The supply side of mentoring

“Do you do mentoring outside of onboarding?“
 
I received the same question four times in the past two months, from companies facing eerily similar situations. The companies each had a VP of Sales with 15-20 years of experience in the company, elevated to the VP level 2-4 years ago. The VPs were hitting their numbers and their customers loved them, so the requests for help were not couched as remedial. Instead, there was interest in expanding their skill set, exploring different aspects and technology of selling, ensuring that these successful salespeople were becoming strong sales leaders and becoming more vocal participants within the leadership team.
 
My answer to these questions was, “Sure. You know we have intellectual property in the area of executive onboarding. But we have a network of highly accomplished executives as mentors, who are quite capable of helping to develop your Vice President.”
 
And then I had conversations with several of my mentors who come from the sales function. They were as excited about the opportunity to develop an established leader as they have been in working with those new to their position.
 
It might seem that the benefit of mentorship is accrued mainly by the mentee. They are receiving wisdom. They are getting support in situations where they are vulnerable. They are learning from their mentors’ mistakes, which is less painful than learning from their own. But, in working with professional mentors, I think they might enjoy these relationships at least as much as their mentees.
 
Many successful professionals reach the point in their lives when they are no longer motivated by position or additional wealth. At Executive Springboard, the majority of our mentors are out of corporate life, either retired or consulting. But they are not done with the contribution they can make. They have legacies that they are intent on building.
 
When I vet mentors for Executive Springboard, I am seeking four qualities. 

1. Does somebody have a history of accomplishment and experience that would be valuable to current executives? When I recommend a mentor to an executive, that executive has to recognize how they can learn from the mentor. On top of strength of resume, I seek a diversity of experiences across our portfolio of mentors. That helps us find a mentor who has faced similar situations to those an executive might encounter. 
2. Does the person exhibit active listening? The work we do is often an alternative to more traditional executive coaching. Part of a coach’s credentials will be tied to their active listening skills, the ability to follow a conversation, consider what maybe underlying the executive’s answers or tone and the skill to respond accordingly. A mentor often has an advantage over a coach in terms of relevant experience. I want to make sure a mentor is not significantly disadvantaged as a listener.
3. Can the mentor bury their own ego, demonstrate humility and make the work about the mentee? The mentee’s success is the ultimate measure of a mentor’s success. It is a waste of time for a mentor to regale an executive with stories of their triumphs, unless they address the mentee’s question of “How do I do this?” Many current or former CEOs cannot get over themselves, continuing to seek affirmation on their careers. They have not bought into legacy building, and they don’t make it as mentors.The best mentors own up to their own mistakes and talk openly about what they have learned from them.
4. Does the mentor show a passion for the work? The best mentors find that they can learn as much from their relationship as the mentee can. They often have been touched by mentors themselves, people who have left indelible marks on their careers and on their lives, even if those relationships were not long-term. I had three mentors, Sig Yaffe, Bonnie McCafferty and Fred LeDrew, who left their marks on me. They not only inspired me to want to pay it forward with others, but they instructed me on what it takes to play that role. All are gone but remain in my heart. 

 
Penny Loretto described characteristics of good mentors that go beyond Executive Springboard’s vetting.

8 traits of successful mentors

​We try to address these in training, the process of matching mentors and mentees or through coaching during mentoring engagements.
 
Executive Springboard began as a mentored-delivered vehicle to onboard leaders in new roles. We still have this at our core. But we’ve responded to clients who see how this broad team of incredibly talented and committed mentors can impact leaders in other ways:
 

• Helping to develop leaders reach their potential. This can involve filling knowledge gaps, either directly by the mentor or through introductions to people with greater expertise. This might also include developing strategies for how women and people of color can gain acceptance and alignment while remaining true to who they are.
• Serving as a sounding board. Mentors create a safe place for managers to explore courageous actions, to think through potential consequences and to pressure-test assumptions.
• Holding a mirror up, so people see how others view them. Sometimes, this can be reassuring and supportive. Sometimes, this is a needed reset on an exec’s perception of themselves.
• Being a confidante. Companies often having mentoring programs in place to develop and retain junior and middle managers. The results are significant: people with mentors are five times more likely to get promoted than those without (Chronus), and 77% of companies report that their mentoring programs boosted retention and performance (WeSpire). At senior levels in organizations, internal mentoring breaks down. There is too much at stake for the leader to make themselves vulnerable or transparent with colleagues, their boss or board members. But the need to confide in others, to get support and to be challenged remains. This is the role we try to play at Executive Springboard. The need may be keenest when somebody is getting their footing in a new situation. But it never goes away.

 
I want to thank the incredibly talented mentors at Executive Springboard for their work to support and develop leaders, for their passion towards passing on a legacy and for spurring me on to make our business bigger than its initial vision.