How can you create a mentoring framework that fits your company culture?

The other questions I would add are: how do learning and employee development align with your company values? does top management understand why we need mentoring as an everyday activity of each employee? Lead as an example is almost the only way to provide a learning culture in the company. Whatever HR or TDS say, if my boss does not believe in this idea, I will not prioritize it.

You should be ready for the long journey. When we decided to renew our assessment approach for external candidates, it took us several iterations of testing in different departments and countries to understand all the details of the process. And that is just the process. But if you add the idea of content renewal, legal issues, local market peculiarities... Definitely, agile approach here is a must. If you only think of the mentoring framework, but not doing it, you will not know which "no"s you have from your employees.

I choose different approaches to mentoring process for each new project. It depends on the budget, number of participants and their motivation. If you have a huge group (50+ people), self-study, group Q&A sessions and final individual 1-on-1s with checked home tasks are rather optimal. But if we are talking about 5 people, individual mentoring from the very beginning is more effective. Anyway, your target should be not just thinking of how to create and manage a connection between mentor and mentee, but how to make mentors and mentees communities work together and help each other.

I prefer -Short-term, once weekly -informal -1on1s for 1 hour Either online or hybrid works well for me as it gives me an opportunity to get to know my mentees. And also helps me understand their pain and struggles at whatever stage they are in their business setup.

I believe this step should come before the others. To know how to support mentees, you need to understand their unique needs a d circumstances first.

If we say about the reward for contribution, you should remember not just about money, but about other recognition technics: articles and public rewards, barter, feedback and title promotion, skills development and recommendations. The best mentors and the ones, who where mentored before.

Mentoring coordinator, the responsible person is very important on this way. Mentor should feel that they are experts in their field, not in LMS administration and tech support. That will lead them back to the next iteration of mentoring framework. Also, you should have timeline and somebody outside the pair mentor-mentee to control the deadlines. When I talk to my mentee, I understand all the circumstances he or she faced to. But the "outside" person can help me to fit the deadlines and consider important management directives I was not thinking of inside the situation.

How my business mentorship journey began: Jumping from a regular job to starting a business was a big struggle. I handled it all – from sorting paperwork, business registration, searching for a strategic location, setting up the office, logistics, hiring, and marketing. It was daunting. Eventually, things settled and clients started signing up. That wasn't smooth either. But my experience encouraged me to start mentoring other individuals facing similar challenges. The entrepreneurship journey can be lonely. But it is also rewarding. The excitement of starting something new and becoming your boss. You also learn a lot about yourself and your capabilities. However, in this solitude, there is room for growth and transformation.