Cancel your workplace mentoring program

You know the life-long value of mentoring.  And you know that genuine mentoring is not coaching or networking, and is much more than getting coffee with your friend every few weeks. So, where do you start to create sustainable, workplace-based mentoring?  

Here are four steps:

1.        Set up a mentor-mentee pairing process

Begin by defining the criteria for the selection process. Start qualifying the mentors and the mentees, and identify the pairs based on the criteria defined.

Technologies such as apps or algorithms may be of some help to pair up employees. Ask both mentors and mentees to complete profiles, and then make pairs based on backgrounds and preferences. If you are adopting a mentoring process from another organization, be mindful that there is no standard formula to pair up employees.  Instead, customize based on your organization’s size, geographies and functional groups.

2.       Add formal training

Formal training/orientation activities like webinars/seminars, or online training can be included but can easily be summarized in a best-practices document with recommended schedules and FAQs.

3.      ‘Charter’ the mentor relationship

The pairs ‘own’ their relationship:  objectives, timeframes, methods and frequency of communicating.  Provide a structured outline and a short coaching meeting to get each pair underway, and ask the pairs to sign their mentoring charter.

4.      Evaluate the process for each mentor-mentee pair

Evaluation factors should be agreed up-front and then the sponsoring organization should survey early in the relationship, such as 90 days in, and when each milestone is reached. 

And yes, I said to cancel your existing program because mentoring programs run their life-cycles and disappear, making it more difficult to resurrect the program later.  Replace your top-down mentoring program with a peer-led mentoring process that starts in the workplace and lasts a lifetime.