• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
KMP+ House of Mentoring

KMP+ House of Mentoring

Individual learning and development

  • Mentoring Matters!
    • How to start a mentoring programme
    • Types of mentoring programmes
  • Services
    • Design a mentoring programme
    • Evaluation & Benchmarking
    • The Mentor+Game™
  • Tools
    • Free Mentoring Resources
  • Training
    • Workshops for Mentors and Mentees
    • E-learning Training for Mentors and Mentees
    • Mentor+ Certificate Training
    • Mentor Masterclasses
    • Train-the-Trainer
  • Webinars
  • Resources & Blogs
    • Books
    • Mentor & mentee stories
    • White Paper
    • Cases
    • Videos
    • Articles
  • Contact Us
  • Sign in
  • Dansk

Six reasons why mentoring programmes fail

March 28, 2022

Formal mentoring programmes can increase employee engagement, accelerate employee development, and positively impact retention. However, not every mentoring programme live up to expectations. We have identified 6 reasons why mentoring programmes fail:

  1. No clearly defined need for mentoring
  2. Lack of support from top management
  3. No one is taking the lead
  4. Poor matching
  5. Lack of training and preparation
  6. No evaluation of programme quality and outcome
Two women are at work in an office. They are standing at a cork board and are having a discussion as they pin things up.

One, some or all of these elements might be overlooked in the design of mentoring programmes due to lack of knowledge, lack of time and resources and lack of engagement in people development.

No clearly defined need for mentoring

A classical mistake in establishing mentoring programmes is unclear goals disconnected from the strategic business agenda. This may result in a very vague or broad purpose making it very difficult to measure and evaluate whether the programme has been a success – and therefore also difficult to gain commitment for the programme (and resources), as it is difficult to see how it benefits the organisation as a whole.

Lack of support from top management

If top management has not bought in on the mentoring programme and supports it by encouraging participation and even leading by example fx acting as mentors, it will be difficult to gain commitment from others in the organisation. When top management does not prioritize the programme, the mentoring programme will be perceived as less important. Other key stakeholders will probably follow top management’s lead, and it will be difficult to gain traction and resources for the mentoring programme.

No one is taking the lead

For a mentoring programme to be a success, someone with the right skills and commitment needs to be in charge of and visibly taking responsibility. This key person is also called a programme manager. The programme manager needs skills, time and resources and is often working together with a programme management team and is the main point of contact for all key stakeholders. Additionally, the programme manager supports the participants and is their first point of contact for questions or concerns during the programme.

Poor matching

Poor matching can happen because of unclear criteria for what is a good match and when mentors and mentees have no influence on the matching. When HR comes together and creates the matches on their own and perhaps with input or confirmation from the managers/top management, mentors and mentees can feel manipulated and insecure about why they are in the programme and what HR and the leaders really expect from them.

The best matching process is transparent with clear criteria for how to match and makes sense in terms of the overall purpose of the programme. Additionally, a good matching process includes input from mentors and mentees on their expectations, learning themes and understanding of mentoring.

Lack of training and preparation

Not everyone is a great mentor – even when they perform well in their daily job. Even when the mentor candidates have shown talent as managers, training is still required to understand how to behave in the mentor role. Many skills of mentoring are the same as for good leadership, but the context is different – especially in terms of how power influences the relationship between a leader and a direct report vs a mentor and a mentee.

Often it is expected that managers will know how to act as mentors. This is putting pressure on the mentors which can lead to underperformance in the mentor role or to becoming a very directing mentor.

For both mentors and mentees training and preparation for mentoring is valuable in clarifying expectations for what mentoring is and how to benefit. Training provides insight, skills and tools for creating sound mentoring relationships that can provide learning for both mentors and mentees.

No evaluation of programme quality and outcome

All too often mentoring programmes are not evaluated – neither on quality nor on outcome vs programme purpose. It may be because of lack of resources to do this – or for lack of commitment to the programme. However, evaluating mentoring programmes and communicating the results – good and bad – is a way to document the actual value and effect of mentoring. Evaluating the programme influences the engagement and commitment to mentoring. And evaluating will help identify how to keep improving the design and management of the programme. Finally, evaluation – asking mentors and mentees to answer a questionnaire on their experience, perception and outcome of the mentoring programme – also provides the participants with a reflective moment to consider what they have learned, how this is valuable, and how they can apply this going forward.

Footer

KMP+ ApS
Kongevejen 155
2830 Virum, Denmark

Telephone: +45 39 76 12 32
Email info@kmpplus.com

VAT NO. DK 2723 0407

Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions

Connect with us

SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER

Follow us on social media

Copyright & Trademarks

All content and images used on this site are owned or licensed by KMP+ House of Mentoring for use on this site only. Unautorized use is prohibited.

KMP+ House of Mentoring is registered as a trademark in Norway and EU and nothing contained herein shall be construed as conferring any license or right to any KMP+ House of Mentoring copyright or trademark to third parties.

Copyright © 2023 · KMP+ House of Mentoring

We eat a lot of cookies, but the ones you get here are to improve your experience of our website - you have to come by to get the real thing. Press "Accept" to accept the digital cookies

You can select your preferences on cookies by pressing the "Cookie settings" button.
Accept Reject Cookie Settings
Manage consent

Privacy overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while navigating through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored in your browser, as they are crucial for the website to function fundamentally. We also use third-party cookies to help us analyze and understand how you use this site. These cookies are only stored in your browser with your consent. You also have the option to opt out of these cookies. However, opting out of some of these cookies may have an impact on your browsing experience.
Neccesary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely necessary for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensure basic functions and security functions on the website. These cookies do not store any personal information. Cookies that belong to this are categorized below. Neccesary cookies: Name: __cfduid Duration: 30 days Purpose: The cookie is used by CloudFare to identify individual clients behind a shared IP address and apply security settings per. Client. It does not match any user ID in the web application and does not store any personally identifiable information. Name: cookielawinfo-checkbox-Required Duration: 1 year Purpose: This cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent WordPress Plugin. The cookie is used to remember the user's consent to cookies under the category "Required". Name: cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional Duration: 1 year Purpose: This cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent WordPress Plugin. The cookie is used to remember the user's consent to cookies under the category "Functional". Name: cookielawinfo-checkbox-ad Duration: 1 year Purpose: This cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent WordPress Plugin. The cookie is used to remember the user's consent to cookies under the category "Advertisement". Name: cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics Duration: 1 year Purpose: This cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent WordPress Plugin. The cookie is used to remember the user's consent to cookies under the category "Analytics". Name: cookielawinfo-checkbox-other Duration: 1 year Purpose: This cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent WordPress Plugin. The cookie is used to remember the user's consent to cookies under the category "Other". Name: cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance Duration: 1 year Purpose: This cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent WordPress Plugin. The cookie is used to remember the user's consent to cookies under the category "Performance".
Advertisement
Advertising cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to deliver customized ads. Cookies that belong to this are categorized below. Advertisement cookies: Name: IDE Duration: 1 year 23 days 23 hours 59 minutes Purpose: Used by Google DoubleClick and stores information about how the user uses the site and any other ad before visiting the site. This is used to present users with ads that are relevant to them according to the user profile. Name: VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE Duration: 5 months 26 days 23 hours 59 minutes Purpose: This cookie is set by Youtube. Used to track the information about the embedded YouTube videos on a site. Name: NID Duration: 5 months 26 days 23 hours 59 minutes Purpose: This cookie is used for a profile based on the user's interest and shows personal ads to the users. Name: bscookie Duration: 1 year 11 months 29 days 11 hours 37 minutes Purpose: This cookie is used to store actions performed on the Linkedin website.
Analytics cookies
Analytics cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help to provide information about the metrics number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. Cookies belonging to this are categorized below. Analytics cookies: Name: GPS Duration: 29 minutes Purpose: This cookie is set by Youtube and registers a unique ID for tracking users based on their geographical location. Name: vuid Duration: 1 year 11 months 28 days 23 hours 59 minutes Purpose: This cookie is used by vimeo to collect tracking information. It sets a unique ID to embed videos on the site. Name: lissc Duration: 11 months 29 days 23 hours 59 minutes Purpose: This cookie is provided by LinkedIn. This cookie is used to track integrated service.
Functional
Functional cookies help perform certain functions such as sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collecting feedback and other third-party functions. Cookies belonging to this are categorized below: Functional cookies: Name: long Duration: Session (the duration you are on the website) Purpose: This cookie is used to store a user's language preference to display the content in the saved language the next time the user visits the website. Name: pll_language Duration: 11 months 29 days 23 hours 59 minutes Purpose: This cookie is set by the Polylang plugin for WordPress-powered websites. The cookie stores the language code of the last page searched. Name: lidc Duration: 23 hours 59 minutes Purpose: This cookie is set by LinkedIn and used for routing. Name: bcookie Duration: 1 year 11 months 29 days 11 hours 37 minutes Purpose: This cookie is set by linkedIn. The purpose of the cookie is to activate LinkedIn functions on the site.
Performance cookies
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indices on the website, which help to provide a better user experience for the visitors. Cookies that belong to this are categorized below. Performance cookies: Name: YSC Duration: session Purpose: This cookie is set by Youtube and is used to track the display of embedded videos.
Others
Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet.
CookieDurationDescription
AnalyticsSyncHistory1 monthNo description
Powered by CookieYes Logo