Breathing the Same Air Is Not Enough

Even partnerships that start successfully can encounter challenges. Monitoring and support throughout a mentoring experience is critical to maintain high levels of engagement, and a strong program manager will keep tabs on each partnership’s progress. Frequent contact with participants can uncover unreported difficulties, and appropriate intervention quickly can identify and resolve partnership disconnects to get a relationship back on track. While disengagement can have myriad symptoms, the root cause is almost always a communications challenge — rules of engagement around scheduling haven’t been clearly defined, a mentor’s gatekeeper has not been briefed on the mentee’s needs or the partners need to adjust their styles to really connect. The program leader holds the responsibility to monitor partnerships and maximize engagement.

Leading a Development Discussion
Content is a key component of a high-impact mentoring relationship that is often overlooked. It introduces topics for discussion in the mentoring partnerships and can be delivered in a variety of forms. Mentees and mentors can participate in seminars/webinars together that create a framework for deeper discussion, and program leaders can provide discussion guides (Figure 1) that facilitate conversation. Program administrators frequently steer clear of content delivery for fear they will impact the direction or limit the scope of partnership discussions. However, by identifying level-appropriate discussion topics, which can include issues such as navigating politics or industry dynamics, learning leaders can equip mentees and mentors with insightful content and discussion-driving questions to increase the depth and impact of the relationship.

With content infused into the partnership, mentors find it easier to relate stories from their own experiences and to challenge their mentees’ choices. Mentees also find it easier to ask probing questions and solicit specific advice. Mentee Laurie Ragan, HR manager at Assurant Solutions, a specialized insurance product company, and current participant in a mentoring program focused on development of high-potential women, said “by utilizing and leveraging the questions provided to me I am able to have deeper and more valuable conversations with my mentor.”