Introduction to Mentoring
Mentoring provides an opportunity for senior leaders to prepare the next generation of aspiring leaders for their upcoming roles. In a typical mentoring program, a mentor and a mentee exist. This relationship can last a short or very long time as mentees learn, grow and develop the skills and abilities needed to face the challenges of being a senior leader.
mentoring theory application
Why Organizations would establish a Mentoring Program:
Four types of Mentors:
- As part of the Onboarding process -- mentoring helps new recruits, trainees or graduates settle into the organization;
- Skills Enhancement -- mentoring enables experienced, highly competent staff to pass their expertise on to others who need to acquire specified skills;
- Professional Identity -- when younger employees are early in their careers, they need help understanding what it means to be a professional in their working environment. Professionals embody the values of the profession and are self-initiating and self-regulating. Mentors play a key role in defining professional behavior for new employees. This is most important when employees first enter the federal workforce;
- Career Development -- mentoring helps employees plan, develop, and manage their careers. It also helps them become more resilient in times of change, more self-reliant in their careers and more responsible as self-directed learners;
- Leadership and Management Development -- mentoring encourages the development of leadership competencies. These competencies are often more easily gained through example, guided practice or experience than by education and training;
- Education Support -- mentoring helps bridge the gap between theory and practice. Formal education and training is complemented by the knowledge and hands-on experience of a competent practitioner;
- Organizational Development and Culture Change -- mentoring can help communicate the values, vision and mission of the organization; a one-to-one relationship can help employees understand the organizational culture and make any necessary changes;
- Customer Service -- mentoring assists in modeling desired behaviors, encouraging the development of competencies in support of customer service, and above all, cultivating the right attitudes;
- Staff retention -- mentoring provides an encouraging environment through ongoing interactions, coaching, teaching, and role modeling that facilitates progression within the organization; mentoring has been found to influence employee retention because it helps establish an organizational culture that is attractive to the top talent clamoring for growth opportunities. Mentoring is a tangible way to show employees that they are valued and that the company’s future includes them;
- Recruitment -- mentoring can enhance recruitment goals by offering additional incentives to prospective employees; and
- Knowledge Management/Knowledge Transfer -- mentoring provides for the interchange/exchange of information/knowledge between members of different organizations.
Four types of Mentors:
- Career Guide -- promotes development through career guidance, counseling and visibility;
- Information Source -- provides information about formal and informal expectations;
- Friend -- interacts with the protégé socially and provides information about people; and
- Intellectual Guide -- promotes an equal relationship, collaborates on research projects and provides constructive feedback and criticism.
Personal Reflection:
I believe that mentoring is a very important part of any potential future leader in today's society. While one's education and experience can provide a great amount of knowledge needed to become a great leader; creating a relationship with someone whom has already gone through the trials and tribulations of being in a leadership position. As I am currently involved in an informal mentoring program, I have had the opportunity to learn how to utilize a variety of strategic tactics to influence others to produce the results desired. Without being a part of this informal mentoring program, I feel that I would not have the ability to have near as much of an impact to my organization as I do today. Thus moving forward in my career, I have a strong desire to continue being informally mentored and even more importantly, provide the same opportunities to others by becoming a mentor myself.
I believe that mentoring is a very important part of any potential future leader in today's society. While one's education and experience can provide a great amount of knowledge needed to become a great leader; creating a relationship with someone whom has already gone through the trials and tribulations of being in a leadership position. As I am currently involved in an informal mentoring program, I have had the opportunity to learn how to utilize a variety of strategic tactics to influence others to produce the results desired. Without being a part of this informal mentoring program, I feel that I would not have the ability to have near as much of an impact to my organization as I do today. Thus moving forward in my career, I have a strong desire to continue being informally mentored and even more importantly, provide the same opportunities to others by becoming a mentor myself.
analyzing and applying articles on mentoring
mentoring junior healthcare executives
Article Summary:
Today's senior healthcare leadership is faced with the challenge of preparing the next generation of leaders. While other methods may be used, the age old concept of mentoring can be adapted to today's healthcare environment. Most researchers agree that mentoring represents a developmental process or relationship designed to enhance personal growth and provide advancement opportunities. Within many mentoring programs, the mentor and the mentee both benefit. The mentee benefits through opportunities for advancement, higher salary, and greater job satisfaction. While the mentors benefit from internal satisfaction and the ability to share their ideals onto the next generation. In an effort to better understand the practices of today's senior- level hospital executives who mentor junior administrators the following research questions guided the study:
The results from a survey of 127 senior-level healthcare executives are below:
Today's senior healthcare leadership is faced with the challenge of preparing the next generation of leaders. While other methods may be used, the age old concept of mentoring can be adapted to today's healthcare environment. Most researchers agree that mentoring represents a developmental process or relationship designed to enhance personal growth and provide advancement opportunities. Within many mentoring programs, the mentor and the mentee both benefit. The mentee benefits through opportunities for advancement, higher salary, and greater job satisfaction. While the mentors benefit from internal satisfaction and the ability to share their ideals onto the next generation. In an effort to better understand the practices of today's senior- level hospital executives who mentor junior administrators the following research questions guided the study:
- Do healthcare executive see mentoring as an activity that benefits their organization and/or the healthcare industry as a whole?
- Do most healthcare executives serve as mentors because of personal satisfaction, and to what extent are they motivated by extrinsic rewards, such as money or promotion?
- Do senior executives who participate in formal mentoring programs demonstrate greater support for mentoring than those who enter informal mentoring relationships?
- Are senior healthcare administrators with long tenure more likely to support mentoring than those with shorter tenure?
- Do senior healthcare administrators who mentor others have greater job and industry experience than those who do not mentor?
The results from a survey of 127 senior-level healthcare executives are below:
Study Results:
Personal Reflection:
As I feel that I am currently in an unformal mentoring program as a mentee, I believe that the benefits from mentoring are second to none. By being able to absorb the vast amount of information provided by years of experience from my mentor. Having only two and a half years of professional experience and the same amount of time being mentored, seems to have exponential side effects as I now have the responsibility and accountability of a senior level analyst with three times the job experience would. As this study suggests, once I have established myself in my profession and organization the likelihood of becoming a mentor myself is about 75%. Yet, as one of my the skills I feel need to achieve my aspirations is mentoring, I believe that I am much more likely to do so, even to the point that I would like to implement a formal mentoring program within my future organizations. Similar to the work I have already done with our college interns, I hope to provide the direction and guidance needed for my mentee's career success. By creating these programs, I will be able to further develop my patience with others knowing that I may sacrifice some effectiveness by educating.
- A majority of respondents believed mentoring benefits the healthcare industry as a whole, but also noted that the benefits were even greater for the hospital where mentoring was done.
- Senior healthcare executives chose personal satisfaction as the primary reason for serving as mentors to junior healthcare administrators
- Healthcare executives that were a part of formal mentoring programs may be more likely to support mentoring compared to individuals who entered informal mentoring relationships.
- The correlation between longer tenure and mentoring support showed weak but significant positive relationships between support and organizational tenure and career tenure.
- Senior healthcare leaders were more likely to serve as mentors if they had both longer organizational and career tenure.
Personal Reflection:
As I feel that I am currently in an unformal mentoring program as a mentee, I believe that the benefits from mentoring are second to none. By being able to absorb the vast amount of information provided by years of experience from my mentor. Having only two and a half years of professional experience and the same amount of time being mentored, seems to have exponential side effects as I now have the responsibility and accountability of a senior level analyst with three times the job experience would. As this study suggests, once I have established myself in my profession and organization the likelihood of becoming a mentor myself is about 75%. Yet, as one of my the skills I feel need to achieve my aspirations is mentoring, I believe that I am much more likely to do so, even to the point that I would like to implement a formal mentoring program within my future organizations. Similar to the work I have already done with our college interns, I hope to provide the direction and guidance needed for my mentee's career success. By creating these programs, I will be able to further develop my patience with others knowing that I may sacrifice some effectiveness by educating.
Mentoring pilot study in healthcare
Article Summary:
The healthcare business sector represents a sophisticated network of individuals with much variance in accountability. In many cases, the boundaries of each individuals responsibilities are not often specified. There for it is important for current and future leaders of healthcare to have a breadth of skills and knowledge. In order to obtain those competencies, this article suggest a "matrix mentoring" model which is a formal mentoring program where selected individuals learn from a variety of mentors to obtain cross functional knowledge.
With the baby boomer generation nearly is final decade of employment, many of today's healthcare leaders will soon retire from their positions and leave with a vast wealth of knowledge. If these retirements proceed unaddressed, issues will arise due to poor succession planning, a lack of knowledge of core competencies, and workload pressure. Though retirement is not the only worry, in the US, high turnover amongst C-Suite level leadership has also become an issue. With one in seven hospital CEO's resigning each year, replacing and on-boarding new CEO's from outside firms can prove costly; thus recruitment, retention, and succession planning could be a step in the right direction for hospitals.
Testing Mentoring Programs:
A project was formed in order to address the following questions:
The healthcare business sector represents a sophisticated network of individuals with much variance in accountability. In many cases, the boundaries of each individuals responsibilities are not often specified. There for it is important for current and future leaders of healthcare to have a breadth of skills and knowledge. In order to obtain those competencies, this article suggest a "matrix mentoring" model which is a formal mentoring program where selected individuals learn from a variety of mentors to obtain cross functional knowledge.
With the baby boomer generation nearly is final decade of employment, many of today's healthcare leaders will soon retire from their positions and leave with a vast wealth of knowledge. If these retirements proceed unaddressed, issues will arise due to poor succession planning, a lack of knowledge of core competencies, and workload pressure. Though retirement is not the only worry, in the US, high turnover amongst C-Suite level leadership has also become an issue. With one in seven hospital CEO's resigning each year, replacing and on-boarding new CEO's from outside firms can prove costly; thus recruitment, retention, and succession planning could be a step in the right direction for hospitals.
Testing Mentoring Programs:
A project was formed in order to address the following questions:
- To determine if exposing mentees to managerial competencies assists them with development of managerial competencies.
- To determine if a mentoring system enhances mentee employee engagement.
- Do determine if matrix mentoring causes mentees to gain a broader insight to divisional managerial responsibilities, different management styles, and broader experiences.
- To determine if mentee projects allow for managerial growth opportunities for the mentee.
- An increased level of mentee visibility
- Enhanced relationship building
- Heightened focus on decision making and communication
- Provoked perceptual change
- Realized organizational transformation
One conclusion was that a formal mentoring relationship is not developed naturally; instead it is a facilitated process. The facilitator can support orientation, ongoing monitoring of the process and help with mentee/mentor pairing. Results of the current study suggest that a fast-paced minimalist approach to formal mentoring may not be most effective. Programs with ongoing facilitation can be significantly more effective, while requiring a relatively small additional investment of time and effort. Additionally, there must be careful participant selection with succession planning requirements in mind. It was also concluded that sufficient opportunity needs to exist for relationship building between mentees and mentors. All participants were very positive about the matrix rotational approach but believed they were attempting to cover too much in the time frame allotted. Participants also believed that there needs to be clarity surrounding program: structure, goals, guidelines, and expectations. Mentees need to understand the boundaries of their mentor-mentee relationship and initiate contact when needed. As well, there needs to be an in-depth review of performance development tools available for mentors. “A well designed orientation session can help participants understand the objectives of the program and the guidelines in building constructive mentoring relationships”
Personal Reflection:
In order to become the impact player which I strive to be, I will need to master the ability to mentor individuals into supporting colleagues needed. As shown in the study highlighted by this article, by establishing a well structured mentoring program, future leadership candidates show growth and development in: leadership competencies, management skills, and senses of engagement. One of the challenges that will need to be overcome is determining the amount of information that can be shared with your mentee; as many of the hardships leaders face deals with the human aspect, personnel information needs to be shared appropriately as to ensure proper confidentiality. To cope with this, as a leader can provide a solid overview of the situation and have a discussion with the mentee about how to address the situation.
Personal Reflection:
In order to become the impact player which I strive to be, I will need to master the ability to mentor individuals into supporting colleagues needed. As shown in the study highlighted by this article, by establishing a well structured mentoring program, future leadership candidates show growth and development in: leadership competencies, management skills, and senses of engagement. One of the challenges that will need to be overcome is determining the amount of information that can be shared with your mentee; as many of the hardships leaders face deals with the human aspect, personnel information needs to be shared appropriately as to ensure proper confidentiality. To cope with this, as a leader can provide a solid overview of the situation and have a discussion with the mentee about how to address the situation.
exercises and practices to improving mentoring skills
Mentoring Exercise Scenarios:
Split the group into four sub-groups and give each group one of the following scenarios. Have the groups discuss how they would handle the situation and if there is anything that could have been done to avoid the situation in the first place.
After about 10 minutes of discussion, have the groups share the scenario and their proposed solution(s) with the class. Focus class discussion on what qualities make a good mentor, e.g., turning errors into opportunities to teach, being a team player, taking time to build the crew’s skills, finding the cause of a problem and solving it, etc.
Scenario 1. Messy Insulation
You’re the crew chief with two other installers on a job. One installer has a year’s weatherization experience; the other is an inexperienced new hire. You team them up to dense pack the sidewalls while you take care of some inside jobs and keep an eye on the interior walls. This takes you to the end of the workday. The insulation has been properly installed, but as you’re packing up the truck, you spot loose insulation in big piles around the home that needs to be cleaned up before you can go home. Do you lecture the more experienced crew member for letting so much spill? Do you make the two installers clean up while you wait in the truck? What do you do?
Scenario 2. Air Sealing the Attic
You’re the crew chief with two other installers on a job. You send them up to air seal the attic while you take care of the basement air sealing. You’ve completed the basement and house, and a few other tasks, and are getting impatient to get the attic insulated. Do you get the blower machine ready and pull the hose up into the attic? Do you holler up the attic hatch to find out what’s taking so long? What do you do?
Scenario 3. Not So Dense-Packed Sidewalls
You’re the crew chief with two other installers on your crew. You haven’t worked with these two before, but they have worked in weatherization for a few years. You set them to work dense packing sidewalls and air sealing and insulating the attic while you take care of ducts, furnaces, and other mechanical equipment. You find out later that the house didn’t pass inspection because the walls weren’t properly insulated. Every bay had some insulation, but it wasn’t at proper density. Do you pass the blame on to the installers? Do you lecture them about the importance of proper installation? What do you do?
Scenario 4. Lost Cell Phone
You’re the crew chief with two other installers on your crew. At the end of the day, before you start packing up to leave, you learn that one of the installers has lost his/her cell phone sometime while air sealing and insulating the attic! Chances are, it is buried under 10 inches of cellulose right now. Do you make everyone pack up the truck, then search for the phone? Do you let the two search for the phone while you start packing up the truck? Do you say “tough luck”? What do you do?
Mentoring Exercise Experience:
After completing this exercise with my team, I found that although the scenario's laid out in this exercise are not as relevant to our current careers as they could be, it was a great way of discussing how we would handle specific situations where a highly competent, and emotionally intelligent leader is essential. By leveraging each of our own personal experiences, we were able to collaborate together to determine the most appropriate course of action for each scenario. In almost every scenario, we were able to find a way that addresses the situation in a non-negative way which would reduce the chances of the installers from putting up their guard and getting defensive, thus allowing the issue to be effectively and efficiently fixed.
Split the group into four sub-groups and give each group one of the following scenarios. Have the groups discuss how they would handle the situation and if there is anything that could have been done to avoid the situation in the first place.
After about 10 minutes of discussion, have the groups share the scenario and their proposed solution(s) with the class. Focus class discussion on what qualities make a good mentor, e.g., turning errors into opportunities to teach, being a team player, taking time to build the crew’s skills, finding the cause of a problem and solving it, etc.
Scenario 1. Messy Insulation
You’re the crew chief with two other installers on a job. One installer has a year’s weatherization experience; the other is an inexperienced new hire. You team them up to dense pack the sidewalls while you take care of some inside jobs and keep an eye on the interior walls. This takes you to the end of the workday. The insulation has been properly installed, but as you’re packing up the truck, you spot loose insulation in big piles around the home that needs to be cleaned up before you can go home. Do you lecture the more experienced crew member for letting so much spill? Do you make the two installers clean up while you wait in the truck? What do you do?
Scenario 2. Air Sealing the Attic
You’re the crew chief with two other installers on a job. You send them up to air seal the attic while you take care of the basement air sealing. You’ve completed the basement and house, and a few other tasks, and are getting impatient to get the attic insulated. Do you get the blower machine ready and pull the hose up into the attic? Do you holler up the attic hatch to find out what’s taking so long? What do you do?
Scenario 3. Not So Dense-Packed Sidewalls
You’re the crew chief with two other installers on your crew. You haven’t worked with these two before, but they have worked in weatherization for a few years. You set them to work dense packing sidewalls and air sealing and insulating the attic while you take care of ducts, furnaces, and other mechanical equipment. You find out later that the house didn’t pass inspection because the walls weren’t properly insulated. Every bay had some insulation, but it wasn’t at proper density. Do you pass the blame on to the installers? Do you lecture them about the importance of proper installation? What do you do?
Scenario 4. Lost Cell Phone
You’re the crew chief with two other installers on your crew. At the end of the day, before you start packing up to leave, you learn that one of the installers has lost his/her cell phone sometime while air sealing and insulating the attic! Chances are, it is buried under 10 inches of cellulose right now. Do you make everyone pack up the truck, then search for the phone? Do you let the two search for the phone while you start packing up the truck? Do you say “tough luck”? What do you do?
Mentoring Exercise Experience:
After completing this exercise with my team, I found that although the scenario's laid out in this exercise are not as relevant to our current careers as they could be, it was a great way of discussing how we would handle specific situations where a highly competent, and emotionally intelligent leader is essential. By leveraging each of our own personal experiences, we were able to collaborate together to determine the most appropriate course of action for each scenario. In almost every scenario, we were able to find a way that addresses the situation in a non-negative way which would reduce the chances of the installers from putting up their guard and getting defensive, thus allowing the issue to be effectively and efficiently fixed.
References
United States Office of Personnel Management. "Best Practices: Mentoring" September 2008 www.opm.gov/hrd/lead/BestPractices-Mentoring.pdf
Finley, FR, LV Ivanitskaya, and MH Kennedy. "Mentoring Junior Healthcare Administrators: A Description Of Mentoring Practices In 127 U.S. Hospitals... Including Commentary By Hofmann PB." Journal Of Healthcare Management 52.4 (2007): 260-270. CINAHL with Full Text. Web. 20 Nov. 2013.
Sherry Finney, Judy MacDougall, Mary Lou O'Neill, (2012) "A rapid matrix mentoring pilot: A contribution to creating competent and engaged healthcare leaders", Leadership in Health Services, Vol. 25 Iss: 3, pp.170 - 185 - See more at: http://www.emeraldinsight.com.prox.lib.ncsu.edu/journals.htm?articleid=17043965&show=abstract#sthash.brcYqFPX.dpuf
http://suifaijohnmak.wordpress.com/2012/08/18/moocmooc-is-mentoring-part-of-the-solution-to-mooc/
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=4&ved=0CEMQFjAD&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.waptac.org%2Fdata%2Ffiles%2FWebsite_docs%2FTraining%2FStandardized_Curricula%2FCurricula_Resources%2FMentoring%2520Exercise%2520Scenarios.doc&ei=pD2ZUp60NoX6oATIyID4CQ&usg=AFQjCNHbtMQTMUcWzqT4W8MQ9hjNWdOuHQ&sig2=O9fxaLHnLW1VXFbfwTU6_w&bvm=bv.57155469,d.cGU
Finley, FR, LV Ivanitskaya, and MH Kennedy. "Mentoring Junior Healthcare Administrators: A Description Of Mentoring Practices In 127 U.S. Hospitals... Including Commentary By Hofmann PB." Journal Of Healthcare Management 52.4 (2007): 260-270. CINAHL with Full Text. Web. 20 Nov. 2013.
Sherry Finney, Judy MacDougall, Mary Lou O'Neill, (2012) "A rapid matrix mentoring pilot: A contribution to creating competent and engaged healthcare leaders", Leadership in Health Services, Vol. 25 Iss: 3, pp.170 - 185 - See more at: http://www.emeraldinsight.com.prox.lib.ncsu.edu/journals.htm?articleid=17043965&show=abstract#sthash.brcYqFPX.dpuf
http://suifaijohnmak.wordpress.com/2012/08/18/moocmooc-is-mentoring-part-of-the-solution-to-mooc/
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=4&ved=0CEMQFjAD&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.waptac.org%2Fdata%2Ffiles%2FWebsite_docs%2FTraining%2FStandardized_Curricula%2FCurricula_Resources%2FMentoring%2520Exercise%2520Scenarios.doc&ei=pD2ZUp60NoX6oATIyID4CQ&usg=AFQjCNHbtMQTMUcWzqT4W8MQ9hjNWdOuHQ&sig2=O9fxaLHnLW1VXFbfwTU6_w&bvm=bv.57155469,d.cGU