Mentoring schemes are a fantastic way of pulling in talented recruits who are likely to repay you with company loyalty once they have completed their schemes. As well as helping those in programmes to progress, you benefit your company and yourself, with many mentees inspiring old dogs to learn new tricks.
Mentoring is a challenging pastime, but it has advantages to the people involved and the company as a whole.
Firms that have staff dedicated to the advancement of fellow workers are looked on positively in today's workplaces. Schemes of this type are able to attract candidates with ambitions to grow within the business and put back the energy that has been devoted to their careers from others. Potential workers who are looking to learn the ropes within your company are more likely to apply for vacancies if you have a mentoring scheme in place.
High calibre recruits will appreciate the opportunity to expand their skills. The benefit to your firm, is that once they have graduated from a particular scheme they are likely to have developed a strong commitment to you and your brand. This loyalty may see them spending a large chunk of their careers within your organisation, where they are then able to pass their experience and skills on to newer recruits. Mentoring is a great way to welcome people to your business and give them confidence in their abilities.
The people who run these programmes have a mix of special characteristics in order to get the best from candidates and workers. It is important to act as a guiding force, while also giving colleagues the freedom to act as they see fit. Motivational tools are applied to get the best from those taking part in the scheme and there are many ways of utilising them.
All mentors have a slightly different way of encouraging their mentees to embrace challenges and work through problems. Some prefer a direct approach where you as the mentor would take the lead and direct those on the scheme through the situations ahead. This can be particularly useful when the mentee is tackling subjects and circumstances that they have not broached before. Other mentors like those involved to be the main influence on how they progress through situations, which is usually applied when there is familiarity with the topics concerned.
A third method consists of a combination of both, where mentor and mentee have an almost equal influence in the direction of learning. As well as proving a positive experience for the firm and the colleague taking part in a programme of this type, the entire process is often beneficial to the mentor. Those who put themselves forward for these schemes often have a natural instinct in guiding and assisting others.
Along with a desire to help their colleagues and their businesses become more successful, common characteristics to be found in teachers of this type are active listening skills and a respect for the guided learning process. Mentors who are interested in learning how to coach others via courses, spend time concentrating on developing the characteristics that can boost learning in their fellow workers. For example, time may be spent on the best way to engage with another when they are talking.
Active listening is a great technique when communicating with mentees as it allows them to openly express their thoughts and feelings regarding the scheme they are involved in. Sessions in this topic will show mentors how to adapt their body posture so they are appear open and engaged. In addition to you being able to develop your own skills via the mentoring process you may also feel intellectually invigorated by working with fresh minds and raw talent, which may encourage your own entrepreneurial spirit to blossom again.
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