Mentoring is one of the most effective methods of bringing consistent improvement in an employee. It uses the method of providing informal guidance and encouragement to promising talented people who themselves are not motivated enough to realize their true potential.
Mentors generally are people who come from a higher hierarchy than the immediate supervisor. These mentors nurture these candidates under their observation and provide them with timely advice. This one to one personal relationship builds trust and respect in the mind of the employees and gives them confidence.
These protégés achieve a lot of success in their careers because of all the guidance they got from the mentors. They develop a sense of insight and understand the company’s vision and goals. They also become aware of the different networks inside the organization. They feel like getting new opportunities under the leadership of these veterans.
Organizations also benefit from this mentor-mentee relationship as they don’t have to pay for the on-job training. They can also claim that they are focused on career growth of their employees. Mentors benefit from their interpersonal skills and technical knowledge improving from their interactions with the proteges.
In general, people confuse mentoring with a one-way communication based model of information delivery. However, the truth is that individuals who have gotten mentors at early stages of their employment are the most receptive in their feedback sessions. They even have much more patience while dealing with new talent. This is all because of the constant to-and-fro communication they had with their mentors through the queries and opinion-sharing.