Rating:

In a hurry?  Recommendation   

While mentoring has been in practice for more than a thousand years, formal mentoring has only recently taken hold in the business world. Literally hundreds of guides, academic resources, training manuals, and research studies are now available.

The reasons for this surge in interest are not hard to identify. First, thousands of highly successful business people attribute a significant portion of their success to someone in their past who gave them a hand up, shared wisdom for them early in their career, or provided the kind of guidance that helped them connect with their own passion and purpose.

Businesses have also begun to recognize the importance of career development within the ranks and especially the retention of employees. Losing talent not only reduces productivity within an organization, but it also has startling negative financial implications. The low cost of operating a volunteer mentoring program or service, however, yields a significant return on investment.

Another factor, particularly evident in North America, is the aging workforce. As unprecedented numbers of employees prepare to enter retirement, their replacement by younger or newer workers is not only limited by fewer available younger workers, but also by a significant generation gap of habits and attitudes toward work as well as knowledge and experience.

The generation gap has become a significant mentoring void, often leaving new workers adrift without adequate role models or workplace guidance. A recent study, for example, revealed that nearly one in five managers ranked getting a promotion as their most challenging life event.

Given these financial, career, and organizational factors, many businesses are eager to implement mentoring programs, especially programs for new employees typically called "induction" programs. And while a considerable number of guides exist as to what to include in such a program and experts mostly agree on the key elements of effective induction mentoring programs, visually explicit examples of what actually goes on in a mentoring relationship are rare—until now.

Qi Concepts, a UK-based company that specializes in talent development, has created a 60-minute instructional DVD filled with real life examples of mentor-mentee scenarios. Unlike scripted actors and their polished modeling, this mentor and partner (our term for "mentee") both work for an actual company that has a mentoring program, and their natural interaction is more realistic and relevant to viewers eager to learn how to put recommended mentoring skills and procedures into practice.

The DVD follows the two as they work through essential steps in establishing a solid mentoring relationship. While the DVD allows viewers to select from a menu of chapters, I found it most valuable to follow the order presented on the disc.

First up, the mentor and partner engage in a "first meeting" discussion. Often a puzzle to new mentors but key success, the first meeting serves a number of purposes. It is the time to determine where to meet, an opportunity to break the ice, identify expectations and topics for discussion, clarify roles, review confidentiality guidelines, and establish a contract. Most importantly, it is the time for the mentor to demonstrate the skills of active listening, sharing ideas, asking powerful questions, and generally engaging in skills that empower the partner to place high value on the meeting.

The DVD continues on to show excellent examples of active listening, asking different types of open-ended questions, summarizing, being comfortable with silence, using body language appropriately, and exploring the different media of communication.

Following these examples, the DVD can be paused to engage an audience in practicing what they have viewed. The opportunity to practice is likely to generate a number of questions, many of which will likely be answered in the next section of the DVD where the partner interviews the mentor about real life examples of the value of mentoring. The DVD concludes with the mentor sharing his wisdom regarding the most frequently asked questions about mentoring.

One section of the DVD that is highly instructive and well placed within the entire presentation is a scenario on "how not to mentor." In contrast to the skilled and mutual interaction examples, the mentor goes into "telling" mode and acts like a high-status expert.

The partner, clearly intimidated, verbally agrees that what the (not) mentor is providing is okay, but it's unlikely that the partner would return for another session. It's an excellent example of "if you want to keep your job, you better agree." Unfortunately, this example is all too common and is likely the primary reason that neither mentor nor partner can "find the time" to get together again.

The placement of this segment within the DVD and the companionship of the how-to-mentor scenarios will go a long way toward combating this problem.

This DVD has been designed primarily as a training tool, but it can also be used to recruit mentors and partners. The power of the modeling and examples used in the DVD will demystify the mentoring relationship, demonstrate the simplicity of the interaction, and provide potential mentors and partners with the confidence that a gratifying mentoring relationship is something they can accomplish successfully.

Qi Concepts has produced this DVD as an important component in what they describe as a blended learning approach. They have also established an online self-study "Mentor Skills Learning Programme," which includes some of the interactions from the DVD.

While a review of the online resource is not part of this review, I did go through the two-hour self-study program and found it to be an excellent supplement. A unique element of the online program is a self-assessment quiz that allows the user to review current knowledge of mentoring before engaging in the self-study, and then re-assess after engaging with the self-study materials. Qi Concepts also provides a set of trainer's notes and guidelines to use in the in-person workshop that can act as the vehicle to include this excellent DVD.

Recommendation
Mentoring Skills does not tell you how to make a mentor-partner relationship work. It shows you how. This is powerful training.

Mentoring Skills Rating

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