other, more urgent, meetings to come up, but finding a time that works for the mentor and mentee and sticking to it as often as possible will deliver better overall results.
Communication is Key
Mentors and mentees should give each other feedback, both for successes and failures so that they can over time better develop their relationship and what they’re each gaining from one another. If something’s not working, let your mentor/mentee know and adjust accordingly. If something is working well, share that information too so the relationship can continue on that path.
Listen
As mentors, we feel the need to give or show our mentees something, but sometimes we can do more for them just by listening. Take the time to really hear what’s working or not working for your mentee so that you can focus on topics most relevant to their current situation or future goals. The mentee and mentor can both practice “active listening,” which involves taking notes and providing nonverbal cues to show the speaker that you’re engaged.
Develop a Variety of Relationships
Mentors and mentees can gain a lot from each other, but if possible, it’s important to develop a variety of these relationships so that each can gain a number of different perspectives. This also allows the mentors and mentees to find the best partnerships throughout the office.
Unsure whether mentorship is right for your business? Take for example the results of the 2013 Vestrics study of Sun Microsystem's mentorship program:
Employee retention rates climbed 69 percent for the mentors and 72 percent for the mentees over the seven-year period of the study. The increased retention resulted in a savings of $6.7 billion in avoided staff turnover and replacement costs.
As American businessman John Crosby said, “Mentoring is a brain to pick, an ear to listen, and a push in the right direction.” If you take the time to do these things with your employees, you, your employees and your business will flourish.
In today's world, an alarming number of employees and managers are checked out, good mentorship is just one way way to keep employees engaged.
