Reprinted from Mercer Business Magazine September 2002

Adapted for the March/April 2005 issue of New Jersey CPA and Professional Association of Canadian Theatres 2005

Building a Mentoring Culture
By Judith Lindenberger

The people in your organizations train for years and go into debt for college. People work late nights and weekends. People spend the entire day taking phone calls when they’re supposed to be on vacation. And people generate ideas and create the solutions that your organizations need.

Yet, clearly, organizations do not do a good enough job developing and promoting their most important resource — their people.

So we have to ask: What does it take to develop your people?

It takes more than writing "equal opportunity" into your organization’s mission statement. It takes more than sending someone to a training class. It takes more than hard work on the part of your employees.

What it does take is people — from the CEO’s office to the mailroom — people who are willing to listen, to help their colleagues.

It takes coaches, it takes guides, it takes advocates. It takes mentors.

Time after time, successful people I talk to say that one of the most important keys to their success is having a mentor. It is hard to make it without a mentor and it takes too much time.

But often there is no mentor around when you need one and especially when you face "particular challenges."

What do I mean when I talk about the "particular challenges" that people in organizations face?

Let me give you a few examples of some challenges we working people all deal with. Imagine that you are facing these situations. How would you react?

First scenario. You’ve been working in a staff job and a line job opens up in another city. It would be a perfect career move for you but the company fills the job without even asking if you’re interested. They don’t ask because they assume your spouse wouldn’t want to leave his or her job to relocate. What would you do?

Or imagine this. You’re in a meeting. It’s your opportunity to shine in front of upper management. You’ve got an important point to make and you start to talk. And someone cuts you off. What would you do?

Or let’s say you make that important point–and no one says a word about it. But five minutes later, a guy at the other end of the table says the same thing you did. This time it’s a brilliant idea, and he gets all the credit. What would you do?

You’re in another meeting–there’s always "another meeting." And one of your bosses tells a demeaning joke about the Pope–you are Catholic, and everyone knows it. What would you do?

Or a joke about gays–which you are, and maybe no one knows it. Or a joke about women –which you’re not, but some of your colleagues sitting right next to you are. What would you do?

My point is not so much whether you or I know how to react in each of these situations.

My point is really that we need to recognize that there are people in every organization–whether they’re men or women, minorities, or people who grew up without any business role-models in their lives–there are many people who don’t know how to react in these situations.

And it’s our responsibility to teach them.

Organizations are only as successful as the men and women who make them work.

So if we care about our organizations and our people, we have to share our knowledge of the organizational culture, we have to share our wisdom, we have to mentor.

If you want to establish a mentoring culture within your organization, here are some of the best practices for doing so:

• Set organizational goals. Don’t establish a mentoring program just because it is a good business practice. Develop a mentoring program based on solid business goals such as increasing diversity or making your organization a better place to work.

• The majority of mentoring programs fail because of the appearance of simplicity in the core concept of mentoring. Successful mentoring programs require two critical components - a committed organization and a knowledgeable and experienced guide.

• Find out why the talented employees you wanted to keep left you.

• Develop people to their fullest potential.  

• Foster mentoring for women and minorities.

• Point to the money. Losing talented employees and wasting talent costs companies money.

• And remember, whatever programs you design; they won’t be effective unless there is commitment from the top.

Judith Lindenberger, a Mercer County Chamber of Commerce member, is the Principal of The Lindenberger Group, a human resources consulting firm that, among other things, creates award-winning mentoring programs. The Lindenberger Group works with individuals and organizations to increase productivity and to make their work environments more enjoyable. For more information contact them at (609) 730-1049, info@lindenbergergroup.com or read more at www.lindenbergergroup.com.

Copyright © 2006 by The Lindenberger Group, LLC. All rights reserved. You may reproduce materials available at this site for your own personal use and for non-commercial distribution. All copies must include this copyright statement.

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