Ment to be
- RIE Solutions
- Jan 29
- 7 min read
Have you benefited from a mentor(s)? Was that a game-changer for you and your career? I know it was for me and I am immensely grateful for all my mentors past and present. Are you paying forward now?
Mentorship is a powerful tool that can shape the trajectory of one’s career and play a pivotal role in fostering talent, promoting diversity, and driving innovation.
According to the National Mentoring Day organisation, 76% of UK businesses reported that mentoring had been key to their growth. In the same report, 60% of UK businesses said mentoring helped them develop their business strategy, 66% that it helped them survive, and over half (52%) said it helped boost their revenue. Naturally, many other factors can contribute to a successful business, nevertheless, mentoring gets a particularly good press.
Have you ever heard about National Mentoring Day? It’s 10 years old this year. Founded in 2014 and inaugurated as an official National Day by the Houses of Parliament in 2016 it boasts an impressive national and global reach with over 170,000 businesses participating, including the UK government, The Football Association, and Google . Currently a substantial number of UK businesses are not actively engaging in mentoring programs, particularly in the financial services sector, missing out on potential benefits for their success.
The UK government’s Help to Grow mentorship program provides business support and advice to help UK businesses start, grow, and succeed. Over 9,000 participants have enrolled in the Help to Grow: Management program, from all over the UK. Interestingly the Financial and Insurance activities sector only account for 4% of completed participants as opposed to 15% for the Manufacturing sector and 11% of completed participants each from the Construction and Professional sector, and the Scientific and Technical Activities sector. Why is this the case?
‘Ment’ to be
Like many important things, getting the most out of mentoring takes time, which is in scarce supply for busy managers in financial services. Additionally, the investment of time doesn’t have an immediate payback. Mentorship is a medium to long-term strategy. If you are busy the temptation is to ‘just get on with it’ and mentoring doesn’t happen. An understandable but shortsighted approach.
An added complication is that mentoring is a skill. Just because you are a great Operations Manager, a great Paraplanner, or a brilliant Adviser, that doesn’t mean you’ll make a great mentor. Some element of training is required to make you an effective mentor. Another time commitment that can be a blocker.
Mentoring isn’t about creating a carbon copy of yourself, but more about creating the conditions for the mentee to flourish and become the best version of themselves. Mentees will make mistakes, which you must allow to happen, as this is how real learning occurs. Being overprotective of a mentee is counterproductive, and can clip their wings as well as, result in their loss of confidence. Instead, a good mentor helps the individual to reflect on their mistakes so that they can fly again – but this time higher and with greater confidence.
Why to ‘ment’?
How can you be persuaded to make the time for mentoring? Look at the benefits. Mentoring benefits both mentees and mentors, providing leadership development opportunities, networking, increased empathy, and personal satisfaction. This in turn benefits the organisation.
Benefits of mentoring for a mentee
Experienced mentors provide feedback, guidance, and advice, helping mentees avoid some pitfalls, seize opportunities, and develop professionally by sharing their own experiences, resources, networks, and accumulated wisdom.
Provides a channel to brainstorm ideas, communicate concerns, and receive support.
Builds confidence and self-esteem helping mentees get clarity on their role within the business.
Fosters personal growth and development.
Mentors can help to inspire, motivate, and increase the confidence and/or self-esteem of the mentees.
The mentor can inculcate and provide insights into the culture of the business by giving the mentee a deeper and broader perspective of the business and by being a positive role model (assuming the mentor is from inside your business).
Mentoring fosters collaboration by creating a supportive environment to allow professionals to connect and learn from each another. In many cases, the learnings can be accelerated by the mentorship process.
Mentors from diverse backgrounds and areas of expertise can broaden the mentee’s understanding and enhance their critical thinking and decision-making skills and support diversity.
Mentors can provide an accountability loop for mentees leading to things being achieved faster.
Mentors can advise on career progression, strengths, weaknesses, and navigating the corporate ladder, to help the mentee develop a focused plan for professional development in terms of skills, knowledge, and actions.
Mentors can introduce mentees to key contacts both within the business and the wider business sector.
Supports increased motivation, stress management, and positive mental health.
Mentors can encourage loyalty amongst mentees to stay in the business for the long-term.
Benefits of mentoring for a mentor
Opportunity to create a lasting impact and leave a legacy.
Opportunity to demonstrate commitment to developing people.
Personal satisfaction of guiding and sharing with another person.
Vehicle to keep “in touch” with issues and concerns in the business or sector.
Opportunity to use and develop leadership and communication skills, building confidence.
Opportunity to pass on values, and/or an ongoing mission that are important to the mentor.
Learning from the mentees’ questions, experience, and expertise.
Enhanced and strengthened interpersonal and coaching skills. Improved rapport building, questioning, listening and development of other positive soft skills.
There are always many lessons to be learned when teaching others, which provides new opportunities for personal growth and self-development.
A chance to give back if you have been mentored.
Benefits of mentoring to the business
More engaged and productive teams.
Supports learning and career development through knowledge transfer, enhancing professional skills within the business.
Mitigates ‘brain drain.’
Fosters future leaders.
Creates a sense of belonging, boosting morale, job satisfaction, and building a positive culture in the business.
Improves leadership, management, and communication skills.
Develops employees’ confidence, awareness, and emotional intelligence.
Empowers and engages mentees to make a bigger contribution to the business.
Enhances communication and networking within the business.
Builds accountability.
Assists with succession planning.
Improves retention rates and loyalty of talented individuals.
Helps with new employee onboarding.
Design a mentorship program!
A slapdash approach to mentoring can be counterproductive. Those businesses that do mentoring and do it well reap the benefits. Looking across the pond mentoring gets an equally good press as in the UK. The 2024 Mentoring Impact Report published in March shows that “the number of US Fortune 500 companies offering visible mentoring programs has reached 98%” and interestingly that “Median profits for US Fortune 500 companies with mentoring programs were twice that of those without mentoring”. This evidence suggests mentoring is good for business and companies with mentoring programs are more profitable.
For best results, developing a formal, structured, and managed mentorship program works best. Designing a mentorship program for financial service professionals in the UK could involve several key steps to ensure the program is effective, beneficial, and tailored to the unique needs of the sector. Here are some suggestions:
1. Define the Objectives and Scope of the mentoring Program
Determine the goals of the mentorship program. This could include career development, skill enhancement, networking opportunities, or leadership growth.
Establish the scope of the program, including the duration, the number of participants, open to which employees’ roles, internal/external mentors, and the structure of the mentor-mentee relationships.
2. Identify your Target Audience
Decide on the criteria for mentors and mentees. For mentors, consider sector experience, expertise, and willingness to participate. For mentees, assess the level of experience and the specific areas where they seek growth.
3. Structure the Program
Choose between one-on-one or group mentorship, or a combination of both.
Draft roles and responsibilities of mentees and mentors.
Set up a schedule for regular meetings, workshops, and check-ins.
Develop a curriculum or framework that guides the mentorship process, including setting expectations, goals, and milestones.
Have clear rules e.g. confidentiality.
4. Recruitment and Matching
Recruit mentors from within the business or industry leaders.
Match mentors and mentees (pairing) based on shared interests, career paths, and professional development goals. Mentees can be given the option to propose who they would like as mentors.
Provide training for mentors to ensure they are prepared to offer guidance and support effectively.
5. Provide Resources and Support
Offer easily accessible tools and resources such as training materials, access to industry events, and professional development courses.
Establish a support system for participants to address any issues or challenges that arise during the mentorship.
6. Monitor Progress and Feedback
Implement a system for tracking progress against the set goals and objectives.
Regularly collect feedback from both mentors and mentees to evaluate the effectiveness of the program and make necessary adjustments.
7. Evaluate and Adapt
At the end of the program, conduct a thorough evaluation to assess its impact.
Use the insights gained to refine and improve future iterations of the mentorship program.
The cost of not mentoring is too great to ignore
Can you afford not to have a mentoring program? Is a more profitable and productive business, where your employees are engaged, continuing to develop and grow, and happy to stay with your business not incentive enough? Look at the flipside, there is a cost to your business when productivity and profitability are lower, when employees are not engaged, when employees leave or quietly quit. Follow the Fortune 500 lead and get with the mentorship program and future-proof your business. It’s ment to be. 😉
If you are a member of the Master Practitioners Club our mentorship program will be launched at our Annual Get Together in London on November 14th. Hopefully, you are keen to be involved either as a mentor or a mentee. 🙏
How Great Mentor Relationships Are Formed – Simon Sinek
“Both parties show up to teach and both parties show up to learn”
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