Why not use the beginning of the new year as an opportunity to refresh your mentoring programme with a New Year Resolution. Look at your programme design and see if there is something that could be changed and upgraded. Even well-working mentoring programmes need to be reenergized occasionally.
We have gathered a list of 7 New Year Resolutions to refresh your mentoring programme.
1. Share why mentoring matters.
Though each mentoring story is different, they are all inspiring. Sharing stories from the mentor/mentee pairs help communicate the benefits and empowering effect of mentoring. Publish the stories internally in your organisation to help brand your programme among your employees. This will help when you need to recruit new mentors and mentees for future programmes.
2. Collect feedback
Surveys or focus groups are a great way to collect feedback from the participants. You can use this feedback to adjust the programme design and get inspiration for future touchpoints. When you are including touchpoints – whether as physical meetings or online workshops – you can devote part of the time to group work where mentors share learnings and prepare feedback to the mentees. In the same manner mentees can share learnings and prepare their feedback to the mentors. This feedback will also be inspiration for you to consider new themes to bring into the mentoring programme. Additionally, this will give insight into how well the mentoring relationships are progressing.
3. Share inspiring meeting ideas.
As a programme manager, you can provide your mentor/mentee pairs with new inspiring ways of holding their mentoring meetings. If they are working in the same location, they can go for a “walk-and-talk” and experience how the surroundings influence the intensity of their conversation. If they are in different geographical locations, they can go for a walk while talking over the phone or using Teams or other platforms. Through their phones they can show their mentor/mentee their surroundings, their office, the factory or whatever could be relevant for their relationship. They can also just walk and talk online without watching each other – the less visual cues in the conversation, the more intensity in the listening and talking.
4. Create inspiring touch points.
Is it enough to encourage your mentor/mentee pairs to have inspiring meetings? There are many other inspiring touchpoints that your programme can include, for example:
- Master classes for mentors – diving into topics specifically relevant to your mentoring programme.
- Workshops for mentees – with inspiration from role models, inviting top executives to share their career stories and be available for questions, providing mentees with the opportunity to learn from each other etc.
Also consider how to use online meetings as brief but effective touchpoints to keep engaging your mentors and mentees in the full network of participants.
5. Inspirational e-mails
During the mentoring programme, you can help your participants stay on track and nudge them towards specific topics that are relevant for the mentoring programme.
For example,
- Share a Ted Talk video.
- Share an interesting article you have found on the internet.
- Guide them towards specific tools for mentoring (e.g. from the online toolbox that we provide).
- Encourage them to provide feedback to each other at specific times during the programme.
- Share relevant, internal information that can provide topics for their mentoring meetings.
6. Upgrade the existing toolbox
Do mentors and mentees have access to inspirational tools? By providing your participants with the relevant learning resources, you support their learning process, help them dig deeper into their learning topics, and provide variation in their conversations and collaboration. Without a framework and tools, the pairs may experience “relationship droop” around midway through the mentoring programme and have difficulty finding topics for their conversations. Perhaps they are overly cautious or diplomatic around exploring more profound topics, perhaps they could have used more preparation to feel ready to dig deeper or maybe they haven’t formed a strong enough connection yet to dig deeper. Nevertheless, providing a relevant toolbox can overcome these challenges and help them engage and continue their learning journey.
7. Establish peer mentor/mentee groups
Facilitating the establishment of peer mentor groups and peer mentees groups is a crucial step in enriching the mentoring experience. By providing them with a clear framework for why and how to meet, you give participants the opportunity to strengthen their network over and above the individual mentor/mentee relationships. In this way, you encourage relationship building and sharing of the learning, which will increase the impact of the mentoring programme – and provide both mentors and mentees with networks that add value to them for a long time to come.