The Benefits of Employee Mentoring

Overview Mentoring helps employees successfully maneuver through the organization to enhance their performance and career growth. It is often paired with a segment of in-depth analysis of a person’s “psychology of performance.” Mentoring supports employees in goal clarifications and accountability. This one-on-one coaching experience engages employees to consciously think about his or her personal development and career aspirations. The coach/mentor explores with employees the many organizational, interpersonal and personal obstacles to their development. Mentors guide, counsel and provide feedback towards the achievement of goals and is an objective resource to help one think through issues and problem solve the challenges. This mentoring/coaching process holds one accountable and ensures significant improvement and skill building in support of driving your business objectives. Winning Ways uses a variety of assessments and profiles, such as; personality tests, values clarifications, motivations, and the individual’s success factors (core passions) that help zero in on the skills and capabilities to the individual’s specific areas for development. We provide positive feedback about employee contributions, and at the same time, bring performance issues to their attention before the issues becomes a problem and assist the employee in how to correct them. The Benefits of our Coaching and Mentoring Program: One of the benefits of a mentoring and coaching program is that it is consistently expressed by previous employees—is the fact that the mentor comes from outside the organization and the main focus is always on the professional development of employees. Organizations that incorporate mentoring and coaching into their culture see sustainable improvements in key areas, including internal and external communications, productivity, employee attitudes, recruitment and retention of staff. There is an emphasis on the ‘whole’ person’, and no stone is left unturned in order to identify strengths and development needs. There should be firm trust and a strong bond formed between the mentor and each employee involved in the coaching process. Through a structured, outcomes-led process, we clarify issues, examine limiting beliefs and generate solutions with a compelling course of action. In this way, employees experience genuine and lasting change. They become both the person they want to be and also the person that others would prefer. The Process: The process achieves genuine and lasting change because there is:

• Dependable and reliable confidentiality assured through the coach and manager.
• Clear, positive and consistent support.
• Sufficient body of data that employees can believe in and see the need for change.
• Balanced and objective feedback about strengths and development opportunities.
• Employee’s enthusiasm and motivation to change based on a vision of the success they want to have in the future.
• Supportive and imaginative mentoring that is based on real-life work situations.
• Closure or agreed continuing support from the line manager and the coach.

A typical mentoring program has this structure:

• Intake meeting. Meet the employees and their manager (if appropriate) to agree the broad scope of outcomes of the coaching.
• Feedback. Feedback on all the data to employees, to agree on strengths, development opportunities, and a draft plan.
• Agreement. Review the plan with employees and manager and reach a firm agreement about the key areas to focus on for improvement; the desired outcomes as well as the timeline.
• Coaching. This can take a number of forms; assessment, review of assessments, continuous feedback and learned-centered activity.
• Progress review. Gather further data to assess the extent to which improvements are actually being made, and review this data with the client and manager to agree on the next steps.
• Closure. Agreement with the client and manager of a forward action plan (that could include further coaching) to ensure that the client continues to develop.

Six main steps in effective and supportive mentoring:

1. Show confidence in the employee’s ability and willingness to solve the problem. Ask him or her for help in solving the problem.
2. Describe the performance problem. Focus on the problem or behavior that needs improvement, not the person. Ask for the employee’s view of the situation.
3. Determine if issues exist that limit employee’s ability to perform the task or accomplish the objective. Determine how to remove these barriers and add these actins to the overall plan.
4. Discuss potential solutions to the problem or improvement actions to take. Ask employees for ideas on how to correct the problem, or prevent it from happening again. Offer suggestions.
5. Agree on a written action plan that lists what employees, supervisors, and possibly the HR professional, will do to correct the problem or improve the situation.
6. Set a date and time for follow-up. Determine if a critical feedback path is needed, so the supervisor knows how the employee is progressing on the plan. Offer positive encouragement and or confidence in the employee’s competence to make the needed improvements.

Goals of the Mentor:

• The goal of performance mentoring is not to make employees feel bad, the goal is to work with them to solve performance problems and improve the work of employees and the department.
• There is an emphasis on the ‘whole’ person, and no stone is left unturned in order to identify strengths and development needs.
• Firm trust and a strong bond forms between the coach and employees, and through a structured, outcomes-led process, clarify issues, examine limiting beliefs and generate solutions with a compelling course of action.
• In this way, employees experience genuine and lasting change.

A typical Corporate Mentoring program can involve the client in the process for 3 to 6 months. The duration of the program is agreed with the client and line manager. Don’t think you have time to mentor your employees? You could be harming your company’s most important resource.

For help in designing effective job search strategies that work, and living a more balanced life and career that is fully aligned with your passions and values, contact Winning Ways.