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Webinar: Mentorship Programs for Associations

 

Mentorship Programs for Associations – Building a Highly Successful Program to Engage and Retain Your Members

Overview
Associations are increasingly aware of the potential value of association-led mentorship programs. Current members find a reason to stay, young industry entrants a reason to join, and leadership capabilities are cultivated within the association itself and the industry as a whole. Industry or association goals such as creating highly engaged members or perceived value for the cost of yearly membership are made easier to achieve. Mid-late career members are also brought back into activity within the membership by participating mentors.

There is resounding agreement that mentorship programs add value. Running a program that fails is brand damaging, but running a successful mentoring program can garner results that no other program in the membership service can. Too many associations are eyeing the benefits of mentoring but telling themselves they can’t afford it or don’t know how to implement one. In this webinar, we will unpack how to implement a highly effective program that achieves results such as 90% satisfaction rates, 46% of mentees saying it’s one of the best things they’ve done in their careers and 100% of participants saying they would participate again and/or recommend to others. What’s more, we will show you how to do so with a limited budget.

Join Alex Richardson, CEO and Founder of Art of Mentoring as he explains the ways his team help associations and member-based organizations to achieve their goals and enrich the value of their membership. Drawing on existing case studies and examples, Alex will take a look into how other associations have achieved remarkable success using strategic mentoring, and what sets them apart from other types of mentorship programs.

Presented By
Alex Richardson, CEO, Art of Mentoring

 

Recording: Mentoring Programs for Culture Shifts and Embracing Diversity

Overview

Today’s organisations must be able to capitalise on diversity – tapping into a multi-cultural workforce, managing the demands of an increasingly well-educated and experienced cadre of female managers and facilitating virtual teams and alliances in a global workplace.

Never has there been a more crucial time for business leaders to get serious about diversity, equity, and inclusion.

No longer will implicit bias training suffice. Your people expect meaningful engagement and conversation on critical D,E & I issues with others provides individuals, and their respective organisations value well beyond anything that can be ‘trained’.

Welcome – the emergence of mentoring in this space. Programs such as reverse mentoring, reciprocal mentoring, group mentoring and traditional mentoring are great tools to help address DE&I goals and make real cultural/systemic changes within the organisation.

For example, increasing experience with reciprocal mentoring shows that it provides a safe space, where both parties can confront their own perceptions, beliefs and behaviours. The quality of the connection between the top and bottom of the organisation exposes institutional barriers and enables a greater level of collaboration in bringing about meaningful change.

The anecdotal evidence of reverse mentoring is compelling. Where a program has been well-designed and supported (two essential criteria), both sets of participants point to it as one of the most significant learning interventions of their careers. It provides a platform for challenging the prevailing culture and the systems that underpin it; and for replacing limiting beliefs and operational roadblocks.

Join Gina, Senior Program Designer Art of Mentoring, as she provides insights on programs that have made a tangible difference to organisational culture. By facilitating cross-group understanding and supporting disadvantaged or minority groups within an organisation, mentoring is emerging as a powerful method for encouraging organisational diversity.

In this webcast Gina will explore:
·     Why mentoring for culture shifts and embracing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is important right now
·     Examples of mentoring programs that target different groups
·     The critical elements in delivering successful mentoring programs to support culture shifts and DE&I goals.
·     The barriers of establishing a mentoring program and how to overcome them.
·     Understanding ROI in mentoring and how this aligns with DE&I objectives

Presented by:
Gina Meibusch, Senior Program Designer, Art of Mentoring

 

How to build bench strength, keep talent, foster mobility and build careers with mentoring

Overview

Most organisations struggle with succession planning. Building the bench strength of the leaders within your own organisation is hard when most people are thinking it’s probably easier to be promoted outside of the organisation. If someone is considering a career path change or they are looking for a promotion, why not make that possible within the organisation?

Tools such as HRIS, LXP, Talent Management and other systems are all attempting to make internal mobility and career succession more effective by mapping pathways and providing content for building capacity towards that succession. However, at the core of what is truly needed for building value for the employee is the human connections that have them feel a sense of belonging and help them visualise themselves in a role elsewhere in your organisation (upward or sideways).

The most affected cohort of people at the whim of this conundrum is mid-level management. Often development opportunities are available to new entrants/graduates and to leadership, but there is a lack of career development opportunities or promotions available for mid-level managers to see themselves long term at the organisation.

In this webcast we will discuss the roles that mentoring plays in the workplace to enable succession and internal mobility. How implementing a program can boost engagement of employees or help to manage change. From cross-silo communication to internal mobility, knowledge transfer to building leadership capacity, these are all topics we’ll cover as outcomes from a well-run mentoring program.

In this webcast Gina will explore:

  • Why mentoring for internal mobility and succession is important right now
  • Examples of mentoring programs that achieve these objective
  • The critical elements in delivering successful mentoring programs to boost employee engagement and manage change
  • The barriers of establishing a mentoring program and how to overcome them.
  • Understanding ROI in mentoring and how this aligns with organisational objectives

Presented by:
Gina Meibusch, Senior Program Designer, Art of Mentoring

Webinar: 2022 Art of Mentoring International Mentor and Mentee of the Year

Overview

Again in 2022 we invited thousands of mentors and mentees to nominate their partners for the prestigious Art of Mentoring Mentor and Mentee of the Year Awards.

Please join us when we recognise and celebrate the exceptional support provided by mentors and the difference they make to the lives of their mentees. We’ll acknowledge and commend mentees whose mentors saw them grab the opportunity with both hands and make the most of the generous support.

In this webinar we will reveal:

  • The 2022 Winners and Finalists, and why they were chosen
  • The characteristics and behaviours that define outstanding mentors and mentees – what’s the common thread that makes them successful and stand out from the crowd?
  • Our tips for how you can become the mentor you always wanted, and a mentee that seizes a mentoring opportunity and turns it into gold.
  • This year’s trends in mentoring

Presented by:

Gina Meibusch, Senior Program Designer, Art of Mentoring
Donella Roberts, General Manager – Australia, Art of Mentoring

 

The Mentor’s Guide Book Review

The Mentor’s Guide was always an exceptional book. In this third edition, just released, Lois Zachary has been joined by her talented and dynamic daughter, Lisa Fain, CEO of Center for Mentoring Excellence. The book reflects a modern model of mentoring, grounded in adult learning theory, as a self-directed multidimensional relationship of mutual exchange.

The new edition includes essential updates and expanded discussion around virtual mentoring and inclusive mentoring, covering gender, sexual orientation, race, power, culture and generational differences.

Packed with exercises and tips, as well as interesting and real mentoring scenarios, this is an extremely well-written, easy-to-read book.

The first part introduces the reader to the meaning and context of mentoring, setting the scene for the second part, which is a guide to how to navigate the mentor role through the typical phases of a mentoring relationship. It invites the reader to go on a journey of self-reflection, itself an exercise which is critical for masterful mentoring. Prepare to be confronted by some of these exercises, including a self-awareness reflection exploring underlying biases and stereotypes.

I am not a great supporter of the SMART goals model for mentoring, especially at the beginning of a mentoring relationship.  This is because mentoring goals can take time to emerge and creating specific goals too early can bypass some essential exploration between mentor and mentee. However, for the those that do use the SMART model, I love the idea of the SMARTER goals framework – which adds Exciting and Risky to the acronym. I agree that challenging goals for mentees should have a slightly risky edge that puts them just slightly out of their comfort zone where the greatest learning can occur. When a goal has an air of excitement, it is also much easier for a mentee to muster energy and enthusiasm to do the work required for goal achievement. This is a useful and important addition to the model and a welcome inclusion in the book.

If there is one book I would recommend to first-time mentors, this would be it. The Mentor’s Guide is definitely the most comprehensive and up-to-date manual for mentoring mastery available today.

© Melissa Richardson 2022

Author: Lois J. Zachary
Author: Lisa Z. Fain
Center for Mentoring Excellence
in Partnership with Art of Mentoring

Recording: Engaging Tomorrow’s Government Leaders Through Mentoring

Program Case Study: NSW Department of Planning and Environment Mentoring Program

Join Art of Mentoring’s Senior Program Designer, Gina Meibusch as she takes a closer look into the NSW Department of Planning and Environment’s Mentoring Program. Michael Rolik is the Sponsor of the programs and is also an active mentor; Michael and Gina will discuss the ways that mentoring is a key contributor to the department’s people and culture strategy, including the Women in Senior Leadership (WiSL) program that supports emerging female leaders. Past WiSL Program participants Kerrie Gregory (Mentee) and Briony Foster (her Mentor) join Gina to share their experiences with the program and how it shaped their careers.

When Kerrie Gregory applied to the 2020 Women in Senior Leadership Mentoring Program (NSW Dept of Planning and Environment), she hoped to progress some long held goals and gain focus that she’d not been able to achieve in previous mentoring relationships. Kerrie had no idea how significant an impact her relationship with her mentor Briony Foster would have, giving her an opportunity to grow in ways that she had not anticipated.

Briony experienced her own gains as well, and has continued to mentor in the program in the years since. Briony is strong advocate for mentoring as a unique and powerful process for drawing out the best in emerging government leaders, and we look forward to hearing from Kerrie and Briony about their journey together in the formal mentoring program, and about what has happened since.

In this webinar you will learn:
– How to identify emerging government leaders who will thrive on being mentored
– What a successful public service mentoring relationship looks like
– Ways to support a government mentoring partnership, to get the most for the mentee and the mentor
– The longer-term benefits for senior and emerging government leaders of mentoring and being mentored

Presented by:
Gina Meibusch, Senior Program Designer, Art of Mentoring

Guests:

Program Sponsor: Michael Rolik (Director of Inclusion and Talent Development, NSW Department of Planning and Environment)
Mentor: Briony Foster (Executive Director at Department of Communities and Justice)
Mentee: Kerrie Gregory (Manager Work Health and Safety at NSW Land and Housing Corporation)

 

Recording: Creating transformational mentoring relationships

Webinar: Creating transformational mentoring relationships for mentees, mentors and their workplaces – an interview with Lisa Fain

There are some people that are seemingly gifted with natural mentoring abilities however there is an underlying ‘art of mentoring’ that is not an easily obtained capability and is likely a skill that the best mentors are aware that they are ever evolving and mastering.

In different contexts for example their style or approach must shift or adapt to the environment which the best mentors can identify as a relationship becomes further established, moving into new phases of the relationship.

Alex Richardson, Art of Mentoring’s CEO, interviews Centre for Mentoring Excellence CEO and leadership expert Lisa Fain on her new book, co-authored with her mother, mentoring expert Dr. Lois Zachary.  Lisa is a global speaker, and an expert in the intersection of cultural competency and mentoring. Her passion for diversity and inclusion fuels her strong conviction, that leveraging differences creates a better workplace and drives better business results.

The Mentor’s Guide: Facilitating Effective Learning Relationships, Third Edition, is a comprehensive resource to help businesses and organizations fulfil their needs by using mentoring to promote growth and development, accelerate learning, fast-track leadership, improve retention, elevate morale, strengthen recruitment, and promote diversity. This rich, practical, and actionable guide is designed for leaders, managers, and educators in educational, non-profit, corporate, and government sectors.

What would your life or career have been like without the mentors that helped guide you? Or conversely what would it have been like if you had great mentors in your corner?

Join us for an info-packed interview with Lisa and help the ripple effect of effective mentoring spread far and wide.

Alex and Lisa explore:

  • Where mentoring comes from and how it exists in our daily lives already?
  • What makes mentors effective and how much do they need to know to get started?
  • Discussion on some of the techniques outlined in the book and the phases of the mentoring lifecycle
  • Why mentoring impacts diversity goals, wellbeing, employee engagement and other common workplace issues
  • The opportunity for mentoring done well at a program level – what’s the impact of quality mentoring beyond the mentor and mentee individually?

Presented by:
Alex Richardson, CEO and Founder, Art of Mentoring
Lisa Fain, CEO, Center for Mentoring Excellence

 

Read Art of Mentoring’s Founder, Melissa Richardson’s review of The Mentor’s Guide

Mentoring in the Public Sector

Many of the studies on mentoring have been conducted in the educational, arts or corporate sectors. There is far less research on government mentoring. So, what do we know about what makes public sector mentoring different? Is it different?

To some degree, the same individual and organizational benefits derive from mentoring, no matter the sector. Government mentoring programs have been found to attract new talent to the public sector, increase retention, and develop leadership (Barrett & Greene, 2008). In our own research, we have found that mentors and mentees in government agencies report the same kinds of outcomes for themselves as other mentoring program participants, including greater self-awareness, self-confidence, career/ job satisfaction and enhanced affiliation with their supporting agency.

An Australian paper (Ehrich and Hansford, 2008) reviewed public sector mentoring studies and found that the reported impacts of mentoring were the same or similar to those on private sector organizations, namely;

  • Develop skills and competencies required to do the job more effectively
  • Affirm the mentee’s choice of career, enhance their commitment and in turn give mentors satisfaction with their role and career
  • Improve the culture and climate, retain staff, improve the profile of the organization, and reduce absenteeism

Are there any differences, really? Two US researchers conducted a literature review to find out (Bozeman & Feeney, 2009), and developed a three-tier model to explain public sector mentoring and how it differs from mentoring in other organizations. The tiers in their model were:

Interdependence: Public agencies are interconnected in ways that private companies are not. In many countries, government departments are connected by common people

systems and rules, common procurement protocols procedures, and similar budget and accounting processes. Government employees are expected to co-operate with employees from other agencies. With changes of government, restructures are common in public agencies. Employees can find their agencies moved virtually overnight, only to find the move is reversed at the next election.  The researchers argue that mentoring must take these varied accountabilities into account and could be offered as a means of coping effectively with greater externally-imposed procedural and accountability constraints.

Opportunity structure: While mentoring can play an important role in diminishing career opportunity barriers in both private and public sectors, government agencies have historically had a distinctive role in ensuring equal opportunity. Government agencies in many countries have been in the vanguard in providing increased opportunity for minority groups. They use Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs to develop human capital and also to ensure that the government workforce reflects the diversity of the population at large.

Public Service Motivation: People who work for government agencies, by and large, have different motivations compared with private sector employees. Public sector employees are more likely to be motivated by altruism and service to community (Rainey, 2003).

The context for private sector managers is profit motivation of the employing organization. For public managers, it’s the public good.

So, is and should mentoring in government be different from the private sector? My conclusion is that the model is useful to explain why public agencies can and should choose to initiate the TYPES of programs that they do. For example, on the point of Opportunity Structure, we do see more diversity and inclusion emphasis from our government clients, both in terms of offering specific programs for minority applicants, as well as ensuring that diverse applicants are accepted into programs.  We also see a little more emphasis on the intended impact of mentoring, not just on the individuals involved, but on the agency and its stakeholders (including the general public). The content of mentoring conversations sometimes includes the complexities of interdependence and how to navigate that.

Otherwise, there are abundant similarities between government mentoring and mentoring in any employing organization. The usual rules of good mentoring program design apply in all sectors. Overall, we observe that public sector agencies take employee professional and career development quite seriously and mentoring is now widespread in all levels of government in many countries.

© Melissa Richardson, Art of Mentoring

 

Barrett, K., and R. Greene. 2008. Measuring Performance: The State Management Report Card for 2008. Government Performance Project. Governing, March, 24-95.

Bozeman, B. and Feeney, M. (2009). Public Management Mentoring: A Three Tier Model. Review of Public Personnel Administration. Volume: 29 issue: 2, page(s): 134-157. Article first published online: November 13, 2008; Issue published: June 1, 2009

Ehrich, Lisa C. and Hansford, Brian C. (2008). Mentoring in the public sector. Practical Experiences in Professional Education, 11(1). pp. 1-58.

Rainey, H. G. 2003. Understanding and managing public organizations (3rd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Mentoring in the Workplace 2022

The concept of mentoring is certainly not something new. In fact, the word originates from a character in Homer’s classic poem “The Odyssey,” which dates back to three millennia ago.

But that doesn’t mean that the concept has been static. Traditional mentoring relationships have often formed naturally, with older people often passing along knowledge and wisdom to younger ones. Structured mentoring programs in organizations have become a powerful tool for learning and development. A core set of best practices have emerged to guide organizations.

To better understand this evolution and current trends, we partnered with the HR.com Research Institute to hear from over 330 industry professionals in virtually every industry vertical.

In this study, we explore a variety of related topics:

  • The global state of mentoring today
  • The characteristics and purpose of mentoring programs
  • Success and satisfaction with mentoring programs
  • The various types of mentoring and how they are delivered
  • How organizations with more successful mentoring programs tend to differ from organizations with less successful programs

 

Strategic Mentoring: Your Best Weapon To Attract, Develop And Retain Talent

Employee expectations have shifted. Values have changed. Working from home has become a way of life, and employees are seeking more purpose from their careers. The question is, does your organization have the programs in place to provide the support your employees need to grow in ‘the new workplace?

Join us as we delve into the process of strategic mentoring and the important role it plays in organizational health. We will explore the impacts of mentoring on attraction, development and retention, and learn that not all mentoring programs are created equal. We will unpack what sets a quality mentoring program apart from others to deliver impactful results for your organization, and what the risks are of not doing it well. Gain insights on key questions to ask yourself when establishing a program and the steps required to deliver a program that will achieve results.

What you will learn:

  • Understand the value of strategic, purpose led mentoring
  • Learn what is in it for the mentees, the mentors, and the organization
  • Key things to consider when starting a mentoring program

Hosted by:
Alex Richardson
Co-CEO and Chief Growth Officer, Art of Mentoring