Still not convinced that mentoring programs are great for your company? We hope that this article persuades you to believe otherwise. Mentor programs bear good fruit, both for the organization and for the individual employee. When executed well, a mentoring program just might boost your company’s presence not just within employees, but also to outsiders (and potential investors).

Low-Cost

All you need to get a mentoring program up and running is a good structure. A good human resource officer, working together with management, administration, and other employee representatives will be able to execute this. They will be able to decide what the mentor program covers, and the pairings and/or groupings for mentors and mentees. From there, the mentor employees should be able to provide sufficient material themselves, based on their knowledge and experience.

Did you notice that all of those procedures involved, use up the resources that the company already possesses? It eliminates the need for trainers (who by the way charge hefty fees). It reduces fees involved in other logistical matters, compared to holding seminars or conferences.

Employee Satisfaction

Mentorship programs make employees feel more involved with the company. Plus, the growth which the mentoring brings to them is something they will treasure, and carry for the rest of their lives. And of course, happy employees mean increased productivity and company loyalty, which leads to…

Employee Retention

A mentor program just might be the ticket out of a high turnover rate. Aside from employee satisfaction, there is an indebtedness fostered for superiors and, however indirectly, for the company itself. Mentorship can unify employees and give a sense of community, which leads to more than just professional attachments.

Increased Recruitment

When people in your company are happy, the news spreads. Specially in this digital age, a simple blog search using your company name will undoubtedly bring up a few of your employees’ glowing accounts. Don’t be surprised when people swarm to the company, hoping they’d be counted as one of the lucky employees.

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Many people turn to friends, relatives, or those people’s friends and relatives, to find their mentors for whatever area in which they want to grow. However sometimes, that search can prove fruitless. Or, you need to learn, and learn as much as possible, in the shortest amount of time, as soon as you can. You simply won’t have time to scour around. Let alone foster a relationship needed for a good mentorship.

Mentors for Hire

Enter professional mentors. And by professional, it does not just connote expert knowledge, it also means, well, not free.

Mentoring is a bit like school anyway, for which you may have to pay tuition for specialized courses. Fortunately a lot of industry experts offer mentoring services, or at least some semblance of it. It can be a an investment, specially when applied to business training, career coaching, or executive coaching. It may even yield quick returns, specially when it comes to professional business mentors. You don’t just pay for organized learning and individual coaching, but you’re also increasing your capacity for greater income. The fees you pay for professional mentors will return to you, and then some, provided that their training won’t go to waste.

Mentor Shopping

Depending on your field, there may or may not be tight competition for professional mentors. If there are a lot of alternatives to choose from, make an effort to find something that will fulfill your needs, and prove to be the best value for your money.

Most professional mentors will likely have a portfolio of clients. Read through their testimonials and see how they gauge the program’s success. And if they don’t have that portfolio, be extra cautious: they might just be starting out and so will not have a more streamlined approach. Sort of like buying the first generation of a gadget–it may satisfy your immediate needs, but you’ll feel cheated when a better version comes out a few months after your purchase.

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So you decide to take matters into your own hands, and do your best to grow–in your personal, business, or religious life. But who can you turn to? Of course, it should be someone you admire, at least in the area where you want to grow. Here are some places to look:

Family

Have you always admired your uncle’s innate business sense? Or your cousin’s committed spirituality? Do you find your sister’s baking skills incomparable to anyone else? Hang out with them more often, as often as you possibly could. There are a lot of things going for this mentor option: you get to spend quality time with your kin, you get the chance to learn from each other, and best of all, it’s 100% free!

Friends

Learning from a peer can prove to be invaluable. They can provide fresh insight to a seemingly impossible situation, and make you exclaim, “D’oh! Why didn’t I think of that?” Besides, you might have friends that have exceeded your level in a common field of interest. The downside is that your friendship will affect the  mentoring process; it will either strengthen or weaken your bond as friends. But then again, it’s free!

Friends’ Friends

Yes, turn to the friends of your friends (in Facebook, your “extended network”) if there is no one among your family and friends who pass muster. Going this route grows your options exponentially. Be sure to do more research if you go with this option.

Your Frenemy

Everyone has a frenemy or frienemy. You know, the one who you deal with fairly decently, but is really involved in a tight competition with you–whether implied or not. There is surprisingly a lot to learn from these people. Maybe not to the extent that Plankton tries to steal Mr. Krabs’ secret sauce recipe. But something more like Rory Gilmore’s relationship with Paris Geller, both pushing each other to be better than the other. When applied to business, you can approach someone in the same industry, but not your direct competition. Maybe it’s someone with a different client list, or caters to a different location than yours.

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Coaching and mentoring are methods designed to help an individual or organization on performance-related issues. These are used either as separate interventions or as parts of a personal development package. These two methods share many similarities, although there are important elements that distinguish one from the other.

• Relationship
  • • Coaching relationships have a specific duration. It is structured to be scheduled on a regular basis while mentoring can last for a longer period and it is more informal in structure, usually taking place when the mentee needs some advice or support.

• Qualification
  • • Unless the coaching needed is skills-related, a coach doesn’t necessarily need to have any direct experience of the client’s occupational role. On the otherhand, a mentor is generally more experienced than the mentee. He is usually the senior personnel in the organization who pass on his knowledge and expertise that lead to new opportunities.

• Focus
  • • The focus of coaching is generally on issues at work as it aims to achieve specific and immediate goals. On the other hand, mentoring concentrates on the career and personal development of an individual. The mentor provides support and guidance to prepare the mentee for his or her future roles.

As you identify the needs of your organization, it will be easier for you to determine which method of intervention to adapt. This is the reason why it is important to know the difference between mentoring and coaching.

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You can find mentors in the most unlikely places. Depending on your needs, whether personal or professional, you can find people who are willing to take you under their wings. A mentor can be a more experienced family member, a devoted teacher, an office manager or a professional life coach. They are open to sharing their knowledge with you and training you to improve your skills. In accepting that knowledge and training, you will need to trust your mentor’s methods.

Trust is the foundation of friendships, and it this is also true with mentoring relationships. Most probably, especially in a workplace environment, you will be mentored by a person who doesn’t have any prior close relationship with you so it would do you a lot of good to have a little trust.

Trusting your mentor will allow you to open up for his help and guidance. It will also make it easier for you to develop confidence to accept the knowledge you need in preparation for new responsibilities, for which you are being mentored.

Furthermore, one must feel comfortable enough to be open and express any thoughts or ideas to his mentor, without any fear that these exchanges will be spread to others. Thus, trust is important in establishing effective communications. Communication, along with confidentiality, are essential in a mentoring relationship.

Trust can also help you heed your mentor’s “call to action.” Trusting your mentor means that you have confidence in the challenges that he gives you. Heeding the call to action will eventually allow you to reach the your goals.

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Mentoring is more than just teaching or giving lessons. It involves having somebody with an expert knowledge and skills on a particular subject equip someone who do not have such knowledge and skills.

In a workplace environment, the concept of mentoring is expanded further. Workplace mentoring not only equips the person being mentored, it also strengthens the entire organization.

The concept of workplace mentoring benefits a company especially when it comes to hiring fresh employees. Instead of just acknowledging the set of skills that a fresh employee already has, business owners or managers must also see if that new employee is trainable and can develop skills that would be advantageous to the company in the future. As a result, instead of hiring another employee with a particular set of skills for future projects, the organization would just rely on the mentored employee to step up and fill the required position.

The implementation of workplace mentoring does not only minimize the need for additional resources, it also encourages company loyalty and commitment among the employees. Since workplace mentoring gives the staff the chance to develop skills and rise to the occasion as required by the organization, it then creates an opportunity for career growth and better appraisal. Thus, mentoring is a win-win solution for both the company and the staff.

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Executive coaching is essential for a business. With today’s economic situation, every company will benefit from an effective executive coaching. Designed to help corporate executives improve their workplace effectiveness, executive coaching is a motivation training process that involves a kind of continuing education. To name a few, the areas that often needed coaching are strategy and creative development, business planning, stress management, and organization skills.

If you are thinking of becoming an executive coach, determine if executive coaching is the right career path for you. Take some assessment tests (you can find a few on the Internet) to make sure that your personal goals are in accordance with your career aspiration. Ask yourself some questions as well: Do I enjoy working with people? Do I possess the qualities such as motivational or teaching skills to become an effective executive coach?

Once you’re sure that coaching fits you well, get some training. Either you work with a mentor or attend an accredited coaching training school. With a mentor, you’ll see and experience first-hand the benefits of coaching, as you are being coached yourself. In a training school, on the other hand, you will learn different philosophies and styles, either in-person or over the phone. Then, aside from determining which type of training may suit, consider the costs of signing up for either of these trainings.

While individuals with a certain set of skills could do very well with a career in executive coaching, almost anyone can be become an executive coach — with just the right training.

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