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Mentoring the mentors

12/7/2024

Eighty-four percent of Fortune 500 companies have formal mentoring programs in place. All companies within the Fortune 50 have formal mentoring programs. And a recent LinkedIn Workplace Learning Report ranked mentoring as the top learning and development tool for career development. Clearly, the value of mentoring has become very well understood.

It's expected that an organization's senior managers will mentor their more junior colleagues. If we assume that we are all works in progress, even our senior leadership would benefit from mentoring, but it seldom happens in practice for two reasons: First, there is a few people of higher rank within the company to mentor a leader. Second, it's difficult for senior people to make themselves vulnerable with a colleague, a necessary condition for professional growth.

Here are five alternatives to traditional internal mentoring for executives:

Board members as mentors. They understand the organization and many the key players, and they provide the perspective of experienced business leaders. Their view of the operational elements and the time they can devote to executive mentoring may be limited. Some companies require mentoring as part of a board assignment.
Reverse mentoring. When Hubert Jolie was CEO of Best Buy, he had a 20-something mentor who helped him understand the mindset of her generation and how it wanted to use technology. A newly hired executive might be paired with a junior manager in a two-way mentoring relationship, learning about the company while providing wisdom that comes from their experience outside the company. This type of mentoring has limitations for the leader, because it won't necessarily provide the guidance that comes from a more experienced mentor.
Buddy system. The Managing Director of the Dallas office of global enterprise might be paired with their counterpart in Toronto. They see the same kinds of problems, but their separation makes it more comfortable to share confidences. This is a mentorship of equals. Because there is little chance of buddies interacting in a business situation, there is not much risk that vulnerability will play a role in future power dynamics. The trick is to make sure buddies have sufficient common experiences and sufficient distance.
Corporate alumni as mentors. Somebody who recently retired from the company’s C-suite can provide similar benefits of a board member with greater tactical understanding of the company. The opportunity to continue their contribution to the organization in retirement can be a huge motivator for the mentor, and they are likely to be more generous with their time than Directors or colleagues. The number of alumni willing to act as mentors may be insufficient to address all senior managers with a need.
External resources. While executive coaches, peer circles or external mentors like Executive Springboard don’t provide the company-specific knowledge of other options, they often bring the greatest objectivity and greater expertise in providing executive guidance. External resources solve the supply-demand imbalance, and the professional nature of the relationship often translates into greater access than with people who see their mentor role as a sideline.

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The art and science of mentoring

Mentoring the mentors

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