Mentoring - A Word to the Wise

Truly great leaders excel at mentoring and developing those around them. If you accept this premise as correct, then why is it that so many in positions of leadership fall woefully short in successfully transferring the benefits of their wisdom and experience to others? All too often there is a great difference between someone who holds a leadership position, and that of a mature, effective leader.

As a leader your success can only be found in one measure: whether or not those you lead are better off as a result of being led by you. We have long held that the great privilege of leadership carries with it an even greater responsibility; the obligation of service. Once a person assumes a leadership role, they automatically inherit the responsibility for the care, well-being, and overall stewardship of those they lead. While some refer to the aforementioned demands as the burdens of leadership, We like to think of them as the primary benefits of leadership.

However in today's business; mentoring is part of a leader’s job description. Your obligation as a leader is to develop people to their full potential. All successful organizations create a culture where the acquisition, development, implementation, and transfer of skills and knowledge are highly valued. This type of culture simply cannot exist where the practice of mentoring is not a top down initiative.

Leaders must not only embrace mentoring, they must become its champion. Following is a list of 5 simple rules that all leaders can turn to help improve their mentoring efforts:

1. Trust: Any relationship between mentor and mentee that is not built upon a foundation of mutual trust and respect won’t be productive, and won’t last. Being a mentor has nothing to do with being arrogant, condescending, or patronizing in an attempt to demonstrate your knowledge, and the mentee’s lack thereof.
2. Mentoring Requires a Mutual Commitment: Your mentee will only be as committed to the process as you are. If you’re not totally committed to the success of your mentee, they will only pay you the same lip service in return for that which you’re giving them. Likewise, a healthy and productive mentoring relationship cannot be built upon on a one-way street from the mentor to the mentee. While a mentor can be committed and provide excellent advice, the harsh reality is that you cannot mentor someone who doesn’t want to be a mentee.  Those who seek shelter in the wisdom of sound counsel must also be willing to take refuge there. Those unwilling to do the latter really don’t value the former.
3. Walk the Talk: Who is your mentor? Learning is a life-long endeavor, and you don’t simply reach a magical place in life where you become the all knowing mentor who no longer has anything to learn. Your mentoring efforts will be better received, and will be more productive if you are not just a mentor, but a mentee as well. Make it a point to communicate how much you believe in the process of being mentored by telling your mentee how you’ve benefited from mentors past and present.     
4. Choosing Your Mentees: There is simply not enough time in the day for you to become everyones mentor. You cannot do it, so don’t even bother trying. This begs the question of who you should personally mentor, and why? Aside from other essential aspects of mentoring that have already been mentioned, mentors must keep in mind their overarching obligation to the organization…the business purpose if you will. Leaders need to evaluate coaching and mentoring decisions based upon the potential ROI vs. the potential risk. Only invest your time where the biggest returns or the largest risks can be impacted. As a leader your first responsibility is to the greater good of the organization, and if your mentoring time is invested in non productive efforts then you’re not catalyzing progress, you are gating it. One of the toughest things for a leader to come to grips with is that not everyone can be saved. If time squandered with an individual is adversely impacting the greater organization, then you cannot continue to invest time there. 
5. Ownership: Don’t view mentoring as just another development initiative and pass the buck to HR. Effective mentoring programs while led from the top down, are decentralized and driven down to lowest possible levels of the organization. Everyone should be included in some form or fashion. As noted above, you cannot do it all yourself, but you can create an enterprise wide framework that makes sure that nobody falls through the cracks. As noted above, not everyone may be a good choice for you to personally mentor, but if a person in worthy of being a part of your organization to begin with, then they are worthy of someone’s attention and efforts as a mentor.

If you would like more information about leadership and mentoring, please This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Bukky Olaleye is a business mentor with Princes Trust and NWDA Mentoring Programme

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