Workplace mentoring could transform advice businesses, but companies need to build in safeguards to get more men involved, The Mentor Standard has said.
Speaking at yesterday’s (April 26) Women in Protection conference in London, Novia head of sales Amira Norris and business psychologist and founder of The Success Architect Julie Goddard told delegates men were hesitant to get involved with mentorship programmes in the post #MeToo era.
The duo, who set up The Mentor Standard last year, outlined how this can be overcome by ensuring safeguards are in place to help protect mentees and the professional reputation of the mentor.
We all know the workplace can be a hotbed of gossip“When you look at why people don’t mentor, research shows a hesitancy by men to step up and mentor women, particularly post #MeToo movement,” Goddard said.
She added: “And I can understand that. At the start it is so vital to safeguard your professional reputation - there are steps that you should take professionally to stop the gossips.
“We all know the workplace can be a hotbed of gossip and others can enjoy guessing at your motivation for why you are spending more time with a particular individual outside your job remit, and possibly outside of hours,” Goddard said.
According to Goddard and Norris, the best way to counter this is to be transparent from the beginning of the process and share with your colleagues, friends and family your reason for mentoring and tell them about your mentee.
Secondly, Goddard advised that “as far as possible” mentors should use work emails and mobiles to communicate.
She also noted that when considering where to meet with a mentee you should let them choose the location and you should make sure that it is a neutral venue.
“Collectively, when you put all of these things together you really can steal people’s thunder and stop them using their ‘overtly active’ imaginations, shall we say, and be in control of the narrative and remain professional,” Goddard said.
Different types of mentoring
Goddard and Norris noted that mentorship should benefit both parties involved and pointed to research that shows employees are six times more likely to get a promotion if they’re mentoring others.
They also explained that mentorship has moved beyond the traditional method of older-younger pairings and that many firms are now benefiting from flash mentoring - this is mentoring over a short-time frame, peer mentoring and ‘reverse mentoring’.
“I am a big advocate for reverse mentoring,” Norris said.
“I actually have a reverse mentor, and thank God for this person - they’ve changed the way I bank, invest, they’ve even taught me about ChatGPT.
“I would say I’m down with the kids but I know that means I’m definitely not,” Norris said.
“Reverse mentoring is so important because it flips the mentoring relationship on its head.
“It’s not about somebody taking another person under their wing and nurturing them, it’s about a formal relationship where both parties realise there are skills and benefits to working with each other.”
The purpose of reverse mentoring is centred on skill sharing and professional development, Norris explained.
Norris and Goddard set up The Mentor Standard for the financial services industry last summer.
The standard is made up of two CPD-accredited, paid-for courses, one of which has been designed for mentors and the other for mentees.
The idea is to help both individuals looking for a mentor in need of pin-pointing a desired outcome, and to help mentors offer more value to those they guide.
jane.matthews@ft.com
