Teaching A New Dog Old Tricks

In the fast moving world of international business mentoring is a highly effective way of transferring experience and knowledge to younger or less experienced people within an organisation.

Cheshire-based Oakridge Training and Consulting is a leading UK consultancy, which helps people and organisations make changes that have a positive and substantial impact.  The company believes that business mentoring is one of the most successful development tools around if correctly delivered.

Mentoring offers an individual the opportunity to focus on real issues they are facing at work, which means that every minute is relevant to them.  Compare this to attending a training course where they will take away only the elements they feel are relevant.

Yet despite the simplicity of this tool, both mentors and mentees need to be trained to understand their roles and to gain the best from the experience according to Oakridge.

A recently completed mentoring pilot scheme by Oakridge convinced United Utilities of the importance of such a programme. This has led to roll out of a wider mentoring scheme across the Contract Solutions Division with more than 40 mentors already trained and others waiting to complete their training.

“Mentoring isn’t about sitting there for an hour and being talked at or given advice. It is about ensuring an experienced person helps you to see all the options, while acknowledging that you are the one who has the detailed knowledge of the situation and will need to ultimately decide on the best solution,” said Lynn Leahy, director of Oakridge Training and Consulting.

“A mentor has no authority over a mentee but brings to the table relevant experience and an interest in their development.  For young managers, the benefits of an experienced mentor during the start-up phase of their employment can be enormous in terms of the general and specific skills and encouragement they receive.”

According to Oakridge there are four key stages to mentoring, and committing the right amount of time at each stage is critical.

START SMALL
A pilot scheme enables a business to sort out teething issues within a small group, establish a way of working and the viability of such a programme. It also helps pinpoint the overall objective of the mentoring programme and define some goals.

Lynn Leahy said: “We were approached by the Contract Solutions division of United Utilities with a request to help establish a mentoring programme.  United Utilities recognised that it had an aging profile and that it would soon reach a point where valuable knowledge and experience would leave the organisation.

“To counteract this it needed to establish a process to pass this knowledge to other inspiring managers. This had to be achieved without `switching off’ the receiver.  The conclusion was to run a pilot mentoring scheme to see how middle managers would relate to having experienced mentors.”

ESTABLISHING THE RIGHT MENTORS
Oakridge recommends that mentors receive a minimum of two days training.

“The starting point is to establish who is a good mentor – not everyone is. A mentor needs to build trust and rapport with a mentee which usually develops when there are certain qualities that are apparent to the other person - sincerity, empathy and acceptance,” said Lynn.

“During training we assess whether a prospective mentor has these core qualities - without them we may question whether acting as a mentor is right for the individual.”

Training is critical, as a mentor needs to learn the right skills – for instance ‘active listening’ and the knowledge of how to challenge appropriately. These are used to help the mentee think through a problem situation.  For instance in complex situations they need to assess what went well, why it went well, what did they have control over, what could they do differently - i.e. working through problems in order to ensure continuous improvement.

It is also important that a mentee learns from the mentor where and how to gain access to specific skills and knowledge.  This is important to establish, as one of United Utilities key drivers is to ensure knowledge transfer.

The mentor must be a true volunteer due to the time commitment.  If an individual is forced into mentoring it will show in they way they react and respond to the mentee.

TRAIN YOUR MENTEES
Oakridge recommends that mentees receive a half day awareness training session.  “This can be just as important as training mentors, as the mentee needs to be aware of what to expect from the programme.  A previous negative experience of a mentor/mentee relationship could influence how a mentee reacts with a mentor – they may even switch off. It is important that they understand that it could be different – probably great!” said Lynn.

The trainer provides some personal awareness work so that an individual can understand their drivers (the type of behaviour that we value so highly that we feel driven to keep repeating).  The trainer will also talk about the equal status of the relationship and provide some tips for the mentee should they feel that they would like something else from the relationship, that a mentor initially did not seem to offer.

MATCH MAKING
Matching partners to ensure needs are met will avoid any disappointment later. Having established the mentors and helped mentees understand what to expect from the process, the matching process becomes key.

“We would recommend that mentors provide a one paragraph CV with details of their experience, technical knowledge and special skills. Mentees are also asked to submit a paragraph in which they outline what they are hoping a mentor will offer them, such as help in understanding commercial issues, or skills with people. The organiser of the scheme then matches based on this information.

“We often recommend the co-ordinator facilitates the matching and the training ensures that the mentor seeks feedback after a couple of sessions in case the connection isn’t working. Wherever possible we want to ensure that we avoid the Drama Triangle and the inappropriate intervention of a third party to `rescue’ the mentee,” concluded Lynn.

Mentors and mentees will then meet usually every 4-6 weeks for the duration of the relationship.

MEASURING RESULTS
As with any form of training it is important to measure outcomes and results against initial objectives and goals.  As part of the pilot programme with United Utilities, Oakridge was involved in follow up interviews and questionnaires with mentors and mentees.

Robbie Lightfoot, Head of Organisation Development at United Utilities Contract Solutions division said:” Mentoring is one part of our Leadership Development Framework and integrates into other aspects of an individual’s development.  It was important therefore to gather evidence of the success of the programme before adopting it throughout the division.

“Mentors found the pilot an enjoyable and beneficial experience with more information coming up through the company which they felt led to better internal communication.  Some admitted that it had been initially hard to resist giving advice, but remembering the training had ensured they managed to reduce this as they practised more.

“Some mentioned there had been some positive spin offs for their own management skills from the programme and many said that they had identified how important their role was in the relationship – something they hadn’t initially considered,” continued Robbie.

An additional benefit for the mentors was the individual development that occurred.  Many reported from the pilot programme that not only was it rewarding helping to transfer their knowledge, but during the process they found distilling information was developmental in its own right.

Mentees, due to the confidential nature of the feedback sessions, were able to talk openly about what had worked and provided examples of where they had been able to make better decisions in their work. They were all very complimentary about the importance of the process and spoke of how it ensured they felt valued and supported within the organisation. All wanted to continue their mentoring relationships.

The mentoring programme with United Utilities is ongoing, Since the programme was launched 68 mentoring relationships have been established and a large proportion of these are still active. In addition15 of those with mentors are in bigger roles or have secured promotions.

Oakridge Training and Consulting specialises in methods of training which challenge traditional boundaries with innovation and imagination.

Based at Pott Shrigley, Macclesfield, Cheshire, the consultancy offers open training courses and workshops, coaching, in-house training, psychometric and occupational testing and advisory services.

With experience across a diverse range of sectors in the private and public sector including the pharmaceutical industries, utilities, local government, county councils and the financial sector, Oakridge develops bespoke training at all levels of an organisation.