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Mentoring is one of the most popular methods of informal learning. 71% of the companies on the Fortune500 list have corporate mentoring programs. They may be different, but the essence is the same: a more experienced specialist directs and helps with advice to a less experienced one. This is beneficial for the company: employees become more efficient, their loyalty increases, and business indicators grow accordingly.
Let's find out what mentoring is, where and how to choose a mentor, what are the main mistakes that mentors make, and what effective mentoring is based on.
Mentoring helps you achieve your goals faster
Mentoring is the interaction of a mentor - a more experienced specialist-and a mentor-a less experienced specialist - in order to solve work problems and career growth. The work takes place through a discussion of the difficulties faced by the ward.
The mentor does not give ready-made recipes, but directs mentee's thoughts and energy in the right direction. In other words, it does not teach, but helps you learn and think correctly.
For example, a mentor developer will not correct every method that is incorrectly written, but will give advice on organizing the code based on the most effective practices.
According to a study by Endeavor, 30% of successful startups had mentors. For example, Steve Jobs was mentored by Mike Markkula, one of the first Apple investors. Steve himself was a mentor to Mark Zuckerberg, who noted that the Apple founder was an invaluable mentor. Dropbox creators Drew Houston and Arash Firdowsi were mentored by successful serial Silicon Valley entrepreneurs Ali and Hadi Partowi.
"It's good to have support at the start. I wouldn't have achieved anything in the aviation industry without the mentorship of Sir Freddie Laker."
Richard Branson, Head of Virgin
Mentoring and protege success in STEM fields is studied and described in more detail in the paper prepared by the staff of the Southern University of Science and Technology (China) and the Indian Institute of Management Udaipur.
According to this study, specialists who included mentoring practices in their training achieved their career goals faster than their single colleagues. And if the mentor was a prize winner and a world expert in the field under study, then the results of mentee were 5 times better than the average value for the sample.
So, mentoring helps:
Menti can:
It is worth paying attention to the motivation of the mentor-in addition to his experience
As a rule, a mentor can be a specialist in any field with at least three years of experience. The main thing is to have a serious experience behind you and a desire to share it.
The most important thing to pay attention to when searching is career experience and values. The mentor has already passed the path that the student wants to follow, and has achieved the goals that the student sets for himself.
Work with a mentor is long - term, with an average of three months to three years. And it is much easier and more pleasant to build such work if the mentor and mentee are close in spirit and have similar interests.
"Mike took me under his wing. His values matched mine. He emphasized: you don't have to start a company with the goal of getting rich, it's important to do what you believe in."
Steve Jobs on Mike Markkula
A healthy motivation to be a mentor is the need to transfer knowledge in the industry in a high-quality way, to help less experienced colleagues better cope with tasks.
If a mentor helps others to raise their own self-esteem, then this is a wake-up call. For example, if a mentor feels better because they produce excellent specialists and this is the root of the motivation to be a mentor, then everything is fine. But in the case of the motivation "to feel better against the background of less professional colleagues", it is worth considering whether this cooperation will do more harm than good.
Financial incentives are also important: the time of an experienced specialist costs money.
There is an opinion that the lack of mentors in Russia is caused by the lack of a competent incentive system. A large number of representatives of the intellectual elite formed a total rejection of labor "for the idea" - one of the symbols of the Soviet past.
Mentoring, like any process of transferring knowledge and experience, deserves a decent reward, including material ones. Therefore, it is logical to discuss the terms of cooperation at the first meeting and try to make it comfortable for both the mentor and mentee.
Where can mentor and menti find each other
There are many ways for mentors and mentees to find each other. Let's look at the most common ones.
At carding work
The easiest way to find a mentor is to make friends with a more experienced employee where the mentor works. Working with such a mentor is a pleasure: they know everything they need to know about the company's ecosystem, so they don't have to spend time trying to get the mentor up to speed.
On carding forums
Many forums have alumni communities. There you can write a request to find a mentor in a particular field. As a rule, finding a mentor in this way is not difficult, especially if the communities are divided into faculties. This approach is intended primarily for forum students and graduates.
In professional online communities
Representatives of various professions have their own communities. Some are Facebook groups, some are Telegram chats and channels, and others use Slack. Chats for specialized podcasts will also work.
Finding them is quite simple: the name of the profession and location are entered in the search bar, then the search results are filtered. First, you can join a chat or group and just read it, and later, after getting used to it, write an ad about finding a mentor.
How to choose a mentor
Identify in your environment those who have passed the professional path that you also want to pass.
Collect information about these people and choose those who are most close to you in spirit and views. Check information about the potential mentor's competencies from several sources.
Think about how you can be useful to the mentor. The mentor-student relationship can be compared to a two-way street.
Evaluate whether you are ready for mentoring: whether you are flexible to change, independent and active or take a passive position.
Write your first email to a potential mentor based on point 3.
It doesn't matter if you can't find a mentor right away. Repeat step 5 until you reach your goal.
A well-known mentor may have many candidates, but resources are limited. To convince a mentor to work with you, clearly state the goals of collaboration.
So, in the letter, you can tell us why you chose this particular person, how their experience will help you solve your problems, what you want to get as a result of interaction, and what goals you want to achieve.
How can a mentor test themselves and find mentees
Think about how much time and resources you are willing to devote to your ward. It should be taken into account that each case is different: the mentor's position, technologies, ambitions and interests of both parties affect the work of the mentor and mentee.
Evaluate whether you are ready for mentoring: whether you are tolerant of other people's mistakes, whether you accept someone else's point of view.
Use networking: pay attention to less experienced colleagues, alma mater students, write a post in a social network or any other public channel.
Choose a suitable ward and get to work.
"Time spent sharing experiences with others can open up a new world for someone else."
Mark Zuckerberg
Some mistakes of the mentor may not affect the student's life in the best way
A mentor has a lot of responsibility when working with mentee. Just as a parent's mistakes can affect a person's life in a negative way, so a mentor's mistakes can affect their professional career.
The main mistakes that mentors make are instilling feelings of inferiority, overprotection, and lack of transparent accounting of progress and feedback.
Surely, many people have met IT colleagues who are afraid to take responsibility, so they run to the team leader and offer to use the technology not because it is suitable, but because it is "favorite". All this is an example of a victim of careless mentoring.
Emotional Intelligence
Principles of effective mentoring
The joint work of the mentor and mentee is based on solving the problems of the ward. And building a high-quality knowledge transfer process is one of the main tasks of a mentor.
There are different tools for this: some people prefer face-to-face meetings once a week, while others are more comfortable writing reports every 2 days. Everything is limited only to the tasks set and the resources of the mentor and student.
But regardless of the scope and content of the transmitted information, there are key principles that will make mentoring most useful.
Equality and trust
It is very important to build a relationship between the mentor and the ward on an equal footing. The mentor should not position himself as a first-class specialist with unshakable authority, and it is better not to devalue his knowledge and experience.
Otherwise, "top-down" communication will inspire the ward with a sense of inferiority and completely discourage the desire to develop.
Independence
The ideal scheme looks like this: the student tries to solve the problem himself, and only when he has reached a dead end, the mentor should come to his aid and suggest further steps.
It sounds simple, but it is very difficult to implement: mentors are often tempted to help them unnecessarily in order to solve the problem faster. Mentors should fight with themselves in such situations: such behavior leads to the development of disorganization and laziness in the student.
Feedback
It should be there. Always. In conditions of uncertainty, people tend to think out the reality and look for confirmation of what they want: an insecure employee will decide that he is a klutz, and a student with high self-esteem, on the contrary, will start flying in the clouds.
Each mentor-mentor pair selects the feedback form individually: a unique interaction and feedback does not imply the presence of a template. For some, it is easier to talk in person, but for others, a detailed written review is the best solution.
Mentors also need feedback from their students, and its form should also be determined in advance.
Working with progress and expectations
It is necessary to take into account the progress in working with the ward, as it is difficult to draw conclusions at the end of training without it. Without recording, all conclusions will be based on memory, and each person's memory works in its own way. As a result, the result of thinking about progress may differ quite critically from the objective one.
It is enough to regularly keep a table or notes in a notebook, then the costs of subjectivity will be minimized.
Training expectations and evaluation criteria should be specified at the very beginning of the collaboration, otherwise menti will feel uncertain and uncomfortable, as in the case of poor feedback.
"In the next century, leaders will be those who empower others" - Bill Gates
Mentoring is a fun way to learn new things and become more professional. A person is driven to success by other people and their knowledge. As Steve Jobs said, "the world is being changed by people no smarter than you" ?
Mentoring helps to create a culture of continuous learning and development, increase employee engagement and loyalty — all this plays an important role in the success of the company.
Let's find out what mentoring is, where and how to choose a mentor, what are the main mistakes that mentors make, and what effective mentoring is based on.
Mentoring helps you achieve your goals faster
Mentoring is the interaction of a mentor - a more experienced specialist-and a mentor-a less experienced specialist - in order to solve work problems and career growth. The work takes place through a discussion of the difficulties faced by the ward.
The mentor does not give ready-made recipes, but directs mentee's thoughts and energy in the right direction. In other words, it does not teach, but helps you learn and think correctly.
For example, a mentor developer will not correct every method that is incorrectly written, but will give advice on organizing the code based on the most effective practices.
According to a study by Endeavor, 30% of successful startups had mentors. For example, Steve Jobs was mentored by Mike Markkula, one of the first Apple investors. Steve himself was a mentor to Mark Zuckerberg, who noted that the Apple founder was an invaluable mentor. Dropbox creators Drew Houston and Arash Firdowsi were mentored by successful serial Silicon Valley entrepreneurs Ali and Hadi Partowi.
"It's good to have support at the start. I wouldn't have achieved anything in the aviation industry without the mentorship of Sir Freddie Laker."
Richard Branson, Head of Virgin
Mentoring and protege success in STEM fields is studied and described in more detail in the paper prepared by the staff of the Southern University of Science and Technology (China) and the Indian Institute of Management Udaipur.
According to this study, specialists who included mentoring practices in their training achieved their career goals faster than their single colleagues. And if the mentor was a prize winner and a world expert in the field under study, then the results of mentee were 5 times better than the average value for the sample.
So, mentoring helps:
- solve a specific problem;
- learn from other people's experience and learn from it;
- change your mindset by observing the role model;
- adapt to your new role and overcome challenges;
- try on a new role and see if it's suitable.
Menti can:
- participate in the implementation of the mentor's plans - conduct research, help with routine tasks, and provide moral support;
- share energy and creative thoughts;
- motivate them to move on, constantly look for opportunities for development and use them;
- continue the mentor's work.
It is worth paying attention to the motivation of the mentor-in addition to his experience
As a rule, a mentor can be a specialist in any field with at least three years of experience. The main thing is to have a serious experience behind you and a desire to share it.
The most important thing to pay attention to when searching is career experience and values. The mentor has already passed the path that the student wants to follow, and has achieved the goals that the student sets for himself.
Work with a mentor is long - term, with an average of three months to three years. And it is much easier and more pleasant to build such work if the mentor and mentee are close in spirit and have similar interests.
"Mike took me under his wing. His values matched mine. He emphasized: you don't have to start a company with the goal of getting rich, it's important to do what you believe in."
Steve Jobs on Mike Markkula
A healthy motivation to be a mentor is the need to transfer knowledge in the industry in a high-quality way, to help less experienced colleagues better cope with tasks.
If a mentor helps others to raise their own self-esteem, then this is a wake-up call. For example, if a mentor feels better because they produce excellent specialists and this is the root of the motivation to be a mentor, then everything is fine. But in the case of the motivation "to feel better against the background of less professional colleagues", it is worth considering whether this cooperation will do more harm than good.
Financial incentives are also important: the time of an experienced specialist costs money.
There is an opinion that the lack of mentors in Russia is caused by the lack of a competent incentive system. A large number of representatives of the intellectual elite formed a total rejection of labor "for the idea" - one of the symbols of the Soviet past.
Mentoring, like any process of transferring knowledge and experience, deserves a decent reward, including material ones. Therefore, it is logical to discuss the terms of cooperation at the first meeting and try to make it comfortable for both the mentor and mentee.
Where can mentor and menti find each other
There are many ways for mentors and mentees to find each other. Let's look at the most common ones.
At carding work
The easiest way to find a mentor is to make friends with a more experienced employee where the mentor works. Working with such a mentor is a pleasure: they know everything they need to know about the company's ecosystem, so they don't have to spend time trying to get the mentor up to speed.
On carding forums
Many forums have alumni communities. There you can write a request to find a mentor in a particular field. As a rule, finding a mentor in this way is not difficult, especially if the communities are divided into faculties. This approach is intended primarily for forum students and graduates.
In professional online communities
Representatives of various professions have their own communities. Some are Facebook groups, some are Telegram chats and channels, and others use Slack. Chats for specialized podcasts will also work.
Finding them is quite simple: the name of the profession and location are entered in the search bar, then the search results are filtered. First, you can join a chat or group and just read it, and later, after getting used to it, write an ad about finding a mentor.
How to choose a mentor
Identify in your environment those who have passed the professional path that you also want to pass.
Collect information about these people and choose those who are most close to you in spirit and views. Check information about the potential mentor's competencies from several sources.
Think about how you can be useful to the mentor. The mentor-student relationship can be compared to a two-way street.
Evaluate whether you are ready for mentoring: whether you are flexible to change, independent and active or take a passive position.
Write your first email to a potential mentor based on point 3.
It doesn't matter if you can't find a mentor right away. Repeat step 5 until you reach your goal.
A well-known mentor may have many candidates, but resources are limited. To convince a mentor to work with you, clearly state the goals of collaboration.
So, in the letter, you can tell us why you chose this particular person, how their experience will help you solve your problems, what you want to get as a result of interaction, and what goals you want to achieve.
How can a mentor test themselves and find mentees
Think about how much time and resources you are willing to devote to your ward. It should be taken into account that each case is different: the mentor's position, technologies, ambitions and interests of both parties affect the work of the mentor and mentee.
Evaluate whether you are ready for mentoring: whether you are tolerant of other people's mistakes, whether you accept someone else's point of view.
Use networking: pay attention to less experienced colleagues, alma mater students, write a post in a social network or any other public channel.
Choose a suitable ward and get to work.
"Time spent sharing experiences with others can open up a new world for someone else."
Mark Zuckerberg
Some mistakes of the mentor may not affect the student's life in the best way
A mentor has a lot of responsibility when working with mentee. Just as a parent's mistakes can affect a person's life in a negative way, so a mentor's mistakes can affect their professional career.
The main mistakes that mentors make are instilling feelings of inferiority, overprotection, and lack of transparent accounting of progress and feedback.
Surely, many people have met IT colleagues who are afraid to take responsibility, so they run to the team leader and offer to use the technology not because it is suitable, but because it is "favorite". All this is an example of a victim of careless mentoring.
Emotional Intelligence
- Learn to accept and manage your emotions
- You will be able to better understand others and build strong business relationships
- Strengthen your competitiveness and leadership potential
Principles of effective mentoring
The joint work of the mentor and mentee is based on solving the problems of the ward. And building a high-quality knowledge transfer process is one of the main tasks of a mentor.
There are different tools for this: some people prefer face-to-face meetings once a week, while others are more comfortable writing reports every 2 days. Everything is limited only to the tasks set and the resources of the mentor and student.
But regardless of the scope and content of the transmitted information, there are key principles that will make mentoring most useful.
Equality and trust
It is very important to build a relationship between the mentor and the ward on an equal footing. The mentor should not position himself as a first-class specialist with unshakable authority, and it is better not to devalue his knowledge and experience.
Otherwise, "top-down" communication will inspire the ward with a sense of inferiority and completely discourage the desire to develop.
Independence
The ideal scheme looks like this: the student tries to solve the problem himself, and only when he has reached a dead end, the mentor should come to his aid and suggest further steps.
It sounds simple, but it is very difficult to implement: mentors are often tempted to help them unnecessarily in order to solve the problem faster. Mentors should fight with themselves in such situations: such behavior leads to the development of disorganization and laziness in the student.
Feedback
It should be there. Always. In conditions of uncertainty, people tend to think out the reality and look for confirmation of what they want: an insecure employee will decide that he is a klutz, and a student with high self-esteem, on the contrary, will start flying in the clouds.
Each mentor-mentor pair selects the feedback form individually: a unique interaction and feedback does not imply the presence of a template. For some, it is easier to talk in person, but for others, a detailed written review is the best solution.
Mentors also need feedback from their students, and its form should also be determined in advance.
Working with progress and expectations
It is necessary to take into account the progress in working with the ward, as it is difficult to draw conclusions at the end of training without it. Without recording, all conclusions will be based on memory, and each person's memory works in its own way. As a result, the result of thinking about progress may differ quite critically from the objective one.
It is enough to regularly keep a table or notes in a notebook, then the costs of subjectivity will be minimized.
Training expectations and evaluation criteria should be specified at the very beginning of the collaboration, otherwise menti will feel uncertain and uncomfortable, as in the case of poor feedback.
"In the next century, leaders will be those who empower others" - Bill Gates
Mentoring is a fun way to learn new things and become more professional. A person is driven to success by other people and their knowledge. As Steve Jobs said, "the world is being changed by people no smarter than you" ?
Mentoring helps to create a culture of continuous learning and development, increase employee engagement and loyalty — all this plays an important role in the success of the company.
