What's a mentor, who's a mentor?

Editor's note:

When it comes to what our members want most from NEHA, at the very top of the list is career assistance, particularly in the area of finding new jobs. While we are limited in the number of "Classifieds" we can run in your monthly Journal (due to the relatively long lag time between issues), we can, however, provide other means of assistance that aren't so time-sensitive. That is what we intend to do with this new career column titled, "Career Consultant," written by Sandra Hagevik, Ph.D.

Dr. Hagevik currently serves as a career consultant for EnviroTemps, Inc., a national woman-owned project staffing firm specializing in the environmental careers field. Throughout the course of her professional life, she has written many resumes, both for herself and for other professionals. She began her career as a science and health teacher, and later moved into the fields of career counseling, university administration, and outplacement consulting. Dr. Hagevik has been a nationally certified career counselor since 1985, and has assisted hundreds of individuals from the public, private, and nonprofit sectors find satisfying careers.

We hope you enjoy this new addition to your Journal - even if you currently have no need to seek new employment opportunities!

Helen was the first person I called to network with when I moved reluctantly to Denver in the early 1980s. She was 10 years my senior. In her 50s, she had mastered a career change to become a college career counselor. Before that, she had raised five children while following her geologist husband to isolated mining sites throughout the country. Because of her warmth, insight, and resourcefulness, I left my meeting with her hopeful that I could emulate her career path someday - and I did. She mentored me with wisdom, generosity, and candor. Through her, I learned to "read the culture," interpret the subtleties of academic politics, and improve my ability to get ahead in my new profession. I remain profoundly grateful to Helen.

That journey of mine happened a long time ago. Even longer ago, Odysseus, King of Ithaca, entrusted his son Telemachus to the tutor Mentor while he went off to fight the Trojan War. The tutor later revealed herself as the goddess Athena, patron of the arts and history. Thus was mentoring founded. The mentor usually is an older, wiser guide who assumes some responsibility as a role model, compatriot, challenger, or motivator.

It is estimated that over 90 percent of women executives have had mentors sometime in their careers and that, of those, 80 percent considered their mentors to be important to their career advancement. Over 96 percent of Fortune 500 executives credited mentoring as an important influence in the development of their professional lives.

Benefits of mentoring accrue to mentees, mentors, and their organizations. Mentees benefit because someone cares enough to support them, advise them, and help interpret inside information - that level of interest enhances mentees' sense of their own worth. Also, the mentoring relationship is a safe place for mentees to try out new ideas, skills, and roles in a real-world context. Mentors experience the fulfillment of passing along hard-earned wisdom, influencing the next generation of upper management, and receiving appreciation from a younger worker - all of which enhances the sense of accomplishment. The relationship also provides mentors a place to learn about generational and cross-cultural differences and about the benefit of giving. The organization benefits when the optimism and energy of younger, more culturally, technologically, and ethnically diverse employees intersects with the efficiency and confident decision-making skills of more experienced personnel. Ideally, mentoring of younger workers reduces turnover, helps mentees deal with organizational issues, and accelerates their assimilation into the culture.

Mentoring can assume a variety of forms:

* like a bird guiding its young - the mentor supports without rescuing, giving courage to learn through trial and error;

* "sitting by Nellie," - watching her work, the mentee does as the mentor does; or

* guided learning - a relationship built on trust serves as a foundation from which mentees work on short-term projects in a real-world context.

However it is structured, the relationship depends on personalities, workplace realities, accessibility, time constraints, and abundant good will. Good mentors have many traits in common: good listening skills, willingness to give and receive feedback, knowledge of the organization, ability to groom the employee, generosity, and commitment to nurturing the relationship. Effective mentees have a significant level of self-knowledge, clear goals, a willingness to ask targeted questions, an ability to translate honest advice and praise into new behaviors, and a commitment to learning.

Organizations as diverse as NationsBank; International Women's Forum; Trevira (a division of Hoechst Celanese); Genentech, Inc.; and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) have experimented with formal and informal mentoring programs. Menttium, a Minneapolis-based program, matched senior-level mentors, about half of whom were male, with 100 highly motivated, mid-level women mentees from different organizations. Their research showed a 97 percent success rate. "Success" meant that both mentor and mentee gained benefits from the experience, although there were few hard facts to substantiate exactly what those benefits were.

Feedback on a mentee in a banking environment after a few months in the program indicated that she displayed "more poise, confidence, and crispness in dealing with peers and customers." Another protege, who at 36 was the first woman and youngest employee to be named vice president of operations at an electronics firm, attributed the accomplishment of her goals to the mentoring of the company's vice presidents of human resources and finance. Those mentors helped her to identify appropriate training, choose efficient plans, and take a broader perspective on her career choices within the firm.

Mentoring programs differ in their formality, structure, requirements, and goals. One company incorporated a mentoring program when it realized that there was a large gap in, experience between a group of employees who were expected to retire soon and a strong group of new engineers unaccustomed to managing. HUD relied on its program to promote cross-cultural communication and understanding, the morale of its mentors and mentees, and an upward-mobility program for clerical employees.

The most successful programs have clear expectations of the partners, realistic outcomes, and flexibility to accommodate schedules and different learning styles. Mentor training, follow-up, and accountability are hallmarks of programs that work.

Bill Charland, whose most recent book is The Idiot's Guide to Career Change, suggests that we all think of our careers as occurring in cycles and that we identify areas in which we function as novices, experts, and mentors. For example, I'm an expert in my work as career counselor, a novice in using new software programs, and a mentor to David Soister, a new counseling graduate. While David develops expertise at counseling and offers me the joy of promoting him to our community, he also mentors me in using the Internet more efficiently to find career information. He's still a novice at being a father. Becoming his mentor has deepened the dimensions of my career. Helen would be pleased.