How to Build a Mentoring Culture

A mentoring culture adds a level of professional advancement to an organization. By creating a culture that encourages employees to form professional bonds and pass information and methods on to each other, your company will become more productive. Follow these steps to build a mentoring culture in your organization.

Instructions

1. Acknowledge the personality of each team member. A mentoring culture requires that people in an organization know who their colleagues are, not just what they do for the company. Team-building days, frequent staff meetings and a general attitude of professional friendliness are key first steps in building a mentoring culture.

2. Keep groups small. Companies like Gore & Associates (the manufacturer of Gore-Tex, among other things) that have managed to build successful mentoring cultures keep the size of their business sites small enough for everyone to know everyone else on site. This makes it easy for an employee to know whom to look to for help or mentoring.

3. Institute an open door policy. Many large companies, such as Hewlett-Packard, use an open door policy to encourage employees to speak with one another and their superiors whenever they want. An open door policy helps employees to feel comfortable enough to approach a potential mentor or protege and begin a mentoring relationship.

4. Make the mentoring culture visible. The more you show the success of existing mentoring relationships, the more other people will seek out new relationships of this kind. Set aside time in each staff meeting to mention the progress of mentoring relationships and any prospects for further relationships that might exist. Also, encourage employees to form small teams to develop new ideas.