What Are the Best Ways to Support Executive Mentoring in the Workplace?

Mentoring is often reserved for those being groomed to step up into a leadership position and may be part of a succession plan. However, the benefits resulting from executive mentoring can have far-reaching effects within an organization. To learn more about how your company can benefit by encouraging mentoring, read the experiences of these business executives.

Maintaining Open Communication Channels with Executives

Executive succession planning is critical to maintaining business stability and continuity during transitions. It’s something every company should be doing continuously, even if you don’t plan to have vacancies at the executive level. There are ongoing benefits even beyond knowing who will take over if someone quits or retires. It’s a lot easier to take a vacation as a CEO, knowing other members of the team can lead the company in my stead, for example.

I see open team communication as the most important factor in facilitating this type of mentorship. The more transparent you are with leadership decisions, the better other members of the team can understand how and why those decisions were made. An open two-way dialogue across levels of the hierarchy encourages team-level mentorship, even beyond more formalized one-on-one mentor/mentee relationships.

It makes it easier for lower-level managers to get guidance on challenges they’re facing and opens up the potential for them to “reverse mentor” upper-level executives, encouraging more sharing of skills and knowledge across all levels of the hierarchy.

One on One Training with Management

The most important element of mentorship for high performers that we are trying to guide into leadership positions is one-on-one time with current leaders. What we have traditionally done is pair up people in our mentorship program with upper management when they travel for business.

This practice not only gives mentees a chance to observe and sit in on high-level conversations and see skilled relationship management in action, but it gives both the mentor and our high performers a chance to interact informally–going out for dinner, traveling, etcetera.

Nurture A Culture of Mentorship

Executive-level officers in small startups or companies like ours play a very important role in the organization. We are responsible for almost all aspects of the business and sometimes even have to do some grunt work when necessary. As such, it is easy to get lost, especially if you are still new to high-level management duties and responsibilities. Learning from more experienced founders is key to understanding and knowing the ropes of executive work.

Hence, our more experienced founders and executive officers always see to it that they are available for calls and queries. We also do regular check-in meetings or daily standups to discuss issues relating to our jobs. This means that, in general, someone will always be there to guide or assist you with your concerns. We believe that through open and regular communication, we will be able to foster a culture of mentorship and collaboration at the executive level.

Develop a Simple Mentoring Strategy

A mentorship program does not have to be difficult, and the majority of the effort is done in the planning phase. In the workplace, people frequently devise intricate mentoring schemes. These strategies are both costly and ineffective. Whether it’s one person or an advisory board, a mentorship program requires leadership.

Your timeline will be determined by the size of the program and the number of people who will be involved. Remember that the most successful mentoring takes place on a one-on-one basis. As a result, have one or two employees in your firm map out potential mentees and mentors, and then begin the mentoring connection.

Developing Talent Through Mentoring

Often, the lack of information sharing, planning, and even emphasis on mentoring for succession within the organization is not even on the table. There is ample informal mentoring for building general technical skills, leadership, and navigating nuances of your role in the company, but not specified development plans for a pathway of succession.

Therefore, creating a structured plan that includes career development milestones, requirements of accomplishment, and a formal mentoring program is important.

The talent pipeline development should have entry milestones in the leadership track from onboarding through their first five years. Beyond those first five years, elevated tiers of engagement based on classifications or promotional positions should exist.