Mentoring at Work: How (and Why) to Implement It in Your Organization

“We tried mentoring once, but it never really worked. Anyway, people find their own mentors informally. What I need to know is how to fill my leadership pipeline.”

This is a common refrain we hear from senior HR leaders. Yet, our research on high-potential leaders shows that mentoring in organizations is ideal for helping to retain top talent and build a leadership pipeline.

Many high-performing organizations consider mentoring a key competency among their leaders — and leaders who take mentoring seriously and handle it effectively have a profound impact.

Whether it’s a formal or informal arrangement, mentoring at work benefits everyone involved: the mentor, the mentee, and the organization that supports it. Effective mentors develop the leadership capacity of their mentees, while increasing their own skills. They nurture the alignment between employee aspirations and organizational imperatives, and they create depth and loyalty within their organizations. Plus, they transfer their knowledge and expertise back into their organizations.

Here are some of our research findings, insights, and recommendations on mentoring in organizations to help you structure an effective mentoring program.

First, What Is Mentoring at Work?

Our guidebook, Seven Keys to Successful Mentoring, defines mentoring as an intentional, developmental relationship in which a more experienced and more knowledgeable person nurtures the professional and personal life of a less experienced, less knowledgeable person.

Typically, a mentor has been in an organization or profession longer and has greater authority within the organization or profession than does a mentee. The combination of expertise and position enables a mentor to have significant impact on a mentee. (We say “typically” because reverse mentoring arrangements flip this model, and can also be highly beneficial.)

Mentoring at work can motivate individuals to learn and grow, expose them to learning opportunities, and provide support for the learning and growth. In many cases such relationships are mutually developmental, for mentor and mentee alike.

Who Benefits From Mentoring in Organizations?

Organizations benefit greatly from mentoring programs. Mentoring at work helps businesses attract and retain talent, and enhance organizational commitment among employees who seek developmental opportunities. Turnover decreases, and development accelerates. Typically, mentors have a well-developed view of organizational direction and dynamics, which they impart to mentees, and can better align a mentee’s efforts with organizational objectives, enhancing organizational capacity.

The people who are mentored benefit in numerous ways: gaining access to leadership opportunities, career mobility, better rewards and higher compensation, increased adaptability when facing new situations, improved professional identity, greater professional competence, increased career satisfaction, greater acceptance within their organizations, and decreased job stress and role conflict. Additionally, mentees enjoy some of the credibility and influence of the mentor through association.

And mentors themselves benefit as well. Many studies have shown that mentors are more satisfied with their jobs and more committed to their organizations than those who are not mentors. And research has found that leaders judged as effective mentors by their direct reports had higher performance ratings from their bosses.

Mentoring Helps Both New And Experienced Leaders

New leaders need support as they move from individual contributor to managing others. While this transition period has always been demanding, it’s been intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic, as emerging leaders are facing an unprecedented number of challenges in a changing world where disruption and uncertainty have become the norm.

Mentoring programs can help reduce and reframe personal, structural, and cultural barriers that may be holding new leaders back from achieving their full potential, our research on emerging leaders suggests.

Mentoring can also provide an excellent opportunity for more experienced staff who want to become managers. One of the biggest skill gaps that many managers have is the ability to coach, develop, and mentor their own direct reports. While developing employees is important for managers to do, many aren’t as strong at it as they need to be.

By serving as mentors, managers help mentees while also improving their own performance and satisfaction and gaining essential management skills. In fact, based on our work with the Leaders’ Counsel, we’ve found that those who mentor and advocate for others:

• Are perceived by others as more effective leaders;
• Have a stronger commitment to their organizations;
• Enjoy a greater sense of well-being, including increased job and personal satisfaction; and
• Strengthen their personal networks and get quicker access to job-related and organizational news.

In short, great leaders need to be mentored. And great leaders need to mentor.