Mentoring for Advancement

"A company's intellectual capital, talent, intangibles, and capabilities all derive from the competence and commitment of its human resource professionals." Dave Ulrich Professor of Business Ross School of Business, University of Michigan

If your contribution as Human Resources professionals is key to your organization’s growth, why is gaining support and resources often difficult?

They speak a different language.

To what extent do you have business literacy? 1.What are the annual revenues of your business? 2.How does your business "make money"? Of every $100 that your organization takes in, how much comes out the other end as profit and what happens in between? 3.What is your company's market value? 4.What is your company's type of funding? If equity, what type of stock are you and who are some of the major investors? If debt, who are the major lenders and what is their credit rating for your company? 5.Who are your company's major customers? Why do they buy from you (what are their buying criteria)? 6.What is your market share in your dominant product/service? What is your customer share of your top customers? 7.What is your company's firm brand or desired reputation among target customers? How well is your company delivering on this brand promise? 8.Who are your primary competitors? What are their strengths? 9.What are the agenda items of a recent meeting of your company's board of directors? 10.What are the objectives and goals of the top manager of your company? Source: Dave Ulrich.

Self-Assessment What are my strengths? What are my challenges? Do I have a good business IQ? Am I aware of my professional needs? To whom can I go to clarify them? Should my goals focus on HR or the business?

Leveraging Mentoring for your Growth Laying the Groundwork for your mentoring partnership. We’ll talk about: Structuring your partnership Best Practices Common Mistakes Goal Setting Identifying potential mentors Approaching your prospective mentor

Structuring the Partnership How often will we meet? Where will we meet? Do you want an agenda prior to our meeting? What do you expect of me? How long with our partnership last? When will we know that our goals are met? What if something gets in our way? To what are we committing? For how long?

Best Practices Book your appointments in advance. Keep your commitments. Listen to your mentors advice. Do your homework. Give your mentor feedback on how it is going from your point of view. Thank your mentor.

Common Mistakes  Choosing a mentor based on personality or position in your organization.  Choosing a mentor based on gender or racial background.  Missing appointments.  Leaving it up to the mentor.  Lack of follow through on goals and objectives of partnership.  Thinking that we should have goals related to functional area only.

Goal Setting Set Five-Year Goals Break them down into manageable steps Start with zero-sum thinking Beware of the limiting voice inside your head!

Approaching Prospective Mentors Put your request in writing State clearly the reason for your request Share your compatibility Offer an agenda Share goals Don’t take a negative response personally Be ready to approach more than one candidate

Prepare for your first meeting 1.Get to know each other 2.Outline Expectations 3.Review the mentee’s goals and objectives. 4.Identify one goal to work toward by the next meeting. 5.Confirm a date and time for the next three meetings. 6.Determine how you’ll confront hurdles should they arise.

We’ve covered a lot here in the time we’ve had….How does this work for us as professional mentoring match makers?

About Mentor Resources We work with companies who want to attract top talent, develop and retain that talent and transfer organizational knowledge.

Focus on Mentoring Mentoring is a powerful way to accomplish these goals. At Mentor Resources, we offer two methods of mentoring. 1.One with a mentor from outside your organization or company. AND 2.One with a mentor from inside your organization.

We select the mentor perfect for the mentee’s needs. One-on-one mentoring partnership One-year partnership Business Forums Networking with other high-performing professionals like you. Cross-Company Program

Our Clients We match mentors and mentees from the same company with: WisdomShare™,a fully customizable, one-of-a-kind software that automatically matches the experiences, the learnings and the wisdom experienced people have with others ready to advance their careers.

WisdomShare™ Automatically matches mentees with mentors based on 128 item match criteria Sets partnership goals Trains partners on best practices Communicates with participants Manages partnerships Handles all administrative tasks Evaluates mentoring success Is fully customizable

WisdomShare™

Match Process

After Mentor Agrees to Match Match is confirmed online. Match is automatically sent to mentee and mentor. First Orientation Packet is sent. Automatic Communication System is set into motion including Skill Builder Guides, updates and evaluations.

What does a coordinator need to do to get it ready to use? Upon registration, the coordinator customizes the organizational site by: Entering Logo Specifying Program Length Specifying organizational title structure Reviewing, choosing and/or customizing Skill Builder Guides Invites mentors and mentees to participate

What is automated after initial setup? Match Announcement Orientation and Training Coaching for the first meeting All Communication Collecting Evaluation Data Viewing Mentor/ Mentee Status Auto Ping Feature

Web-enhanced knowledge sharing application that provides content and structure while it fully manages your mentoring program.

To sign up for our newsletter or for notes and links, give me a business card. If you’d like to see a demo about WisdomShare™, send me an . My contact info… Kim Wise