Developing Effective Mentoring Relationships: Strategies From the Mentor's Viewpoint

Abstract

Mentoring is being increasingly used by companies as a means of fostering employee learning and development. Limited research exists from the perspective of the mentor on these relationships. This article presents the results of a qualitative study that investigated the characteristics that the ideal mentor should possess and ways that both mentors and proteges can make mentoring relationships most effective. Findings from the study are used to frame suggestions for future research and practice.The topic of mentoring has received much research attention in the career development literature in recent years. Mentoring reflects a relationship between two individuals, usually a senior and junior employee, whereby the senior employee takes the junior employee "under his or her wing" to teach the junior employee about his or her job, introduce the junior employee to contacts, orient the employee to the industry and organization, and address social and personal issues that may arise on the job (Kram, 1985). The mentoring relationship is distinguished from other organizational relationships (e.g., supervisor-subordinate) in that the involved individuals may or may not formally work together, the relationship is typically not sanctioned by the organization, the relationship usually lasts longer than most organizational relationships, the issues addressed during the course of the relationship may and often include nonwork issues, and the bond between the mentor and protbgb is usually closer and stronger than those of other organizational relationships (Hunt &Michael, 1983;Phillips-Jones, 1982 It is well established that mentoring relationships offer a number of important career benefits to the prot6g6. For example, individuals who are mentored report higher levels of overall compensation, career advancement, and career satisfaction (Dreher & Ash, 1990;Fagenson, 1988Fagenson, , 1989Scandura, 1992;Turban & Dougherty, 1994;Whitely, Dougherty, & Dreher, 1991). In today's turbulent business environment, the development of mentoring relationships can be a key strategy for enhancing individual growth and learning. Furthermore, as the ability to grow, adapt, and develop becomes more essential to organizational competitiveness, organizations are being called upon to facihtate He-long employee learning. To take advantage of the benefits of mentoring and build a competitive advantage through human and intellectual capital, many organizations are implementing formal mentoring programs as a method of fostering career development. Indeed, it has been estimated that a third of the nation's major companies have implemented a formal mentoring program (Bragg, 1989). Moreover, a recent study by Douglas and McCauley (1997) found that many organizations that &d not currently have a program in place were planning on developing one within 3 years. As more organizations implement formal mentoring programs, the effective management of these programs becomes an increasingly important challenge for organizations and career development practitioners....

A taxonomy of the characteristics of student peer mentors in higher education: findings from a literature review

“…According to the mentees in this study, only a mentor sharing the same experiences and type of learning could provide the soundest advice. Similarly, other research has shown that mentees generally tend to seek out mentors with expertise in the desired field (Allen & Poteet, 1999;Ragins & Cotton, 1999). 155 Quinn, Muldoon, and Hollingworth (2002) point to the difficulty a mentor would have trying to teach a mentee or impart study skills in isolation from content, further supporting the idea that a mentor with content knowledge is important to the success of the mentor relationship.…”

“…According to Tindall (1995), a mentor applicant should already display effective communication skills, including the ability to listen and to understand others. While some articles allude simply to the importance of communication skills (Good et al, 2000;Lawson, 1989;Mee-Lee & Bush, 2003), other articles provide more in-depth descriptions of mentor communication skills: listening skills (Allen & Poteet, 1999;Holbeche, 1996;McLean, 2004;Randels et al, 1992;Schmidt et al, 2004), clarifying behaviours (Holbeche, 1996), and understanding of verbal and non-verbal behaviours (Awayaa et al, 2003). Other studies cite similar skills required of mentors, namely advising and counselling skills (McLean, 2004;Pitney & Ehlers, 2004;Wallace et al, 2000), ability to provide honest and constructive feedback (Lawson, 1989;Rose, 2005), teaching and explanation skills (Pitney & Ehlers, 2004), and ability to express oneself in an open and clear fashion (Ehrich et al, 2004;Sands et al, 1991;Schmidt et al, 2004).…”

“…In addition to explicitly using the term trustworthy to describe mentors (Bouquillon et al, 2005), the articles reviewed used similar wording such as behaviourally predictable and reliable (Bouquillon et al, 2005), responsible (Good et al, 2000;Lawson, 1989), dependable (Ferrari, 2004), stable (Lawson, 1989;Tindall, 1995), honest (Allen & Poteet, 1999), and loyal (Schmidt et al, 2004). Sipe (1996) points to trustworthiness as one of the foundational elements in establishing trust between mentor and mentee.…”

“…However, there is considerable variation in the terminology used to describe an empathetic nature, including sympathetic (Mee-Lee & Bush, 2003), understanding (Allen & Poteet, 1999;Awayaa et al, 2003;Mann, 1994;McLean, 2004;Schmidt et al, 2004;Young et al, 2004), responsive (Scott, 2005;Young et al, 2004), sensitive (Apter & Carter, 2002;Schmidt et al, 2004), compassionate (Schmidt et al, 2004), non-judgmental (Lawson, 1989;McDougall & Beattie, 1997), and concern for the welfare of others (Allen et al, 2000). Three articles identify concepts fundamental to empathy: an alertness 'to mentees' concerns and dilemmas' (Awayaa et al, 2003, p. 53), an ability to recognize mentees' feelings (Mann, 1994), and being in an other-oriented state (Apter & Carter, 2002).…”

A self-determination theory perspective on mentoring relationships at work

“…Organizations sometimes formalize this relationship to meet the organization's needs, however, in almost every organization informal mentoring relationships exist, initiated by the members themselves and driven by their specific needs Ragins & Cotton, 1999). These mentors and protégés may or may not formally work together and the bond between them is usually closer and stronger than of those involved in other work relationships (Allen & Poteet, 1999).…”