Stikkord: business mentoring programs

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How do I establish and maintain mentoring relationships when people are geographically distant from each other?

Answer: Have a  face-to-face meeting when you start the relationship

Distance relationships can be very productive. Breaking the ice and establishing rapport is so much easier, face-to-face.

Begin with a function that brings participants together. The investment outweighs the cost of a failed relationship.

If you cannot get together use videocalls (such as Skype), which is better than email or an ordinary phonecall.

Extra work is necessary to ensure the viability of the long-distance relationship. Extra contact and newsletters help. You may wish to provide participants with regular mentoring articles? You will find a lot of them here at this blog.

Good luck!

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The Myth of What We Manage

Perhaps it is merely semantics, but an underlying problem I find that people have, as it relates to the success in their life, lies in a proper understanding of what exactly it is they manage. Think about it. We have time management (in fact, I present a seminar on this very topic, some of which is excerpted below), and financial management, and relational management, weight management, career management, and many, many more.

The fact is, though, we don’t manage any of those things. What we do manage is ourselves and how we relate to those things. We don’t manage time. Time clicks by, second by second, whether we do anything or not. What we do manage is ourselves, and our activities, as the time passes. We make choices as to what we will do and be involved in. The problem as well as the solution lies not with time, but with us.

So as we live our lives and pursue success, one of the keys to grab onto is the idea that the most important thing we can manage isn’t a thing at all—it is ourselves!

How, then, can we manage ourselves? Here are some thoughts.

Make sure that the above is firmly ingrained in your thinking: I only manage myself. I can choose how I will act and react in every situation. Dwight D. Eisenhower said, “The history of free men is not written by chance, but by choice, their choice.”

Know your priorities. Do you know from top to bottom what your priorities are? Have you decided what the top 10 things are that you want to spend your time on? How about with your money? Only after you know these things can you properly manage yourself into choosing to live in line with your priorities.

Learn to say no with a smile on your face. Here is where most of us fail. We do not choose to say no to those things that are not a matter of priority (the reason why is another article, and probably a few counseling sessions at that). Someone calls us up and asks us to do something for them (usually because they haven’t managed themselves and would like our help picking up the pieces), and we say, “Uh, I guess so.” Then what? We usually kick ourselves for the rest of the day. “Why did I ever say yes?” Instead, practice this: “Gee, I am really sorry, but I am not going to be able to be involved this time. I am sure you will be able to find somebody, though.” Go ahead and try it right now. Weird, isn’t it? That is because we don’t say it very often.

Schedule your priorities into your schedule, budget or whatever structure governs that particular area of your life. For example, do you have a financial budget that you yourself set? Then do you first and foremost allocate your money in that way, say, at the beginning of the month? If you do, you will eliminate even the opportunity to blow your money on impulse decisions and expenses because your money has already been committed to the priorities of your own choosing. The same principles apply to your management of time.

Remember, one of the greatest gifts God gave us is the ability to choose. And we can choose to manage ourselves appropriately according to our priorities. As we do, we will find ourselves feeling less and less of the personal pain and frustration we sometimes feel when we are out of control and not managing ourselves based on our priorities.

by Chris Widener

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The end is near!

A group of mentors were at the end of their twelve month mentoring program. It is a moving experience to hear them share their outcomes.

It was clear that mentors as well as those mentored had gained significantly from the process. They increased skills and confidence, had courage to apply for positions, and were able to think «outside the square».

All were very positive about themselves, their colleagues and their organisation – despite the fact that a staff freeze is impacting on career opportunities right now.

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Return on Investment

You may or may not have to put a dollar value on your mentoring strategy but you will need to identify some success indicators. Here are a few thought starters.

  • Staff retention
  • Return to work after maternity leave or injury
  • Representation of target group in grade, roles, positions, locations
  • Percentage of applications for internal jobs or promotions
  • Number in the target group who won a position or promotion
  • Number who participate in training, education or development opportunities
  • Number of external (target group) applicants for jobs
  • Benchmark comparison, industry average, other organisations

Some of these are easy to put a dollar value. For example, mentoring programs specifically designed to attract and retain graduates. Recruiting graduates is expensive and there is no ROI if you lose your new person within two years. Gen Y has been notoriously career-oriented and mobile. Some organisations, such as government agencies cannot pay big dollars to get or keep graduates, so mentoring is a cost-effective strategy attractive to the career development focus of this group.

Likewise, many organisations are not ready for the exodus of experience when baby-boomers retire. Being mentors can help keep them, engage them and increase their productivity while facilitating knowledge transfer.

You can probably find some figures within your organisation or industry regarding the replacement cost of staff. Obviously it varies depending on the role. But a ballpark estimate of around 2-3 times annual salary per person could be a starting point. You can’t ignore this kind of money. That’s why one of our major banks was a trailblazer twenty years ago, with mentoring as part of a suit of programs for women on maternity leave. They realised that the cost of losing their talent and experience, long-term, was unacceptable and avoidable.

One way to evaluating ROI is to look at the cost of not having mentoring. Last year one of my clients launched a career-focused mentoring program. However, the GFC meant that the program coincided with a job freeze! Yet because of the mentoring, participants spent twelve months enthusiastic about their employer and confident about their future instead of succumbing to disenchantment. That’s how mentoring works!

The author of this article is Ann Rolfe, and was first published 08. march 2010 on www.mentoring-works.com.

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JCI Gothenburg

Going to Gothenburg in the end of march for training. It’s a training in leadership, personal leadership. What kind of tools do I got and how to use them.

I will post program soon and some pictures to from the two days training.

— Post From My iPhone

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Need YOUR help: European survey about mentoring

Trainifique , the company inspiring leaders worldwide, is conducting a survey to see how mentoring is used to create success in Europe. The results from the research will be published in a book later this year.

Thor-Erik Gulliksen , one of the founding partners of Trainifique, says that mentoring has been around for thousands of years, the first documented mentoring was in the story of Homer in the Odyssey. “We want to see how mentoring is used in 2010, how success is made by asking for advice and using someone who can guide you when you need some direction,” he continues.
You may also participate, just by filling in the quick survey found here . It takes less than 10 minutes.
“We are interested in all use of mentoring, you do not have to be in a leading position right now – you may have been earlier, or you may not have reached this position just yet. Perhaps you had a mentor when you studied, perhaps when you did a career transition. Or, you may have used a mentor to help you gain the success you always wanted. “ Gulliksen says that this is the first European wide survey about mentoring. “We aim to uncover the differences and the similarities of the use of mentoring throughout Europe.”
The results of the survey will be presented the fall 2010, at the Junior Chamber International World Congress 2010 in Osaka, Japan.
You may participate in the survey by filling in the form here !
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How Do You Know Mentoring Works?

Whether you use sophisticated metrics or simply ask participants, it is important to gain feedback on mentoring to evaluate whether the relationships worked, made a difference and contributed worthwhile organisational outcomes.

Plan to gather both qualitative and quantitative data before, during and after the mentoring.

Success Indicators – identify what you can measure pre and post mentoring to gauge benefits;

Early Follow-up – check in with people soon after the program launch to ensure that they have made contact and begun the mentoring relationship;

Monitor – stay in touch, build two-way communication, identify any potential problems and resolve them sooner, rather than later;

Mid-point Review – get the group together, face-to-face or via webinar. Workshop what’s working well and what could improve. Help them create strategies to gain the most value from their mentoring

Finalé – a final group session gives closure to participants. Make it special and acknowledge their contribution. This is the time to recognise their achievements and take feedback for improvement for future programs. Questionnaires can be used to elicit their evaluation and quantify qualitative input.

Post-program – schedule review of longer-term success indicators at appropriate intervals. Mentoring will show immediate benefits but the greatest gains come from the enduring effect of mentoring.

Mentoring as a one-off event may be indelible for individuals but mentoring imbedded in the culture is the ultimate measure of success. If the benefits of mentoring are to be perpetuated, it is what you do after your mentoring program that will determine if mentoring works.

The author of this article is Ann Rolfe, and was first published 18. february 2010 on www.mentoring-works.com.

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How executives grow

Talent can be bought, but the best companies develop their own.

Most companies are poor at developing their executives, and most of them acknowledge this: only 3 percent of the 6,000 executives occupying the top 200 positions at 50 large US corporations examined by a recent McKinsey survey strongly agreed that their organizations developed talent quickly and effectively. In no area of executive development—job rotation, traditional internal and external training, or mentoring—did a majority of these executives believe that their employers were doing a good job.

Some companies feel that their high performers will rise to the top naturally, like cream. Others, believing that talent can be bought, try to recruit executives from such sources as General Electric, a famous developer of people. In fact, though businesses should look for senior-level talent outside their own organizations, they themselves must also be good at developing it. In the first place, as talent becomes scarcer—and demography suggests that it will—the «buy-only» strategy becomes risky and expensive. Moreover, recruiting all of a company’s senior executives externally sacrifices cultural cohesion and institutional memory.
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Five Benefits of Working with a Coach or Mentor

Being a leader can be a really lonely existence.  Expectations are high and it can often be a real struggle to stay on top of your game and continually deliver great results.  Continuing to develop as a leader has never been so vital not least because of the major challenges facing many organisations right now.

For those at a more senior level working with a coach or mentor is often a great way of continuing to develop.  So what are the benefits?

Benefit 1: Thinking time

The pace at which leaders operate in organisations is often relentless and means that there is little or no time to stand back and take stock.  Being able to stand back from issues and challenges allows you to clearly think through the choices, look at challenges in different ways and ultimately to take better decisions.  And if you are taking better decisions it means better results for you personally and the organisation.

Benefit 2: Ongoing support

Training is great and I have been to many great training courses over the years.  Trouble is most training courses are a one shot opportunity.  What I mean by that is that you go along to the course, leave enthusiastic and an few months later find you are back where you started.  If you are a leader looking to be more effective over the long term you know that it is going to take time.  Having that ongoing support can help you make that sustained change in performance.

Benefit 3: Personal attention

In my experience of working with clients there are often some very specific areas of focus that leaders and managers want to work on.  Sometimes it might be about strategies and tactics that they can apply and other times it might be tackling areas of self doubt or misconceptions.  I also notice that they rarely need to work on all aspects of a particular topic but more on one or two areas.   The nature of the relationship means that it is much easier to tailor the programme to meet specific needs.

Benefit 4: Highly time efficient

I know that when I was in leadership and management roles, creating the time to attend a 2 or 3 day course was often a real challenge.  By comparison finding a couple of hours a month to work with a coach was much more time efficient and effective.

Benefit 5: Return on Investment

Ultimately if you are investing time, money and energy into something the return on what you have invested will be important.  Research into the benefits of coaching indicates that the return on investment is in the region of 500-700%.  Now these numbers might well look huge but let’s take a look at an example.  Imagine you are a senior manager who aspires to be a Director.  Ask yourself what’s the difference in salary and benefits?  In a field like accountancy, the differential between a number one and number two can easily be in the £30-50,000 per annum range.  If you are in the number one job for say 10 years, that could mean an extra £300-£500,000 to your earnings.  So look at your investment in terms of the lifetime value.

Bottom Line – Continuing to develop as a leader is no longer an optional extra.  If you are serious about realising your professional and personal potential, working with a coach or mentor might just be the catalyst.