Well, A modest word of english vocabulary, Mentor/ing has been much debated and discussed of late. Why so?: , it was there for quite a long time! True, when a corporate eagle with a penchant for innovation stumbles upon a possiblility to earn a few bucks more with minimum efforts, well, Eureka he cries out.
Yes that is what happened to Mentoring :
When you come across this word , the first thing you visualise is about that day, when you were empathetically sympethised by your senior colleague who supported you with soothing words, ensconced within his altruistic attitude, for you were fired by your boss, the first time in your career!. Yes, to err is humane! And to fire obviously is Bossism!!
Whatever., You regard him still as your mentor, for sure, (I know!) because he assumed the role of the guardian angel, and fed you with manna of wisdom and gave solace. This exactly is a mentor/ protégé relationship. Formed involuntarily and unawares, it is a species of mentoring , and that is the topic we discuss today!
If you delve deep into the epics, fidgeting through the pages of Bhagwat Gita, you find that the whole book was about mentoring!, It was just this kind of relationship, when Bhagwan Himself prepared Arjuna to wage the most historical war ever fought!
Then what is mentoring? Shall we try to define it? The intelligentsia or the intelligent people ( Unlike me , ha ha) have defined mentoring thus:
“Mentoring is most often defined as a professional relationship in which an experienced person (the mentor) assists another (the mentee) in developing specific skills and knowledge that will enhance the latters professional and personal growth.”
Well, I just don’t remember who coined this , but if you ask me to define mentoring I would attempt like this:
Mentoring includes mostly a dyadic intellectual relationship , inter –vivos, where the more experienced provides support to the inexperienced by sharing and imparting pedagogical, psychological, and emotional faculites for the overall development of the latter. The former is termed the Mentor and the latter the Mentee,/protégé, and the relationship Mentoring.
I confine my definition to the above for the sake of brevity . Mentoring is thus the flow of information, experience, and emotional support to the mentee for improving his skill and efficiency leading to overall development of the personality of the mentee.
Let me try to classify mentoring , having attempted to define mentoring thus:
Mentoring could be broadly classified into voluntary and involuntary, formal and informal, structured and random, need based and induced ,spontaneous and programmed etc.. etc.
The basic classification is still based on how the association is kindled, that is structured(organised) and informal . We
give thrust to the former, ie sturctured and organised
mentoring as it is a matter of our present concern from the organisational point of view.
Let us now examine Informal (unorganised)and Formal (organised or structured) mentoring just for the sake of comparison:
Informal
No specific goals defined, and results not specified
No stipulated time frame for implementation and execution
Indirect and incidental benefits to the organisation
Selection is natural and informal
Formal
Goals and Results specifically designed and specified
Results are measured and monitored
Specific criteria for seclection of the mentors and mentees
Traning /enabling / capacitating Mentors provided
As mentioned earlier, mentoring involves the flow of knowledge, skill , information or solutions depending upon the requirements of the association. Mentoring not only includes this, but also the monitoring, modulating, correcting, restructuring and guiding the mentee by interference by the mentor at appropriate and requisite stages of development. This is important for any mentoring association to achieve the goals more effectievely.
Is mentoring different from coaching?
Unfortunately the dictionary meaning of mentoring includes coaching, tutoring, etc. However we would have to understand another meaning than the lexicon expert foresaw! Mentoring includes or adopts the techniques of coaching but infact it is not coaching, as a mentor cannot be a coach. Mentoring is more relational than functional. The coaching becomes more formal and issue based rather than relational as in the case of mentoring where it need not be for a highly specialised functional development.
Pal/Buddy systems Versus Mentoring:
Buddy, Pal systems have emerged mushroomingly in organisations of closed culture as their exposure to sister concerns are limited to business purposes only. Even the recreational facilities are proviced by the employer in most of the new era organisations, where work becomes more mechanical and rigorousotherwise.
This system helps to informally encourage the new recruit to adjust and acquiesce with the new environment. It could be more between peers, or staff of the same level, and confined to the limited purpose of introducing the new employee to fall in place within the organisational set up with minimal disarray.
In mentoring as we are aware, the overall improvement and development of the person (mentee) is involved than the limited purpose of acqueiscence and mostly between persons with different levels of knowledge or skills.
Counselling and Mentoring:
Again misunderstood oft. Counselling is problem oriented and highly specialised for a definite purpose. It could be legal, social , or medical, or technical piece of information helping the client. A lawyer does counsel , and so does a doctor,and all specialised professionals, . Marriage couselling is another form of social counselling.
Mentoring is absolutely different as purpose is not confined to one single aspect of development and not simply problem solving. It is altogether a different ball game, though in result the mentee or the client benefits. Mentoring has predetermined goals , well defined paths to trod on, and system for check and corrections including reorientation. This is a longer process, and could continue till the goals are achieved or discarded.
Why do we require mentoring?
Mentoring has been happening from time immemmorial and it was located, isolated and baptised much later. Nothing is new except the outlook of the society, form time to time when it comes to invention of a new concept which was there in a different shape and form, though not so refined and polished.(old wine in new bottle concept) GOD created man to react to stimulii and find his own solutions . Mentoring so remained in the organisation rather unknown or regarded unimportant or not so important, have surfaced now luring the present day , cost effective HR managers who thought to garner this informal and involuntary system to act as milch cow.
And sure it does, just read on:
1) The relationship brings in development in the mentee useful for the organisation.
2) The organisation saves quite a lot of money otherwise required for full fledged training sessions
3)The mentee is comfortable and there are no fixed and rigid rules governing the association which is more volatile and informal compared to boring class room sessions.
4) The mentee opens up himself, and is vulnerable to positive changes under an accepted mentor while he may be reluctant and withdrawn when it comes to him from a regular training session.
5) Improving the overall productivity of the organisation
6) The reception level of the mentee is much higher and he is more responsive to stimuli being an informal and conducive environment , and a homely feeling is developed when the actual process goes on unaware by both the mentor and the mentee.
7) Bringing out a mentoring culture, which promotes employee development continuously.
I shall try to discuss the demerits or disadvantages of mentoring in the end of this paper as I do not wish to spoil the positive note I try to pur forth.
Voluntary and structured Mentoring:
We all are aware of informal and involuntary mentoring just because it happens once at least in everyones life, and most of us throw those thoughts in the oblivions.
The need of the hour is something different, we don’t have time to wait for it to happen. When the natural pearls are
difficult to get , let us culture pearls which are in no way inferior,in looks and quality to the originals, . And so be it.
Mentoring needs to be organised and structured , we have to tap the potential of this valuable process into organisational benefit. The costs involved in routine training is sky rocketing and skilled people have started drifting away for greener pastures , everywhere. There is no end for that rat race. It has become further more necessary to hone the skills of our loyal workforce to make them more efficient and productive.
Mentoring happens , still to be less costlier, and more effective within a company with limited resources like ours. The importance of structuring and modulating mentoring for the benefit of the organisation requires some attention.
1) Lesser budget for training sessions
2) Lesser budget on TA/DA of concerned staff
3) More effective mentors who has indepth information about the mother organisation comared to hired faculties and speakers for training sessions
4) Increased dexterity and understanding of the business for the mentee as he is trained by an insider mentor.
5) Efficiency of the employee (mentee) increases and results in increased output by the organisation as a whole.
6) Does not require separate rigid and fixed time schedules as mentoring acitivity fills in the natural time gaps that are left over unproductive ,(like the solutte finding place in between the molecules of solvent), due to chit chat, etc, thereby resulting in better productivity saving valuable manhours.
Compatibility is a big issue:
In structured mentoring compatibility is of prime importance. Just because a person is senior in his field does not make him compatible for mentoring. Mentoring is basically a relational affair than a functional one, so , this compatibility issue becomes more prominent. Mentors should not only be capable but compatible. He should have an iron nerve at the same time a well controlled emotional balance. His reactions should be rational and logical. He should be compassionate and understanding.
Compatibility as I feel is the unision between the mentor and the mentee with the least possible friction in between.
The mentee /protégé on the other hand should be having a receptive mind. He should not close his mind to development while his ego should not clutter his upper storey . He can afford to be less knowledgeable compared to the mentor, and also less skilled and defined. He is just like an unpolished diamond. In the hands of the mentor it turns out into a really costly gem.
Sometimes compatibility just occurs,naturally, otherwise it needs to be identified and accordingly paired.
The parameters which signifies compatibility are multifarious depending upon the specific situational requirements. It includes and involves the indepth study of the background of the persons involved, including educational qualifications, special skills if any, work experience , communication skills, and above all his character!
A mentee has also to be equally virtuous, though he may lag behind a little in the specific skill or knowledge for which he is being trained and mentored.
Various types of structured mentoring:
1) Assigned in a specific training programme : This happens when the mentoring is limited to a particular class of employees, of more or less the same group and ethnicity, when mentoring forms an integral part of the already scheduled training programme.The selection of mentors and mentees happens in the programme itself.
2) Mutual selection: Organisation gives a list of mentors and the mentees are free to chose their mentors within the available lot.However the overall confirmation is done by the mangment so as to avoid conflicts of interests and external factors affecting the association detrimental to the cause.
3) Closed groups: Management broadly advises the mentors and several mentees of a similar and miscible group, requiring a specific issue in common to be addressed under one single mentor.This involves lesser cost and formalities for implementation, and easly workable.
4) Guided resource based mentoring: Here the management takes into consideration of all the specific requirements of the mentees involved and also identifies certain mentors based on their available resources and geographical locations. The mentees are identified into groups and given a choice of selecting their respective mentor or group head. This is ideal for highly localised problems and issues and being decentralised, has more working freedom.It also involves lesser movement of the persons grouped and will not hamper regular work schedules either.
5) Executive mentoring: This improves the mentoring culture of the organisation and is a tool for planning wider spans of organisational targets and achieving them. This is an ongoing and continuing process in the reverse or top down model , where executives are constantly mentored to bring in the desired output.
The concept and requirements of organised mentoring : the Flow chart:
Organised mentoring involves or undergoes through the following process:
Conceptualisation, setting up of predefined goals and targets, planning, implementation, monitoring and finally evaluation and closure.
Conceptualisation is nothing but the areas of implementation thinking from the management point of view for the overall benefit of the organisation, within a specific time frame. It braodly identifies the requirements of the organisation within the planning period for specific result oriented development.
Setting up of goals and targets:
Is an extension of conceptualisation where it goes a step ahead defining each step invoved and amount of output expected from each phase. This can vary from highly result oriented structures to increase profits / turnover within the existing resource allocation or otherwise.After identifying the broad requirements, the goals could be further fine tuned for individual development each pair/group for a specific role in the final output. In a manufacturing concern it could be how best to mentor an unskilled or semi skilled worker to utilise creative use of labour being mentored by an experienced worker who has innovated himself shortcuts and methods to improve his output either deliberately or otherwise. This happens with each of us. Given a task and a time frame our unconscious mind works out probable solutions and shortcuts to finish the work effectievely. With this dexterity , it improves and gets polished.
Planning:
This is the most important factor in the cycle. This requires vision and forethought. The broad outline or the prototype of the requisite program is drawn and then related to the man power and other available resources at disposal. Here decision is also taken as to fresh recruitment or fresh acquisition of meterial for the purpose, as is necessary. It also takes care of the available mentors and their time schedules and their length of service remaining which could be fruitfully utilised by the organisation. Planning also involves selection or identification of the type of mentoring to be implemented. Planning thus includes cost budget planning, resource mobilisation and utilisation planning, time management planning, and finally risk assessment and planning for vis majore.
Each of these subjects are much wider than it appears to be so I confine to only the most necessary topics in the current discussion.
Implementation:
This is putting into effect all those plans including initiation and rolling of the program. The strategies worked out in the planning stage are implemented in sequential pattern . Mentors and mentees are identified and grouped. Their tasks defined and assigned. The pre-mentor trainings if any are imparted before this step especially before identification and allocation of specific pairs and groups.
Monitoring:
This stage is equally important as every stage contributes to the final results, and is carried out religiously at regular intervals. In organised and structured mentoring this becomes more indispensible and mandatory. The corrective measures including necessary de-tours and deviations from the programmed path are decided here. The right note at the right time makes the music more melodious If the association is not moving with a minimum required velocity and necessary impetus, then decisions are taken to change both the course and course meterial .
Feed back and closure:
This is the final stage of the mentoring process. Here the results are assessed and evaluated. They are graded and classified and acknowledged. The Before-after reports are compiled and kept as resource meterial for future implementations and requirements. The whole process is briefly diarised and passed on to the systems for archives available for ready reference anytime.
Here the evalution should be possibly done by a person/persons who are not parties to monitoring or implementation of the mentoring system. Needless to say he should not be either mentor or mentee.. This could be done by an impartial and uninvolved employee of the organisation, and need not be an outsider. This will give correct results without fear or favour.
Certain issues, or negative critisism about mentoring:
The mentor has to do some additional work and spare his time within or without the daily work schedule he is paid for. In an organised system of mentoring this aspect is not envisaged as the mentor should be adequately compensated or atleast appear to have been compensated which would make him more proactive and productive.(the remunerative aspect)
A pat on the back, one grade more while considering merits for promotion or if not a small increment can do wonders!
Mentoring works well when it is less formal and less official. The more formal and rigid it is made, the less productive it becomes. This is because of the basic tendency of humans to break the laws!!! controls should be minimum and just required to safeguard the interests of the organisation and not to be implemented with a cane in hand!
Organised mentoring should be introduced in a phased manner and not in one single go as it has to be given its time to ripen and become sweet to taste!
Formation of miscible groups with different talents and wider exposure should be encouraged which will save time and energy in the long run
Lastly, mentoring should be kept within its defined contours without diluting its originality, and be permitted to co exist with the existing system, and should be used as a supplement and not as a substitute.
Ajay Menon
09 August 2012
Trivandrum
