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Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon
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Featured Article
By Mary Abbajay
The Importance of Workplace Mentors
The Working Life
M
ost adults can identify a person who had a
significant and positive impact on them. Whether
it was a teacher, a coach, a boss, a scoutmaster or
a parent, chances are that someone, somewhere
along the line acted as a mentor to you. Today,
more and more businesses are embracing the
concept of mentoring as a professional development
tool. Through mentoring, organizations are seeing
dramatic improvements in efficiency, productivity
and, of course, the passing of institutional knowledge
and leadership skills from one generation to the next.
A Time Tested Method
Mentoring is one of the oldest forms of influence and
knowledge sharing. It started with the Ancient Greeks;
Mentor was Odysseus’ trusted counselor and advisor.
Mentoring is when one individual actively and
willingly passes his/or knowledge and wisdom onto
another person. A mentor is an individual—usually
older, but always more experienced—who helps
and guides another individual’s development. This
guidance is done without the expectation of personal
or monetary gain on the mentor’s part. Mentors can
be friends, relatives, coworkers, teachers, supervisors,
etc. There is no official title.
Mentoring vs Coaching
Because both mentoring and coaching have become
popular tools in the field of employee development,
the two are often confused. While both utilize many
of the same skills, being a mentor implies some
specific organizational or industry knowledge that
helps guide the protégé’s career. Coaching, on the
other hand, is more about bringing an objective
process to help someone articulate and achieve
his goals. In general, to be a coach, one does not
need particular organizational or industry expertise
and, in fact, most coaching is more about personal
perspective and personal impact than specialized
knowledge. Coaches are process experts. Mentors
are task experts. Coaching is about skill development.
Mentoring is about skill development AND specialized
knowledge transfer. When done correctly, it’s a
powerful double whammy.
Why Mentoring is Important
Mentoring is a tool that organizations can use to
nurture and grow their people, and it’s gaining in
popularity. As organizations strive to retain hard
earned experience and wisdom, they are turning
to mentoring programs as a form of interpersonal
knowledge management. Protégés observe, question
and explore, while mentors demonstrate, explain and
model. I know that coaching is a big thing in orga-
nizations today. While coaching can definitely help
individuals become better leaders and managers, it
doesn’t really tap into the collective wisdom of people
who have succeeded inside specific organizations or
industries. Mentoring, on the other hand, can help
employees navigate organizational culture, solve
problems and advance their careers. Mentoring is
a great way to make sure the talent pipeline is filled
with people ready to manage and lead. Additionally,
organizations are using mentoring as a way to retain
and recruit talent. As Millennials hit the workforce in
huge numbers, mentoring has become a key tool for
both recruiting and retention.
What Makes a Good Mentor?
A good mentor needs to be more than just a
successful individual. A good mentor must also have
the disposition and desire to develop other people.
Great mentors must be able to both “talk the talk”
and “walk the walk.” Being a good mentor requires
more than just experience. It requires a willingness to
reflect and share on one’s own experiences, including
one’s failures. Great mentors are often those who
are constantly trying to learn themselves. Essential
qualities for an effective mentor include:
•
A desire to develop and help others. A good
mentor is sincerely interested in helping someone
else without any “official” reward. Good mentors
do it because they genuinely want to see someone
else succeed.
•
Commitment, time and energy to devote to the
mentoring relationship.
•
Current and relevant knowledge, expertise, and/
or skills.
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