Why Mentoring Works - A Tip from The Manager’s Answer Book

I’ve worked with many top-quality mentors during my business career and I hope you have been as fortunate as I was. It was an honor to work with generous people who willingly shared their expertise to help me hone my skills as a manager.

Remember when we thought that mentors had to be older people with many years of experience? Well, those days are over. A better definition of a mentor is “anyone who has knowledge you don’t have.” This new take on mentoring is playing out in organizations today as Millennials mentor Baby Boomers in how to get the most out of technology as often as Boomers mentor Millennials in how to survive office politics!

Mentoring relationships can be formal or informal and savvy organizations are installing mentoring programs to attract, engage, and retain the best talent available.  But, if your organization doesn’t have a mentoring program, don’t hesitate to look for a mentor on your own.

Mentoring is the classic win/win situation.  The mentee gains knowledge they didn’t have, and the mentor has the satisfaction that comes from doing something to benefit another. The organization wins as well with employees who are more engaged in their work and their commitment to your organization for providing them with mentoring opportunities!

Manager’s Tip:  If you want more ideas on mentoring, in our latest book, The Manager’s Answer Book -- we answer this question: “I’ve had wonderful people during my career who served as mentors and helped me get to the management level. I’d like to start a formal mentoring program and have the support of senior management to do so. Can you give me some ideas on how to get started?”

“Answer:  Good for you to want to ‘pay it forward’ and encourage mentoring in your organization. Mentoring is an excellent tool to develop staff that doesn’t cost much (or any) money but it can pay huge dividends for the individual and your organization, including your ability to hire talent employees. Smart job applicants ask if they might have a mentor to help them be productive if they join your organization. Other benefits of mentoring programs include the development of cross-organizational connections as people mentor employees from other departments and build channels of communication—often between people who might not have otherwise worked together.”

Check out more information on designing a formal mentoring program or selecting a mentor on page 138 of The Manager’s Answer Book available from Amazon -- https://tinyurl.com/y8umaqpz - Barnes & Noble or your local independent bookstore.  

Lifelong Learning A Tip from The Manager’s Answer Book

The May-June, 2018 issue of The Harvard Business Review has an article titled, “Why Lifelong Learning Matters More than Ever” which contains a powerful statement, “Lifelong learning is fundamental to building strong communities, companies, and economies.”

The article discusses how life long learning can go a long way toward helping us solve the skills shortage. While there are more and more learning possibilities available to our employees, not enough people take advantage of what’s available to them.

Organizations need to commit to providing learning opportunities and to make it possible for their employees to have the time to develop their skills through learning.

Manager’s Tip:  Life-long learning is a critical issue which we discuss in The Manager’s Answer Book:

Question: “I want to encourage my employees t continue to learn and grow. What can I do to help them see the importance of continuous learning?”

Answer: “Share what you’re learning with your staff. You can do this in a staff meeting by taking a few minutes to share a book, article, or other resource you’ve found to be helpful. If your employees seem receptive, it is a great idea to ask everyone to read a particular article or watch a specific video and then discuss it when you next meet. This is an easy way to get your employees interested in expanding their knowledge or skill base.”

There are so many ways to learn using available technologies, including:

• Webcasts
• Podcasts
• YouTube
• Online articles
• Audio books
• TED Talks

For more on this subject, see page 99 of The Manager’s Answer Book, available from Amazon -- https://tinyurl.com/y8umaqpz - Barnes & Noble or your local independent bookstore.

Third Time’s a Charm

Fifth Avenue holds fond memories for Cornelia who grew up on Long Island – frequent visits with her father as a child to view the store windows during the holidays.  So when our first book together, The Big Book of HR, was published, we were in New York for a writer’s conference and walked over Barnes & Noble on 5^th Avenue in New York City to see our book displayed on a shelf — pretty exciting for both of us. We never thought we’d tope that experience! We thought, “We can’t beat this!”

Fast forward a year and we were back in New York for the same conference and visited B&N on Fifth to discover two copies of the book were displayed, but on the lowest shelf, so getting a picture was going to be difficult. That didn’t stop Cornelia – she almost sat on the floor to do so.  At that moment, two men approached us and asked if they could help. One was the manager of the business book department who was excited to learn we were the authors of The Big Book of HR.

Turns out they were just discussing the need for more HR books. Cal turned to his assistant and instructed him to order more copies of the book. “I’m going to give your book better placement,” he exclaimed pointing to a display at the front of the store “Top Picks in Business. 

We were absolutely delighted to have met him but also to have him be so positive about our book. “We can’t beat this!”

Well, we go to the writer’s conference annually and make the trip over to see our books. Each of the but the next two years when we went, our friend Cal Hunter wasn’t there but it was still great to see multiple copies of The Big Book of HR prominently displayed.

But the third time was a charm. Cal was in the store and after thanking him for his support, he said, “Did you see the window display?” There in the window on 5^th Avenue in New York City, was The Big Book of HR in a display of “hot” business books!

We share this story for a couple of reasons. One is to thank Cal Hunter of the business book department of Barnes & Noble but the other is to serve as encouragement to you to not give up on your dreams and aspirations! 

Think about this, if Cornelia hadn’t gotten on the floor to snap a picture of our book, would we ever have had the experience of meeting Cal Hunter and having him take an interest in our book that ultimately made it to the window? I do know that not giving up was well worth it and I hope there is something in your life—either your personal life or your business life—that hasn’t happened yet. Our advice is to keep trying and never, never give up on your dreams!