Mentors Are Out, Developmental Networks Are In?

As I was working on Success for Hire, I had the good fortune to meet an excellent blogger and radio show host, the Recruiting Animal.  Animal’s got one of the most hilariously combative shows you’ll ever listen to, and I had a great time as a guest earlier this month.  Anyway, Animal flagged a very interesting article from the MIT Sloan Management Review.  The authors, Kathy Kram and Monica Higgins, claim that the traditional mentoring relationship just doesn't work anymore.  As they say, typically, you choose a single senior colleague - or get assigned to one - who can show you the ropes and open the right doors.  But the world of work has gotten too complicated for one person to provide all the guidance and opportunities you need to manage challenges and prepare for the future.

 

 

According to Kram and Higgins, a better approach is to create and cultivate a developmental network - a small group of people to whom you can turn for regular mentoring support and who have a genuine interest in your learning and development. You can think of it as your personal board of directors.  The composition of the group depends on where you are in your career and what you're looking for. If you're just getting started, you could certainly turn to your boss or assigned mentor for help. But you should also look further, seeking out peers to get feedback on areas where you need to improve, such as public speaking or working in teams.   At midcareer, you might look to other managers and people outside the organization; someone you know from a professional association might have insight on new ideas in your industry, for instance. Senior managers might get coaching from peers on the next steps to take in their career, from family members on achieving a better balance in their lives, and even from junior staff who have crucial technical expertise vital to immediate business challenges.

 

 

What sets this group apart from people you network with more generally or from casual or one-time relationships?  The relationships have a high degree of mutual learning and trust in which both individuals give and receive various kinds of informational, emotional and strategic support.  What's more, these individuals have been enlisted by you to provide the guidance and support that will enable you to take the next step forward, whatever that next step may be.

 

 

I love this concept, and wonder if any of you have institutionalized programs for developmental networks in your organizations.  If so, I’d love to hear about your experience with them.

Comments

[Recruiting Animal]

Alex, I see you liked the show so much you didn't give your readers a link to your appearance. So I'm going to have to do it for you.

Here it is:
http://is.gd/2zh5

Re group mentoring. The onboarding section of your book already advises managers to help new employees build relationships with a wide range of people in the company from day one.

The beauty of the mentoring role described there is its structure. It's flexible but at the same time only within well defined limits.

A team of mentors seems reasonable but only in a less formal way. Otherwise there just wouldn't be enough mentors to go around and the obligations on senior people could be enormous.

Note to readers. Alex was a good guest. The sound malfunctioned and part of the time it sounded like we were underwater but she was unfazed.

I've cut out the most warbly parts. You'll hear some surprising jumps from topic to topic but 99% of the time it sounds like we're on dry land.

I owe Alex a review on Amazon and a good one because I was very pleased with the retention and onboarding sections of the book - precisely those I thought beforehand would hold no interest for me.

[Heather Huhman]

Alexandra,

If the mentor relationship has not already changed, it certainly should. Kram and Higgins are absolutely correct - why have just one mentor (as you mention, possibly one who's simply "assigned" to you) when you can have a team of mentors providing guidance in a variety of areas?

I wrote about this issue in early September (http://tinyurl.com/5ocr8l) and am glad to hear more people endorsing it.

Thanks for the great post!

Heather Huhman, Entry Level Careers Examiner
Examiner.com
http://www.examiner.com/x-828-Entry-Level-Careers-Examiner

[Alexandra Levit]

Animal, you are the best. Thank you so much for responding to the post on here and for chiming in with the CORRECT link to the show. I can't wait for your review on Amazon - it'll be the only one!

Heather, great to see you keeping up with the blog. Thanks for the link to your article, and let me know if you need anything else for Examiner!