A common mistake for managers to make is believing that their sole responsibilities are to delegate tasks among their employees and to make the tough executive decisions. The most successful managers, however, understand that acting as a mentor for their employees is at least as important as carrying out the more mundane or technical duties of their role. But what, exactly, does it mean to mentor one’s employees, and how can mentoring lead to someone becoming a more efficient, influential, and successful manager?
In this post, we’ll take a look at four ways in which make an effort to mentor your employees can produce a happier and stronger workplace.
- Mentoring Builds Stronger Relationships – When employers make an effort to work with developing the skills of their employees, it sends a very clear message that they’re invested not only in the success of their company but also in the success of their team members. It’s impossible to overstate the feelings of unity, cohesion, and mutual support that this effort can cultivate in a workplace.
- Providing Opportunities For Education to Your Employees Produce Results – If your employees feel constrained by a lack of learning opportunities or they’re unable to reach their full potential due to a lack of being challenged, their performance (and attitude) can quickly decline. Conversely, employees that are provided with frequent opportunities to learn and develop their skills are much more likely to be engaged and enthusiastic in their work. It’s the responsibility of managers, therefore, to ensure that programs designed to educate their employees are integrated into their workplace.
- Millennials Thrive With a Workplace Mentor – The massive influx of millennial workers in recent years has led employers to adopt new workplace models and leadership styles. In particular, many leaders have come to understand that acting as a mentor for their millennial workforce can greatly reduce employee turnover. In an illustrative survey of this phenomenon, recent research from Deloitte found that out of a broad group of respondents who reported that they plan to stay at their current company for the next five years, 68% percent said that they currently had a mentor.
- Mentorship Can Be Accomplished in Stages – No manager can hope to become a successful mentor overnight. It takes time, practice, and collaboration to develop the skills of mentorship and to produce positive results. To successfully cultivate mentor/mentee relationships, managers need to check in with team leaders and with individual employees regularly: what do they need, specifically, to feel maximally empowered and to learn new skills? What would the optimal mentor/mentee relationship look like to them?
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