Mentoring in the Workplace

Fifteen years ago on the television show, A Different World, Whitley Gilbert-Wayne wanted to become an art buyer for the company EH Wright. While a mythical company, Whitley's job pursuit was based on her perception that art was a company's most valuable asset and she wanted to be in on the acquiring of such properties. Such was the thought then that beyond physical buildings, a company's greatest investment was in priceless pieces of art by luminaries as Monet and Van Gogh. However, a trend has been erupting in corporate America as companies are figuring out that its greatest asset is not some building with fifty floors and a thousand windows. Neither is it a canvas with oils placed at the whim and mental caption of an artist whose intent was never understood. No, the belief today is that a company's most valuable asset are the people who call that company home.

A long held practice in the legal community was to partner a new associate with either a partner at the firm in order to cut the learning curve of the associate and to help the partner push the firm's billable hours a bit more. In the movie the Firm, Tom Cruise is the new associate brought to the firm and he is partnered with Gene Hackman, the tenured partner who has Cruise performing many of the menial, time-consuming research-focused tasks that help him perform his job better.

On college campuses, freshman in dorms are often placed with older, more mature students in order to decrease the rate of failure and drop-out that is associated with the transition young men and women go through when they leave home from the first time and find the college environment a threatening and confusing place to thrive in. At the University of Memphis, in addition to the Introduction to University, a semester long orientation and coaching seminar every freshman is required to take, residence life tries their best to encourage a quasi-style mentoring setup that stabilizes the newest members of the university and positions them for success.

So while mentoring of some form has been around for a while, its acceptance and implementing has been on the rise as companies figure out one of the most effective actions in human resources is not upgrading the health plans but developing strategic relationships between new or lower-level employees and management-level workers. Part of the impetus is to give neophytes a look at what they can achieve within the company. Another drive is to pass the culture of the company downward, translating the intents, goals, and objectives of the company from one employee to the next.

While life and executive level coaching remains a major initiative for companies, mentoring has increased its stature and become a viable compliment to coaching as organization invest by reinvesting in themselves. Their most successful salesman and marketing staff reinvest in the company by spending time mentoring someone beneath them. The movie the Firm is a perfect example of this. Tom Cruise became Gene Hackman's understudy from the moment he arrived at the law firm. Hackman's job was more than allowing Cruise to do grunt work. It was to prepare him, to show him the ropes. Between lunches and client meetings, Hackman would be advising Cruise on decisions he made and why he made them. This information is invaluable to a recent college graduation who has a great deal of book knowledge but little practical experience in handling client request and firm policies.

Companies that are looking to reinvest would be wise to take a hard look at mentoring. Beyond increasing the success and stability of its workforce it quickens the rate at which an employee is able to make a sizable contribution to an organization. When successful mentoring has taken place after a 2-3 year period, both know that they have become peers more than anything else. And that relationship benefits the company more than any art piece or real estate acquisition.