We’ve been collecting data across thousands of mentors and mentees in our programs for the last three years. In this webinar we will share with you the highlights of what we’ve learned about what mentees say they are seeking from their mentoring experience. There may be some surprises.
This webinar was based on findings in the 2020 Benchmark Report that can be accessed here: Benchmark Report 2020
The Indigenous Mentoring webinar will explore best practices in mentoring program delivery and how to tailor the design to Indigenous cohorts when they are mentors, mentees or both. Join our presenters as they talk to their experience of implementing Indigenous Programs and how to tailor that in particular to government applications.
Presenter
Gina Meibusch, Client Service Delivery Manager, Art of Mentoring
Guest Panellists
Karyn Ervin, Director of Inclusion, APSC
Tim Donovan, Managing Director, Warrgambi
GUEST BLOG:
Most organisations of more than a few hundred people have some experience of coaching. They may have employed a professional coach to support an executive, or given line managers some instruction on how to coach. But this is a long way from achieving a coaching and mentoring culture. Indeed, we can identify four stages of a coaching and mentoring culture:
This article explores four questions:
What do we mean by a coaching and mentoring culture?
A formal definition of a coaching and mentoring culture is that it is one, where:
Why should we want to create a coaching and mentoring culture?
The simple answer is that organisations need to be flexible and adaptable to survive and that coaching and mentoring support doing so by:
At the same time, coaching and mentoring reduce the turnover of talent; improve employee engagement and job commitment; contribute to performance at both individual and team level (the connection with business performance is less easy to demonstrate, but is a logical consequence); and are among the most effective methods of tackling issues of diversity and equal opportunities.
Studies from the US show that the performance of top teams in large companies is strongly and positively correlated with the amount of time the executives spend in coaching and being coached, or in using coaching approaches to address issues such as strategic planning.
What does a coaching and mentoring culture look like?
In a coaching and mentoring culture, people see the value of developing themselves and others – and take responsibility for both. They value time for reflection, with the result that better preparation and thinking around why things need to be done ensures that activity is more closely aligned with business priorities. People feel free to say what they think, rather than what is expected of them. They are more likely to seek their next job within the company, rather than outside. Coaching and mentoring are aligned – with coaching being focused more of skills, performance and behaviour in the current role (what do you want to achieve?); and mentoring focused more on longer term, career and more holistic outcomes (who do you want to become?).
What do we need to do to create a coaching and mentoring culture?
The first requirement in creating a coaching and mentoring culture is a strategic plan that explores all the potential components in terms of:
Typically, both coaching and mentoring deliver best results when they are closely linked to either a business objective (for example, diversity management, rapid induction of new employees, or to helping a new project team hit the ground running); or to a transition for the coachee or mentee (for example, from one level of management to another, or from good performance in an aspect of their work to great performance).
Some of the key ingredients of a coaching strategy include:
Achieving this kind of culture change doesn’t happen quickly – it may take years. The investment of money does not have to be high (indeed, top down high cost training interventions have a poor track record in terms of return on investment). What works is having a coherent, long-term and practical approach that harnesses people’s energy to improve individual and collective performance.
© David Clutterbuck, 2015
Great managers often don’t make great mentors automatically. Mentoring takes a certain skillset to get the most out of the conversation, in particular active listening. These skills can be an asset in the workplace to get the most out of direct reports. To help your mentors become good at what they do it is important to support them with training.
The word mentor appears for the first time in Greek mythology, in Homer’s epic poem, The Odyssey. Athena, the goddess of wisdom and war, took on the guise of an old man called Mentor and advised Telemachus along his journey to find his father, the king, who was fighting in the Trojan War. Mentoring is an age-old concept that exists in different forms in Indigenous communities. Whilst many have attempted to modernise the craft, it still holds a certain important role within the social fabric of all humans no matter what culture or country one stems from.
Despite mentoring’s roots within human relationships in most societies, it can still be a difficult relationship to navigate. Some do it better than others. Professor David Clutterbuck quotes from his research that 1 in 3 mentoring relationships succeed when there is no training – so that’s 2 in 3 that are likely to fail. When you train the mentor the success rate tends to double and when you train the mentee too then success rates soar.
Apart from the skills that mentors learn from training it also helps set up the most basic fundamentals such as how to build rapport and trust, getting housekeeping set up early such as meeting frequency and what mentoring looks like vs coaching.
Any mentor training should cover at the very least:
Beyond the basics, you could delve into some more advanced techniques and learnings around powerful questioning, how to effectively support change, building confidence in a mentee, helping with ethical decision making, the list goes on. In certain circumstances it is also important to consider differences between the two individuals in the relationship and preparing them for those differences. Programs for diversity objectives, such as mentoring for women and Indigenous programs, are particularly in need of these preparative measures to be put in place to remove some common pitfalls such as unconscious bias or judgements, stereotyping and handling imposter syndrome in less privileged minority groups.
If you are looking for some training for your mentors then take a look at the Art of Mentoring options here – https://artofmentoring.net/online-training-for-mentors-and-mentees/
In the meantime you are probably looking for some good articles to support your mentors with so below is a quick curation of some of our best blogs to help you.
An important skill for any mentor is to reflect on their own practice. Reflection is important at all moments of the relationship but especially important at the end. Here is a good short article on how to effectively reflect on ones experience as a mentor – https://artofmentoring.net/the-critical-art-of-reflection/
Give a person fish and feed them for a day, teach a person to fish and feed them for a lifetime. This mantra should carry over to a mentor’s goals for their mentoring relationships. The purpose of the mentor is to help their mentee thrive in the circumstances for which they are requesting guidance. Here is some helpful information on how to help a mentee thrive – https://artofmentoring.net/mentors-help-your-mentee-thrive/
Asking the right questions can be hard and asking powerful questions without them feeling mechanical or premeditated is even harder. There are many resources out there that help guide coaches and mentors on how to question effectively so here is a quick resource to get your thoughts moving around 5 different modalities of questioning – https://artofmentoring.net/five-modes-questioning/
Affected by Covid-19? Mentoring across geographies, interstate or internationally? If you answered yes to one of these then chances are that you are running a virtual mentoring relationship. These can be difficult to manage but there’s evidence that shows it has its advantages. Here is an article on how to do virtual mentoring well https://artofmentoring.net/guide-to-virtual-mentoring/
Don’t take trust for granted. Mentors often have a hard time building rapport and trust, especially if this is their first time. Actually, building trust is often counterintuitive for mentors because it requires some less natural skillsets such as listening before providing advice or demonstrating accountability (despite the fact that the mentor is likely volunteering their time). Here is an article on how to build trust – https://artofmentoring.net/mentors-build-trust/
It is Mental Health Month in Australia. We all experience sadness and stress sometimes – these are natural human responses to the challenges of life. It’s normal to feel stressed if your job security is threatened, or you don’t know how you can pay your bills, or to feel sad in response to loss. How can you distinguish these normal feelings from the mental health conditions, depression and anxiety and where can you go for help?
We asked our good friend and wellness expert Thea O’Connor for an easy-to-understand resource that you can use for reference if you suspect your mentoring partner needs specialist help (or you do).
Thea O’Connor
“I thrive on encouraging people to develop the inner attitudes, daily practices, and group norms that will allow them to live and work with zest. And it all starts with the body – the non-negotiable foundation of our lives. The human body is AMAZING and I have a deep respect for it’s intelligence and honesty.”
Website: thea.com.au
LinkedIn: Thea O’Connor
Lisa Fain, an ambassador for International Mentoring Association interviews a variety of mentoring experts about what interesting things they have discovered in their mentoring journeys and also taps into their knowledge and experiences to share with you. Today she interviews our Managing Director, Melissa Richardson.
In this podcast Melissa goes into depth on some of our most current research studies including how the #metoo movement has affected male/female mentoring relationships. She discusses our findings in intergenerational mentoring and the research project we recently released: Benchmark Report 2020. Take a listen!‘
Join Art of Mentoring‘s CEO Melissa Richardson, Senior Program Designer Gina Miebusch and guest panellists Elizabeth Foley, CEO of the Australian Institute of Project Management and Monika Cole, Executive Officer Veterinary Business and Early Career Groups, Australian Veterinary Association, as we discuss how mentoring can engage members at any level. The panel explores how mentoring can give members a feeling of belonging, provide them with ongoing, meaningful development and help retain them.
Discussion Topics:
People come to us saying they want to implement a mentoring program, and whilst they know they will be asked to submit a business case in order to get approval, they just don’t know where to start.
To make it easy for you to get internal support, we have created this Mentoring Program Business Plan Template that will take you through the key points you will need to cover, to get your mentoring program approved. Packed with our tips on program design and references for supporting information and data, we hope this will make your job much, much easier.
MEDIA RELEASE
Art of Mentoring announces the winners of their 2020 Mentor of the Year and Mentee of the Year Awards.
Art of Mentoring Awards Karen Johns, Mentor of the Year Award 2020 and Kerrie Gregory, Mentee of the Year 2020
Sydney, 2 DECEMBER, 2020: To celebrate International Mentoring Day in October, Art of Mentoring, an Australian based mentoring business and leading supplier of mentoring programs to associations, corporates, federal and local government, opened nominations for the annual mentoring awards. The company has awarded Karen Johns, the prestigious Mentor of the Year Award 2020. This year’s Mentee of the Year Award goes to Kerrie Gregory.
Ms Johns participated in the Australian Human Resources Institute (AHRI) Mentoring Program and Ms Gregory was a mentee in the NSW Department of Planning, Industry & Environment’s Women in Senior Leadership Mentoring Program.
Art of Mentoring received over 150 nominations for the coveted awards. The winners were selected on the basis of their mentoring partners’ descriptions of their character and behaviour during the mentoring relationship.
What makes an exceptional mentor?
Analysis of the mentor nominations revealed that exemplary mentors were caring and warm, worked hard to build rapport and trust, humble and authentic and a true inspiration to their mentees. They guided the mentee’s learning journey, open doors to their networks, encouraged and motivated and, at times, challenged the mentee to aim higher. They went above and beyond to support their mentee, particularly during stressful times such as job loss. Having the support of a mentor during COVID-19 proved to be invaluable for many.
Ms Johns displayed almost all of the landmark mentor characteristics and was enthusiastically nominated by her mentee.
What separates a stand-out mentee from the rest?
A great mentee starts the relationship with intention and gives the relationship full focus right to the end. Mentees nominated for the awards were well-organised, driven and purposeful. They were courageous about making themselves vulnerable to share their development gaps, open to challenge and remained accountable for their own success.
Ms Gregory is a perfect example of a mentee who embraced the opportunity with relish and was described by her mentor as having transformed over the course of the relationship.
Art of Mentoring recognises outstanding mentors across programs in Australian organisations and associations
Art of Mentoring also awarded five Highly Commended Awards to outstanding mentors in the following mentoring programs within organisations and associations:
Mentors
Mentees
Mentoring helps attract and retain employees and association members through professional development
Art of Mentoring designs, implements and manages mentoring programs for organisations and membership associations throughout Australia.
Studies show that a well-run mentoring program helps attract and retain employees by demonstrating an organisation’s or association’s commitment to talent development. Mentoring is also instrumental in preparing the next generation of leaders. Researchers have shown that teaching people high quality mentoring skills, helps them develop their transformational leadership capacities.1 There is also growing consensus that mentors benefit as much as mentees in this regard.
For associations, attracting and retaining members is critical to their financial viability. A well-structured and managed mentoring program offers significant returns by providing high quality professional development that engages their member base and advances the profession or industry they represent.
[1] Kram, K. and Ragins, B.R. (2007) The Landscape of Mentoring in the 21st Century. In K. Kram & B.R. Ragins (Eds.) The Handbook of Mentoring at Work (pp. 659-692), CA: Sage.
In our 2022 research with HR.com on Mentoring in the Workplace, 18% of survey participants had group mentoring programs, 17% had reciprocal mentoring and 9% had reverse mentoring programs.
During the pandemic, we saw a big rise in Reciprocal Mentoring – where traditional mentoring pairs flipped roles and mentors discovered they were receiving mentorship from their mentees.
But how does Reciprocal Mentoring work and how does this differ from Reverse Mentoring? And why are we seeing demand increase for these?
In Reciprocal mentoring, sometimes known as “co–mentoring”, two people work together through a mentoring process in which they both take on the roles of Mentor and Mentee. This could be done by each participating in both roles, or by each person taking a primary role as Mentor or Mentee, but being willing to exchange roles from time to time.
Also known as “upward mentoring”, Reverse mentoring turns the traditional hierarchical approach to mentoring completely on its head. Rather than having a senior player take a less experienced player “under their wing”, reverse mentoring relationships place the more senior person as the primary learner and emphasise the experience of the junior person.
Reverse mentoring is generally credited to Jack Welch, then CEO of General Electric, who in 1999 asked 500 of his top managers to each find a young employee to teach them about the internet. Adopted by some organisations as a means to spread the expertise and tech savvy of younger workers, reverse mentoring is said to foster improved intergenerational relationships, enhance diversity initiatives, drive innovation and engage millennials.
In our research into intergenerational mentoring, there was more widespread interest in and acceptance of Reciprocal Mentoring than Reverse mentoring. Senior executive mentees can struggle with the need to give up control to their more junior mentors and demonstrate willingness to learn. Junior mentors can be intimidated by their more experienced mentees and can have difficulty with the nuanced skills of mentoring someone older and more senior.
Co-mentoring avoids some of these potential challenges by allowing the relationship to develop and flourish first, before the junior person takes on the role of mentor. The more senior person can role-model the skills of mentoring first, encouraging the junior person to step into the role when ready. From here, it becomes a mutual learning experience where juniors get to hone their leadership and interpersonal skills, be heard on issues important to their generation and expand their network into upper organisational levels. The seniors gain greater understanding of issues at lower organisational levels, gain new knowledge and learn new skills.
Reverse mentoring cases tend to divide into four overlapping categories, revolving around:
Technology and knowledge transfer. Ogilvy & Mather managing director Spencer Osborn told the Wall Street Journal that his junior mentors have taught him how to jazz up his Twitter posts, which had a reputation for being “very boring”.
Intergenerational understanding gaps. Alan Webber, the co-founder of Fast Company, is quoted as saying that reverse mentoring is: “a situation where the old fogies in an organisation realise that by the time you’re in your forties and fifties, you’re not in touch with the future the same way the young twenty-something’s are. They come with fresh eyes, open minds, and instant links to the technology of our future”.
Retention of young employees. Investment banking firm BNY Mellon used Reverse mentoring to increase retention of millennial employees and share digital skills.
Diversity awareness. A higher turnover amongst women in junior and middle management posts was one of the key triggers for the Mentoring Up program introduced in P&G’s marketing division in the US some years ago. Reuters opted for a reverse mentoring programme because it was disappointed with the impact of diversity awareness training.
So, why the increased interest in Reverse and Reciprocal Mentoring in the 2020’s? Our European partners have observed the same trend. My theory is that there are two drivers:
© Melissa Richardson, 2023
