When mentoring matters

The Institute and Faculty of Actuaries has this week launched a new mentoring programme to keep women in the profession, while the 30% Club, which campaigns for a greater share of women on FTSE 100 company boards, is also among the more prominent mentoring advocates.

The role of the mentor is not to tell you what to do, it’s to help you think through things

David Clutterbuck, European Mentoring & Coaching Council

The Department for Work and Pensions and the Financial Conduct Authority are some of the employers – most of which are public sector – that take part in a mentoring scheme aimed at supporting people from minority ethnic backgrounds.

Mentoring is often welcomed by organisations and individuals as a means to facilitate the passing on of skills and experience while improving retention, but success is not guaranteed.

Timma Marett, head of communications at Women Ahead, which organises the IFoA’s programme, said mentoring helps mentors better understand the issues employees are facing, and can thus create more empathetic leaders.

For the mentee, it “gives you quality, uninterrupted time to think about where you are, celebrate successes, but also work out where you want to develop”.

Marett advised matching mentors and mentees carefully. “You can learn most from people who are very much not like you,” she said, stressing that structured mentoring in particular benefits both sides.

Set goals and boundaries

To make mentoring a positive experience, it is not enough to simply throw two people together, agreed David Clutterbuck, special ambassador for the European Mentoring & Coaching Council.

A well-designed programme should be “very clear what the purpose is, and trains mentor and mentees”. The support should continue during the first six to 12 months, he added, through webinars and other training.

Organisations should also be clear about the outcomes they want and how it is going to benefit a particular group or the organisation.

He said mentoring can deliver significant value as people identify and analyse their learning and become more mature. 

Clutterbuck pointed out that mentoring is not the same as sponsorship, where more senior staff actively promote and oversee the career of a junior. “The role of the mentor is not to tell you what to do, it’s to help you think through things,” he said.

But he admitted there can be issues. One of them is the risk of creating dependency. “That’s why good progammes have a beginning and end to a relationship,” he said.

Dependencies are more likely to occur in the US model of more directive sponsorships, he said, where sexual abuse is also “common”. He therefore advises adhering to the international standards for mentoring programmes.

Beware unrealistic expectations and favouritism

Unrealistic expectations – particularly in relation to promotions – and a role conflict between boss and mentor are potential pitfalls for mentees, according to a 1999 paper on the pros and cons of mentoring by Lisa Catherine Ehrich and Brian Hansford of Queensland University of Technology. 

On the mentor side, a lack of skills needed can become a problem. Pressure to take on a mentoring role and resentment of mentees are further potential minefields. 

Previous studies have also pointed to the risk of creating a structure built around favouritism, as well as the resentment that can arise among non-participants. 

Sally Bridgeland, senior adviser at consultancy Avida International, said the question of whether mentoring can lead to nepotism is valid, but for her the benefits still outweigh the drawbacks when it comes to mentoring women. 

“Is an old boys and girls’ network better than an old boys’ network? I think so,” she said.

Bridgeland pointed out the current shortage of women mentors. “My mentors have all been men, who have helped me see the male perspective – and I hope I helped them see the female perspective, too,” she said. “But there were few women more senior than me, so [I had] little choice.”