The Invisible Mentor

Posts Tagged ‘Mentoring Program’

This is a series of posts on how to create your own personalized mentoring program. In the first instalment, we looked at how to determine your mentoring needs, and in the second we looked at a variety of mentoring models and asked you to make note of the ones that would work in your situation. To create your personalized mentoring program, you have to understand your needs and know what your options are before you can move forward.

In this the final instalment we will help you to pull things together. This may sound surprising to you, but two major reasons why mentoring programs fail are improper fit between mentors and protégés and the upfront work was not done initially.

So what does that really mean?

Refer back to Adventures in Learning: DIY Mentoring Program, Episode One, where we had a needs assessment to understand what your mentoring needs are. Look at the ideal mentors that you chose, do their values align with yours? If you entered into a mentoring relationship with any of them, would it get you closer to fulfilling your life mission and goals? Every action you take should lead you to where you want to end up in life. Think about that for a few seconds.

In Adventures in Learning: DIY Mentoring Program, Episode Two, if you decided that any of the mentoring programs which involved groups such as peer-mentoring and mentoring circle would work for your situation, it’s important that the leader of the group has excellent facilitation skills. Every effective group when first started, went through developmental stages before the group members ultimately gel. Sufficient time has to be allotted for group members to get to know each other. Years ago before I have the experience I now have, when I led/chaired a meeting, I was very aware of time and quickly got down to business without giving the group members enough time for check in. Today, I would never operate that way, because when people get to know each other, it builds trust and the likelihood for cliques forming is reduced.

Now that we have gotten over those two major hurdles, the other big issue is how to contact people. Before you contact anyone, asking them if they would mentor you, or be a part of a mentoring circle or even a peer-to-peer group, spend some time getting to know them first before you start a conversation. Read their status updates on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. On their LinkedIn profile, try to find a point of interest that you have in common with them. Did you attend the same university, share a past employer, are both members of the same LinkedIn Group, support the same non-profit? If we take the time to conduct a little upfront research you’ll be amazed by how much you have in common with others. Comment on their updates, and start the conversation to build a relationship.

After you have gathered your intelligence, and started to build a relationship, raise the topic of mentoring. Because they know you, they are more likely to respond to you in a positive manner. Always be honest with your requests and let people know exactly what you are asking of them. Give them an out, so they can graciously turn you down if they do not believe the right fit is there. The more time you take in selecting potential ideal mentors, the more likely you would have made a good choice. Adventures in Learning: DIY Mentoring Program, Episode One is a critical stage.

For senior level executives, when contacting them, I have had a lot of luck using email, or sending a letter by snail mail or courier. To be really successful in creating your personalized mentoring program, it’s essential that you build and nurture your networks. When you have a wide and deep network, you have more options from which to get people for your mentoring groups. When you interact with people in your networks, you will discover whose values align with yours.

When I started the series, I mentioned that I was thinking of writing a DIY Mentoring Program for the Amazon Kindle. I have written Episode One and Episode Two and have uploaded them. I have added more information, and the Mentoring Needs Assessment is more in-depth. Writing the blog posts have helped me to clarify what I wanted to say, and set the tone for the content. I will be writing the last instalment for the Kindle in the next few days.

You have the capacity to create your own customized mentoring program, but you have to know what your needs are, the options that are open to you, and start building relationships with the people who can get you where you want to go before you consider contacting them.

How can you use this information? What do you have to add to the conversation? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Reference Material

Adventures: DIY Mentoring Program, Episode One

Adventures: DIY Mentoring Program, Episode Two

Get the Mentoring Equation Right, Whitney Johnson

Lessons from Successful Networkers, Bill Barnett

“Persistent people begin their success where others have given up in failure” struck me while reading the transcript for a tele-seminar on Goal Planning. I can see why so many people have succeeded using the Mission Marketing Mentors System. I have been in the program for two weeks, but I haven’t actually started with the program because there is so much pre-work that mentees have to do first.

I have to participate in two Quick Start coaching sessions, where a coach goes through the process and helps us to find the important information on the membership website. I have completed my first Quick Start session, in addition to going through a very in-depth process to identify my goals based on my values, purpose in life, and where I see myself in 10 years, three years and what I need to get there. The complete process took several hours because I was very thoughtful and honest with myself. For this to work, I have to do my part. I want to live a fulfilled life therefore I want to be doing meaningful work.

I’ve identified my goals and handed in my first assignment. The Quick Start coaching sessions are mandatory before you can “officially” start the program.

There are four tracks in the program, and based on my unique situation to revamp Tales of People Who Get It and create The Invisible Mentor Diamond Club, my coach recommended that I choose Track 3 and a few components from Track 4. Even though I haven’t “officially” started my coaching programs based on the mandate of Mission Marketing Mentors, I have started my process already. One of my goals is to include The Invisible Mentor brand in Tales of People Who Get It so when I first thought about this in 2009, I interviewed 10 people as Invisible Mentors. Having done that, and now that I have a clear process to follow, I have been transcribing the interviews. Transcribing interviews is not something I enjoy doing (I love interviewing people though), so I have scheduled it into my day so that it gets done.

As part of the program, we are given a “template” on how to effectively put a book together. Knowing this in advance, I am assembling all the new information that I have, and put them in one place where I can find them quite easily.

The other thing I like about the program which is a big thing for me, but may not be for others, is that we are given a schedule of all our coaching sessions. For each of the 20 sessions, we are given three choices of days and four choices of times. This is important to me because I can plan, and I also like to have control. If it can be helped, I like to be notified of things in advance.

As I write Episode Two of my mentee journey, I am reading the transcript of the Goal Achievement Planner tele-seminar so that I can complete my second homework assignment. In the next episode of my journey, I’ll let you know how I found the exercise. This is a very intensive and time consuming process to participate in this program, but I’m grateful that it’s very structured and that there is a lot of support.

Do you know what your purpose in life is? What are the things in life that you enjoy doing that time slips by without you noticing? How can you use this information? What do you have to add to the conversation? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Definition of Mentoring: The modern usage of mentor – trusted friend, counsellor or teacher – first appeared in François Fénelon’s Les Aventures de Telemaque in 1699, Wikipedia (2009).  Dictionary.com has a similar definition for a mentor, “Wise and trusted counsellor or teacher, an influential senior sponsor or supporter.”  And Wikipedia notes that “Mentors provide their expertise to less-experienced individuals to help them advance their careers, enhance their education.”

Holland Bamboo, Jamaica

An important aspect of professional success involves participating in mentoring programs. And now more than ever, during these challenging economic times, employees need mentors to guide and advise them as they navigate flattened corporate structures. Research conducted for Sun Microsystems by research company Gartner and Capital Analytics, a software company, looked at 1,000 Sun employees over a five-year period to examine the financial impact of mentoring and found that:

• 25 percent of employees in a test group who took part in the company’s mentoring program had a salary-grade change, compared with 5 percent of employees in a control group who did not participate in the program
• 28 percent of mentors in the test group had a salary grade change as opposed to just 5 percent in the control group
• Mentors were promoted six times more often than those not in the program
• Mentees were promoted five times more often than those not in the program
• Retention rates were much higher for mentees (72 percent) and mentors (69 percent) than for employees who did not participate in the mentoring program (49 percent)

According to Wikipedia, “Mentors provide their expertise to less experienced individuals to help them advance their careers, enhance their education.” In the context of the Invisible Mentor, the following quotes sum up Invisible Mentoring:

“A wise man learns by the experience of others. An ordinary man learns by his own experience. A fool learns by nobody’s experience.” Vern McLellan

“If you would know the road ahead, ask someone who has traveled it.” Chinese Proverb

“It is good to learn what to avoid by studying the misfortunes of others.” Publius Syrius

“A prudent person profits from personal experience, a wise one from the experience of others.” Joseph Collins

“There are three schoolmasters for everybody that will employ them – the senses, intelligent companions, and books.” Rev. Henry Ward Beecher

I believe a great mentoring relationship assists the mentee to be the best he/she can be. What does mentoring mean to you? And how can Invisible Mentors work for you?

Related Posts

• Standing on the Shoulders of Giants (Part I)
• Standing on the Shoulders of Giants (Part II)
• Adventures: DIY Mentoring Program, Episode One

• Adventures in Learning: DIY Mentoring Program, Episode Two (theinvisiblementor.com)
• Adventures in Learning: DIY Mentoring Program, Episode Three (theinvisiblementor.com)
• Get the Mentoring Equation Right, Whitney Johnson