How to Run a Successful Mentorship Program
There are several essential ingredients required for continued success once you launch your program:
Ensuring consistent communication. Programs often fail due to absence of communication, especially when participants feel being left to themselves. It is important to think through the journey of both mentors and mentees, and figure out what type of engagement is required at each stage (intake, onboarding, engagement, exit).
Setting the right expectations for each role. Both mentors and mentees need to be aware of the type of commitment required from them to have a great experience in the program. Some organizations are concerned that mentees and mentors are too overwhelmed to take on additional commitments, but in reality many participants appreciate the benefits and are more than open to making the effort.
Creating a community of mentors. Mentors are the backbone of any mentorship program. Having regular formal and informal ways for mentors to network with each other, and get updates on how the program is doing helps them feel connected and stay engaged.
Aligning mentorship with your organizational goals. For long-term success, your mentorship program needs to be aligned with the goals of the organization.
Setting up feedback loops to evaluate results. It is critical to get both feedback from participants, as well as actual data on progress through different methods to tell the story of your program’s success.
As you can imagine, balancing all these activities and relationships is labor intensive. Therefore, having tools like Traction5 allows you to focus on strategy and relationships, and get a head start on all of these ingredients.
