Yup – we’re still planning and launching your mentoring program. Today I want to talk just a little bit about how to actually, formally start the mentoring plan. It’s actually very easy.

You’ve already decided who is going to be a mentor and who needs mentoring. Those in need of mentoring have filled out their self assessment forms to help determine what career path is best. Upper management has committed to supporting the program. So what’s next?

Start by letting the entire organisation know that you’re launching a mentoring program. Let everyone know – not just the ones you’ve chosen to receive initial mentoring. The more people who know about the program the more likely they are to support it and they may just become interested in participating later.

Let your mentees know which mentor they’ve been partnered with and then give them their first challenge. The mentors are not allowed to reach out to the mentees to set up their first appointments. The mentees must take control of their futures from the start and must take complete responsibility for setting up that meeting.

Make sure the mentors have copies of the self assessment sheets their mentees completed. The mentors will use those sheets along with the information they gather at the first meeting in order to begin making a plan.

Make sure the mentors and mentees are setting regular meeting schedules to track progress and make changes, if necessary. Don’t let them make excuses about not having time and don’t let them stall after one goal is met. Progress is a lifelong committment.

Setting up and launching a mentoring program is much more work than maintaining it once you have it off the ground. Don’t give up. Remain as committed to your team and their growth as you want each member to be to himself. Eventually you’ll begin to see great results!

Thanks again,

Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management

Click below for a:
FREE email course “Improve Your Management Skills”

Now that you understand the importance of having a mentoring plan in place it’s time to start building one. In order for any mentoring plan to be successful two things have to happen. First, you employees need to realize they are responsible for their own levels of success. Second, you must have support from upper management in the development and implementation of your plan.

Once you have commitment and support you can start building a mentoring program for each of your employees. You have a choice. You as a manager can do the mentoring work or you can hire a third party who will focus on mentoring full-time. No matter what you choose to do you must make sure your organisation understands the following points:

• Your employees need to be able to clearly identify the paths they want to take in their own careers.
• Your employees must feel like a valuable part of the overall team.
• Your organisation must be ready to spend time on training your employees so that they can reach their individual career goals.
• Your organisation must be willing to look internally when it is time to hire for new positions rather than immediately looking to hire from the outside.
• Your employees must feel as though the company cares about their futures.

Is your organisation willing to make a few changes in both mindset and procedure in order to help foster the growth of your current employees? They should. After all, it costs less to keep an employee than it does to hire a new one. Keep that in mind.

Thanks again,

Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Manager Training

Click below for a:
FREE email course “Improve Your Management Skills”

You have a problem.

As a manager, you are responsible for making sure your employees have mentors. The problem you have is that your company may or may not support the mentoring process. It’s a shame, and it’s something you’ll have to deal with.

Last week we spend some time talking about coaching, which is great. But let’s not forget that coaching is completely different from mentoring, which is your ability to help someone grow in their immediate, professional career.

There are several reasons why companies today don’t focus on mentoring:

• Downsizing has increased workloads and people feel as though they simply don’t have the time to devote to mentoring;
• Upper management doesn’t understand that there really is a ROI when it comes to taking the time out to mentor others;
• Managers aren’t properly trained as to how to become good mentors, likely because they haven’t received mentoring themselves; and
• Some employers find mentoring useless because they think their employees will likely move on to another position or company eventually anyway.

I personally think these are terrible reasons to avoid mentoring. They all reflect one problem – a huge lack of committment to your company, to yourself, and to your employees. The same goes for your employees – they lack a committement to themselves. as well.

The truth is that you need to find the time and/or money for mentoring, whether you realize it or not. The benefits far outweigh the risks any day. And not having a mentoring program could prove detrimental to your team and your company as a whole.

Thanks again,

Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Course

Click below for a:
FREE email course “Improve Your Management Skills”

As a manager you will have an important and unique role – one you may not have expected to adopt. You’ll be not only a manager but a mentor as well. Being a mentor means being able to communicate with your team members, or those you are mentoring, on a more personal level in order to help them develop the skills essential to growth and improvement.

Good mentors are able to embrace and develope four main skills. Without these skills you will not be able to communicate with or aid in the enhancement of anyone’s performance. These skills are as follows:

• Observation skills are important because you must be able to see and understand what the person you are mentoring is currently doing and/or is capable of.
• Analytical skills will give you the tools you need in order to determine where the person you are working with is falling short and what changes may need to be made.
• Questioning and active listening skills are essential. When mentoring, you don’t feed the person you are working with a set of detailed instructions. You have to probe and ask questions about what he does and does not understand. You’re not a teacher, you’re a guide. If you don’t ask questions and listen to the answers you won’t know what needs to be done next.
• Feedback skills are incredibly important as well. You must be able to give honest feedback in the form of constructive criticism. Negative feedback isn’t appropriate in most mentoring situations. You must be able to correct the actions and behaviours of your trainee without making him feel as though he failed at a task. Embrace the learning curve.

Have you taken the time to develop these mentoring skills? If not, get started. 2010 will be a long year full of confusion – for you and your teammates – if you don’t.

Thanks again,
Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Leadership Development

Click below for a:
FREE email course “Improve Your Management Skills”

When you begin coaching or mentoring new employees you may find yourself stuck in a difficult situation. In short, many people don’t know how to get started and, once they’re on a roll, they don’t know when to end the mentor/mentee relationship.

As you get started, keep in mind that there are four main phases of mentoring.

First you must establish some sort of rapport with your mentee. You need to spend some time getting to know each other while at the same time identifying some of his work habits, thought processes, and ethical beliefs. This should give you an idea of how easy it will (or will not be) to guide him.

Once you’ve gotten to know each other you’ll need to set a direction for your mentoring. You’ll want to develop a plan of action with specific, identifiable goals. Use both your mentee’s desires and your own experience to set goals appropriate for his level of experience.

You will, of course, want to begin making progress. This means identifying what work your mentee has that can be applied towards your mentoring goals, assigning new projects (if you are also the employee’s manager),  and providing a certain amount of training and/or resources.

Finally, once your mentee is comfortable in his job role, you should simply move on. You don’t have to make yourself unavailable to your mentee, but at some point you’ll have to cut your ties enough to let him do his job on his own. Besides, by then you may have someone else waiting in the wings for your time and attention.

Do you have a specific mentoring program in your workplace? If so, how does it work? Do you have mentoring groups or do you form one on one relationships?

Thanks again,
Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Training Courses

Click below for a:
Free email course “Improve your Management Skills”