What better way to stimulate the creative juices so early in the morning than getting to the airport, through security and at your gate at least two hours ahead. My mind was racing most of the night which likely would explain some of you getting emails at what would be considered an idiotic time to be conversing. To those of you that responded – thank you.

Here are some observations and thoughts while I reflect on the last few days.  I am truly blessed to have such wonderful people in my life and who are as passionate about mentoring as I am. This was demonstrated over and over again the past few days and it was a very humbling experience to say the least. I see our reach in sharing the gift of mentoring to be growing each and every day and that is a good thing. Despite the sometimes reluctance on the part of business people to take the time to understand the business value of mentoring the believers are a larger force to reckon with than the non-believers. I still marvel at organizations that are not aware of what is actually going on in their work place and despite putting on a good image to anyone who would listen they are only delaying the inevitable. This is always at the price of the employees. We seem to forget that it is they that will drive our success rate, our achieving and exceeding revenue growth targets.

The terminology “reverse mentoring” was brought up again this past week. Okay people enough with the “reverse” stuff. Reverse by definition means going backwards. Is that the sort of mentoring relationship you want – one that has one or both parties going backwards? Think of it as a reciprocal mentoring relationship, a two way relationship in which both parties learn.

We had discussion around mentoring programs and mentoring cultures. Here is my take based on our experiences and the research that supports it. Mentoring program can be seen as short term solutions. Mentoring cultures are seen as a longer term solution in an organization. No matter the path that you take they do require care and feeding and nurturing. They cannot and will not survive on their own. You just need to decide which ones work the best for your organization. If you are looking at creating a learning and development environment then you must pursue the implementation of a mentoring culture. I would find it invigorating to wake up in the morning hardly able to contain my excitement at heading off to work because I know that I am going to learn something from a colleague in the work place. I know that I am going to be given the chance to share my experience with another colleague and help them grow personally and professionally. We all want to be told that we are doing great work – what better way than to see someone grow on a personal and/or professional level as a result of our mentoring relationship.

We talked about the need for mentoring tools which would typically be provided through some form of mentor training. Organizations need to decide what type of training they think is appropriate for the outcomes that they are looking for. One thing is for sure though and that is the fact that mentoring programs and/or mentoring cultures fail because of lack of training. Don’t curtail your chance of success but opting out of some form of training. That training can be a 2-4 hour workshop or it can be something more structured and formalized. You need to decide what is the best approach for what you want to achieve. We recommend that if you are looking at a mentoring culture that everyone in the organization should have some form of training. We also recommend that your champions/advocates of mentoring are the people that you would want to provide advanced training for.

My one last final comment was around the discussion that we had on internal versus external mentoring. I have had this conversation with some organizations before. Their preference is to bring in a professional mentor from outside the organization as it affords the employee(s) with a greater sense of confidentiality. It is always the personal growth challenges that seem to make some folks a little uneasy. I am a firm believer that you need to do what works the best for your organization and the people within that organization. You need to reach out and discuss this with someone if you are not sure of the path that you want to take.

Mentoring can bring a lot of business value to your organization but only if you are willing to begin the journey. Don’t succumb to the ostrich syndrome and not see what is actually taking place in your organization. Think of it more so as a means to enhance what you already have. That definitely puts a positive spin on it and that is important as well!

Thanks for listening to my musing from an airport far away. I hope that the gift of mentoring has made a difference in your life whether it is on the giving or receiving end. It is a powerful tool – use it wisely and you will see the difference you can make in an organization and in people. "Can you afford not to?"