your first mentoring program: the fear-free approach

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Your First

Fear-FreeThe ApproachMentoring Program

Agenda1

2

3

4

Your Obstacles – And How to Overcome Them

Final Thoughts

Case Study: Turning Obstacles into Opportunities

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Case Study: Stumbling Over the Obstacles

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Your Obstacles

And How toOvercome Them

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You may have only recently considered starting your first mentoring program.

If this describes you, don’t worry – you’re in the right place.

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Don’t add fear of the unknown to the obstacles you’ll already be facing.

1. Know where your obstacles are2. Avoid them when possible3. Develop a strategy to overcome them

There will be obstacles.

You don’t know

what you

don’t know

You know

what you

don’t know

You know

what you

know

What you know is second nature

Obstacle #1:

ResourcesNot Enough

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Anxiety around lack of resources mostly due to:

• Needing to create a mentoring program• Not knowing how to do it• Being pushed to do it by an impossible date• Feeling that you’re drowning in tasks you don’t know how to and

therefore cannot complete

Obstacle #1: Not Enough Resources

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Solution #1: Plan

Process

(How)

Methodology

(Why)

Sustainability

Fear #2:

Buy In

LeadershipWon’t

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Obstacle #2: Leadership Won’t Buy In

What leadership doesn’t want: Something that takes away from the bottom line.

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Solution #2: Pitch an Organizational Strategy

1. Identify the organizational objectives 2. Tie your objectives to your strategy3. Indicate your success metrics

Obstacle #3:

What to Do

Participants Won’t Know

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Obstacle #3: Participants Won’t Know

What to DoMisconceptions

No Guidance

Floundering Mentors and

Mentees

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Solution #3: Communicate – At All Times

ConsistencyMake sure everyone’s on the same page

From the beginningMake sure everyone starts on the same page

Spot checkingMake sure everyone is still on the same page throughout the program.

Obstacle #4:

Misconceptions

aroundMentoring

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Obstacle #4: Misconceptions Around

Mentoring

1. Won’t be able to work it into schedule

2. Perception that mentoring has little or no value for career or personal life

3. Perception that mentoring is not an organizational strategy

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Solution #4: Set Expectations at the Beginning

Role Profiles

Training

Strategic Planning

Workshop

Obstacle #5:

PressuresExternal

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Obstacle #5: External Pressures

Your Mentoring Program

The Economy

Budget Cuts

Organizational Issues

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Solution #5: Track, Report, and Measure

• Ensure that leadership and management take the program seriously

• Prove your success and ROI

• Point to specific problem areas

• Keep your program from being cut

Case Study

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Stumbling over the Obstacles

Case Study 1: Problem

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• Were then putting hundreds of thousands of dollars into development of new hire engineers

• Those new hires were bored with their work and eager to advance

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Case Study 1: Backwards Planning and Implementation

TechnologyHR was under pressure to get mentoring software in place before the end of the year.

PeopleMentors were forced into their roles. Mentors and mentees were matched inefficiently by hand. There was an informational program in place of mentoring training.

ProcessClient held their strategic planning workshop so far into the program that it was impossible to go back at that point, despite all the gaps that they had finally realized existed.

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Case Study 1: Other Obstacles

No accountable program administratorNo one was reporting or spot checking. There was a name that mentors/mentees could contact, but given that they didn’t want to be involved in the program in the first place, no one was using it.

Customization without purposeClient regularly added data fields and reports into the software without any reasoning behind it.

Process

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Case Study 1: Results

• Program was never implemented

• No one felt that any development or progress had been made

Case Study

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Turning Obstacles into Opportunities

Case Study 2: Problem

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• Desire to change from their then-current software vendor

• Then-current software vendor had not provided training

• Desire to make the transition between vendors as seamless as possible

• Objective = general leadership development

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Case Study 2: Solution Process.

Mini-strategic planning workshop to evaluate gaps in the present process.

People. Mentor/mentee training was delivered, as role profiles had previously been a gap. Mentors were qualified.

Technology. Mentor/mentee matching was done via technology.Technology enhanced the partnership and ensured tracking and measuring capabilities.

Process

People

Technology

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Case Study 2: Results

• Currently in their first re-run of the mentoring program

• Good feedback from managers

• Positive word-of-mouth within the organization

• Increased number of applications for both mentors and mentees

• Mentees moving into more complex job roles within the organization

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• “It was helpful to have a formalized way to match with a mentor - rather than have to pursue informally.”

• “[I appreciated] having a safe environment to openly discuss my development areas, and bounce potential approaches for changes in the way I work.”

The Fear-Free Approach for Everyone

Final Thoughts

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1. Remember that your fear of the obstacles you’ll face are obstacles too.

2. Acknowledge that you don’t know what you don’t know – and neither do your participants.

3. Determine what your obstacles are, and put a plan and process in place to overcome

them.

4. Implement a small Phase 1 of your mentoring program.

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Now it’s time to act on that knowledge.

You don’t know

what you don’t know

You know what you

don’t know

You know what you

know

What you know is second nature

M*O*R*E

TrainingRollout

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Best Practices:

• Keep program small• Evaluate resources

needed to manage data• Ensure that you’ve

accounted for all of the elements necessary to ensure your program’s success

How Insala Can Help

CONTACT US FOR MORE INFORMATION

www.insala.com | www.mentoringtalent.com

info@insala.com

US: 817 355 0939UK: (0)207 297 5940

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