Mentoring Creates Future Leaders

"The best leaders are those most interested in surrounding themselves with associates smarter than they are." - John C. Maxwell

As any CEO or executive will tell you, there are never enough people around who possess true leadership ability. For as long as there have been businesses or industries, companies have searched for ways to create new leaders, managers, supervisors, and people of senior executive caliber.

Most managers and leaders are overworked. Contrary to certain beliefs that managers have an easier time at work, most juggle tremendous workloads and work incredibly hard to keep production going. Any expanding company can only go as far as its leaders take it.

I'm not devaluing the employee at all. But, without good management, guidance, and supervision, all the talent within the workforce is wasted. Leaders are the ones who galvanize a team and direct their efforts toward common goals.

Mentoring programs have several uses in the workplace. They have evolved into a Swiss army knife to handle any HR, company culture, DEI, or retention issue. Seasoned employees enroll as mentors and use their expertise to guide employees on their career paths, develop professional skills, and promote company culture. These programs, coupled with scalable software, can create a movement of development in any working environment. Depending on company goals, mentoring programs can be tailored to address specific needs, such as training new leaders.

Having credentials does not guarantee that an employee will be a good leader. A degree from the best school, technical skills, and past job experience can be used to predict how valuable an employee will be. But, it doesn't always translate into skilled leadership. Just because someone can do a job well doesn't mean they can get teams of others to perform that same job at the same standard.

Leadership consists of soft skills that can be taught through mentorship. Formal training often falls short, and usually, personal one-on-one training from a mentor is the best way to build up a potential leader into a great manager.

Here are five traits that employees can develop through mentorship:

One – Problem Solving

There is a big difference between being a decision-maker and a problem-solver. The great leaders are capable of both.

The problems that come up in the workplace are infinite. The difference between a productive manager and one that causes trouble is how fast they can problem solve and then decide how to execute that solution.

Mentorship can train employees to solve problems faster as mentees will learn from people who have already solved them. A prepared leader knows what kind of problems he will face with any given project before the project starts. Having to invent and discover solutions for projects slows completion down. Create prepared leaders through mentorship.

Two – Long-Term Vision

One of the biggest stumbling blocks to expansion is getting mired in details. Details are important, but too often, we see managers get overly fixated on them to the point where they overlook the overall goal.

Time spent micromanaging is time wasted. There is a time and place for closely inspecting what an employee does in the workplace, but if this action is overdone, it can be stifling. It upsets employees and takes their freedom to work away. It is also debilitating to the manager as he stops working on the longer-term vision and gets sucked into things like email response time.

A good mentor can show the ropes to an up-and-coming manager and teach him to juggle the day-to-day details and the longer-term goals of a team. This is a skill that is best learned through a combination of experience and direct training from someone with experience, like a mentor.

Three – Organization and Delegation

As any good leader can tell you, it takes a team to achieve greatness. No matter the perception, no one makes it alone. An organized team can get a tremendous amount of work done in little time.

Organizing a team takes more than an Excel spreadsheet. There are a tremendous amount of organizational tools leaders need when it comes to getting a team to pull off production targets. To name a few, a leader must understand how to work within budget constraints, adapt organizational systems, delegate work without overloading employees and, most importantly, time management.

Mentorship is invaluable in teaching future leaders organizational skills. Instead of floundering around on the internet for the best organizational apps, a mentor who has successfully run teams for years can show them exactly what to do, how to budget, how to delegate, how to time block, and how to supervise a team once work has begun.

Four – Negotiation

Conflict is part of life. No matter how hard we work or how cautious we may be, conflict will always arise. There is virtually no way to ensure that everyone is happy all the time.

Sometimes, management hands down directions that employees won't be happy with. Sometimes, team members get into arguments with one another. Navigating the spectrum of human emotion and reaction while also getting work done can be tricky.

As a leader, negotiation is a skill that is learned over time. A good negotiator can defuse conflict and turn tense situations in the workplace into productive environments. When employees are in conflict with management, a leader can gain agreement. When employees are upset with each other, a good negotiator can find the middle ground and get people to work together.

Negotiation is a learned skill. Future leaders gain this skill by trial and error, seeing what works and what doesn't. All the classroom education in the world doesn't make a perfect negotiator. On the other hand, a mentor who has a successful track record of negotiating can coach a mentee into being a good negotiator rapidly.

Five – Goal Setting

Leaders know how to set goals, not only for themselves but for their teams. There are entire books written on the subject of goal setting, so I won't attempt to summarize it in a handful of paragraphs. But, a mentor can groom a future leader on the following about goal setting:

• How to set goals that forward actual progress and not the appearance of progress. It might be nice to have every employee fully catch up on every email in their inbox, but did it bring in any money?
• How to prioritize goals. A good leader knows not all goals are equal. What sequence should they be done in? Which ones are vital?
• How to assign and delegate goals. How do you decide which goals to assign to which employees? How can you tell if an employee will be able to achieve an assigned goal?

Mentorship fast-tracks the development of future leaders. Coupled with powerful mentoring software, mentoring programs can be seamlessly integrated into the ranks of any organization.

Wisdom Share Mentoring Software

Our powerful software seamlessly integrates mentoring into any organization. It can be tailored to handle any unique challenge. It offers a range of key features and benefits designed to drive measurable results. 

1. Customizable Matching Algorithms: Wisdom Share employs cutting-edge matching algorithms that efficiently pair mentors and mentees based on shared goals, interests, and expertise. This ensures optimal mentor-mentee matches, facilitating productive and impactful relationships right from the start. 
   
   
2. Seamless Communication and Collaboration: Our software provides user-friendly communication tools, including chat, video conferencing, and virtual meeting spaces, enabling mentees and mentors to connect and collaborate effortlessly. This seamless communication fosters a sense of belonging and support, facilitating valuable knowledge transfer and growth. 
   
   
3. Goal Tracking and Progress Measurement: With Wisdom Share, mentees can set clear objectives, track their progress, and receive feedback from their mentors. This feature enhances accountability, motivates mentees to strive for their goals, and enables mentors to provide valuable guidance and support along the way. 
   
   
4. Resource Library and Knowledge Sharing: Our software offers a comprehensive resource library, housing a vast array of valuable materials, articles, and best practices. Mentees can access this centralized repository to expand their knowledge, gain insights, and continuously develop their skills, promoting ongoing learning and growth. 
   
   
5. Data-driven Insights and Analytics: Wisdom Share provides data-driven insights and analytics that offer a deep understanding of mentoring relationships, program effectiveness, and the impact on key metrics. These actionable insights empower organizations to make informed decisions, optimize their mentoring programs, and measure the tangible benefits they bring to employee engagement, retention, and overall company performance. 

Mentor Resources can help any company or government agency to leverage technology to create tailored career development programs that are cost-effective. Our mentoring software - Wisdom Share is a cloud-based program that is simple and comes with guided workflows. Included are tools for administrators to attract, enroll, connect, and guide participants. We also provide analytics to ensure you can monitor your employee development program and easily see ROI metrics.

Reach out to us today for a Free Demonstration of our software.