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Exploring diversity in mentoring relationships

Leave a Comment / Leadership / By Jo Jeffries

Within any organisation, mentoring is quickly emerging as an incredibly powerful way in which organisational diversity can be encouraged. This is particularly true where there is a need to create greater cross-group understanding whilst ensuring the minority and disadvantaged groups are supported. Unfortunately, mentoring between those groups that are rather unique comes with its own issues.

Define the purpose of your mentoring program

It is important to be clear about the purpose of any program you set up. This is especially the case when it comes to “diversity” mentoring. If your program is simply to support a particular group, then it may be unclear exactly what is going on.

Know your audience

The last thing you want is for your well intentioned leads to create unintentional insults. It is important that your mentoring program does not devalue the group it was hoping to support. Make sure you understand the perspective of those you want to support.

Ensure your program is an opt in one

In order for a mentoring program to be successful it is essential that those involved want to be there. This is very important for a diversity mentoring program or a cross group one where you need individuals to listen to and understand varying different perspectives.

Quality over quantity

Your program, no matter how well intentioned, should be limited with regards to the number of good mentors that you have available. It can be tempting to try to fit in any many diverse individuals as possible. However, if you don’t have the right ratios you will not be able to offer the quality of mentoring that you would like.

Same or different groups?

There is a lot of discussion that looks at the values of having mentees and mentors from the same or different diversities. There are advantages to both. Within a group of like individuals, there is more likely to be great rapport and empathy. However, within different groups you are more like to find a greater degrees of cross-cultural understanding which may be more beneficial. Much of how you decide to do this will depend on the purpose you have already defined.

Training

Unfortunately, mentoring programs cannot just happen. It is important for everyone involved to receive training so that there is value to the mentoring that takes place. For diversity training, this means that everyone involved should be fully aware of all of the diversity issues that may come up. They must be able to foster a caring and sensitive approach to how they handle these issues. That way, you can ensure that the best results are created through the mentoring process.

Acknowledge stereotyping

Finally, and possibly one of the biggest barriers in diversity mentoring, stereotyping can be a real issue. Within a same group, the sharing of these stereotypes may go unquestioned. This can be the case even though this can be the biggest barrier to success. It is important to assure that assumptions are not being made and that stereotypes are acknowledged and discussed. Additionally, mentors must have the training to discuss honestly the role that stereotypes have in terms of mentoring.

The Barriers to Success

In surveys, many senior managers have said that training appears to have only a short-term benefit. Leadership training programmes are undoubtedly a force for good in most cases and particularly where leaders understand the importance of clear, concise and regular communication, as emphasised by experienced mentoring companies like Eric Land Mentoring, leaders in the field of guiding businesses to success through training, mentorship and upskilling.

In the early days of a leadership training course, participants usually gain plenty of benefits and insight, which enables them to work better with colleagues and establish new objectives for their organisation going forward. Unfortunately, this initial surge is too often short-lived as managers and staff settle back into old routines and entrenched attitudes.

It becomes clear what the barriers are to effecting permanent change for the better in companies struggling to achieve their full potential, and the most common ones are:

An unclear direction on strategy and achievement goals

A lack of teamwork among senior executives and leaders

A reluctance by senior managers to change direction or acknowledge their own failings

A reluctance by employees to point out to senior managers the obstacles standing in the way of effective operation

How Leadership Training Can Overcome Barriers to Enable Permanent Change

The most effective leadership training aims to improve individual development and organisational redesign and development in tandem with an emphasis on senior and lower level managers developing and evolving on the job as it were, teaching the art of continual learning in order to adapt to changing circumstances whenever they occur.

A vital part of leadership training is helping managers and senior executives to understand what behaviours and practices are expected of them and particularly in terms of how to set out a clear path to success for their organisation, including the hiring and development of new and existing talent within the company.

Managers can learn to understand the importance of looking for skills gaps within their staff as well as spotting underused employees who could be better employed elsewhere in the organisation with the help of further training and education.

As pointed out earlier, through leadership training, managers could learn the benefits of better communication with company employees and colleagues in order to gain insights into how the organisation is performing, what could be changed or improved and how day-to-day coaching and mentoring could help facilitate new strategies and values on the way to success all across the board.