Mentoring — a tool for business evolution

By Sergey Golubev (Сергей Голубев) on The Capital

Margaret Fuller: ‘’If you have knowledge, let others light their candles in it’’

Let someone teach me!

It is interesting to know that in ancient Greek mythology, the Mentor was the tutor of the son of Odysseus Telemachus. Today, the name of the Mentor has become commonplace in European languages, and it means “tutor.” Mentoring is the process of interaction between a person more experienced in anything and a less experienced one, in which the first transfers his expertise to the second (knowledge, skills, and abilities within the framework of his mastery). The goal of the process is the achievement of a less experienced person of a certain results and successes in this area with the support of a more experienced mentor. World statistics tell us that this process is very popular in the world:

· 76% of organizations in Europe offer mentoring or coaching to their employees

· 71% of Fortune500 companies have corporate mentoring programs

· 77% of companies in the world say that mentoring helps retain valuable employees in the company

· 78% of employees involved in mentoring programs are not fired

· 60% of job seekers in Europe and the USA indicate mentoring as a mandatory criterion for a new job

· At $ 5,000 — $ 22,000 more annually receive employees who had a mentor

The mentoring process involves at least 2 participants:

· Mentor is a person who mentoring

· Protégé — a less experienced person in the process, a student of the mentor with whom he directly interacts

In the process of mentoring, the mentor at the same time combines the functions of an expert, teacher, trainer, coach, consultant, and sometimes even a psychologist. It is important to understand in which particular cases the request will require working with a mentor, and not with any other specialist. During the coaching process, the client does not receive accurate instructions and tips. The development process occurs due to leading questions, through which the coach uncovers the potential and reveals the capabilities of the protégé. He does not train his client, does not tell him his success stories and successful cases from practice, and does not share his experience and expertise. The coach supports the client in the search for talents and hidden abilities, reveals a palette of resources, and allows you to make mistakes. In no case, he does indicate what the path the success should be. He makes sure that his protégé himself finds the right solution and achieves the desired result. The obvious similarities between coaching and mentoring are a clear definition of the goal of teamwork, unconditional trust between the participants and the ability of the client to freely reason and choose the desired activity or behavior. A business coach, first focuses on the theory, gives the basics of knowledge and the basic principles of various tools. Often shows “how to” and always tries to work out the knowledge gained, turning them into skills. The similarity with mentoring is that the mentor explains to his protégé and demonstrates by his own example how to achieve one or another goal since he is more experienced in this matter. But the difference is obvious — the coach may not be an expert in the field that he teaches, often academic knowledge and coaching experience are enough in practical development of the necessary skill, depending on the specialization of the coach. The mentor should have its own arsenal of trial and errors, lessons and conclusions, in order to share them with the protégé, offering and choosing the best solutions. With consulting, mentoring is combined with the need for strong expertise, but the consultant’s responsibility for the actions and further selection of the client is minimal. Its main task is to analyze and select only the necessary activities. The mentor also entrusts himself with a motivating function, because the task is to make the protégé achieve his goal using the advice and recommendations of a mentor. Mentoring is a versatile set of tools and approaches to the development of protégés, where the mentor to some extent performs the functions of a coach and consultant. In general, mentoring is a larger process. All these areas help people come to success in a certain field of activity, but this is achieved by different methods.

Types of mentoring and types of mentors

First of all, a mentor is needed for employees who are just delving into the realm or want to grow. But he will be useful to those who have already figured out, that needs a “mirror view.” Let’s see what types of mentoring exist in companies. In the summer of 2019, SurveyMonkey and CNBC conducted a survey on happiness at work. One of the conclusions is that if employees have a mentor, they are more comfortable at the workplace. Employees who have a mentor are more satisfied with their salaries (79% versus 69%) and believe that their contribution to the work is appreciated by colleagues (89% versus 75%). Only 25% of those who have a mentor are going to change jobs in the next three months. In addition, among those who do not have a mentor, such 40%. Employees with mentors are inclined to believe that their company provides good career opportunities. Among top managers, 80% think so (against 60%), and among middle management — 75% (against 51%). For startups, mentoring is also important. In the United States, 70% of startups and small businesses whose founders are supported by mentors overcome the five-year milestone. This is two times more than in the case of startups without mentors. The Research University of Washington in St. Louis has classified the types of mentoring:

· Formal mentoring — structural programs in which the mentor is attached to the protégé. Formats depend on mentoring programs; there may be reports on the results.

· Natural mentoring — a more experienced employee (buddy) offers less experienced professional assistance (usually these people have common ground).

· The same level mentoring — employees with approximately the same experience share with each other what they recently learned or have lived. Usually they have common career goals, vital interests, they understand each other well.

· Situational mentoring — when one employee from time to time pulls up another in what is well versed in. It can be at any stage of a career.

· Supervisory mentoring — one employee acts as a strict observer and adviser to another. Not the most comfortable option, because grievances and conflicts of interest may arise.

· Mentoring on demand — when an employee asks the person who trained him to take over professional patronage. Or the company invites a consultant — mentor for a specific profile of activity

A mentor is not a position, but essentially an honorable “social burden.” Mentoring does not cost a company large amounts of money (except for stimulating bonuses), but it helps to reduce staff turnover, unite the team, and increase productivity. It is implemented through the Win-win concept. Although wealthy firms can afford the costs of large mentorship programs and consulting services.

Everyone needs mentors. In 2015, Harvard Business Review conducted a survey of 45 CEOs to find out what role mentors played in their professional lives. As it turned out, 84% of CEOs are sure that mentoring helped them avoid expensive mistakes and increase their expertise faster. At different stages and in different situations, we need different mentors. Not only names should change, but also roles — there are several of them. Ex-marketing director of Procter & Gamble, author of business books Scott Mautz offers the following classification of mentors:

1. Pioneer

This is an expert in the industry or in a separate direction. Thanks to him, it is easy to go on a professional path. He says: “I was there, know, I passed” and helps to look at things as clearly and deeply as a newcomer will not be able to do so soon. He sees the shortest path in the system and processes; he is clearly doing what his protégé has to learn. Tells about failures, gives practical advice, and tells where the pits are. It has a large database of useful contacts, which is invaluable in the modern business world.

2. Resonator

A colleague who can listen and comment on ideas. He does not teach anything much — he simply gives feedback based on his feelings and experience. In fact, this is the first focus group of one person — honest and most critical, but without criticism. According to a study by scientists from the University of Berkeley, testing ideas with such a person helps to find more solutions. You discuss the problem with the “resonator” — and at the output, you get 25% more ideas.

3. Magnet of success

Mentors of this type serve as a role model for success — simply because they have reached heights. Ideally, if they are from an adjacent or distant industry, then you do not copy specific solutions but are inspired by approaches. This is more important.

4. Advocate

A mentor of this type is entirely for you. He likes what you do, and he will help you progress faster than you could. The advocate is immersed as much as possible in the protégé’s career. Sometimes too prescriptive and invasive — but useful for business. Actually, fulfill the role of your business or career nanny.

5. Mirror

This mentor knows you well, your strengths, weaknesses, goals, and opportunities. You can turn to him for criticism — ask to say how he sees you and what you do. And he will be honest. This is not always sweet, but an injection of truth will help to correct the movement.

6. Feedback Mentor

Scott Mautz says that there was a top manager at P&G who took an intern every summer — and he told him what the situation looked like through the eyes of a “younger” one. In fact, it was a voice from below — so the top manager found out what they think about him and his management style, how he actually lives in the atmosphere that he builds. Such feedback is useful if you want to understand how much, in reality, you correspond to the values ​​that you declare. This is an opportunity to catch the trends in which the new generation lives and to discover a truly alternative point of view.

Formats and 10 Mentoring Rules

Mentoring takes different forms depending on who and how the mentor works. Here are the basics:

· Personal. This is the most common format — the mentor works with the protégé personally, supports it directly within the program or spontaneously. They become almost friends.

· Remote. If the first format of mentoring involves live communication, then the mentor works with the protégé or group remotely.

· Group. One mentor has several protégés. He works on a program that monitors progress, rhythm, and what exactly beginners learn.

As a rule, a protégé contacts the mentor independently, or in the case of a corporate request, the head or HR department selects and appoints a mentor for the protégé. The mentor is given the task: what exactly should he teach his protégé and in what period. The mentor’s motivation for what he has to do in collaboration with the protégé is very important. Indeed, even a very experienced, strong expert who does not want or is not able to share his knowledge will be useless in this case. If the mentor acts as a private person, he should also pay attention to his communication skills and the ability to educate adults. Often, even for professionals in their field, the very process of interacting with a protégé becomes an obstacle. If the mentor is confident in his abilities, then he begins to work with his student, whose goal is to achieve the indicated results. What does this work consist of? We outline the basic rules that a mentor fulfills to achieve a result:

1. The mentor evaluates the initial potential of his protégé: asks questions, conducts mini-interviews, and draws attention to his experience and competencies.

2. The mentor delivers the theoretical foundations of the selected process in a format that is easy to understand to the student, focuses on the risks and lessons that he himself has gained by gaining experience in a given area.

3. The mentor demonstrates the protégé on his own example how the work is done or shows different approaches, using the best practices from his own experiences and cases.

4. A mentor helps a protégé identify goals and ways to achieve them. It is important to give the protégé the opportunity to independently draw up an action plan and discuss its viability.

5. The mentor focuses the protégé on achieving a specific goal, does not allow him to disperse, helps to gather all thoughts together and concentrate on the desired process.

6. The mentor acts as a psychological motivator for his protégé, supports with failures, helps to overcome indecision, fears, allows him to start with the right attitude.

7. The mentor provides effective networking and helps the protégé to acquire business contacts and useful connections, conducts a detailed educational program in the market, if necessary.

8. The mentor gives his protégé practical tasks, the implementation of which will bring him closer to his goals. He does not hide secrets, together with the protégé checks hypotheses and new approaches, shares proven tips, gives recommendations as the protégé performs these tasks.

9. The mentor objectively evaluates the results of his protégé, is able to give relevant developmental feedback, be flexible and adapt the activity plan to change if necessary.

10. The mentor motivates his protégé to achieve the goal, provides moral support and does not allow to give up or abandon the previously stated ambitions.

Rules can migrate and change places; there is no clear algorithm of actions. In successful mentoring, the main thing is the synergy of the mentor with the protégé and understanding of the goal, then the developed plan will definitely lead to success. Speaking about the benefits of mentoring for a business or a specific company, it is worth noting that this is an excellent mechanism for disseminating knowledge within the organization. Protégés receive new information, and mentors systematize their own knowledge and experience. As a result, the company’s overall productivity is also increasing. For a mentor, such cooperation is a chance to quickly gain practical experience and, as a result, the possibility of rapid career or professional growth. Being a mentor means enriching your own experience in communications, as well as showing your own professionalism and value for the company. By dedicating time to mentoring, we contribute to the development of a continuous education culture as part of a corporate culture. It’s no secret that the main model of mentoring is the Tell — Show — Do model. The mentor formulates the purpose of the training. He stipulates that the protégé should be able to, at the end of training, from what he did not know how to do before:

· TELL. The mentor explains the task to the protégé, having previously distributed it in steps. Large tasks are divided into several parts and held in separate sessions. The mentor asks questions to the protégé to make sure that he has learned the information. The employee retells the contents of the assignment in his own words.

· SHOW. The mentor shows how to complete the task, commenting along the way, what step he performs. At the end, he asks if everything was clear.

· DO. The employee performs the task himself. The mentor may ask the employee to take this or that step again if he is not satisfied with the quality of the work. At the end, the mentor gives feedback and agrees with him according to what criteria the acquired skills will be evaluated.

Very often, people ask the question — where and how to find a mentor. This is the concern of your employers and corporate bosses, but also, you can find out a mentor for yourself. Worldwide, the Lifeaddwiser mobile application helps solve pressing problems. This is a unique online mentor that evaluates key elements of your life for free: career, finance, health, social well-being, and living environment. These elements are based on a Gallup Institute study conducted over 50 years in 150 countries. The virtual mentor determines strengths and weaknesses, calculates the Life Index using a special algorithm, and gives personalized recommendations and tips for improving life. With Lifeaddwiser, you can hire a trusted mentor online to develop elements that score low. In the Russian-language Internet, there is a similar application — https://www.unimentors.ru

Goals and objectives of mentoring

Having resorted to the mentor, the business owner is well aware of the prospects that will be opened up. An experienced mentor forces participants in a business or startup to take a fresh look at the project and the opportunities that will open up for everyone if the idea is successfully implemented. Mentoring helps company employees:

· learn to think strategically;

· make key decisions and help colleagues;

· learn how to conduct meetings, as well as effectively negotiate;

· competently evaluate new ideas;

· choose the right startup development strategies;

· develop a business plan and seek investors;

· form a project team;

· make decisions that will make the project investment attractive.

What results does the business want to see in its project or in the enterprise, in addition to the main tasks associated with the successful launch of a new project?

· a significant reduction in the number of errors and malfunctions in the company;

· staff turnover decreases;

· establishing a relationship between company employees;

· increases the efficiency of staff at all levels;

· principles of self-training of employees and optimized training costs;

· set goals are quickly achieved;

· there is a quick adaptation of new employees;

· corporate values ​​of the company are strengthened;

· Increases motivation and improves the process of communication, as well as information.

Effective mentoring is focused on these goals and objectives. Mentoring in its modern concept is a unique tool in the hands of company executives. Actual problems are being solved and new horizons are being opened. Having learned to effectively apply the principles of mentoring in practice, you can be 100% sure of the successful implementation of a new project and the development of your core business. All this can be achieved if you overcome the main fear of a person who wants to be a mentor — not to have ready-made correct answers to the protégé’s questions. A mentor is not an encyclopedia. He is a guide on the road to improving the knowledge, skills and personal qualities of the student and his own. It is not scary if you do not have a ready-made correct answer to the question. It is possible that no one has it. Finding the best answer is an integral part of the mentor’s work. What a good mentor looks like? He wants to train. The desire to transfer his knowledge is the engine of the relationship between him and protégé. If you do not want to share your experience, nothing will work. Have a sufficient level of knowledge. How sufficient is a subjective concept. You must understand your area, be able to find solutions, take responsibility for your words and tips. Success in your business is the main factor that protégés want to learn. Love your job and continuously improve in it. A good mentor should be both a teacher and a psychologist, friend and student, consultant and trainer. What a mentor should do:

· Listen attentively

· Form objectiveness bypassing emotionality

· Suggest ideas and options

· Change focus around the problem

· Be able to argue and dispute

· Encourage and praise

· Search for options and use brainstorming

Possible problems when implementing mentoring in a business, project, and enterprise

When introducing mentoring, a number of problems inevitably arise, which should be taken into account even at the stage of development of such a system. Otherwise, the company has every chance of encountering one or more of the following problems:

1. The haphazard implementation of mentoring

It entails a formal approach by process participants. When the system is not associated with KPI, and other training and assessment programs are not interconnected, the company does not get the desired result.

2. Recession of enthusiasm, lack of interest

Participants work a couple of months on a wave of enthusiasm, then stop paying due attention to mentoring. This is thanks to the lack of adequate systems of motivation and control of results, as well as during the legislative implementation of the system as an initiative of business owners

3. Poor process organization

Poor organization, lack of documents regulating the work of mentors and their mentees, lead to chaos and formal execution of tasks. As a result — uncertainty of duties and measures of responsibility of mentors, vague tasks related to the professional training of mentees, lack of clear responsibility of the company to mentors.

4. Inadequacy of the mentors themselves

The success of protégé training using the mentoring system is highly dependent on the experience and qualifications of the mentors.

5. Resistance

Disinterest of mentors and mentees in mentoring. This occurs in the case of a programmatic introduction of the program and in the case of an inadequate motivation system or lack of proper information with setting goals and objectives.

Since the system is built on the creation of alliances, the mutual responsibility of participants, the key to its successful functioning is the close interaction of all players in the process. Careful planning and preparation of the environment for change is a prerequisite for the successful implementation of the mentoring system.

Mentoring in business processes and start-ups

A modern entrepreneurship is an economy, marketing, communication and negotiation skills, management and team building skills, law, accounting, and design. To know everything is impossible. The main thing you need to know is who knows what you need now. Moreover, the search for such a person for business is not necessary for the delegation of responsibilities to him, where you do not know. Before you delegate, you as a businessperson need to figure out a lot yourself. Somewhere superficially and somewhere immersed thoroughly. If you don’t know how to develop negotiation skills, then you won’t build a business. You can delegate marketing to “young and ambitious guys” who in six months will say that they did everything they could, but sales did not increase. After that, live with a picture of the world that no one needs your product and marketing does not work. Well, if you completely outsource accounting and do not delve into the issues, you can one-day get news from the tax office with a substantial fine. In order to close such “gaps” of the entrepreneurship and get an outside look at business worldwide, there has long been a model of business mentoring. Let’s start with the concept of a business mentor. What kind of person is this? A business mentor is an experienced entrepreneur who has been able to build his profitable company and is ready to share his experience. Moreover, a mentor is also a big pool of contacts and useful connections that have been developed over years of work in a business niche. It follows from the definition above that a real business mentor is not an info businessperson or a coacher, here the emphasis is on real experience from the business that the mentor has right now. Why should an entrepreneur become a mentor? Researchers say the reasons are as follows:

· Other people helped me in due time, now I also want to return the “debt”.

· There is free time, so I am ready to be a mentor at this time.

· You giving — you receiving.

· I am just curious

Who needs a mentor in business?

1) Beginning entrepreneurs in order to quickly enter the market, while making fewer mistakes. In addition, mistakes in business are always a waste of money and time.

2) To existing entrepreneurs. Communicating with different business founders, it is clear that for many years they have been banging their heads against the same gate. Profits only fall, employees work poorly, there is no marketing strategy. There is simply not enough sight from a more experienced person.

How worldwide one does work with a mentor to promote business or start up? There are several models:

1) Some mentors can be negotiated for free

2) Set a fixed payment once a month

3) Professional mentors (world-famous scientists and entrepreneurs) can ask for a stake in the company. However, this is worth going only in the case of a person already familiar to you. And conclude a contract!

Sergey Golubev (Сергей Голубев)

EU structural funds, ICO/STO/IEO projects, NGO & investment projects, project management, comprehensive support for business

Join the chat — https://t.me/joinchat/AAAAAE84vCXg5PK-VpHADg