LEADERSHIP MENTORING

Leadership mentoring: The key to developing and cultivating effective leaders

Creating a strong pipeline of capable leaders – also known as succession planning —is one of the core jobs all executives and people professionals face. It’s not just their job to ensure success today, but to set the company up for success tomorrow as well. This means that an organisation must constantly have one eye trained on the future, and the people who will take it there.

Mentoring provides prospective leaders with a forum for setting, discussing and dissecting a path to leadership with someone who has walked that path before.

Leadership mentoring is a tried and trusted method for developing the best leaders of tomorrow.

Mentoring involves the offering of advice, information, and guidance by a person with useful experience, skills or expertise (mentors) for another individual’s personal and professional development (mentees).

Many of today’s successful leaders have participated in a mentoring program that helped to empower them. These leaders are also often willing to mentor up-and-coming leaders as well. 

There was a time when companies were satisfied with mentors with experience and expertise to help develop their leaders. In general, mentors helped in enhancing leadership skills but had insufficient skills to change attitudes and behaviour.

With the organizational realization that emotional intelligence plays a critical role in leadership, companies looked around for those who could help make their executives emotionally intelligent and change mindsets and behaviour – coaches. Coaches took over the task of shifting behaviors in individuals and organizations.

In recent years. companies have started to look for coaches who can also mentor. 

There is recognition that coaches need to have walked the executive leadership path, to “have been there and done that” with the management experience needed to address real life problems of executives.

The purpose of a mentoring program is to establish a relationship with a mentee and exemplify the ideal model expected of the mentee relating to workplace behaviours, attitudes and skills.  Here are some examples of the benefits of mentoring for both the mentor and mentee.

Mentoring is about transferring information, competence and experience to mentees so that they are equipped to make good choices and build their confidence accordingly. 

As a mentor, you are there to encourage, provide support and nurture because you’ve already ‘walked the path’ of the mentee.

Personal values are important, the below values will lead to a solid relationship between you and your mentee.

Why Mentoring: What the Stats Say…

We see the magic of mentoring in engaging and developing future and current leaders on a daily basis. The statistics tell a clear story:

Þ 71% of Fortune 500 companies have mentoring programs. Why? Because investing in leadership capability pays off in performance, productivity and innovation (Centre for Workplace Leadership 2016).

In a five-year study of 1000 employees (Gartner 2006):

Þ 25% of employees who enrolled in a mentoring program had a salary-grade change, compared to only 5% of workers who did not participate.

Þ Mentees are promoted five times more often than those not in a mentoring program. 

Þ Retention rates were higher for both mentees (22% more) and mentors (20% more) than for employees who did not participate in a mentoring program. 

Research also shows:

Þ Millennials intending to stay with their organisation for more than five years are twice as likely to have a mentor (68%) than not (32%).

Þ 89% of those mentored, go on to mentor others contributing to a culture of learning and mentoring.

How mentoring develops future leaders

Mentors also provide mentees looking for improved leadership with development tools, activities, and practical suggestions for transitioning to becoming a better leader.

Mentoring isn’t just about coffee, chatting, and the verbal advice. Great mentors spur proactivity in mentees, and encourage them to participate in activities, tasks and events which better prepare them to achieve their overarching goals.

A good mentor will know how to draw a mentee out of their comfort zone into more leadership-oriented environments and scenarios, and can talk with a mentee about how they can address certain scenarios they are encountering in real-life, putting leadership skills into real-life context and real-life practice.

How leadership mentoring levels the playing field

One of the known reasons that there is an under representation of certain groups and individuals at the leadership level is that these groups simply don’t have the mentoring, sponsorship, or support networks required to get there.

It’s also harder for them to seek out examples and inspiration in a world where people like them have struggled to blaze that trail in the past.

Leadership mentoring, at the individual level and organisational level, truly levels the playing field for all people.

When female leaders mentor prospective female leaders, they can speak to what it took to break through the glass ceiling.

Leadership mentoring provides underrepresented groups with the exact arsenal and cognitive fuel they need to push through obstacles and make it into leadership positions – where they can mentor, give back, and jolt the status quo and tired paradigm of leadership we have come to know — and not necessarily love.

Actively mentoring for diversity and inclusion is the responsibility of all of us.

A mentor is someone who believes in your and your potential.

If your organization is serious about taking advantage of the many benefits presented by a gender diverse board, leadership mentoring could be the key to unlock your diversity potential.

Would you like to run a leadership mentoring program at your organization, and help build a full leadership pipeline and bullet-proof succession plan?

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Isabel Valle ACTP PCC 

 Peak Performance Strategist

Leadership Coach and Mentor

Isabel is an experienced ICF Coach and Mentor with over 20 years of international work experience holding senior positions within the hospitality industry in countries around the world, as well as over 3,500 hours in Executive and Leadership coaching, mentoring and training. 

She possesses an unconditional belief in people, seeing the amazing potential that is hidden within all of us. 

Isabel facilitates a holistic approach to leadership, growth and success by integrating her corporate experience with coaching, NLP and high-performance techniques.

Among others, she has completed studies in Advanced Coaching, Business Management, Human Resources and Public Relations. She is also DISC certified. Additionally, Isabel is certified as a Master NLP Practitioner, Master NLP Coach, Time Line Therapist, Hypnotherapy and Usui Reiki Practitioner. 

A natural leader, Isabel grew from a Receptionist role in her first hotel job in London to a General Manager’s role with the largest hotel company in the world. She has extensive experience in the areas of strategic leadership and management, operations, human resources, revenue management and sales and marketing, as well as coaching and mentoring. 

Passionate, energetic and highly interactive, she brings a keen insight, pragmatism and a deeply transformative experience for both individuals and organizations. 

She is committed to helping leaders and their teams excel by giving them the tools and insight needed to produce results.

Whether you are considering making a commitment to Executive & Leadership Coaching / Mentoring, or you recognize the need for Leadership Development within your organization, contact Isabel to help you create an exceptional interactive learning experience. 

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“I found Isabel during a challenging time in my career, when I suddenly became the interim head of product and had to lead our team through a difficult organisational change. My initial coaching goals were practical, mainly centering around how to do a job I felt completely unprepared for and not messing up the next 6 months. Isabel helped guide me through this period and I emerged more confident in my abilities. What I am most grateful for however, are the new ways to understand myself, others and the world. All of which has manifested in better habits, a greater sense of empowerment and agency, and feeling more content in life. Isabel is astute in her observations and has an uncanny ability to help you connect the dots and have those ‘aha moments’ where your perspective shifts. She does this with humour, compassion, and infectious energy. I would highly recommend her for anyone looking for a holistic way to become a better leader at work and in life. “