The art of mentoring, modernized
Age-old form of learning takes on new importance
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Layoffs are mounting. The stock market is sliding. How can you begin to recession-proof your career? Try mentoring.
Whether you mentor or are a "mentee," this age-old form of learning can add a powerful boost to your work life, enhancing performance, job satisfaction, and commitment, studies show. And now organizations, waking up to the wide-ranging benefits of mentoring, are crafting new approaches to the art form.
Traditionally one-on-one, mentoring now takes place in intimate groups, called "circles," by telephone, or even virtually. Once predicated upon junior employees soaking up the wisdom of their elders, mentoring is now often peer-to-peer and a mutual learning experience. This smorgasbord of tutoring styles better equips workers for our fast-changing world, says Kathy Kram, a Boston University professor who has studied mentoring for decades.
"There are still examples of traditional mentoring, but they are much rarer because of the nature of careers and organizations," says Kram, coauthor of "The Handbook of Mentoring at Work."
"The pace of change is much greater. It's unlikely that one mentor can meet all your needs."
Lawyer Deborah DosSantos was a bit skeptical about the mentoring circle she was invited to join last spring. Eager to share her 10 years of experience in the field, she didn't expect to gain personally from the monthly group, one of 15 set up statewide since 2004 by the Women's Bar Association of Massachusetts. About 10 to 15 women usually attend each meeting.
Now she's a convert. The open-ended meetings provide a time not only for mutual learning and networking, but for reflection on topics from ethics to career development that get buried by overwork and deadlines. The circle, which brings together women from varied firms and ranks, provides the chance to "think about larger-picture issues, like how to make the profession better," says DosSantos, a partner in the Boston office of Goulston and Storrs.
Natalie Forbes, executive director of the New Haven Symphony, gained a wealth of practical tips from a mentoring circle carried out via conference call with fellow orchestra administrators, led by San Francisco Symphony executive director Brent Assink. Her circle, which disbanded in May, was part of a series held annually by the nonprofit League of American Orchestras, mainly for newcomers to the field. The circles are monthly and normally meet about six times. They include eight people, plus a senior-level orchestra administrator who leads the discussions.
"The ideas people gave me, the specific answers to needs, were all successful because they were all so to the point," says Forbes. Inspired by one conversation, Forbes made a performance by symphony musicians the focus of the organization's annual gala benefit in May. Previously, save for a background quartet, musicians hadn't been invited. "What was missing was the core product of who we were," says Forbes.
Mentoring is spreading, as well, into further reaches of the workforce - from the newly and semiretired to the newly hired.
As part of intensive efforts to retain institutional knowledge at
"What we heard in focus groups is that people wanted to leave their legacy behind, and get the next generation of leaders prepared," said Jim Rottman, vice president of workforce transformation. "They feel like they have so much to contribute."
At Cambridge-based Millennium: The Takeda Oncology Co., new hires are matched with a "buddy" who is a peer, often from a different department. The year-old mentoring program is seen as a retention tool for the pharmaceuticals company.
When distributions manager Millie Messervy joined the company last spring, she was paired with Kimberlee Kossover Hansen, who was just being moved out of Messervy's job. "It was nice to know that I didn't have to chase around to get answers to questions," says Messervy. Kossover Hansen adds that the learning was two-way. "She had a fresh set of eyes," says Kossover Hansen. "She'd say, 'have you ever thought of doing it this way?' "
Perhaps our hunger for mentoring shows we need some counterbalance to an overly virtual, faceless, and hurried world. We need a kind of kinship that's being lost in this overloaded, e-mail-addicted era.
At the food services company Sodexo Inc., the 200 managers who complete the company's annual yearlong "Impact" mentoring program report enhanced job satisfaction, and that holds true whether or not they were a mentor or "mentee," says Jodi Davidson, director of diversity initiatives at the Gaithersburg, Md., company. Launched in 2004, the program has become increasingly popular.
"At first, they would say, 'What's wrong with me? Is this remedial?' " or " 'I'm beyond capacity, how can I fit this in?,' " says Davidson. "Now, people are vying for the opportunity."
Maggie Jackson is the author of Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age (Prometheus Books, 2008). She can be reached at www.maggie-jackson.com.
