How to setup a mentoring programme

At Coach Mentoring Ltd we can help you to set up a mentoring programme. We create both bespoke mentoring programmes and support with off-the-shelf mentoring products for our clients. We pride ourselves on our state-of-the-art mentoring ideas and on-going support so you can develop your own mentoring programme.

Developmental dialogues can take many forms and you may want to consider group mentoring, reverse mentoring, situational mentoring or a hybrid of sponsorship and developmental mentoring for your talent programmes. So we can offer personalised consultancy but also offer our Mentoring Starter Package so you can purchase all the information and templates to set up your own programme without external consultancy support.

Developing an effective Mentoring Programme

There is an art to designing a mentoring programme properly and following a fool-proof process, as illustrated, will ensure you get the right results. This concept has developed out of many years of developing mentoring programmes for all sectors and cultures. You can also use it to check your current programme’s operational readiness and effectiveness.

When thinking about what the requirement is for mentoring and how is it going to add value or contribute strategically to your organisation, it is so important to identify what the business and organisational objectives are to be satisfied by the mentoring programme and what outputs or success factors you are seeking to obtain? Mentoring today is required to be much smarter with regard to evaluation and its value as a cost effective way of development needs to be evident and justified from the beginning of the programme’s inception.

Contact us now to discuss this process or your mentoring programme requirements, whether you are starting a new scheme, energising an existing programme or have support or evaluation requirements, we can help!

Mentoring Programme Design

Lis Merrick introduced her first mentoring programme in 1992 into Merrill Lynch European Investment Banking. She followed this experience by working with an ESF project to develop women’s mentoring nationally in non-traditional fields such as engineering and construction. Since 2004, together with her team at Coach Mentoring Ltd she has built up considerable expertise in the design, development and operational support of organisational mentoring programmes. Her aim is to emulate the most successful characteristics of informal mentoring but to maximise its effectiveness within an organisation by developing these in a more formal context.

Designing Mentoring Programmes in a VUCA world

The turbulence, continuous flux and continuous rapid change of recent years, is not going away. We live in a VUCA world: Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous. From Brexit to terrorist attacks, to the impact of constantly changing technology and financial markets, we all experience a VUCA world first hand. So what are we learning from our evaluation of mentoring programmes operating in this context?

• There is a greater use of both technology and social media to deliver mentoring. The majority of larger organisations use their intranet, some of which are interactive and tools such as Yammer, Twitter and Linked In to support mentoring.
• Mentoring provides development for both mentors and mentees and organisations are much more savvy about what outcomes they want from their programmes for mentor learning as well as mentee, for example developing leadership behaviours or learning about another division of the company.  There tends to be much greater integration between different mentoring programmes in the same organisation, with clarification of the different interpretations of mentoring. So for instance a talent programme may be divided up into one with an emphasis for female employees and diversity inclusion.
• An important focus now emerging for many organisations is the extent to which employees (particularly talented employees) can be supported in developing dynamic networks of mentors. Individuals may have one close mentoring relationship focused on medium to long-term career development, but several medium-term relationships focused on development of specific (leadership).

Come and talk to us about more of the things we have learned about mentoring programmes in a VUCA environment and read our blog on Operating in a VUCA World.

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