MPowerment Matters

A MENTORING CULTURE MAKES A DIFFERENCE

November 2007

Is This a Bad Dream?
Imagine for a moment, moving to a country where you cannot speak the language, you cannot read the street signs and you know absolutely nobody. Picture arriving with all of your luggage, set to begin a new life based on the wonderful things you have read about this place. And you cannot even hail a taxi to take you to a hotel. How uncomfortable! How scary!

Luckily, you find someone who speaks a few words of English and he offers to take you to a hotel and help you register. You are so grateful you don’t even stop to consider his motives, whether he can be trusted, or whether he is somehow preying on you. He takes you to a hotel that doesn’t look like anything familiar from home, helps you register and helps you exchange some dollars for the local currency.

Being the critical thinkers that we are, we can see at least two distinct interpretations of what happened above. In the first, the helper is a good Samaritan who sees a fellow human being in distress, and out of altruistic motives, provides well-meant assistance. In the second, however, the “helper” is a predator. He takes you to a dump of a hotel where he will be paid a big commission for your stay. He cheated you on the exchange rate, pocketing the difference; and even better, he was given a key to your room, so he can later rob it.

The Flip Side
Now suppose instead somebody meeting you at the airport, holding a sign with your name on it. She speaks your language fluently and is there to give you a ride to your hotel. As she guides you to her car, she explains the route she is going to take to the hotel and the sights you are going to see along the way. In the car, she gives you some basic information about the culture of the city. She tells you how the roads are laid out. She hands you a phrase book with the most common phrases you will need next to their English translations. She tells you where to get the best exchange rate for your money. And she offers to spend time with you in the weeks ahead, teaching you the language, the customs and how to get around.

Back to Reality
Moving to the real world, consider an individual starting a new job at a new company, law firm or hospital. She is not unlike the visitor to the strange city. She is embarking on a great adventure without knowing much of what she will need in order to be successful. Here is where a mentor comes in.

Why a Mentor?
A mentor serves a valuable function, aiding the protégé in acclimatization. Every organization has its way of doing things, and the mentor addresses these cultural items early on, to make the protégé feel at home. The obvious areas may include how to dress, how to communicate, how to interact with company leaders. Other areas may include provision of insights into key personalities, teaching bureaucratic shortcuts and making clear the measures of success in the organization.

Mentors can give personal tips on improving body language and presentation skills. They can review mistakes, and importantly, show why they were mistakes and how to avoid making them again. Mentors give the feedback we all need to know where we stand, to evaluate what we are doing well and what we are not, all with our best interests at heart.

Where the organization may, in theory, want each employee to succeed, in practice it may be neutral or even negative in that regard. The organization may have unreasonable expectations of a new hire’s skills and knowledge as well as of attitudes and habits. The mentor is far from neutral. The mentor is your advocate, your supporter. The mentor wants to see you develop and rise in the organization.

In highly competitive environments, such as large law firms, it is critical for a new hire to have someone who cares about him, someone to tell him how to get the simplest things done. To be floundering around not knowing where to begin can create a loss of confidence that will be long-lasting.

The mentoring of employees should be a prime imperative of every organization. If we want to have strong organizations with strong customer or client loyalty, we need to have a confident, satisfied, well-adjusted workforce. In order to maximize the development of every individual, a mentor should be assigned to each new hire. If the relationship doesn’t click, as it must, another mentor should be introduced. As an individual grows and moves up in a company, perhaps a new mentor would help on the next leg of the journey. In the course of a career, an individual may require several mentors to help get her where she is going.

How to Get a Mentor
If a company does not have a mentoring program, an individual should seek out someone as a mentor. The person should, of course, be willing, and should be knowledgeable in the ways of the organization. The mentor should be able to help on process and procedures, the substance of the organization’s business, the chain of command, and how to get things done efficiently.

What About Entrepreneurs?
What about the poor entrepreneur starting his own business? There is no roadmap. There is no voice of experience greeting him at the door of his office as he moves in. The entrepreneurial leader can feel alone at the most crucial times.

As the company grows, the number of roles the entrepreneur plays may lessen, but the nature of the decisions to be made becomes more complex. Figuring out strategic direction, managing growth, hiring the right people, delegation and accountability are all big issues. A company owner most probably will not find the voice of wisdom, the sounding board, within the organization.

The entrepreneur may need to look outside of the organization for the mentoring he needs. It can come from an experienced friend or relative. If no such person exists, he can look to professionals. For instance, we at Management Mpowerment Associates focus on entrepreneurial mentoring. We work with business owners to brainstorm ideas, give feedback, ask hard questions, offer alternative scenarios and discuss options. In some cases, we become trusted advisors.

Mentoring is an important function of an organization. It is a key component in employee development and a strong statement of the culture. No matter the size of the company, institution or firm, there should be a mentoring program in place to give every employee the chance to reach their potential. If there is no program, create one. In the meantime, individuals should seek out a mentor on their own to speed their inclusion and success.

QUICK BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS

• Doing What Matters by James M. Kilts (2007)
• Influencer: The Power to Change Anything by Patterson, Grenny, Maxfield, McMillan & Switzler (2007)
• The Dream Manager by Matthew Kelly (2007)
• The Power of Story by Jim Loehr (2007)
• The Secret Language of Leadership by Stephen Denning (2007)

All of the above books are very powerful in their own way, and very different. They are all worth reading.

JUST A THOUGHT

With 2008 right around the corner, it is a good time to start thinking about setting goals for the coming year. Think about where you want to be at this time next year.
• Do you want to be in a different job either by promotion or by leaving your present organization?
• Do you want to be earning more money?
• Do you want to have developed some of your competencies?
• Do you want to have more balance in your life?
Setting goals, writing them down and then creating an action plan to achieve them works wonders. AT Management Mpowerment Associates, we can help with an Annual Goals Review and action plan.

DON’T FORGET TO BLOG

Please come to our blog at www.entrepreneursmentor.net and join in the dialogue there. We can discuss whatever issues you desire that are related to business success and the obstacles that get in the way of you achieving it.