How important is mentorship, really?

In 2006, a Sun Microsystems study found that 25% of mentees and 28% of mentors in an employee test group who participated in a mentorship program saw a salary rise compared with  5% of employees who did not. Other reported outcomes included increased retention and more frequent promotions for those participants.

Since then, the demonstrated advantages of mentorship in the workplace have only continued to rise. SAP cited a review of 43 mentor studies that found conclusively that mentored employees received higher compensation, felt more satisfied with and committed to their careers, and were more likely to believe that they would achieve career advancement.

Needless to say, if you are looking for a way to advance your career, pursuing mentorship opportunities should be at the top of your list. 

But don’t expect instant results by simply putting your name on a mentorship sign-up sheet. Achieving these results comes with discipline and dedication from everyone involved: mentors, mentees and program coordinators. Here’s what you need to know to fully realize the positive effects of mentorship.

Overcoming Mentorship Myths

Many companies today have mentorship programs that are unmonitored, underutilized and essentially, ineffective. That’s because their leaders falsely assume that mentorship happens organically once they put people together. 

But effective mentorship programs require proper training and hand-ons facilitation, says Julie Kantor, our guest from Episode 65. They also need a strategy. Creating programs based on best-practices rather than the actual collective wants and needs employees won’t deliver value and mentors and mentees will lose interest. 

As for problems amongst participants, scheduling conflicts, lack of communication, and lack of clear direction all inhibit the progress of a mentor-mentee relationship. When potential mentors and mentees are unclear on the objectives and expectations, both parties become unmotivated.

So if you’re involved in a mentorship program today and you feel that it’s not delivering the value you expected, these issues may be the cause. So what can you do?

Mentorship Starts at the Top

If you are a mentor or mentee, and your program just isn’t working, it might not be your fault. Real change comes from the top and leaders are responsible for ensuring the success of the program. 

What leaders must do is create a culture of mentorship. Buy-in from executives is crucial to creating this culture (and follow-up from everyone else is what keeps it going). 

Julie says it starts with setting specific goals, objectives and strategies — a blueprint for everyone involved. The plan needs specifics on activities that everyone should be responsible for. Mentors and mentees need to have clarity around their roles and the program expectations upfront and come prepared to engage and participate. 

The plan must address how employees learn from each other through mentoring.

• What are the goals of all the participants? What are the company goals?

• Who will mentor whom? Who can participate?

• How will you handle knowledge transfer (who does the senior leadership pass the baton to)?

Facilitating diversity in that plan is critical too, as mentor-mentee relationships shouldn’t be limited to like-minded and optically similar pairings. For example, consider reverse mentoring, where younger employees that are more skilled in technology or collaboration tools might be able to train people who aren’t as tech-savvy.

Mentors and Mentees Share Responsibility

At the end of the day, meaningful connections are built through reciprocation—how can you help the person helping you?

As a mentee, it doesn’t help if you do not have a clear objective for what you want from the relationship. Know your career goals (even if they are short-term), so that your mentor has a place to start. You’ll also need to be open to feedback and not take it as criticism—your mentor is there to help you and sometimes that tough love will be the jump your career needs. 

As a mentor, try to come to your meetings prepared with your advice based on the mentee’s objectives. Have a plan for what you can discuss even if the mentee does not have tangible goals. 

If you do not feel confident in your roles and responsibilities, reach out to leadership to request training. 

Additional Tips for Success

Our episode on Women in Business provided additional insights from guests about mentorship that apply to everyone, regardless of your demographics. 

• Be proactive. Don’t be afraid to reach out to leaders you respect inside (or even outside) of your organization. Be bold and ask them to have coffee with you so you can talk to them about what it took to get to their position.

• Look for multiple mentors. Don’t limit yourself to people who are just like you. Seek diversity in your mentors so that you can get advice from a variety of perspectives.

• Consider professional coaching. Find other very confident and powerful people to learn from and to glean some of their insights on why you are worth what you're worth and how you can put fear aside. 

• If you are a woman, be a mentor or coach to other women. Try to champion other women and their daughters, and be a sponsor when you can. Most importantly, don’t isolate. Women often become as sick as their secrets; talk to each other, ask for support, and be active in creating judgement-free spaces. 

• Don’t worry if you’re not in a traditional office setting. If you work remotely or run a remote workforce, there are several options for getting mentorship support:

  • See if your alma mater offers a mentoring program.

  • Check with your employee resource groups and a chart at your company to see if they have an official mentoring program.

  • Look for groups and associations online.

  • Conduct your sessions over video chats.

• Don’t be afraid to speak up. If you’re a younger employee and your company doesn’t have a mentorship program, go to leadership or HR to voice your concern. According to Julie, a lot of people will tell you that they did have a mentor and how important that was, and you can use that to ask to set up a program in your company.
  

Do you have advice to add? Share your thoughts in the comments below. If you’ve had a particularly great mentorship experience, we’d love to hear about it.