Here Are The Five Mistakes We Make While Designing A Mentoring Program

Mentoring Programs
Published on
June 7, 2019

The benefits of a well-designed mentoring program have already been experienced first-hand by thousands of organizations. Not only does it help the mentee develop their professional and personal abilities, thereby helping them advance their career, but it also has tons of advantages for the organization itself. From employee onboarding and engagement to retention, a mentoring program can boost many organizational measures.

However, some organizations may find that their mentoring programs do not bear the results they expected. In most cases, this is due to the poor design of the program. As an entrepreneur, here are the most common mentoring program design mistakes you should avoid:

  • Failing to communicate goals and expectations clearly

Participants of the mentoring program need to know how they can benefit from the program. Only then will they be interested in investing their time and energy into it. This means that you need to communicate what both the mentor and mentee can take away from the experience. Equally is making sure that participants are made aware of their roles and responsibilities. Each mentoring program is different, so you cannot assume that they will intuit what they are expected to do.

  • Not gaining executive support

A considerable part of a mentoring program's success depends on executive support. Even if executives are not directly involved in the mentorship program, it doesn't mean that they are exempted from providing their support. Administrative support is critical to the success of a mentoring program because only then can you have access to the money and resources to design, launch, and monitor the program. Besides, if you have executives who support the program, it becomes easier to navigate political waters and overcome internal barriers.

  • Poor matching of mentors and mentees

Mentor-mentee pairing is one of the most important aspects of any mentoring program. If the mentor and mentee you've paired do not get along well together, the experience will not benefit either one of them. The compatibility of participants is an essential factor that can make or break a mentoring program, so every measure must be taken to make sure the mentor and mentee are paired well. With Mentor Cloud's multi-parameter-based matching engine, you can be assured that each mentor and mentee will be compatible.

  • Treating the mentoring program as a one-way street

Many startups and budding entrepreneurs make a common mistake when it comes to mentoring programs because they see the program as a one-way street. In other words, they think that the mentor will teach and the mentee will learn, and that's the only way it can be. This approach is wrong and, in reality, can be very harmful. The truth is that a mentorship program is a learning and teaching experience for both the mentor and mentee. While the mentee will learn from a more experienced senior, the mentor also knows a lot from a younger professional with a fresh mind. Understanding and accepting this is a game-changer that will yield the desired results.

  • Failing to monitor and measure results

A grave mistake that many companies commit is not monitoring the mentoring program and failing to measure results. They think that once the program is launched and is in motion, the work is done. They fail to realize that mentoring is a continuous process that's part of an organization's knowledge-sharing culture.

If you're a budding entrepreneur or a startup planning to implement a mentoring program in your company, make sure to avoid these common mistakes to have a higher chance of success. MentorCloud is here to help you guide on scientific mentoring activities. Book for a demo and know us better.  


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