Which of the following are characteristics of successful mentoring programs?

Gone are the days when assigning an informal buddy to mentor a new employee meant going out to lunch and teaching the employee a few lessons about succeeding in the workplace. These buddies generally had no mentor training, and they were clueless about their overall responsibility in welcoming the new employee.

Helping the new employee integrate seamlessly and quickly into the new workplace was well outside of their job description. Nor was it the organization's expectation that the mentorship was an integral component in a new employee welcome. This situation has changed for the better.

Helping New Employees Succeed

When making every employee successful as soon as possible became the new norm, formal organization needs from a mentor grew. A formal mentor relationship can jump-start the learning curve and help a new employee succeed.

These are the characteristics to seek in employees who are asked to or assigned to formally mentor new employees or employees who are new to a department or job. These required characteristics will differ somewhat in an informal mentor relationship that develops casually between two individuals or a higher level employee and the new employee — both types of mentoring start with these needs and these characteristics.

Use a Formal Mentor Process

With a formal mentor process, the transmission of a body of knowledge and other cultural teachings are an expectation of the mentor relationship. You will also find that a small component of the mentor relationship is evaluative in nature.

In the sense that your organization is expecting employees who mentor to assess the new employee's fit within the culture of the organization, the role evaluates the new employee.

With the body of knowledge, the mentor must convey, the mentor must also know whether the employee is learning the required information to succeed in his or her new job. If the employee is slow to learn or not learning, the mentor can help the department make adjustments.

Seek an Informal Mentor

Employees are also encouraged to seek an informal mentor for each area of expertise the employee wishes to develop or explore. The person in this mentor role is purely a coach and a teacher with no assessment responsibilities.

Characteristics of Successful Formal Mentors

1. They want to mentor another employee and is committed to the employee's growth and development and cultural integration.
2. They have the job content knowledge necessary to effectively teach a new employee significant job knowledge.
3. They are familiar with the organization's norms and culture. Can articulate and teach the culture.
4. They demonstrate honesty, integrity, and respect for and responsibility for stewardship.
5. They demonstrate effective communication skills, both verbally and nonverbally.
6. They are willing to help develop another employee through guidance, feedback, and occasionally, an insistence on a particular level of performance or appropriate direction.
7. They initiate new ideas and foster the employee's willingness and ability to make changes in his or her performance based on the constant change occurring in their work environment.
8. They have enough emotional intelligence to be aware of their personal emotions and is sensitive to the emotions and feelings of the employee they are mentoring.
9. They are an individual who would be rated as highly successful in both their job and in navigating the organization's culture by coworkers and managers.
10. They demonstrate success in establishing and maintaining professional networks and relationships, both online and offline.
11. They are willing to communicate failures as well as successes to the mentored employee.
12. They can spend an appropriate amount of time with the mentored employee.
13. They are open to spending time with diverse individuals who may not share a common background, values, or goals.
14. They can initiate conflict to ensure the employee's successful integration into the organization. Willing to acknowledge, as a mentor, that an employee may not succeed in your organization.
15. They can say when the relationship is not working and back away appropriately without regard to ego issues or the need to assign blame or gossip about the situation.

If you select employees who have these characteristics to mentor, you will ensure the success of your formal mentor relationships. The new employees benefit from each of these characteristics that the employee providing mentorship brings to the table. It, in turn, will ensure the successful integration of the new employee within your work unit.

As an executive, you’re likely thinking about how you can create an ideal environment that sustains continual employee growth. Mentorship programs can do just that. Internal mentoring programs provide a multitude of advantages that can help foster the culture you want within your organization. When you introduce mentoring for employees, you are giving them the tools and resources they need to progress and grow into the leaders and changemakers of your company. 

But how do you create an effective mentoring program that will provide you with all of these benefits? High-quality mentoring programs tend to have a few things in common. We’ve broken down what we consider the top five qualities of an effective program.

Clear, Defined Goals

A strong mentoring program is put in place with specific key performance indicators (KPIs) that can be used to gauge the overall success of the program. When a program is structured with clear, realistic goals, it will yield better results down the road. Taking the time to set attainable and measurable goals will guide the program as well as provide direction for participants and facilitators. 

An effective program should also encourage each individual mentoring pair to set their own specific goals. This helps mentors and mentees prepare to navigate conversations and activities that ensure both are getting the most out of their experience. While some mentoring programs focus on general conversation, we’ve found that setting clear development goals works to keep a partnership on track and produce measurable results. Our programs begin with a Pre-Mentoring Assessment to identify a mentee’s strengths and opportunities. The results allow mentees to set clear development goals with their mentors, giving the pair something concrete to work towards throughout the partnership.  

Measurable Results

Those clear goals and objectives won’t be of any use to you unless you measure your program’s progress against them. Being able to quantify your program at its completion is essential to determine whether or not you met your goals. An excellent mentoring program execution measures progress continuously as it runs. 

Ultimately, mentoring should never be static, as it is constantly changing and evolving with each new partnership. Having measurable results will help you to continually grow your mentoring program. This can be done in a variety of ways, such as conducting surveys at different points in the program or tracking the career trajectories of former participants and comparing them to non-participants. The results of a successful mentoring program—increased employee satisfaction, engagement, and retention—should speak for themselves.

Strong Mentor-Mentee Matches

At the heart of every good mentoring program is the mentor-mentee relationship. Mentees need the right mentor to help them open up and engage in vulnerable, productive dialogue. Matches made by computer algorithms aren’t always the best choice, and mentoring programs that rely on these artificial solutions aren’t giving their mentoring pairs the best chance of success.

Menttium’s industry leading match process uses skilled interviewers to match mentees with their ideal mentor, not just someone similar to them. By getting to know each participant on a deeper level, we are able to pair two people together who would benefit from each other’s varying backgrounds and experiences. Rather than making a match based on similar backgrounds, we focus on who would be most effective in helping their mentee reach his or her goals. 

Additional Tools and Resources + Rigor 

Offering essential tools and resources that supplement and support mentoring pairs is another clear indicator of a strong mentoring program. Education and learning are vital for continued growth, which is why Menttium offers monthly business education webinars for our program participants. We focus on topics relevant to emerging leaders and high-performing business professionals. Each session features a mentor who shares their personal experiences with the topic of focus. These webinars can provide an excellent topic of discussion for mentors and mentees in a one-on-one setting, as well, allowing them to dive in deeper. 

Additional resources also work to keep a mentoring program on track from start to finish. In addition to the Pre-Mentoring Assessment that helps incoming mentees set goals, we also run program orientations and launches, and periodically survey program participants to assess the overall success of the mentoring program. And in the interest of helping mentoring pairs self-regulate and keep the partnership on track, we provide monthly eMinders—tip sheets sent to mentees and mentors that allow them to gauge their progress and provide ideas for areas of focus.

Career Development Focus

If there is one thing that employees look for in their company, it is career development opportunities, whether that means continuing education or a robust internal program. An effective mentoring program encourages participants to grow professionally and advance within a company. Mentoring programs are the perfect opportunity to invest in key talent and build them into confident leaders. Mentors can help their mentees develop skills needed to navigate any challenges and successes they will encounter in the workplace.

Mentoring Services from Menttium 

Building a mentoring program that has every essential quality can be a difficult task. Let Menttium bridge the gap by helping you design, facilitate, and administer an internal or cross-company program. We are eager to help you set clear goals that will boost engagement, increase productivity, improve retention, and provide critical career development for employees. With 30+ years of success under our belt, we know how to build high-quality, effective mentoring programs. 

We want to help you give your key talent the tools needed to evolve into confident leaders within your company. From business education webinars to valuable one-on-one conversations, the resources we provide cultivate the ideal environment in which employees can develop critical thinking skills, explore their personal brand, and grow their confidence. Contact us today to learn more about how your company and employees can benefit from our services. 

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