Mentoring That Fails:  How to Defeat a Sound Concept
by Linda Gravett, Ph.D., SPHR

Over the past five years, I’ve conducted both qualitative and quantitative research with 250 medium to large organizations within the U.S.  My objective in conducting this research was to discover how poor implementation tactics could defeat a sound concept – mentoring.  In this article, I’ll share these research results and discuss how specific weaknesses in mentoring efforts can defeat the objectives of the mentor process.  I’ll also provide some concrete suggestions for building a mentorship culture within your organization.

There is ample evidence that mentoring is a sound concept as a component of an organization’s career planning and development and succession planning initiative.  The organizations I’ve worked with over the last few years have had a variety of reasons for establishing mentor initiatives.  Some have found mentoring initiatives to be a recruiting and retention tool, while others have found that mentoring is a way to ensure that employees with promise are nurtured and coached.  Others have found that mentoring can provide an opportunity for employees to build their professional network.  I think all of these are viable reasons to establish mentoring initiatives.

I’ve discovered three primary reasons for the failure of well-intentioned mentoring efforts:

• The company establishes a mentor program and then does nothing to sustain the momentum to build a mentorship culture

• Expectations for the mentor initiative aren’t established and communicated

• The right people aren’t recruited as mentors

I believe it’s essential to establish objectives for mentoring and to share those objectives with potential mentors and mentees.  When a potential mentor understands that mentoring is planned in order to promote retention or provide support for a succession plan, he or she can make an informed decision regarding whether the objectives resonate with personal interests.  If people don’t perceive a return on investment for their time for any endeavor, they’re not likely to become willing participants.

I’ve found that careful selection of mentors will support mentoring efforts.  There are five core competencies that I believe are crucial for success as a mentor:

• Ability to design quality activities and discussions with mentees

• Tolerance for others’ perspectives and viewpoints

• Active listening skills

• Ability to provide constructive criticism

• Creativity in recommending various avenues and mechanisms for mentees to develop throughout their careers

If mentors don’t have these competencies, the success of the mentor-mentee relationship will be in jeopardy.  If volunteers have potential, provide them with training before setting them up for failure.

On the other hand, employees enjoying the benefit of a mentor need to meet some expectations as well.  Mentees should have the ability to accept constructive criticism; strong communication skills so they can articulate their aspirations; and the courage to try out recommendations and ideas that are out of their comfort zone.

Mentees must clearly understand the boundaries of the mentor-mentee relationship.  Mentors are unlikely to volunteer their time if they believe that they’re likely to receive repeated phone calls after business hours, for instance.  That’s why it’s critical that designers of mentor initiatives communicate the expected outcomes and parameters to all participants.

Mentor initiatives are destined for failure if no efforts are made to sustain momentum and build a mentorship culture after the initiative is under way.  For example, mentors can suffer burnout and the mentor-mentee relationships can become stagnant.  The initiatives that have enjoyed ongoing success have some common characteristics:  the duration of the formal mentor relationship is limited to 18 months; mentees are asked to become mentors themselves at some future date; and the organization finds ways to utilize the newly-developed skills and competencies of mentees.

In light of the rapidly changing business environment in the U.S. today, I project that mentor initiatives will have to change in order to be successful.  There will undoubtedly be a rapid growth in telementoring, or using technology to connect mentors and mentees in different parts of the country or even the world.  This will necessitate excellent written communication skills for mentors and mentees, as well as the willingness to occasionally forego face to face contact.  I believe the concept of the best mentor-mentee “match” must change.  The common ground that the mentor and mentee possess should be professional interests, rather than superficial characteristics such as country club membership or college affiliation.  In short, there are new rules for mentoring in the new millennium!

If you’d like more information on this topic, please contact me at Linda@gravett.com or call me at (513)753-8870.