You have probably heard the expression that “the rich get richer while the poor get poorer.” It’s often used to explain the unfairness when it comes to money.
However, I don’t think this is unfair at all. The reason it happens is that the rich focus on a completely different way of earning money. There are thousands of stories about poor people who accumulated great riches and this choice is available to all of us.
Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Richard Branson, and Oprah were not born into riches. Yet over their lifetimes, they’ve amassed huge personal fortunes. This is because they understand and use the power of leverage through residual income like we’ll talk about today.
What Is Active Income?
Active income comes as a direct result of our efforts. This is when we work for one hour and get paid a certain amount for that hour’s of work. This can be seen in wages, salaries, and self-employed service providers like lawyers or doctors.
There are many people who get paid vast amounts of money to become the CEO of a company, play professional sports, or star in a movie. Earning a high active income is often a lot of hard work and requires a dedication beyond most of us. It’s also limited because no matter how much money you get paid you still need to show up to work to earn your money.
What Is Residual (Or Passive) Income?
Residual income is when you continue to get paid after the work is done. This includes royalties from books, movies, or songs and also income that comes from real estate or business investments where you don’t actually have to be present to earn it. For example, Bill Gates is still making a residual income from Microsoft even though he isn’t working there anymore.
Residual income comes from building an asset that continues to pay you after the work has been done. A book, movie or song is an asset to the people earning royalties from it. A house is an asset to the landlord being paid rent and a business is an asset to the business owner who does not need to be involved in the day-to-day activities anymore.
The Passive Income Myth
Many people talk about passive income and create the impression that you never have to do anything to keep that income going. The truth is that you will normally have to keep your eye on things if you want it to run smoothly. For example, Richard Branson doesn’t run any of the 400+ companies he started but he goes over the numbers each day to make sure they’re performing well and calls the CEO if there are any problems.
There is also an idea that we should work to build a passive income asset and then sit on the beach relaxing for the rest of our lives. The truth is that most people would get extremely bored with this scenario and will be eager to find something to do. That’s why the world’s billionaires continue to work… they love what they do and it stopped being about the money a long time ago.
How To Build Residual Or Passive Income
The key idea here is leverage. You must be able to leverage other people’s time or other people’s money in order to create a residual income. Richard Branson can run 400+ companies because he isn’t actually running any of them at all. His CEOs are.
To create residual income, you need to create something that people will continue to buy on a regular basis long after you’ve created it. A house is a prime example of this as people will continue to pay rent for the right to live in the house. A business needs to have products that are sold over and over again rather than trading the business owner’s time for money.
The product might be an item that has been created and can be duplicated or it might be the time of other people. For example, a dentist can only make so much income trading their time for money but when they bring on other dentists they will start to leverage their results to build residual income.
The First Steps To Creating Residual Income
The first thing is to be aware of how you work for active or residual income. Then you want to decide on a path that transitions from active to residual income over time. It’s hard to start a new business and create residual income tomorrow so you have to have some patience.
As you make more residual income you can start to scale back the hours you put into active income. This will mean your residual income will grow even faster once you pay it more attention.
As Jim Rohn was famous for saying:
“I’m working full-time on my job and part time on my fortune. But it won’t be long before I’m working full-time on my fortune. Can you imagine what my life will look like?”
Mentor and mentee are common titles granted to employees in the workplace with little clarity on the role they play or how the relationship should benefit both parties.
We live in a world where knowledge is considered power and people with knowledge feel entitled to have opinions and pass judgment. Mentoring in the workplace has transpired into a program where a mentor’s role is to only give advice devoid of commitment and connect to the mentee’s actual goals.
A mentor is viewed as the advisor in the relationship with the mentee being the party benefiting from the relationship. So, while it looks this way, effective mentorship is actually a two-way conversation in which both parties feel committed to the problem and share a desire to learn from each other.
There’s no denying that mentoring is an incredibly valuable experience essential for growth and development. Setting up the right mentor-mentee relationship involves creating a safe and supportive environment where both mentor and mentee can engage in building trust, setting goals, and achieving them through creative problem solving and solutions.
While mentor-mentee is a relationship in which one cannot exist without the other, there’s a clear separation between their roles. Let’s learn about their roles before developing an effective strategy for this relationship.
What is the role of a mentor?
A mentor is a person with expertise, experience, or knowledge which is valuable to others and holds strong beliefs about helping others by sharing this knowledge with the world.
They act as the guide, advisor, and support structure to bring out the best in people by learning about their strengths and leveraging them to co-create solutions.
They understand that people have different learning styles and experiment with them to find the one best suited to the individual.
A great mentor is also aware that every individual has unique circumstances and problems. Advice that works for one may not apply to another person. This helps them in learning the unique challenges of their mentee and to provide advice tailored to them.
While a mentor shares their perspective, learnings, and advice based on their past experience, they know the value of giving space and time to the other person to develop their own solutions. They encourage them to look beyond their own mental blocks and avoid mistakes they have made in the past. They do not feel threatened by or reject an idea that does not align with their beliefs. They rather encourage it by listening actively to the other person and giving them a chance to explore it.
Communication starts with the understanding that there is my point of view (my truth) and someone else’s point of view (his truth). Rarely is there one absolute truth?
They provide constructive feedback to help the other person improve and treat this relationship as an opportunity to grow by never failing to seek feedback on how they can do better.
In summary, a great mentor asks these questions frequently:
“How can I help the other person?”
“Am I being biased or closed-minded while listening to the other person?”
“Do I encourage them to share their viewpoint?”
“Do I hold them accountable?”
“What do I expect to gain from this relationship and where do I stand at this moment?”
“Am I feeling excited or nervous about this relationship?”
“How can I encourage them to do better?”
“Am I being honest in my feedback?”
What is the role of the mentee?
The mentee is the other side of the mentor-mentee relationship that sets its tone. Mentee drives the relationship by determining the role model they wish to emulate and the goals they need to achieve through them.
They understand that it’s a relationship that grows over a period of time and builds upon their actions. They are either completely bought in to the advice from their mentor and act on it or do not hesitate to share and voice their opinion when it conflicts with their ideas.
They take full responsibility for keeping their mentor in the loop when they wish to deviate from the original agreement or decide to follow a completely different path based on their learnings along the way.
A great mentee knows the areas of their growth and development and seeks the kind of person they respect based on the knowledge they possess. They may lean on multiple people for mentorship as they find their limitations and set learning boundaries for themselves. They try to imbibe the best of each of their mentors.
In summary, a great mentee asks these questions frequently:
“Why is this person right for me as a mentor?”
“Why should my mentor help me?”
“Do I understand what my mentor desires from the partnership? How can I provide it?”
“Am I being honest in my work and making best use of their time?”
“Do I feel open to share my ideas? Am I being heard?”
“How am I doing against my goals? Do I need to revisit them?”
“What can I do more to grow this relationship?”
“Do I take their feedback seriously?”
Strategies for building aneffective mentor-mentee relationship
Mentor mentee is a relationship built out of personal connection and mutual respect. Much like cultivating a land, cultivating a relationship takes time as it requires building trust and aligning with each other’s values.
Relationships also grow over time. Living in the old may require sticking to the relationship that you do not desire or continuing with old ways of doing things when there are new and better ways of achieving the same objectives. So while a relationship may have served us well so far, it’s a good idea to evaluate and understand how it will benefit us with our future needs. Revisit, introspect and determine what needs to change based on the new knowledge.
I will discuss 4 key effective strategies to develop mentor-mentee relationship that lasts long and grows with its people:
Strategy #1: Commit to each other
Mentorship is not a “do it on the side” or “when I get time” job. It’s really hard work that requires dedication and commitment much like any other part of our job.
Apart from time being of paramount importance to succeed in a mentor-mentee relationship, it also requires a tremendous amount of energy to engage, guide, deal with the ups and downs and all possible human emotions that come into play when two people are trying to achieve something significant.
A true meeting of the minds requires a commitment to each other and their time. Set time boundaries, define a protocol to cancel, agree on the medium to contact (email, f2f) depending on the issue. It’s highly advisable that both mentor and mentee write down their commitments and refer to them from time to time.
A mentor may write their commitment as:
I commit to being available to my mentee at our agreed upon a time both physically as well as mentally
I will be honest in my advice and will not withhold any information or state anything that I do not believe to be true
I will engage in active listening and be open to hearing my mentee’s ideas without applying my personal filters in the form of my beliefs and thoughts
I take responsibility to help my mentee succeed in their goals
I will hold my mentee accountable and will not refrain from sharing my true feelings and thoughts about them
A mentee must write their commitment as well:
I commit to being available to my mentor at our agreed upon a time both physically as well as mentally
I will take my mentor’s advice seriously and be open to sharing my perspective and ideas
I will work hard to act on the advice and share my learnings with them
I may fail multiple times, but will not give up without trying
I take complete responsibility for my own success
I will be honest in my feelings and thoughts with my mentor
Strategy #2: Connect to develop a relationship of trust
Both mentor and mentee must align on their principles and values to mutually benefit from the relationship. Without establishing them first, a value clash later may cause feelings that can obstruct both sides to continue effectively.
Form a personal connection, understand each other’s principles and values, strengths and weaknesses, what drives them and what they wish to achieve out of this relationship. Discuss shared values like integrity, mutual respect, openness, trust, and active listening as the basis for all conversations.
As much as possible, take time out to engage in face-to-face conversation (video, in-person). It’s not enough to hear a person’s words. Their body language, facial expressions, and emotions play a large role in understanding their true intent.
Strategy #3: Plan to establish goals and define roles and responsibilities
A mentor-mentee relationship that’s based on ad hoc needs without establishing clear goals does not last long. Creating a learning environment requires tapping into what the mentee wants to learn and not what the mentor wants to teach.
Mentees must take on the driver’s seat and list down the goals that they wish to achieve with the mentor’s help. Together they must create a plan listing short-term, long term goals and agree on a timeframe to achieve them.
The action plan is a statement of intentions rather than a commitment. It must not become a straitjacket. It should be revised often because every success creates new opportunities. So does every failure.
Sometimes, it may take multiple iterations to achieve the desired result. Mentor and mentee must hold each other accountable to be part of the entire process and not give up when faced with multiple failures and setbacks.
Together they must establish clear roles and responsibilities and basic guidelines for working together by answering these questions:
“Who will do the prep work? What should be part of it”
“How should the problem be formulated”
“What data is necessary for an argument in favor of/against an idea”
“How will solutions be implemented”
“What’s the best way to share learnings”
“What will be the basis to prioritize new ideas”
Strategy #4: Collaborate to achieve results
Act. A great plan is of no use without putting it into action.
Set a clear meeting agenda and hold each other accountable to be prepared for a productive discussion based on the earlier agreement of roles and responsibilities. Be receptive to each other’s ideas, work collaboratively to brainstorm them, identify roadblocks and then determine which one to put into action.
Apply first principles thinking to explore beyond your self-imposed limitations and inversion mental model to switch your brain from a normal way of thinking to the one that will give you the answers to move forward.
Set a timeframe to implement, review, share learnings and then determine the next steps.
For a mentor, it’s absolutely critical to adopt a positive style to make a change. Follow these tips while collaborating with your mentee:
Appreciate mentees even when they make small progress
Use candor and share critical feedback. Do not ignore even if it’s small
Criticize the behavior and the choices. Do not ever criticize the person
Encourage them to do more, better
The journey itself is the reward
The mentor-mentee relationship does not end once the mentee achieves their desired goals. The deep bond formed during these years lasts forever.
People remember good mentors and mentees throughout their life. They cite their examples when talking to others and draw inspiration from them when faced with challenging circumstances.
Their paths may go separate ways but it’s the journey that stays with them forever.
Remember, good mentees can become successful mentors one day. Do your best to create this beautiful relationship that sows the seeds for many more in the future. I am excited to see you apply it in your work environment and in your personal life.
Mentoring: The Definition
A mentor is someone who shares their knowledge, skills and/or experience, to help another to develop and grow.
Coaching: The Definition
A coach is someone who provides guidance to a client on their goals and helps them reach their full potential.
Now, looking at these two definitions, we would forgive you for still not being totally sure about the key differences between mentoring and coaching. One of the most distinct differences is that mentoring is directive, with coaching being non-directive. What does that mean in practice? Well, in mentoring meetings, it is likely to be the mentor doing more of the talking, whereas in coaching it is likely to be the coach posing questions and giving the person they are coaching the space to reflect and do most of the talking. Ultimately, both coaching and mentoring are about helping people to get where they want to go by leveraging the experience of the coach or mentor. They can be seen to evolve from directive (mentoring) to non-directive (coaching) in a chart often used to depict the differences.
As you can see, on the mentoring and directive side, it is about instructing and telling, whereas when we progress into a non-directive and more coaching-focused phase of learning, we see more reflection and raising awareness.
The Differences Between Mentoring and Coaching
Below are a few of the key differences between mentoring and coaching, compared. We’ll start with the key differences for mentoring:
Mentoring is often longer-term with some mentoring relationships lasting 6+ months and in several cases mentoring can last years or even decades. In fact, some famous mentors and mentees cite lifelong mentoring relationships.
No qualifications are required for mentoring, which means that it is easy for organizations to start mentoring programs quickly. Yes, mentoring training is often recommended but it certainly isn’t required and in fact, there are very few mentoring qualifications offered, compared with that of coaching qualifications.
As mentioned, mentoring is a lot more directive. It is about the mentor sharing their knowledge, experience, and skills, telling the mentee, and guiding them through the direction.
Typically, mentoring is less structured than coaching, and whilst having a mentoring meeting agenda and goals is recommended, it will be up to the mentee to put this together, compared with coaching which typically follows a more rigorous structure.
Finally, mentoring is mainly development-driven and looks to the mentee to decide what they wish to achieve and which goals they have for their mentoring relationships.
Now, the key differences for coaching are:
Coaching is often shorter-term and may be as short as a quick 10- or 15-minute conversation. That said, some coaching relationships can be longer-term too.
There is training in coaching skills and a lot of coaching qualifications are available, and almost always necessary and certainly recommended, to be a truly effective coach.
Unlike mentoring, coaching is non-directive which means that it is about posing the right questions, providing the space, trust, and confidence for the individual being coached to consider how they can achieve more, reach their objectives, and find capabilities within themselves.
Typically, coaching is structured by line managers or sponsors, so organizations will often sponsor an individual to be coached or a line manager will send an employee to be coached for certain skills.
Coaching is performance-driven and encourages the individual or individuals being coached to perform in their day-to-day roles.
So, as you can see, there are lots of key differences. There are lots of skills required and recommended for both coaching and mentoring, which we will explore now too.
The Skills Required for Mentoring
For mentoring, whilst qualifications aren’t required, there are lots of skills that are recommended for someone to be an effective mentor. Here are just some of them:
A keen interest in helping others is a given but we hope you’ll have that – it’s a key place to start when mentoring people.
First-hand experience, knowledge, and insights in the area in which you’re providing mentoring – because mentoring should be built on solid and concrete advice and guidance.
Relationship building and interpersonal skills are crucial for mentoring – they’re also important for coaching.
Dedicated long-term time commitment whilst not potentially considered a ‘skill’ is important because if you start a mentoring journey with someone, it’s vital to see it through.
Motivating, encouraging, and inspiring energy throughout all mentoring meetings.
Helping to identify the mentee’s goals is crucial. This can take some self-reflection from the mentor, in order to help the mentee and work out where their goals should be.
The Skills Required for Coaching
A relationship of equals where the coach and coachee have mutual understanding and respect is critical.
The ability to maximize resources and inspire, in a similar way to that required of mentoring.
The ability to recognize strengths and challenge the individual being coached, in order to propel them forward.
The skill to tackle problems head-on and not dwell, or allow the coachee, to dwell on them.
Ability to raise awareness and responsibility both with the individual being coached but also throughout an overall office and organizational environmental level.
The skill to make it real means finding the right balance of interpersonal skills and the practical skills to convert discussions into actions.
So, there are just a few crucial mentoring and coaching skills. As you’ll notice, there is quite an overlap in some cases and at PushFar we often see some of the most effective mentors being coaches too.
The Key Benefits to Mentoring and Coaching
Both mentoring and coaching have a range of benefits, which, when conducted correctly can benefit both the individual receiving mentoring and coaching, along with the mentor or coach and the organization too. Here are some benefits to mentoring and coaching:
Both mentoring and coaching are extremely effective learning techniques.
Both mentoring and coaching can be formal and informal, with mentoring often seen more informally and coaching often see more formally.
Both can increase employee engagement and retention when applied.
Both mentoring and coaching are easy to implement into any organization or business structure and increasingly we’re seeing organizations running both.
Both mentoring and coaching can increase confidence and the interpersonal skills of the person providing the mentoring or coaching, and the person receiving it.
And finally, both can dramatically improve individual performance.
Given how important mentoring is, there’s surprisingly limited guidance about how to become a good mentor. This is perhaps, even more, the case in the world of management outside of academic medicine — whether it is finance, consulting, or technology — as the path from professional to senior executive requires more than individual success. We offer here an informal set of guidelines for good mentorship — a playbook, if you will, for a game that is very much a team sport. While we draw many of our examples from academic medicine, the lessons are pertinent across disciplines.
ChooseMenteesCarefully
Effective mentorship takes time. Mentors trade away hours they could use to pursue their own career goals and spend them on someone else’s. Although the prospect of having an energetic, personable junior partner for a multitude of projects is appealing, having the wrong mentee can be painful.
Beware the diffident candidate who expects the mentor to keep the relationship going, or the candidate who insists on doing things their way. A mentee should be curious, organized, efficient, responsible, and engaged. One way to look for these traits is to test prospective mentees. For instance, we often ask mentees to read a book and return within a month to discuss it. Similarly, we sometimes give a candidate a few weeks to write a review of an article in a relevant area. In a business setting, you might ask a prospective mentee to prepare a presentation in their area of expertise, or join you on a sales call or at a strategy offsite and write up their observations. This gives you a good sense of their thinking process, communication skill, and level of interest. If they don’t come back or complete the assignment, you should breathe a sigh of relief — you have avoided taking on a mentee who lacked commitment.
Consider the case of a partner in a major consulting firm who told us of how he struggled with his first mentoring relationship. A young gun (let’s call him Sam) wanted to join the partner’s team, which was helping a client with a difficult human resources problem. Sam appeared keen, ambitious, and enthusiastic. He emailed constantly, asking about the position and reiterating how much he wanted to join this team. “He reminded me of a younger version of myself, and I thought I could groom him to be a superstar,” the partner recalled. Unfortunately, Sam proved to be a disaster. He showed up late to meetings, never turned in reports on time, and didn’t get along well with the offsite team. When the client finally complained, the partner had no choice but to take Sam off the project. Rather than being apologetic, Sam criticized the manager for cutting him loose. “I realized I had made a huge mistake, but only too late,” the partner told us. Sam could certainly talk the talk, but he didn’t have the commitment, organization, or motivation necessary to succeed.
EstablishaMentorshipTeam
The exclusive, one-on-one relationship of mentor and mentee, long the norm, was ideal for a time when both parties stayed put in one institution or devoted to a single mission. That time has passed. Professionals in business and academia are highly itinerant, moving from one project or institution to another. Moreover, faculty and managers alike are under constant and growing time pressure. As a result, most mentors today share responsibility with others for the growth of a mentee. It makes sense: Few senior-level people have the time or range of expertise to serve as a solo mentor. Having a handful of co-mentors also gives mentees a fallback position if the relationship with their primary mentor fizzles.
Mentees should work with mentors to create a mentorship team, with members selected for their various areas of knowledge, such as subject matter expertise or career advice. The individuals chosen need to work well together and with the mentee. The primary mentor should function as the go-to person, providing mentees with moral, career, and institutional support, ranging from choosing a project focus, to helping build a network, to strategizing for success.
The concept of mentorship teams has slowly started to spread through management. A recent HBR article (“Your Career Needs Many Mentors, Not Just One,”) advanced the concept of mastermind groups, or a personal board of directors, a clear allusion to mentorship teams. Inherent in each of these brain trusts is the notion that the myriad skills and knowledge needed in business are difficult to acquire from a single individual. Indeed, firms such as Credit Suisse now employ a multiperson mentorship strategy when assigning new analysts to projects. An analyst needs much more support than a single staffer can provide, and will only grow more fluent in a firm’s culture and language through guidance from key figures across the organization. A young analyst we spoke with, who is soon to become an associate, described their experience in this way: “What I learned in onboarding was only 40% of what I needed to be successful. By having several key people, from staffers to VPs, assigned to me early in my career, I was able to gain the other 60% quickly.”
RunaTightShip
The mentor role needn’t take an excessive amount of time. Establishing firm and clear ground rules with mentees can improve efficiency.
To begin, clarify what your mentee expects from the relationship, match it against your expectations, and reach consensus. You may have misapprehension as to the mentee’s long-term goals, while the mentee may have an exaggerated notion as to what services you will provide. Such misunderstandings are costly, in terms of time and tranquility. These differences should be resolved explicitly and early in every mentoring relationship. In our experience, the most successful relationships are ones where the mentee fully understands and shares their mentor’s vision for success.
Establish a cadence for communication. Most mentors want to keep up with major developments in their mentees’ work, but dislike unscheduled phone calls or a flood of emails for minor issues. We avoid this by telling mentees we will meet in person monthly to discuss issues in depth. If an unexpected or time-sensitive issue arises outside of this meeting, we expect an email or call that is on-point, with questions framed to facilitate “yes” or “no” answers. For this to work, the mentor and mentee have to be disciplined about keeping their scheduled meetings. For example, we know of a junior associate in an international banking firm who described communicating with his VP every two weeks, regardless of where in the world they were. “I remember once being in Geneva while he was in China. We were both working on different projects,” the associate told us. “But because we had that time slotted on our calendars, I made it a point to reach out to him to see if he still wanted to speak. I shouldn’t have worried. As I was writing my email, an invitation from him popped up for a phone call.”
Finally, make it clear that accountability isn’t optional. Effective mentors educate mentees about the standards of the profession — and ensure they live up to them. If a mentee produces second-rate or tardy work, both the mentee’s and mentor’s reputations suffer. Deadlines must be honored, commitments to projects kept, and appointment times adhered to. Mentees must respect mentors’ time. Essential mentee behaviors include setting up an agenda ahead of meetings and assuring that mentors have adequate time in advance to review any related materials. (In academia, that would include giving mentors a week or two to look at a draft of a manuscript or grant proposal.)
Part of assuring accountability involves making sure that mentees understand that they are, in effect, your student. They should expect and welcome constructive criticism. Mentees must also understand that repeating the same mistakes is unacceptable and that a single egregious error, such as data fabrication or plagiarizing, may end the relationship — or worse.
HeadOffRifts…orResolveThem
It’s not uncommon for mentors and mentees to have a falling out. What seemed like a perfect pairing on the surface may wind up being a total mismatch. Sometimes this becomes obvious suddenly. For example, an associate in a consulting firm told us of their decision to not take an overseas assignment because of family issues. Rather than receiving support from their mentor (who was also their boss), they got an angry call the next day. As the mentee told us, “He thought my giving up this opportunity was a huge mistake — that this was how he got his break, and that I was being dumb for putting family first. I certainly did not see it that way, and was shocked that he felt so strongly about it.”
At other times, either the mentor or the mentee may be completely unaware that there is a rift. For example, we know of a mentee who was having academic difficulties and told their mentor they were thinking about quitting. The mentor responded with advice on how to get a leave of absence. The mentee was despondent, but hid it: They had actually hoped for additional resources to ease their workload, but was uncomfortable about directly asking for it.
In some cases, there’s nothing to be done. Usually, though, it’s possible to avoid or repair problems. Mentors must recognize that disagreements and misunderstandings are almost inevitable in these relationships and that the mentor, not the mentee, is responsible for avoiding or repairing rifts. Smart mentors do not allow sores to fester or spats to escalate. They intervene early to keep the relationship on track. For instance, in the second example above, the mentor could have created an open, cards-on-the-table relationship that would have encouraged the mentee to be more honest about their needs, or at least inquired about the underlying issues behind the mentee’s challenges before suggesting a leave of absence.
Don’t Commit Mentorship Malpractice
Because mentors are in the dominant position in the relationship, it’s easy for them to wield their power inappropriately – even if they’re not fully aware of it. Such “mentorship malpractice,” as we called it, has negative career consequences for both parties. Next time you look in the mirror, professionally speaking, ask yourself whether you’re guilty of any of these behaviors – and if you are, stop them immediately:
Taking credit for your mentees’ ideas or usurping lead position on their projects
Insisting that your mentees advance your projects rather than allowing them to develop their own work
Handcuffing your mentee to your timeline, slowing their own progress when you are slow to get back to them
Discouraging your mentees from seeking other mentors, which may stoke your ego but isolate them from broader learning and recognition
Allowing mentees to repeat common self-destructive mistakes — what we call “mentee missteps” — without reining in such behavior
Prepare for the Transition
A mentor’s accumulated wisdom and expertise must be passed on to the next generation. Good mentors make this process conscious, discussing challenges and satisfactions of mentorship with mentees. While the actual moment of transition from mentee to mentor varies according to circumstances, the mentor must feel that the mentee has achieved real expertise and has a coping, generous personality to make this leap. Often, some event within the mentor’s area — a retirement, a new grant, or a major project — creates the need for a new mentor to join the ranks.
Here’s how a colleague described her experience:
“When we took on another fellow, my mentor was swamped. He asked me if I was ready to be the new fellow’s primary mentor. I knew how my mentor went about mentoring me, felt ready, and agreed to do it.” As it turned out, her mentor had her back. “I shouldn’t have worried. He immediately suggested to serve as a co-mentor, ensuring I was comfortable in the role while guiding and grooming our fellow. As co-mentor, he gave me feedback about how best to run meetings with my mentor, provide advice on work-life balance, ensure discipline, and identify growth opportunities. He showed me just how much joy mentoring can bring.” This, perhaps, is the most valuable lesson of them all.
The purpose of mentoring is to tap into the existing knowledge, skills, and experience of senior or high-performing employees and transfer these skills to newer or less experienced employees in order to advance their careers.
The purpose of mentoring is to connect an individual who has a lot of knowledge and experience with someone who hasn’t gained the same knowledge or experience.
By having someone who knows more than yourself share advice, offer guidance and be a sounding board for your thoughts you stand to benefit from experience beyond your own. Whether in your career or life, having a mentor is crucial to all of our continued growth and development.
What Is A Mentor?
A mentor is someone who helps you grow your skills, make better decisions, and gain new perspectives on your life and career. As a mentee, your mentor will leverage their experience to give you guidance on your career or life now and in the future.
Rather than learning through trial and error, a mentor is a person you can look to for direction and a role model to imitate.
Mentorship has a long history
The term mentor comes from the character, Mentor in Homer’s Odyssey. This character was the companion of Telemachus, Odysseus’ son and gave him guidance and advice while he was away from his home and family.
Going back to antiquity the purpose of a mentor is to take all the experience that they’ve accumulated throughout their career and life and transfer it to their mentee for their benefit.
In this article we’ll cover the following areas of mentorship:
What skills do you gain from mentoring?
What the mentor and mentee stand the benefit from a mentoring relationship.
Why workplaces mentorship programs are important and becoming the norm.
How to start a mentorship program.
Mentorship programs in remote or hybrid workplaces.
Mentorship Can Feel Intimidating – But It Shouldn’t
The word mentorship may bring to mind images of Karate Kid and Mr. Miyagi, or Luke Skywalker and Yoda. These images can make mentors feel like they have large shoes to fill (or small ones in Yoda’s case.)
If you’re a mentee, you may feel like you have to open up about all your challenges and failures. The point is, mentorship can feel intimidating. But it doesn’t have to feel that way.
In a mentoring relationship, both the mentee and the mentors stand to experience a myriad of benefits.
What Are The Benefits Of Being A Mentor?
Being a mentor serves as a way to give back and is an important development and learning experience. Teaching others is the best way to learn yourself. In the same way, mentors become more competent as leaders and communicators as they guide and help rising talent.
Being put in the position of a role model can help mentors become better leaders and instill confidence in their leadership ability. The responsibility of helping guide someone’s career and goals requires the senior employee to teach, motivate and offer honest feedback in difficult conversations. All these skills are at the top of the required list for a leader.
Similar to developing leadership skills, mentors will become recognized for their communication skills and the ability to help young employees with their career advancement and personal development. Mentors will become known as advisors that are open to helping others.
Learn to clearly communicate
Albert Einstein once said that “if you can’t explain it to a six-year-old, you don’t understand it yourself.” Likewise, if you’ve ever had to explain something to somebody, you probably noticed that you had to think it through and clean up your explanation to make it easy for another person to understand. Mentors will become better communicators and listeners by virtue of being in a mentoring relationship.
Gaining new perspectives
While the mentor is usually in the position of imparting knowledge to the mentee, a mentoring relationship can also help the more experienced employee learn new skills. It’s common that younger employees can take on the role of mentor through a reverse mentoring model to share technological advances, trends, or sharpen their digital skills. This is an area where the mentee can also become a teacher, guiding the mentor to learn new skills or a new way of doing things.
Giving back and finding new talent
Mentorship provides the opportunity for the mentor to give back to the company by helping train new and upcoming employees, making those around them more competent and satisfied. It’s also a great opportunity to find up-and-coming talent for promotions or special projects. Mentorship is helpful for both the mentor and mentee’s networks.
What Are The Benefits Of Being A Mentee?
There are a lot of benefits to being mentored by someone more experienced and senior than you. Rather than learning from your own experience alone, a mentor can accelerate your learning and development.
Learn the workplace culture
One of the advantages of having a mentor at a new job is that they can help you adapt to the office culture more quickly. Employees who are involved in a mentorship program are more aware of workplace routines, policies, and expectations than those who do not participate. This is important for building inclusive workplaces.
Enhance skill development
Most mentees are looking for someone to help them advance their career prospects. Through advice and guidance, the mentor can help the employee develop their full potential or entrepreneurial mindset in the workplace.
Networking opportunities
A workplace mentoring program is a great way for new hires to expand their network. For many new hires, it can take months to get to know key co-workers. Through a mentoring program, a mentee can gain access to important career contacts sooner. This is especially true in remote work environments.
Potential for promotion
Most mentoring programs require the mentee to consider their future direction or goals they hope to accomplish through the process. By asking younger workers to consider how they can grow through the experience, a mentoring program gives them more control over the direction of their careers. Research has shown that employees who are mentored have a better career track than those who don’t. This includes receiving higher compensation and more promotions, as well as higher career satisfaction.
Problem-solving
A mentor can be a sounding board when the less experienced employee comes up against a situation or problem that they are not familiar with or can’t see a solution to. By partnering a younger employee with a more experienced one, the mentee gets to learn from the mentor’s experience.
Knowledge Transfer
The more experienced employee should have a thorough knowledge of the organization, as well as any programs or training that a mentee can access to help them reach their goals. The mentor can impart wisdom developed on the job over time, information and workplace expectations or policies that will help the mentee succeed in the long run.
Mentorship is important because it provides employees with the opportunity to develop and become more competent in their roles as well as prepare for growth opportunities in the future.
Providing these opportunities is key for organisations that want to attract, retain and engage their talent.
Attracting talent
In a study by the University of Southern California, “Attracting and Retaining Talent: Improving the Impact of Workplace Mentorship” they identified several solutions to employee turnover. There were solutions you’d expect like salary and opportunities for promotion, but there were more intangible solutions like “job embeddedness” and career and professional development.
Job embeddedness
There are three main factors that contribute to job embeddedness:
Links – the extent to which one has strong links to people or groups in the workplace and in their community.
Fit – the degree of fit with their job (e.g. company culture, job duties) and community.
Sacrifice – the level of sacrifice one would willingly make to give up on things if they leave their job.
Organisations that want to attract talent should build teams and organise projects that promote the social links that employees want. Providing mentoring systems to these employees to facilitate coaching will give them rewards of growth and professional development while giving them a sense of belonging and responsibility towards their role.
Career and professional development
Organisations that provide professionally supportive work environments can expect to attract talent and experience greater levels of retention with those they attract. Mentoring less experienced employees promotes their skill development and social ties with the organisation in a way more meaningful than job training.
Rather than learning new skills and being evaluated on them, employees want to grow more holistically by building relationships with mentors.
Retaining high performers
Randstad, a multinational human resource consulting firm in the Netherlands runs their mentoring program with Together’s platform and found that the retention of their employees in the mentoring program went up significantly.
Randstad found that “employees participating in the mentoring program were 49% less likely to leave” and the costs saving associated with recruiting and training were ~$3,000 per employee per year. When reporting on their success, the program administrators at Randstad shared that:
“Our people are finding the program incredibly valuable and are excited to be learning from other employees through mentorship.”
The ROI of mentoring is clear both for attracting top talent and employee retention. To learn more about the return on investment organisations experience see our report, Measuring the ROI on Retention at Randstad.
Enhancing employee engagement
It’s widely cited that the majority of employees in the U.S. are disengaged with their work – over 50% as found by Gallup who has been studying employee engagement since 2000. Employee engagement is critical to attaining company goals and success. They are the employees that drive the business forward and encourage others to do the same.
It provides more opportunities for training and development by tapping into the knowledge of your more senior employees.
Mentorship gives employees a voice to speak with leadership, thus breaking down barriers to communication.
Both mentors and mentees are given the opportunity to prove themselves by putting into practice what they discuss during their mentoring sessions.
Engagement is closely tied with working relationships. Mentorship builds the social ties that keep employees from getting discouraged and encourages a growth mindset.
Mentorship holds mentors and mentees accountable to the commitments they make to one another. Making a commitment to grow with a mentor makes it harder to procrastinate doing what needs to be done to improve.
Mentorship enhances employee engagement because it gives high performers personal and professional development. It satisfies their desire for career progression and the development of their knowledge and skillsets.
For example, First Horizon, a bank in Tennessee has run several mentoring programs with Together with notable high potential mentoring programs that prepared exemplary employees for leadership positions. By hand-selecting their top performers to be mentored by leaders they gave them visibility for promotions.
Mentorship is the antidote for disengagement. To re-engage employees encourage them to meet regularly with a mentor who will provide them with feedback and act as a sounding board for them to discuss their goals and challenges to overcome to reach them.
Promoting a diverse and inclusive workplace
Diversity and inclusion are vital to the growth, productivity, and strength of a company.
If your organization wants to create a more equal and inclusive workspace, having a workplace mentoring program is essential. Mentorship allows employees to interact, learn from each other, and grow from the experience.
A mentoring program is a way for organisations to give employees the opportunity to be a mentor or receive mentorship from a senior leader. In most organisations, it’s likely that there is some form of mentoring whether informal or formal.
Mentoring in the workplace is not just a feel-good initiative. There is a plethora of research to support the business advantages that mentoring in the workplace has.
For that reason, if you’re considering starting your own mentoring program within your organization we have definitive guides for both:
If you are in HR, especially Learning and Development, and looking to start or scale your company’s mentoring program, you’re in the right place. Mentoring programs can be a lot of work, especially if you are doing it manually.
Determine the goals of the mentorship program
A good mentoring program aligns with overarching business goals. Traditional mentoring programs usually pair senior leaders with more junior ones to support and help them grow within the organization. The goal for this type of mentoring may be to increase promotion rates within the organization.
Helping high performing employees develop their abilities
Increase promotion rate by 10% within 12 months
Onboard faster
Teaching new hires about the company and the expectations of management
Decrease time to hit full sales quota of a new rep by 3 weeks
Promote diversity
Mentorship programs encourage and empower employees from minority groups who may not currently be reaching the next level of career development
20% of junior VPs are from racial minorities
Career development
Assisting employees in meeting their career goals by honing new capabilities
80% of employees have a positive outlook on their career trajectory
Improving culture
Building productive relationships among co-workers can lead to a healthier workplace culture
Achieve Glassdoor rating of 4.3
Employee retention
Employees who perceive that the company cares about their career prospects and their future are more likely to stay with the organization longer.
Decrease annual turnover rate from 20% to 15%
Reputation building
Organizations that show a commitment to their employees’ development will gain a reputation as a desirable place to work.
Increase conversion of new hire offers from 50% to 75%
Promote your program
To promote your mentoring program focus on getting leadership on board first. If leaders promote the program and speak to its benefits and importance there will be a trickle-down effect on the rest of the organization.
Leveraging the enthusiasm of early adopters or popular mentors will drive word of mouth and excitement about the program. Many mentorship programs start with a kick-off party (whether virtual or in-person) where participants can see everyone else in the program. Mentees can scope out potential mentors and see that they are part of a larger company-wide initiative which will encourage them to maintain the relationship.
Pairing mentors and mentees
Finding mentors and mentees is the most exciting part of the process, but can also be stressful. It can become a logistical nightmare to manually pair up mentors and mentees when your program grows beyond 10 mentors and 10 mentees.
Some qualities of good mentees and mentors include:
Drive to succeed
A positive attitude
Good time management skills
Open to learning and new perspectives
Clear communication
Shows initiative
Leadership skills or capabilities
Mentors and mentees with these qualities will easily build a relationship that is mutually beneficial.
Supporting a successful mentoring relationship
To build a successful mentoring relationship you have to focus on each individual’s goals for what they want to get out the experience. If a mentee wants to transition into a new department, say for example from marketing to sales, you may pair up the mentee with the head of sales and then support their relationship by encouraging them to talk through how to make that transition.
The first meeting can be awkward if there isn’t a blueprint or agenda to help get things started. For that reason, providing questions that the mentee can ask their mentor is very helpful in shaping the types of discussions they have. Encourage them to ask questions like:
Why did you decide to be a mentor?
What are your goals for the relationship?
How did you move into X role?
What were some challenges you faced in X position?
What skills would be beneficial for me to work on?
Successful workplace mentoring programs are built on the backs of successful mentoring relationships. More importantly, participants and the organization will get the most benefits from a mentorship that has a strong relationship at its core.
Reporting on the progress of the program
Reporting on your mentoring program is essential because you want to capture the results of the relationships you helped develop and present that to stakeholders like leadership or other employees who are considering if a mentoring relationship is worth it.
To track feedback and measure your workplace mentoring program Together provides feedback forms at the end of each session for both the mentor and mentee to fill out. This gives meaningful qualitative feedback for administrators to understand if the program is working and what to change if necessary.
Important factors to keep in mind when evaluating the feedback from participants and monitoring your program include:
Engagement levels of participants – are they enthusiastic about the program?
Goal achievement – are mentees and mentors getting out of the program what they hoped?
Qualitative feedback – how do they describe the program to others?
A mentoring program doesn’t start and end at pairing. To ensure a successful workplace mentoring program administrators should keep their finger on the pulse of all pairings and make adjustments as needed.
Mentorship for Remote or Hybrid Workplaces
In light of the massive shift to remote or hybrid working organizations may feel that mentoring programs aren’t possible in virtual environments. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, virtual mentoring can be more effective because it requires less logistic hassle like deciding where to meet and what to bring.
Instead, mentors and mentees can commit to a weekly or monthly schedule of conference calls where they check-in and dive into giving and receiving mentorship.
Is virtual mentoring effective?
Virtual mentoring is equally as effective as in-person mentoring if not more so.
One of the primary difficulties of remote or hybrid workers is isolation. To combat this, companies will organize group events like happy hours or games nights. But after a day full of Zoom meetings many employees dread another call with the whole team. Zoom fatigue is a common challenge for virtual workplaces.
Instead, companies should implement virtual mentoring for hybrid workplaces to organize one-on-one mentoring relationships. Unlike group calls, building rapport is easier because participants don’t have to feel like they’re hogging the mic. They can speak to one person rather than many.
Additionally, in a one-on-one mentoring relationship the conversations and connections are more meaningful and refreshing. Mentors and mentees build an authentic relationship based on a mutual desire to grow and learn which makes the discussions relevant and engaging for both parties.
Goal setting – by setting goals for the relationship the conversations will have more structure.
Solicit feedback – to grow we need to understand how we’re doing. Asking for feedback is the best way to be a better mentor and mentee.
Stay in touch – in remote mentoring relationships, it can be easier to slowly stop keeping in touch. To combat this having regular meetings scheduled in advance is crucial.
Mentoring is based on clear communication and genuine feedback. Keeping these in mind when following the best practices for virtual mentoring will guarantee success for any mentoring relationship.
Why You Need Mentorship
The purpose of mentoring is to help mentees tap into the knowledge of those with more experience than themselves and learn faster than they would on their own. It’s also an opportunity to grow their network and connect with leaders rather than only their peers.
For mentors, it’s an opportunity to prove their knowledge and leadership skills. They can validate that they’re a clear communicator and receive the intangible benefits of giving back to more junior employees. We learn best by teaching and being a mentor is an effective way to hold leaders accountable to be role models for the organization.
Businesses that organise formal mentoring programs stand to benefit from building a strong culture that’s more connected, more engaged, and filled with employees who want to grow within the organisation rather than leave.
To start a mentoring program with ease consider using Together’s mentoring platform. We’ve won awards for our easy-to-use tools that speed up the pairing process from weeks to minutes.
It may be reasonable to say that in the future, companies with effective mentorship programs will be the ones attracting the top talent and generating novel innovations that lead to tremendous success. What reasons are there not to have a mentoring program within your organization?