The evolution of mentoring
The traditional definition of mentoring is when a more experienced person is paired up with a less experienced person for the purpose of developing the less experienced person or mentee.
Best practices in mentoring programs
You have launched or plan to launch a company-wide mentoring program. Regardless of the objectives of the program, here are some “must haves” to ensure success:
How many levels should an organization have?
When there are too many levels in an organization, roles become compressed and when there are too few levels, authority and decision-making can occur in a vacuum. Common complaints from employees are: “It’s not clear who’s responsible for making decisions”, “everything seems to be so bureaucratic”, “my work overlaps so much with what my boss does, I don’t know what I’m responsible for”, “honestly, I have a lot of free time”, or “my manager is so far removed from my project that he can’t provide any value”.
What motivates your employees?
Let’s imagine this scenario: In a meeting, an employee has made it clear to his manager that he wants to be promoted. The manager works with the employee over a 12-month period, outlining the milestones needed to be promoted and tracking the employee’s progress against the milestones. During the next promotion cycle, the employee is promoted but he hands in his resignation a few months later. What happened? Could this have been prevented?