The Complete Guide to Mentoring: How to Design, Implement, and Evaluate Effective Mentoring Programs

So how do you create a mentoring relationship with someone? What's the most effective way to pass on your wisdom? And, if you're in a leadership role, how can you set up a mentoring program in your organization so that team members can learn from their peers and the leadership team?

These are just some of the questions answered in "The Complete Guide to Mentoring." It shows readers why mentoring is so valuable, how to set up an effective mentoring relationship or program, and how to avoid the most common mistakes.

We feel a book like this is invaluable for professionals at all levels. Think of how much all of us could achieve in life if we had a great mentor by our side, encouraging us to think carefully, observe our experience, and draw insight from our successes and failures.

Even more importantly, the author does a great job convincing us why mentoring is so important. It's not something we do for ourselves, but rather, to help lift others up. By passing on our own wisdom, we help the world at large evolve. We can watch the people we've helped to guide spread their own wings and, in turn, help someone else along the way. It's an inspiring and rewarding experience with amazing returns.

"The Complete Guide to Mentoring" is most useful for people in a leadership role who are interested in becoming a mentor, or creating a mentoring program in their organization. The book is also valuable for people who are looking for a mentor. The information in here will help you pick the right kind of mentor, and build a relationship that will benefit both of you.

Hilarie Owen is the founder and CEO of the Institute of Leadership. She was appointed by the UK government to monitor the leadership of police forces in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. She's led several global organizations, and is the author of six other books on leadership.

So, keep listening to find out how to tell if your organization is ready to start a mentoring program, how to set one up, and some tips on how to be a better mentor.

"The Complete Guide to Mentoring" is divided into ten chapters, and comes in at 160 pages.

If you're not convinced that mentoring is truly valuable, then look no further than chapter one for some good reasons to do it. Here, the author makes a compelling case for mentoring, and the value it has for our society.

Stop and think about it for just a moment. All of us can learn the policies and processes of our organization. We can graduate with an MBA knowing how to gather and analyze information, apply the latest business theories with our teams, and use the latest technology to help in our work.

But what about our ability to creatively solve unlikely problems, or establish good relationships with our team? Do we know how to stick to our values in the face of intense pressure, or do the right thing even when it's unpopular with our team?

These vital skills are often called soft skills – and being in a mentoring relationship is a good way to learn them. Mentoring helps the other person develop their potential and grow both personally and professionally, through one-on-one interaction where soft skills can be demonstrated in real-time.

Another important point the author brings up is the expected exodus of Baby Boomers from the workforce over the next 5-10 years. This group of professionals has decades of experience and wisdom that they'll take with them when they retire. If they don't pass this information along to younger generations, it will be lost.

By the time you're done with this chapter you might feel the author's urgency. It's obvious she cares deeply about mentoring, and its role in the workplace. You may even be convinced that you, and your organization, have a responsibility to mentor others.

Chapter two covers mentoring in organizations. The first thing the author recommends we do to set up a mentoring program is create an advisory board of senior leaders. Their job is to gather information on some key questions, which she lists at the start of the chapter.

The next step is to work with a small group to develop scenarios. The purpose of these fictional scenarios is to see how mentoring might shape the future of your organization. For instance, what if your organization does nothing at all. How might your future be? And, what if your organization does start a mentoring program. How could that change the future?

The third step is to scope out the mentoring scheme. Are you going to start with a small, target group in your organization? Does the need for mentoring exist at all levels of your organization? These are just a few of the questions you'll ask at this step.

There are seven steps total. The other four cover readiness, logistics, evaluation, and communication. Although the author doesn't go into a lot of detail here, there's still enough information to get you started. And there's more information about setting up a mentoring scheme in chapter four.

Before we get there, chapter three looks at the people side of mentoring. How do you find the right mentor for yourself? And, how do you identify good mentors in your organization? These are just some of the questions answered in this chapter.

There are also some insightful guidelines on how to be a good mentor. One of the most important things you need to do is to listen actively. When your mentee is talking about an issue they're facing, it's tempting to think, "Oh, I know how I'd deal with that problem." And you proceed to tell your mentee what to do, based on what you did in your past experience.

This does your mentee an injustice, because instead of focusing on their thoughts and feelings, you're now in the starring role. And, mentoring isn't all about you. As a mentor, you need to put your own personal solutions aside and focus on putting yourself in your mentee's shoes. Instead of judging them or trying to solve their problems for them, you instead need to focus on guiding them to a good solution by asking questions.

Now, this doesn't mean that you never give advice, or that you only ask questions. It's a complex and subtle line you have to walk. For example, imagine your mentee wants to try for a promotion. But, she's not sure she should go for it.

You might have gone through plenty of promotions yourself, so it's tempting to tell your mentee all about what happened to you. But there's a better approach, one that's focused more on guiding. You could ask questions, such as, "What's attractive about this promotion for you? Why do you think you're not ready?"

These questions are focused on your mentee, and they help her find her own answers. Once she answers the questions, the two of you can discuss what's best to do.

This is more difficult than it sounds. And, it's why the author urges any mentor to go through their own development and training first, before becoming a mentor.

Chapter three is one of our favorite chapters because it's full of really insightful tips and strategies that focus on the people side of mentoring. Here you'll learn what makes a great mentor, how to tell if someone shouldn't be a mentor, and how to find the right mentees for your mentors, if you're in charge of a mentoring program.

Chapter four gives us an in-depth look on setting up a mentoring program in your organization. This might sound like a rehash of chapter two, but this chapter goes into much more depth. We feel these two chapters could have easily been combined, but their division doesn't really detract from the book's flow so it's not a major issue.

What's most relevant is the information here. And, it's really good. The author brings up a lot of issues most of us wouldn't have considered when setting up a mentoring program.

For instance, the author says that once you set up a program, make it a priority to get all your mentors together every six months to share their experiences and develop their skills further. Mentors need a place to go to for advice and training, just like their mentees. So, this should be an essential part of your mentoring program.

Another important aspect of your mentoring program is the agreement the two parties need to reach at the start of the relationship. All the details about when and where you'll meet, and each person's expectations, need to be identified and written down. And, there's a great list of questions to help clarify these issues.

For instance, how often will you meet? Who will contact whom? What are the ground rules for cancelations? How will either of you decide to stop if the process isn't working? What does the mentee want to work on?

These are just a few of the questions the author gives us in this section. Many help you lay out the nuts and bolts of the relationship, but others force you to examine the personal and emotional issues, and what you'll do if things don't work out or problems come up.

The author also encourages mentees to start a learning journal. This journal helps chart the development of the mentee. By writing in the journal after each mentoring session, the mentee is forced to take time for reflective learning. This is where the most valuable part of mentoring takes place. When the mentee sits down to reflect on what they just talked about with their mentor, they have the time and space to look at their thoughts and emotions, and gain insight from what they just experienced.

Although the author says learning journals are for mentees, we think they would also be useful for mentors. Keeping a learning journal about your own journey as a mentor will help you learn and grow, just like the person you're mentoring.

The author brings up a sticky situation in this chapter: what happens when a boss feels threatened by, or jealous of, their team member's mentoring relationship with another leader. They might want to sit in on the mentoring sessions, or even become their team member's mentor.

The author strongly advises against this. A leader should never mentor someone on their own team. And, they should never be allowed to sit in on a session, unless it's a milestone session, such as a six-month review.

One way for a mentor to deal with a jealous boss is to ask them to provide feedback. They could tell the mentor about the changes they see in their team member as the months pass.

The rest of the book continues in this same vein. Although the first four chapters contain most of the "how-to" information, there's still plenty of practical information in the latter half.

Chapter five covers the issue of diversity, and how important mentoring is to helping lift minorities and women up into top leadership roles. If you want to help increase the diversity in your organization, there are some good strategies to help in this chapter.

Chapter six, which covers how to evaluate a mentoring relationship, will be incredibly useful for leaders. Here, you learn how to evaluate the mentoring program you've set up to make sure it's useful for everyone involved.

So, what's our last word on The Complete Guide to Mentoring?

We're very impressed by this book, and by the author's thoroughness and expertise on the topic. Every chapter is full of practical steps, tips, and information to help you mentor someone, set up a mentoring program in your organization, or find a mentor for yourself.

Now, the book isn't a page-turner. The writing style isn't witty or conversational, and it won't have you laughing out loud. But it's not dry or boring either. It's just more like a textbook. The information here is very matter-of-fact, yet highly useful.

There are also five short case studies in the book. These are helpful because they illustrate how real-life companies set up their own mentoring programs. You learn what mentors, and mentees, have to say about the mentoring relationships they were in, and how they helped them grow professionally.

Some of the case studies also detail the problems the organizations ran into setting up the program.

So, if you're at all interested in establishing a mentoring program in your organization, or becoming a mentor yourself, this book really has everything you need to know to set up the relationship or program the right way. You'll avoid common mistakes others have made, and make sure that the relationship benefits everyone involved.

"The Complete Guide to Mentoring," by Hilarie Owen, is published by Kogan Page.

That's the end of this episode of Book Insights. Click here to buy the book from Amazon. Thanks for listening.