I enjoy reading books that have a story line behind them. It allows me to become immersed in what is taking place and perhaps in some way be a part of the story. When I write articles I like to do the same thing – as it helps people relate to what I am talking about.

So let me tell you a little story. Chances are, most of you will relate to this story in some way and that is a good thing. The journey that we are about to take is a learning one. After all, mentoring is all about personal and professional growth – so our journey will be part of that process.

They are an organization not unlike any other that is out there today. They are struggling with productivity issues - a disengaged workforce, they have an aging workforce, they are fighting the talent shortage and they have not done any succession planning. Their aging workforce (the baby boomers) are all eyeing the calendar and have their dates marked when they will walk out the door. On some of the days you could actually hear them calling out how many months, weeks and days they have left. Does any of this sound familiar?

Now this sounds bad enough as it is with a percentage of the workforce watching the “exit door” and on the countdown. This organization also has problems with a disengaged workforce. They are suffering from lost productivity issues and do not know what to do. Someone has suggested, “Let’s set up a mentoring program” to see if we can get people to participate. They are not really sure if this is the right thing to do – but they have read about other organizations that were setting up mentoring programs so, “why not?”

Mentoring programs if not done correctly have a significant failure rate. It has been shown that approximately 79% to as high as 90% of the mentor programs that are attempted fail! They typically fail because of lack of corporate support, no structure, and no formal training. Would you perform open heart surgery on your best friend? Maybe I shouldn’t ask that question! What is also important is understanding what the outcomes are that you are looking for as a result of setting up this program.

We should take a step back now and evaluate what is going on in this organization before we move forward. So we know for sure that we have people ready to retire, we have a talent shortage, we haven’t done any succession planning and we have a portion of the workforce disengaged. Would a mentor program that matches Generation “Y” with Baby Boomers be the answer to all of this? Actually it wouldn’t on its own. We need to take somewhat of a different approach on this one.

We need to address the disengaged workforce piece first in this situation. No matter how good of a mentor program we put into place, the disengaged employee with all that negative energy will derail the mentor program in very short order. We should look at working on the development of a mentor culture where everyone helps their colleagues to grow personally and professionally. In that situation you would have all the generations interacting with each other – and no one is matched to mentor the other. It becomes a way of life – baby boomers mentor all the other generations and everyone mentors the baby boomers. I know what you are thinking and that is there is no way that a baby boomer would want to be mentored by someone younger than them. Well, in some organizations it’s called “reverse mentoring”. The "reverse mentoring" is essentially part of the full circle of learning and actualization that occurs through the fostering of a genuine trusted mentor relationship.

“Reverse mentoring” is not a term that I am in support of. I believe that good mentoring occurs when it is two way. The baby boomer learns from the younger generation and vice versa. The transfer of knowledge through mentorship is essentially the transmission of values and education from one generation unto the next. This creates a win – win situation for all.

You will note that I have referenced the term “trusted relationship”! All too often we see the matching process put two people together in a mentoring relationship and what transpires is less than satisfactory. What needs to take place is that the mentor must have the skills to develop a “trusted relationship”. Without that, the learning environment and the opportunity to develop or enhance critical thinking skills will be diminished.

So where does this leave us with our organization? What is the next chapter in this story that we have unfolded? The organization needs to understand and embrace the challenges that it has – we have articulated them. They need to determine how they want to approach this – is it through a mentor program or the building and maintaining of a mentor culture. If they want to run with the program idea then what are the outcomes that they are looking for. Are they willing to provide corporate support for the program, a structured program and the willingness to provide the proper training to ensure success? Do they have mentors that can develop “trusted relationships?” Of do they want to be another casualty of mentoring programs that have failed?

Is our other option then to look at the development of a mentor culture where employees mentor each other and no one is specifically assigned to mentor one particular person? During the initial stages of your onboarding/orientation process you may decide to assign someone a mentor but the need for that relationship to continue may diminish with a mentoring culture in place. The degrees of mentoring skills will obviously be varied but each person will continue to grow personally and professionally as a result of this positive environment. You will have alleviated the need to do a formal matching process – matching a baby boomer with a Generation “Y”. You will find recruiting top talent in a tight market to be easier as you will be able to advertise that you “support and maintain a mentoring culture!” Your turnover rate will fall as it will be easier to retain employees in such a positive work environment – one where people encourage each other to grow personally and professionally. Finally, productivity will increase with an engaged, empowered and accountable workforce. All of this made possible through the “power of mentoring!”

References:

1. Dr. Carolin Rekhar-Munro – 2009

2.  Mentoring Programs That Actually Work – Judy Lindenberger

http://hr.toolbox.com/blogs/human-resource/mentoring-programs-that-actually-work-42860