If your mentors have the wrong mindset, they will harm your mentees and destroy your talent pipeline. In that case, you are better off not even starting a mentoring program.
This article is for HR Business Partners who create mentoring programs, and for the 100.000s of mentors, who have the heart to empower other people to grow.
Through our work with mentors and mentees, we see that many organizations provide too little guidance and training before mentoring starts. Often, mentoring programs are set up in a hurry with little funding, and the expectations to the program are unrealistically high; “we need a succession plan and bench-strength, so let’s do some mentoring:…
We also experience mentor training programs, that over-focus on the mechanical process of mentoring. They spend several days on training the GROW model. Others leave the entire mentoring process to the mentor to design and conduct, and send their highly motivated mentors off with a “good luck and have fun”.
It’s very inconsistent, and the mentee depends on being lucky to be paired with a naturally gifted manager - who is now also a mentor.
Therefore, I would like to share 6 mindset-hacks for impactful mentors, who work with mentees who are still at a career-developing level. Probably up-to an age of 30-35 years. Some of you may say that it is too “soft”, but we experience that the most impactful mentors are good exactly in these areas. So we invite you to review your mentor work and hope that you will find some inspiration below:
The 6 midset-hacks for impactful mentors
1 - HUMILITY
You have been invited into someone’s life and you are about to hear and see things that will make the mentee feel vulnerable. This requires your respect, empathy, care and a humble approach.
2 - CLARITY
Be clear on your mentor role, and avoid becoming a coach, consultant or counsellor. Agree with your mentee what a good outcome looks like in a simple and profound way. Be ready to update the goals along the way, but make sure that it is a intentional decision by the mentee.
3 - EMPOWERMENT
Be 100% empathic when you listen, question and communicate. Trust your mentee 100%. Don’t make them feel that they have to earn your trust and remember, that they may have a boss that fail exactly in this area.
4- ALWAYS CONSTRUCTIVE
Always be constructive in the way you provide feedback, develop goals and hold them accountable. Never ever make your mentee feel weak.
5 - DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE
You are the mentor because you have seen and done things that your mentee has not yet experienced. You need to find a balance between evoking insights through questions (don’t over-coach!) and making your insights available without trying to clone the mentee in to a mini-you.
6 - TRUTHFUL CHAMPIONING
Enable your mentee to feel strong and believe in their abilities by focusing on their strengths, instead of telling them unreal and inflated stories about how great they are.
And last, but definitely not least:
Reflect on what you experience in the process, and use this to upgrade your own leadership practice. And share it with your mentee, so that they can become an impactful mentor too.
Being a mentor is a big responsibility , and it is fantastic that you commit yourself, your expertise and your time. We need many more mentors in the world, so please help to create more mentorship programs in your organization and community.
If you want to know more about our mentoring programs, please reach out to me.
Yours,
Henrik