Establishing a Successful Mentorship Program
For leadership and mentoring team members
“The most significant thing my mentor did was to listen and understand me.”
A successful mentoring program can help an employee feel more connected to the organization, to their specific job roles and to their longer-term career goals. Effective mentoring keeps employees engaged and loyal, improves job satisfaction and compliments recruitment and retention strategies. Developing a “culture” of mentorship is also an important resource when implementing change. However, good intentions are not enough! There must be the structures in place, and the individual/team must have the required leadership and mentorship competencies, to support the program.
Program Options:
- Training for the mentorship team: define what mentorship is, including the different types of mentoring; the mentorship relationship; benefits of mentorship to the organization, mentor, and mentee; roles, responsibilities, attributes of a successful mentor; and mentorship skills – understanding the adult learner, assertive communication, constructive feedback, conflict resolution.
- Building a mentoring program: principles of establishing a mentorship program; mentor team mission and vision and commitment to the mentor team and program; different approaches to mentorship and how they can be incorporated into a mentoring program; strategies when implementing the mentor program relative to communication, celebration and evaluation; mentor and mentee selection process, support and training requirements; challenges that may arise in a mentoring relationship and strategies to prevent or address such challenges; action plans steps towards creating a mentorship program.