Mentoring is a low-cost, high-value tool that works by encouraging workers to be guided by their peers, resulting in staff retention and job satisfaction. Leon Taylor, Olympic silver medallist, author of Mentor and mentor to diver Tom Daley, explains
If you can create an organisation in which mentoring is celebrated and nurtured, then you will retain talent.
Mentoring helps to ensure that both mentor and mentee feel rewarded and valued. As a result they are more likely to stay and the business to prosper. This is why everyone should have a mentor.
But mentoring is not something that can be forced. It is not a rigid programme to be implemented, it is a culture that needs to be encouraged. The impetus should be on the mentee to find and approach their potential mentor. It is then up to the mentor to decide whether he or she is the right person for the job.
If you are looking to progress through mentoring, how should you proceed?
Firstly, do your research. Make sure you have a clear intention of what you are looking to achieve and exactly what you need, in terms of time and knowledge. You have to be clear to your potential mentor, saying: “I see this in you, this experience, this skills set”, so that the mentor can see the same thing in themselves and affirm that they can help you. Sometimes what we see in someone is not the reality, and your selected mentor may have to direct you to someone more appropriate.
When you approach a potential mentor, do so clearly, concisely and with humility – remember that there is something in this for the mentor too. Be courageous. The worst that can happen is that they will say no.
If you are approached to be a mentor, you have a unique, but rewarding, role to play.
When you are a mentor, often your mentee will ask you questions to which you know the answers. The danger is that if you answer for them too many times you become a solution finder, doing their homework for them, instead of a guide. An effective mentor will share their information in a non-direct way and allow the mentee to wrestle with their own tasks and obtain their own solutions rather than simply fill in the answers for them. When that happens, mentoring can feel arduous as you get nothing out of the relationship and end up becoming drained by doing their work for them.
But, if you give your mentee a bit of a steer and a kick up the arse when needed, when you watch them in a performance setting, nailing it, with the knowledge that you have assisted them, then you get the reward.
That reward is the feeling of being valued. And that is one of the main reasons organisations should encourage a mentoring culture. With it there is more buoyant communication. People feel supported or challenged in the right way, and don’t feel as if they are working in their own little silos. There’s a team feeling and ultimately the business will benefit from that because it is nurturing and keeping talent.
How to be a good mentor
• Don’t answer all the questions – that creates dependency when the goal is independence
• Share your experience and tell stories – it is the best way to impart knowledge
• Listen – listening is not just waiting for your turn to speak
• Understand – get a clear and precise understanding of the issue
• Be patient – don’t jump in with your answer straightaway. Your experience and your solution may not be theirs. Guide, don’t fix
• Lead by example
• Enjoy – being asked to mentor should be an honour
To find out more about the benefits of mentoring and how to be a great mentor, pick up a copy of Taylor’s book Mentor from his website: www.leontaylor.co.uk
