Streamline Training & Documentation: Sensible Mentoring

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Sensible Mentoring

As with any technique for employee development, mentoring requires planning and appropriate ground rules in order to yield good results. In the January 29 issue of Business Week, Susan Berfield reports on some of the lessons learned in the corporate world from what is now considerable experience with mentoring.

Berfield highlights three best practices:

Be disciplined — There should be specific, timebound goals and success criteria that the mentoring is intended to achieve. For example, "by this time next year, the employee will be able to identify and assess likely acquisition targets. We'll know that this goal has been met if she has spearheaded preparation of at least two reliable and actionable reports within the next twelve months."

Maintain contact — Staying in touch after the formal mentoring relationship has ended allows an employee to continue using the more experienced person as a periodic sounding board. Though the intensity of contact is less, the value of maintaining a friendly relationship is undiminished.

Bow out if it's not working — Of course, ending the mentoring relationship is something that should be handled tactfully. "If you're in a formal program, talk to those in charge. If the relationship is informal, give your mentor permission to get out. In other words, make it look like ending it is her decision."

Additional best practices for mentoring, compiled by the Institute of Physics, are listed here.

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Labels: Employee development

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