Mentoring Implementation Toolkit

CORPORATE LEADERSHIP COUNCIL® www.clc.executiveboard.com

Mentoring Implementation Toolkit Research suggests that informal relationship-based learning such as mentoring serves as the most consistently powerful source of individual and workforce performance. Mentoring is also a practical method of building substantive relationships between HIPOs and executives, thereby incrasing HIPOs ability and engagement. That said, this document provides some tools for organizations to implement a mentoring program. Tool

Page Number

Guidelines for a Successful Mentoring Relationship

2

Sample Mentoring Welcome Letters

3

Effective and Non-Effective Mentoring Behaviors Checklist

4

Mentor and Mentee Matching Tactics

5

Sample Mentoring Agreement

6

Lockheed Martin’s Mentoring Development Planning Map

7

Bell Canada’s Online Mentoring Program

8

Sample Mentoring Program Evaluation

9

 2008 Corporate Executive Board. All Rights Reserved.

CORPORATE LEADERSHIP COUNCIL®

PAGE 2

MENTORING IMPLEMENTATION TOOLKIT

GUIDELINES FOR A SUCCESSFUL MENTORING RELATIONSHIP These guidelines come from a Council member in the Professional Services industry. These guidelines are provided to mentors to ensure that the mentoring relationship begins with the mentor understanding the success factors of a good relationship.

Make Monthly Meetings the Minimum ; Ensure regular meetings with your mentee: Now that you’ve made a commitment to regular discussions with your mentee, ensure they do not fall off the radar screen. Prioritize around other commitments to ensure that upcoming meetings are scheduled and that they occur as planned. ; Schedule time to prepare appropriately for upcoming discussions: As a mentor, it is all too easy to let day-to-day job demands crowd out time for thoughtful discussion preparation. Set aside time in your schedule to plan logistical and discussion details for upcoming meetings with your protégé. ; Manage discussions with your mentee effectively: Strive to ensure that each discussion with your mentee advances the shared goals established early in the relationship, and that both of you consider the time to be well-spent. ; Set clear next steps to close regular discussions: As with any effective meeting, establish clear next steps for both mentor and mentee at the close of all discussions. Use these to drive two-way momentum in the relationship from month to month. ; Follow-up on commitments: Meet (or exceed!) your own deadlines for follow-up commitments and hold your mentee to his or her commitments as well. When follow-up poses a challenge for either yourself or your mentee, use the opportunity to problem solve together.

Energize and Enrich Your Relationship through Engagement ; Note upcoming “life events” for your mentee When is your mentee birthday? Wedding date? How is the apartment search coming? Understanding the year in the life” of your mentee will go a long way to help plan for upcoming discussions and determine how you can support your protégé beyond the immediacy of their job and the organization. ; Seek informal opportunities to build the relationship: While regular formal discussions with your mentee are important for relationship momentum, informal interactions—perhaps outside of the immediate work environment—can help bring depth to the relationship and solidify two-way commitment. ; Over deliver on expectations: Just as with most fulfilling relationships in your personal and professional life, the other party has consistently over delivered on what you might have expected or needed. Going the extra mile, doing supplemental homework, or making an extra call will likely delight and surprise your mentee, deepening your trust-based relationship more quickly.

 2008 Corporate Executive Board. All Rights Reserved.

CORPORATE LEADERSHIP COUNCIL®

PAGE 3

MENTORING IMPLEMENTATION TOOLKIT

SAMPLE MENTORING WELCOME LETTERS This sample mentoring welcome letters comes from two Council members. The letter on the left is sent to selected mentors an the letter on the right is sent to selected mentees. These letters can be adapted to fit your organization.

Congratulations!

Congratulations!

I’m pleased to inform you that you have been selected to participate in the {insert organization name} mentoring program, to be launched on {insert date}.

YOUR MENTOR IS: {insert Name, Position, and Function}.

The purpose of this program is to establish a mentoring relationship that will provide you the opportunity to realize both professional and personal development as well as enable our organization to build capability. The selection to participate was based on a variety of criteria, including: • {include those that are relevant for your organization: ability to build relationships • proof of leadership capability • accomplishments that have resulted in moving the business forward and have distinguished you from your peers • genuine interest in people and their growth. You have been assigned {insert name of mentee} as a mentee who will partner with you along the way. Your manager has been informed of your selection, and we have scheduled you to attend a three-hour orientation/training session on {insert date}, starting at {insert time}, in {insert location}. The Mentoring program is certain to be a rewarding, growing experience. Most importantly, it will help you build your capability as a leader of our organization.

For More Information If you have any questions, please contact {include name and contact information}.

Thank you for your interest in {insert organization name} mentoring program. We are excited to welcome you to the {insert year} program as a mentee and have listed the name of your mentor above. During the matching process we gave careful consideration to the desired attributes requested by applicants, willingness to commit to the program for a year, and strong performance contributions to the firm. While we were not able to match all applicants or find a match that addressed every desired attribute, we are confident that we addressed the most important characteristics and are excited that we made over {insert number of matches made}. In connecting more senior staff members with junior staff members our goal is that a relationship of guidance and mutual learning results. Your partnering relationships should last, officially, one year. You should allocate time for one meeting with your mentor each month. Should you have any concerns about your commitment to the program, please let us know immediately. Upcoming Event: {insert date and time of mentoring program kick-off meeting}. During the Kick Off you will officially meet your mentor, receive a packet of information about the program, and hear from past program participants on the benefits of mentoring. You are of course welcome to reach out to your mentor in advance of this session. We look forward to your participation in {insert organization name} mentoring program. If you have any questions, please contact {include name and contact information}.

 2008 Corporate Executive Board. All Rights Reserved.

CORPORATE LEADERSHIP COUNCIL®

PAGE 4

MENTORING IMPLEMENTATION TOOLKIT

EFFECTIVE MENTORING BEHAVIORS This checklist provides a list of effective and ineffective mentor behaviors. This list should be provided to mentors during their introduction to the program or any initial training sessions.

 2008 Corporate Executive Board. All Rights Reserved.

CORPORATE LEADERSHIP COUNCIL®

PAGE 5

MENTORING IMPLEMENTATION TOOLKIT

BALANCING PARTICIPANT CHOICE WITH HR INVOLVEMENT FOR SUCCESSFUL MENTORING RELATIONSHIPS Mentoring and coaching programs match participants through a variety of means that require different levels of resources. The various approaches have a different degree of success in matching participants; for the most successful match, organizations should choose an approach that balances providing sufficient participant choice in the match while still overseeing the process enough to ensure effective knowledge transfer and participant development. For more information on each of the approaches listed below, please see: https://www.clc.executiveboard.com/Members/ResearchAndTools.aspx/100064178

Success of Match versus Participant Choice in Match across Various Approaches Mentoring Match Tactics

•

•

•

Committee/HR Selection: A program committee or Human Resources matches participants based on participant preferences, personality, and/or development objectives.

•

Questionnaire- or Profile-Based Selection: Participants fill out a questionnaire or profile, which Human Resources, a committee, or a computer program uses to match participants.

•

Facilitated Self-Selection: Participants fill out a questionnaire of profile, which is then entered into a database. Based on the participant responses, the database provides a short list of potential matches.

•

Speed Dating: Participants gather and rotate through conversations with potential matches, ranking each conversation. Program administrators align matches based on mutually high scores.

•

Self-Selection: Participants seek and obtain mentors and coaches on their own, with no involvement or influence from Human Resources or a program committee.

Speed Dating

Questionnaire- or Profile-Based Selection

Success of Match

•

Facilitated Self-Selection

KEY High Resource Intensity

•

Medium Resource Intensity

Committee/HR Selection

Low Resource Intensity

•

Self-Selection

Participant Choice in Match

 2008 Corporate Executive Board. All Rights Reserved.

CORPORATE LEADERSHIP COUNCIL®

PAGE 6

MENTORING IMPLEMENTATION TOOLKIT

SAMPLE MENTORING AGREEMENT Before your first meeting, the mentor and protégé each complete the form independently. During the meeting, jointly review and discuss each partner’s perspective. Then come to an agreement on each item. Both mentor and protégé sign and date the form. The protégé is responsible for keeping the form and reviewing/updating as the need arises.

 2008 Corporate Executive Board. All Rights Reserved.

CORPORATE LEADERSHIP COUNCIL®

PAGE 7

MENTORING IMPLEMENTATION TOOLKIT

LOCKHEED MARTIN’S MENTORING DEVELOPMENT ROADMAP Lockheed Martin uses its Mentoring Development Roadmap as a guide for HR professionals and business unit leaders to gauge employee acceptance of the general mentoring program. HR professionals use this roadmap to judge where their business unit falls in the mentoring program lifecycle. The different phases of a mentoring program and their associated characteristics are presented in the table below.

 2008 Corporate Executive Board. All Rights Reserved.

CORPORATE LEADERSHIP COUNCIL®

PAGE 8

MAXIMIZING RETURNS ON MENTOR AND COACH MATCHING

EXECUTIVE BRIEFING

BELL CANADA’S ONLINE MENTORING PROGRAM, MENTOR MATCH Bell Canada’s leadership recognized that cross-functional mentoring relationships could help cement the organizational culture and build the next generation of leaders. However, existing mentoring programs relied on manual matching systems that would become prohibitively expensive if applied to the entire organization. As a result, HR leadership created an online mentoring program that is based on self-service, operates organization-wide, and is fully automated.

What Mentor Match is for Bell Canada

 2008 Corporate Executive Board. All Rights Reserved.

Components of Mentor Match

CORPORATE LEADERSHIP COUNCIL®

PAGE 9

MENTORING IMPLEMENTATION TOOLKIT

SAMPLE MENTORING PROGRAM EVALUATION This sample mentoring invite letter comes from a Council member in the Professional Services Industry. These questions are e-mailed to participants of the mentoring program to gain feedback on how the program worked and what the organization should improve for the next mentoring cohort.

1. What did you like best about the mentoring program? 2. What did you like least about the mentoring program? 3. What were the elements of your mentoring agreement with your mentee/mentor? 4. Did your mentee/mentor honor your agreement? 5. How would you rate the time commitment of the mentoring program? (Too much…. Just right ….too little) 6. How many group meetings did you have with your mentee/mentor? 7. How many individual meetings with each mentee/mentor? 8. To what extent did mentoring address the development needs of your mentee/mentor? 1- Did not address 5- Very strongly addressed 9. To what extent does the Program Manager add value to the mentoring program? 10. How can the mentoring program be improved? 11. What is your overall rating of the mentoring program? 12. What additional comments would you like to make about the mentoring program?

 2008 Corporate Executive Board. All Rights Reserved.

CORPORATE LEADERSHIP COUNCIL®

PAGE 10

MENTORING IMPLEMENTATION TOOLKIT

NOTE TO MEMBERS: This project was researched and written to fulfill the research request of several members of the Corporate Executive Board and as a result may not satisfy the information needs of all member companies. The Corporate Executive Board encourages members who have additional questions about this topic to contact their research manager for further discussion. The views expressed herein by third-party sources do not necessarily reflect the policies of the organizations they represent. PROFESSIONAL SERVICES NOTE: The Corporate Leadership Council (CLC®) has worked to ensure the accuracy of the information it provides to its members. This project relies upon data obtained from many sources, however, and the CLC cannot guarantee the accuracy of the information or its analysis in all cases. Furthermore, the CLC is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services. Its projects should not be construed as professional advice on any particular set of facts or circumstances. Members requiring such services are advised to consult an appropriate professional. Neither Corporate Executive Board nor its programs are responsible for any claims or losses that may arise from any errors or omissions in their reports, whether caused by Corporate Executive Board or its sources.

 2008 Corporate Executive Board. All Rights Reserved.