Harvard Business Publishing

Dear Tammy,

Strong enugh reason for share my story. I think a mentor is a guide who can help the mentee to find the right direction and who can help them to develop solutions to career issues. And I am lucky enough to have one in the form of Naresh Jhangiani, Global Head- Human Resources, Satyam BPO. He is my mentor for over three years. He provides me with an opportunity to think about my career options, plans and progress. At the same time, mentors rely upon having had similar experiences to gain an empathy with the mentee and an understanding of their issues.

Dear Kulwinder,

Thank you for sharing that great story. I'd love to hear how the relationship formed, and any advice you might have for others who would love to have a similar mentor relationship. Was your mentor assigned to you, and you were lucky to be an excellent match? Did you seek him out? Did you initially get to know each other in the context of specific work projects and then extend into more personal discussions over time?

Many people would love to have a great mentor relationship -- how did you form yours?

Thank you again,

Tammy

Another mentoring approach that is catching on and is quite successful is FLASH MENTORING. Flash mentoring is defined as a one-time meeting or discussion that enables an individual to learn and seek guidance from a more experienced person who can pass on relevant knowledge and experience. The purpose of flash mentoring is to provide a valuable learning opportunity for less experienced individuals while requiring a limited commitment of time and resources for more experienced individuals serving as mentors. While mentors and mentees can mutually decide to meet again after their flash mentoring session, the commitment is to participate only in the initial meeting.

Interested in which direction this discussion takes.

Comment from a lifelong worker type.
How much emphasis has been given to the thoughts, feelings, MOTIVATION of the worker?
Again, FROM A LIFELONG WORKER-TYPE, if the job is satisfying, self-fulfilling, EGO-BOOSTING, doesn't matter what the job IS, the worker will be a good worker.
A garbage man makes a considerable contribution to society. And there is no reason he shouldn't be proud of the job he is doing, or unreliable because he is treated as if he wasn't an admirable individual.

Lee Taylor

I happen to agree with the four stages for mentoring. The most important aspect of the mentoring process is that it is reciprocal, and both parties can gain from the process. I think that at the end of any mentoring process, 360-feedback should be given that way both parties that got to know one another can realize both their strengths as leaders as well as their weaknesses in the forms of blind-spots. Every mentoring program should end with some sort of feedback mechanism, perhaps a 360.

Hi!

I really like the openness that you encourage in the workplace. This past summer, I spent time interning with a bunch of older, more experienced employees. Since the CEO made a point to give me a task that required me to work with upper-management. The management team contacted me on the first day explaining that they would be available for questions etc. By the second week, we were working in collaboration and came up with a new marketing initiative (I brought them new ideas about using the internet and they explained to me who the company's target audience was). TOGETHER, we created a successful marketing campaign. As path-goal theory would suggest, there are time when the supportive leadership style is needed. And the openness of the company enabled me to become an effective worker for the company. My question would be....do you suggest maintaining this type of openness at all times? Can't this become a burden if a younger employee is overly inquisitive?

In reference to your previous post, as a member of generation Y this gift culture will become extremely important for development of generation Y employees as they enter into the workforce. It is extremely important that the gift culture exists to avoid new employees tendency to not ask questions because they are intimidated. I first learned about gift culture from your co-authored article with Gratton 8 Ways to Build Collaborative Teams. Subordinates need to have this gift culture in order to grow. I think that if there had been a stronger gift culture at my previous job, I would have learned much more that I did.

I concur that the "gift culture" is important and recognize an important distinction from the "intimidation culture". Mentoring can sometimes be hampered by intimidating tactics. Perhaps how to reduce intimidation in cultures becomes the question. Ofttimes, successful leaders have become so by either being intimidating or using intimidation; Thus, when they are selected as mentors they sometimes advise intimidation. Mentoring training is important; but, again it is subjective. Some assert that intimidation works so use it. Others will advise tactics with less side effects like "performance agreements" supported by communication, communication, communication.

Hi Tammy,

Thanks for writing on this important topic. I would like to share that it's important to not confuse terms when seeking assistance from someone. Gifting means that someone can gift as a coach, a mentor, a colleague, etc. But it's important to know which you want/need before approaching someone. For example, I think that the concept of Flash mentoring is actually more akin to coaching since mentoring requires certain amount of time to develop whereas coaching does not.

I teach people on how to find a mentor and, as you would expect, most find the hardest part is asking the person to serve in that role. To reduce this anxiety, I suggest that you just have an exploratory conversation about an area of interest of yours and this makes it easier to determine if the person is right for you and, if so, will make the act of asking a lot easier.

vidence. At the most, they have been taught in high school what to think; few of them how to think. Our attempts both in college and at future workplaces is to remedy this problem, since we have to prepare the younger generation, no matter how labeled, to cope with the irresponsibility of the current mass media, who exploits the public taste for nonsense; the irrationality of the American world- view, which supports Hi Tammy,
The issues that you are permanently raising, serving them in little dishes, trying to clarify them and finally all this resulting into series of books to be read are to vague for me and scattered around. I have no doubts that you and other people concerned with the younger generation find the topics relevant enough to comment upon, seek additional advise,etc, but for me the most important issue remains the ineffectiveness of public education, which generally fails to teach students the essential skills of critical thinking. Most of the freshman and sophomore students in my classes simply do not know how to draw reasonable conclusions from such unsupportable claims as life after death and the efficacy of the polygraph,etc. Our task as mentors should include the clarification of the scientific method and what it is about, so that can evaluate evidence,as well as simple rules to follow,when considering any claim, so that they can apply those rules to the examination of any paranormal claim. Before mentoring this and that-"A Field Guide to Critical Thinking" is worth considering. I will use the opportunity to wish to you and your colleagues A MERRY CHRISTMAS and a Truly Happy-2009 Year!

Thank you, Ms. Erickson, for writing this article. I would like to add a little twist. Mentoring the Gen Y'ers is a great way to incorporate new ideas into an organization while teaching younger employees; at the same time, mentoring older, more established employees also has benefits to the organization that it may not be tapping into.

I had an opportunity to enter a mentoring/leadership program in my late 40's. As a long-time employee, I had become a little stale and disenchanted. However, because of this experience, and the wonderful mentor who worked with me, I was able to learn more about the organization and how I could further it's goals, etc. I took what I learned back with me and was able to infuse this information into some of my coworkers. This has had the effect of causing others to see their work as a real asset to the organization. This awareness has lead to greater productivity and job satisfaction which has translated into greater customer satisfaction. This has been verified through annual surveys with our customer base. Mentoring affects the bottom line of our organization.

Thanks, again, for writing this article. Merry Christmas and a Healthy, Happy, and Prosperous New Year to all!

Tamara,

Good post but on a subject I personally feel can never be represented in a good light. For every mentored person there are many wishing to be mentored, but for whatever reason are not selected. The entire idea is discriminatory and simply not fair in my judgment. Leaders in this age of enlightenment armed with readily available tools can easily mentor his/her entire organization rather than singling out selected individuals for special executive time. Traditional mentoring programs fail because rank and file see this effort as unfair, unnecessary and discriminatory. Leadership using available tools and acting in public view, leading by their actions as opposed to creating another program are viewed as the best mentors, their actions lead and guide. Create HR systems that truly promote the most qualified people and stop worrying about selecting people far down the food chain for special treatment is what's needed.

Mark

I have been extremely fortunate in my career to have had THREE fabulous mentors.

The process that led me to these wonderful people was as much my inquisitive nature and (sometimes) relentless questioning as the mentors' desire to help the "bright kid get better".

In each instance, I began the process by seeking out an individual with specific knowledge around issues in the business and asking for advice, direction, and even sometimes just HELP!! Each of the mentors responded with helping me set goals, direction, answering technical issues, but mostly just listened and let me come to my own conclusions. They knew which questions to ask to lead me "down the right path". I know at times my questioning became too much adn at those times, the mentors pushed back and forced me to make the decision without their guidance.

None of the mentoring was "formal" or even "structured". I don't know if it had been more formal that I would have gained as much from the experiences as I did.