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Mentering has become one way to expedite diversity efforts, develop future leadership and satisfy the need for a balanced scorecard. Much of the focus on mentoring has been on the program structure, but the heart of mentoring is the relationship between the mentor and mentee. The resources spent on the planning, designing and marketing of most mentoring programs are sorely out of balance with the resources needed to ensure the success of the relationships that are the core of the program. Tips to help participants and administrators get back to the basics of mentoring are presented.

Mentering has become one way to expedite diversity efforts, develop future leadership and satisfy the need for a balanced scorecard. Much of the focus on mentoring has been on the program structure, but the heart of mentoring is the relationship between the mentor and mentee.

The resources spent on the planning, designing and marketing of most mentoring programs are sorely out of balance with the resources needed to ensure the success of the relationships that are the core of the program.

Frustrating, unfulfilling mentoring unions are a dime a dozen. Often both mentor and mentee devote little time to the relationship. One of them-sometimes both of them-consistently cancel and/or postpone meetings, and naturally put off the important task of setting relationship expectations. They lead with their intuition or improvise, instead of making strategic plans for the relationship. In a climate like this, there's no accountability for the success or failure of the relationship. Not only will the individual relationship suffer, the program as a whole will probably fail.

It's time we step out of our perspective as administrators and try to see the program from the participant's eye. At the end of the day, the participant does not care whether the program is online and competency-based. He only wants to be part of something that is worth his time, effort and energy, and that will meet his needs.

Where do you go from here? Here are tips to help participants and administrators get back to the basics of mentoring.

TIPS FOR THE MENTORS:

Make the commitment on paper and in your heart. Treat your mentee as tomorrow's leader, and know that means you can have an active role in shaping the future.

Take the time - more time than expected, if necessary - to find out what the mentee wants from the relationship. Document this goal and stay focused on it.

Maximize the resources you already have by using your business sense to make your relationship successful. Would you start a project without a project plan or communications or a timeline?

TIPS FOR THE MENTEES:

Be a good steward of the opportunity you have been given. Ask questions, both of yourself and your mentor, and keep a journal of what you hear and learn. Ask yourself what you can do with a mentor that you couldn't do without one. What growth will you force that will make the relationship rewarding?

No one can help you work through the areas you protect. Put the opportunities, issues, and fears that you face in the open. If you believe you don't have any such issues or fears, work with your mentor to discover them. You have them; we all do.

Treat your own development with the same respect and urgency that you would an assignment from your supervisor. Make the relationship with your mentor, and the tasks you undertake, a priority.

TIPS FOR THE ADMINISTRATORS:

Listen to the participants in your mentoring program. They are your clients. The more you know about your clients, the better you can serve them.

Stay focused on the purpose of your program, and make sure you ask questions so you clearly understand what that purpose is.

Seek out criticism and listen to it. You will learn the most and make the largest impact if you know what you're doing wrong.

Make the program by the people, for the people. Put away the branding iron and let the participants own it.

Cutting through the bureaucracy and focusing on the basics of the relationship is the key to a successful mentoring program. Don't get carried away with program structure and political correctness, or the inherent nature of the program may get lost.

If you make preparing the participants your top priority, they will grow regardless of the structure you choose.

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