How many times have you asked yourself why the concept of mentorship just doesn’t ever seem to gain any traction in your organization?
As you will have seen in many, many organizations, and unfortunately your own too perhaps, mentorship programs are often well meaning, but completely unsuccessful. When you think about it, though, it’s not really all that surprising. Mentorship should be a natural and supportive series of relationships and interactions, not a mandated and hierarchical program.
I think you will find that Harvard Business Review is onto something meaningful in their recent article entitled Real Mentorship Starts with Company Culture, Not Formal Programs. They introduce the concept of mentors-of-the-moment, leaders who promote a mentoring culture by finding opportunities in daily interactions to develop or grow junior colleagues and peers.
How can you incorporate the mentors-of-the-moment concept and create a mentoring culture in your organization? This article provides an extensive list of recommendations including something as simple as mentor-of-the-moment conversation starters. Let this be the first step toward embedding mentoring behaviours in your organization’s DNA.
