You may be running a mentoring program, but to start seeing real success and results, you will need to develop a mentoring culture at your organization. A mentoring culture which really supports sharing knowledge and a commitment of paying-it-forward to help others develop their skills and abilities. According to Doug Lawrence, president of TalentC, a human resources solution provider, he cites the following 4 reasons that mentoring programs fail – for each reason I have added some of the best practices that MentorCity clients are implementing:

• Lack of corporate support
  • Message from the CEO, leadership team and other ambassadors endorsing the program on an ongoing and consistent basis. The leadership team needs to be actively engaged as mentors in your program.
  • Program purpose and objectives to be clear.
• Lack of structure
  • Determine program length such as a 6-month relationship and to meet for 1-hour every month.
  • Provide general guidelines on how to structure meetings, discussion topics and mentoring activities.
• Lack of training
  • Host regular orientation sessions – discuss program objectives, benefits and set clear timelines (e.g. building a profile and inviting someone to be their mentor).
  • Train participants in effective mentoring skills, have check-in meetings and a wrap-up celebration.
• Culture will not support mentoring
• Companies can include mentoring in their performance review process. Mentoring doesn't have to be mandatory, but mentoring plans and activities should be discussed at each review, turning it into a corporate expectation and part of the culture.
• Post-secondary institutions can build mentoring into their curriculum and associations can use mentoring hours towards re-certification.
• Send out surveys and have conversations with participants to get their overall feedback about the mentoring program and the impact that is having on their career.

You may also like to read Lois Zachary’s 8 Hallmarks of a Mentoring Culture http://humanresources.about.com/od/coachingmentoring/a/mentor_culture.htm and the Globe and Mail’s article on How Companies Mess Up Mentoring http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/careers/management/how-companies-mess-up-mentoring/article614274/

There are lots of benefits to building a mentoring culture. It will take time, but the effort will be worth it in the long run. It will be one of the most rewarding journeys that you embark on as your members reach their potential and your organization develops a strong competitive advantage.