Accredited mentor

What is a good mentoring program? Part II

THE STANDARTS FOR MENTORING PROGRAMS

 

Snippets of mentoring conversations.

***

– Hi Lina, Aurelie just called and he still doubts we are ready to start. The purpose of our mentoring program is still unclear to her. She says that in the previous mentoring program it was absolutely clear who, to whom, and the like.

And now, there are some more uncertainties for her.  Maybe we should review ourselves again and then meet all the managers again? So that no one has questions anymore and everyone understands in the same way what, how and why we do.

***

– Listen, I have achieved so much in my field! I have agreed to mentor and share my knowledge, and you tell me that there are some other competencies I need? And that I should take this into account?  You may not have used the dictionary? Do you know a definition of mentoring?  Mentoring is the help of the more experienced for the less experienced. And that’s it. What other competencies? What other training? I will help as I wish!  

***

– Maybe you can take a look today at the document I sent you. There I wrote down the criteria according to which the system would allow to choose the most suitable mentor for the mentee. The point is that the system automatically selects the three most suitable mentors, and then the mentee himself can decide which mentor to apply for mentoring. Like that we will keep the nuances of freedom and responsibility, because mentees will be able to choose a mentors for themselves. And at the same time, we will allow them to choose only those who can help them the most, based on certain criteria.

***

– It’s been a full month since the start of our third mentoring program. I am so happy and hope that we already have the seeds of mentoring culture!

Yesterday, what I had been waiting for a long time happened at the meeting

 Imagine, again, we tried to find a solution to that stuck project where opinions clashed between departments. Every leader in the meetings kept trying to prove he was the most right.

And today, completely unexpectedly, I heard Mark say to Idu “your idea is quite good, maybe after a little adjustment it could work”.

 It seems to me that that proposal has been made many times before, only that there was no desire to hear and appreciate it.

In the past, those two only communicated through joint meetings, they did not encounter anywhere else. And the opinions about each other’s unit weren’t the best. One shouted that we know best because we work directly with clients, and another shouted that you are stuck in everyday life and no longer see the bigger picture.

 What has changed?

It turns out Mark was the mentor of one of Ido’s employees. And by interacting with that mentee, he unknowingly learned more about how Ido’s unit works. And what he learned, he quite liked. And then the desire to hear and consider the opinion of another appeared.  

– Well, it’s enough about that, better tell me how the mentoring program itself is going, what problems are we facing, what help was needed? Did anyone need to change the mentor?  

***

– Did Marius really sign the mentoring agreement? His behavior shows that he has heard nothing about confidentiality in mentoring! As I was just passing by, I heard him sharing fragments of his conversation with mentee in the office. Maybe we can talk to him and remind him of his responsibility and agreement?

***

Mentor:

-That’s all, I don’t know how to behave anymore, Agnes does not follow our agreements at all, she does not prepare for meetings. Looks like she’s just coming to chat with me and then she doesn’t do anything. I feel like I’m wasting my time. I need help because I already want to quit everything.

Mentoring program manager:

– I have a Zoom meeting in 10 minutes, but it will only take 30 minutes, so if you call me an hour later we could talk about it.

So what are the standards of a mentoring program?

  • Clarity of purpose.
  • Stakeholder training and briefing.
  • Process for selection and matching.
  • Process for measurement and review.
  • Maintains high standard of ethics.
  • Administration and support.

So if your program meets these standards you can expect success.

Don’t stumble while implementing. A lot of companies fall asleep after the matching phase. It looks like a mentor and a mentee are there, and then you can already be calm down.

 Definitely not. It’s just the beginning. There may be many more nuances to deal with in the process in order to really succeed.

By the way, snippets of conversations are real, heard during interviews, sharing stories. Of course the names and form were changed, but the essence remained the same.

Why are you interested in a mentoring culture? I look forward to your thoughts!  

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