One of the major changes that has been brought about by the Covid-19 Pandemic has been the acceleration of the changes that are associated with the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Many companies are struggling to acclimatize to a heavily digitised world with middle aged and older business leaders wholly incapable of adapting to rapid change. However, young business leaders have put their hands up to drive companies into the new era. How do we go about mentoring this talent?
They face a significant conundrum; they are eager and willing to implement change in companies where it is desperately needed, and they are agile enough to know what is driving change in a highly digitised world. However, they lack basic business principles.
I recently read an article on forbes.com which points out the importance of mentorship in the new era.
Mentoring from within
The article points out that organizations can support mentoring efforts in the new norm by creating environments that respond to both the needs of the mentors and the mentees. Organizations can leverage technology to ensure connectivity and visibility of all employees. Visual connectivity between a mentor and a mentee is necessary to ensure a productive relationship.
Required skills for being a mentor
The article points out that successful mentors must create an open and supportive environment but adhere to boundaries. Seek to develop trust by encouraging open, two-way communications. Respect individuality and accept that the mentee may have a different learning style. Deploy appreciative inquiry through active listening, asking open-ended and follow-up questions. Paraphrase at the end of each discussion to ensure that the information shared is correctly captured.
After an issue is discussed, inquire how the situation has progressed. Give a balance of both praise and constructive feedback on how to improve. Always focus on skills that can be developed to enable progression. Let the mentee set the goals; the mentor should give feedback and suggestions but not in a prescriptive way.
The article adds that companies should consider using the GROW model for effective mentoring:
Goals: Set SMART goals with the mentee. Check the progress of achieving these goals at each meeting.
Reality: Check the current reality of the mentee. Ensure that the mentee is in a good place, mentally and psychologically to follow through on commitments made. Verify what concrete steps are being deployed to achieve set goals and what new skills the mentee might require to advance to the next stage in their career path. Suggest helpful networks.
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Options (or obstacles): Work through the options or obstacles the mentee might be confronting. Explore how these can be managed or overcome and what changes can be made to ensure that the best option is adapted. Provide the proper guidance for the mentee, but do not become the decision maker.
Way forward (or will): Find out the depth of willingness to advance, as well as the ability to stay motivated and focused on achieving the set goals or objectives. Finally, fix a date when the progress can be reviewed. Close the session with the expected accountability for the mentee. This will enable the mentee to self-reflect on the current actions and determine if adjustments need to be made.
Mentoring thrives when the world changes
The article points out that, as the world of work changes and adapts to new demographics—with more older adults and Gen Zers rejoining and joining the workforce, respectively—organizations are relying on internal mentors to keep the culture, core values, business value chain knowledge and business delivery expectations going.
For this to be operative in any organization: Senior management must walk the talk by participating in mentoring programs as mentors. Organizations must commit resources (financial and human) to support mentoring programs. The managerial effectiveness index must include mentoring as a core key performance indicator (KPI).
Bill Clinton explained in a talk on leadership for HR.com that despite growing up in difficult circumstances, successful people usually had a relationship with a mentor who guided and led them.
The article adds that one should not assume that what worked for you will work for the mentee. Be cognizant of the times and dimensions that the mentee might be operating in. When I started my career, my mentor gave me some advice that I have valued for life: Be diligent, authentic, empathetic, intentional and communicative, but only talk when you can add meaning to the discussion. Be visible through effective deliverables, appreciate and value networks, and set boundaries in every relationship, but above all have confidence in who you are—that is the only way you can market yourself effectively. I think many mentees might benefit from this guidance.
Mentoring is the invisible umbilical cord that nourishes both the workforce and the organization. Effective mentoring leads to talent flowering, growth, enhanced retention, a greater leadership pipeline and a workforce of the future that develops a sustained and defined culture.
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Has the world actually changed?
In my engagement with business professionals, many of the seasoned business leaders lament the current narrative that companies suddenly need to be agile and that they need to deal with disruption. They say that these are catch phrases that are often over used. The need to be agile and to deal with disruption is nothing new.
While this may be true, companies have never been required to be as agile as they need to be at the moment, nor have they had to deal with the level of disruption that is currently being experienced in the industry. A case in point is the movement towards ecommerce. When the lockdown was implemented in South Africa, supermarket giants such as PicknPay and Checkers moved very quickly to roll pit their virtual shopping platform; Woolworths too their time and are now paying the price for this.
Wayne Gretzky famously said that one needs to skate to where the puck is. For junior business leaders, there is a multistep process to get here, even if the world is a different place than 10 or even 5 years ago. Mentors are needed to build the interpersonal skill such as confidence and resilience which are not taught at business school.
The Mystery Practitioner is an industry commentator that focuses on the shifting dynamics and innovative thinking that BRPs and turnaround professionals will need to embrace in order to achieve success in their businesses.
