The Value of Mentorship

“The delicate balance of mentoring someone is not creating them in your own image, but giving them the opportunity to create themselves.” – Steven Spielberg

A lot of folks think that the idea of mentoring began with Homer’s Epic Poem Odyssey. In this work, the hero Odysseus entrusts the care of his son to his close friend who is aptly named “Mentor” as he goes off to war. According to the online version of Merriam Webster’s dictionary, a mentor is defined as, “someone who teaches or gives help and advice to a less experienced and often younger person.” As I have alluded to previously, there are some professionals on a personal Mount Rushmore of people I hold dear. These folks have been my mentors in some form or fashion. These wise sages continue to answer my calls and emails. They have provided insight and advice. And, on occasion, they have told me hard truths that I did not want to hear.

One might wonder about the importance of mentors when they already have effective managers and directors in place. According to Guider-ai.com (a website that helps companies develop mentoring programs), over 70% of the Fortune 500 provide mentoring programs. Of those companies that do, 97% feel they are valuable. According to a Forbes article by Christine Comaford, less than 40% of people have mentors. That is a significant delta.

The idea of mentoring has shifted significantly. It used to be that your boss was your mentor. This was great because they had insight into your performance and could share guidance on areas to improve or nourish areas where you were successful. That shifted as there was a huge growth in middle management and corporations began a pursuit of reworking organizational structures. People were let go, and mentors had no one to guide. Now we find ourselves in a time where mentors are people that we ask for guidance from, that we talk through our ideas with. Without that boss-as-mentor relationship, young professionals would be wise to ask for mentorship from business leaders and high-performers that they respect.

There has been a lot written on how mentoring can help those who receive the time of those that can provide professional guidance. But the discussion cannot stop there. According to a submission in the Journal of Vocational Behavior by Rajash Ghosh and Thomas G. Reio Jr., there are five important things to consider about how mentoring impacts those who do the mentoring:

1. “Mentors were more satisfied with their jobs and committed to the organization”
2. “Providing career mentoring was most associated with career success”
3. “Providing psychosocial mentoring was most associated with organizational commitment”
4. “Providing role modeling mentoring was most associated with job performance”
5. “Mentoring quality was associated with mentor’s job satisfaction and career success”

To sum that up, mentors are high performers that enjoy their jobs and are unlikely to turnover.

As I was doing some research on mentoring, I ran across a wonderful page on the SAP website. It happens to back up the data above and summarizes 30 years’ worth of research. I would say that is a pretty good data set. What it found was that mentoring enhanced professional results, increase employee engagement/retention/inclusion, and provided satisfaction and fulfillment.

AT&T used to have the slogan, “reach out and touch someone.” I cannot help but wonder, in our siloed remote environments, if we have lost the ability or the desire to do that. Are we leveraging the vast amount of technology that is at our fingertips to share our experience or ask for guidance? Do we take it as incumbent upon ourselves to just “figure it out?” The great leaders that I know want to develop their people. They want to have their successor be better prepared than they are.

This idea of creating value through people development, seeing potential and creating relationships is a real opportunity for all involved as the “Great Resignation” has yet to show signs of slowing down.