Why mentoring can be so critical to leaders

Many companies have invested in mentoring programs in hopes that the individual being mentored will obtain some benefits. The objectives of mentoring programs vary. Mentoring programs can be designed to help in the onboarding process as a means of facilitating a new employee’s entry into an organization or a new position. They can also be part of diversity management efforts to help all employees — especially women and minorities who get the visibility and connections they need to demonstrate their potential for top-level management positions. However, the greatest value might actually be obtained by the mentor, who in fact may be an under-appreciated key to leaders’ success.

To understand the benefits of mentoring, researchers have viewed the relationship as analogous to parent-child attachment. In the same way we think of the mentoring as primarily benefiting the person being mentored, the attention in the parent-child duality is on what the child obtains from the mere presence of the parent. With the mother or father present, a child has a secure base from which he or she can explore the world, the parent offering protection should the need arise. Successful attachments enhance feelings of efficacy and enable the individual, even later in life, to deal with stressful situations. But the parent also derives many benefits from the relationship; by being needed by the child, parents satisfy their need to nurture, and their own sense of efficacy is enhanced by seeing the child develop and grow successfully. Parents often use children’s friends to create their own friendship situations with other parents. Moreover, as the children get older, it is not unusual to see them expose their parents to innovative trends, such as in technology, music and networking.

If attachments can have such an impact upon a parent, it should not come as a surprise that  acting as a mentor can benefit leaders, and in fact actually be required for leader success. In the same way a child can help to create new relationships for the parent, a protégé can grow the network and relationships for a mentor —for example, exposing the mentor to an entirely new group, such as younger (e.g., millennial) talent. By virtue of their youth and being less inhibited in trying new things, protégés can also experiment on new projects and, if successful, the mentor will share in the credit insofar as the protégé is under the tutelage of the mentor.  Moreover, the mentor can ask a protégé to try a risky endeavor and, if it unsuccessful, the damage to the mentor is mitigated because it can be labeled as the protégé’s project. When mentoring someone of a different gender or minority group, the mentor can learn to look at issues from other perspectives. And, of course, having a group of protégés who are loyal to the mentor provides a solid political base, as well as a pool of possible successors.

How can you enhance leaders engaging in successful mentoring? Consider the following:

1. 1. Critical activities: Structure and identity the critical activities involved in successful mentoring programs. As in any project, the goals and objectives have to be clear but, too frequently, these are not. Also, successful programs need to identify the frequency of meetings, topics of discussion and projects which the mentor and protégé work on.
   2. Training for leaders: Leaders have to understand the value that mentoring has for them. In other words, yes, mentoring is a good thing to do to help others, but it creates real value for the person doing the mentoring. Moreover, they need to have the communication and coaching skills needed to be a successful mentor.
   3. Reward and Recognition: To send a message that mentoring is so important for the success of the organizations, leaders need to be rewarded and recognized for it. Also, serving as a mentor should be included as part of leader’s responsibilities for talent management and evaluated accordingly. This will not only increase the likelihood that leaders will engage in appropriate mentoring activities with their protégés but also help make mentoring an important part of the organization’s culture.
   4. Matching: Rather than just randomly assigning mentors with proteges, this should be done based on the proteges’ needs, interests, and values and what the mentor can provide them. To facilitate effective mentoring relationships, many organizations are using software to help identify the best-matching mentors and proteges based on assessments of their values, interests, experience, and skill strengths and weaknesses.
   5. Follow-up: Frequent check-ins with mentors and proteges can help identify what’s working and what is needed to help relationships succeed. Capture the data and use it in formulating new matches.

References:

Wang, S., Greenberger, D.B., Noe, R.A. & Fan, J. (2017). The development of mentoring relationships: An attachment theory perspective. In M.R. Buckley, J. R. B. Halbesleben, & A.R. Wheeler (eds.), Research in Personnel and Human Resource Management, 35, 53-102.

Wang, S., Noe, R.A., Wang, Z. & Greenberger, D. (2009). What affects willingness to mentor in the future? An investigation of attachment styles and mentoring experiences. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 74, 245-256.