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by Geof Cox June 1995.
Neil Blunt, in an article, Learning from the wisdom of others [1], places emphasis on arrangements made between voluntary parties - the mentor willing to help and the individual seeking to develop. He is not enthusiastic about establishing mentoring as a corporate activity due to the inherent threat of bureaucracy.
My own personal experience of mentoring supports the voluntary model, but I am also aware that in today's task driven business environment of right-sizing, re-engineering and re-structuring managers are losing the time and skills necessary to coach and develop their own people, let alone those who work for other managers or divisions. This scenario seems to be a place for a corporate initiative to give the voluntary process an umbrella of authority under which to operate, and be able to introduce training of managers in the lost skills of coaching, counselling and developing.
My experience
The mentors in my working life, like Neil's, never had the title of 'mentor', nor would they recognise that they were doing anything out of the ordinary. Yet they did stand out as different, even in a multi-national oil company which prided itself on management and people development.
The first person who made a real impact on my learning came into my life when I worked as a supervisor in a distribution plant in the Midlands. Much was discussed, learned and put into perspective over a cup of coffee and a cigarette. Always confident in your own ability, Dennis gave me the first example of an empowering manager.
He never once took over the task himself, even when the situation was reaching crisis point (and that takes some courage when you are handling large quantities of inflammable liquids). Dennis always took the time to think through the situation and discuss the options before leaving you to oversee the implementation of the joint decision. His pauses for thought where often only seconds, but they taught me the importance of thinking before acting [2]. Once, as a terror-stricken young super-visor looking at a derailed fuel train I was left holding a silent telephone... The words "Thinking, lad, thinking" remain with me as a constant reminder.
Dennis was my immediate manager, yet he still acted as a mentor in the sense of willingly developing me, sharing freely of his long experience, advising without being directive - a true 'people-centred manager'. The whole plant had a similar feel. There was an atmosphere of learning and mutual development that made it stand out from others in the same company. Career patterns showed a disproportionate number of promotions coming from this one location, and later discussions with a number of colleagues showed a consistency of feeling that we had been in a special learning environment.
I experienced other mentoring relationships in my sixteen years with the company, many of equal value as Dennis's, and none had a formal agreement or relationship. The voluntary code on both sides seemed to work well. The organisation did not have, and still does not have a formal mentoring policy, and yet the process existed. Relationships build over time - many of my mentors still remain, though we have long left the original organisation to pursue other careers and interests.
Three limiting factors
Three factors mitigate against the development of mentoring in the way many of us have experienced it in the past: lack of organisation support, lack of skill in managers, and fear.
Lack of organisation support
For mentoring to exist in an organisation there has to be at least a tacit acceptance that this form of informal development is worthwhile, as it takes up valuable management time. If it is not part of the organisation culture, then it will rapidly fall off the bottom of a manager's 'to-do' list. Over-emphasis on short-term results has resulted in informal development activities being curtailed in those organisations that used to support and even promote them; and they are non-starters in other organisations that see no immediate pay off. Even worse, I hear a number of organisations are attracted to mentoring as a way of reducing their annual training and development budget. This is not the climate in which mentoring will flourish. Mentoring is not a cheap option, but it is a very cost effective and valuable development process.
Lack of skill
British companies continue to lag behind our European and global competitors in the amount of time and money spent of training and development of staff. Where money is spent, it is often directed solely towards technical and legally required training. Developmental training and allocation of management time to staff development and coaching is being squeezed out of existence in all but a few examples.
Fear
As organisations reduce their management levels and re-organise their work practices, there is increasing uncertainty and stress. Many managers are working in jobs and environments where they have limited experience, and valuable corporate experience and history is being lost. The survivor syndrome is prevalent in many of our companies. Managers are afraid of spending time developing their staff, and are afraid of asking for help themselves. Professor Cary Cooper has identified many examples where fear is becoming the major driving force for managers [3].
Sharing experiences
All is not lost. Anyone who has experienced the power of learning from a mentor will continue to seek these relationships and will be more than willing to offer themselves as a mentor to others, whatever the organisation climate says. I find that I am still learning from my many mentors, and I am helping a number of people to develop themselves by sharing my experiences and learning.
One of my mentors and a business partner, Walt Hopkins, supports people's dreams - it is part of his career designing process [4], and one of his own personal motivations. When he hears someone talk about a serious dream, he sends them a cheque for $10. He is saying, tangibly, that someone else believes in the dream - it is a spur to turn it into reality. Walt also stresses that he is not looking for repayment, but suggests recipients should look to invest in another's dream.
By being a mentor to others, I am following Walt's approach of repaying the support and help I have received by spreading the activity. So I urge people who have benefited from mentoring to mentor others. Then organisations who profess to support the learning organisation, empowerment and other current buzz-initiatives will need to create the cultures that will allow mentoring to develop, and provide the opportunity for managers to develop the skills of helping others.
[1] People Management, 31 May 1995
[2] Solve That Problem, Geof Cox, Pitman 1995
[3] Presentees, Cary Cooper, Sunday Times, 16.10.94
[4] A Goal is a Dream Taken Seriously, Walt Hopkins 1981
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