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194 Retaining Top Employees

What Is Mentoring?

Historical Background
In The Odyssey, Mentor was the person entrusted by Odysseus
to teach and raise his son Telemachus while he was absent on
his many travels. Trustworthy and credible, Mentor soon
became the epitome of wise counsel and sage instruction.
Some form of mentoring has always taken place in the busi-
ness environment, however informally. The friendly discussion
over coffee, a few well-chosen words in the rest room after a
hasty outburst, and the quiet hand-written note to congratulate
a colleague on handling a difficulty well: such activities have
always played their part in the development of top employees.
For decades many world-class companies (some famous,
like GE, but most unknown outside their own communities)
have had more formalized mentoring relationships.
As a manager of key employees you will need to provide at
least informal mentoring-based guidance and, depending on the
organization, you may well be involved in a more formal men-
toring program at some time.
Defining Terms for Your Mentoring Program
Mentoring is all about people—the people who do the mentor-
ing, the people who are being mentored, and the people who
are impacted by the mentoring relationship.
We’re going to define the roles and functions in your men-
toring program primarily in terms of what people do. Designing
an effective mentoring program really means putting in place
the culture, resources, and structure necessary for two or more
people to develop an effective relationship, which will help at
least one of them develop.
The first step in designing your mentoring program is to
understand who will be involved and what is expected of them.
The rest of this chapter will introduce you to the major cate-
gories of individuals involved in a mentoring program and give
you the opportunity to define for yourself the role they will play
in your mentoring program.