Turnkey Mentoring
Do you ever have one of those days when you decide to “slow your roll”? The other day I was missing my Dalmatian, Sunny, who my family and I had to put down recently. It was a good day to kick back and go through some old magazines I had been stock piling for a rainy day. As I browsed through copies of Time, Portfolio and Business Week I found it amusing to run across similar business advice articles in Essence, MORE, Oprah and AARP. I was struck by how many times certain subjects are retreaded year after year.
It was especially apparent on the subject of mentoring. I found articles about the benefits of being a mentor, how to attract a mentor, who should be a mentor and how to get ahead in your career with a mentor. Each mentoring piece involved an older, experienced person helping a younger, inexperienced person. What I didn’t see was anyone talking about turnkey mentoring. Can a young person in your organization positively mentor and experienced one?
It seems to me that the current business environment is ripe for turnkey mentoring. We are working in an age where there are four generations in the workforce; Traditionalists, Baby Boomers, Generation X and Millennials. In tough economic times that can feel tight and uncomfortable at every level as each generation is vying for their space in the workplace. Experience versus innovation is the tug of war.
Given our youth obsession in the USA, GenXers and Millennials have a perceived slight advantage called youth. What if companies chose to use the GenXers and Millennials to be mentors to the Traditionalists and Baby Boomers? What can those upstarts teach the “old dogs”?
I can tell you from experience, plenty! At APLS Group we currently have three generations (Baby Boomers, GenXers, Millennials) collaboratively working together side by side and turnkey mentoring is a regular part of doing business. GenXers and Millennials mentor the Boomers on all aspects of advanced technology and Boomers mentor GenXers and Millennials on business savvy.
When the Baby Boomers began their careers the internet, cell phones, personal computers, blackberries, iPods, skype, blue ray, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter were non-existent. GenXers and Millennials can not imagine a world without advanced technology literally at their fingertips. Each generation has an expertise and we practice using our strengths to move the organization forward.
Consider the benefits to your organization by encouraging turnkey mentoring:
- Collaborative work environment
- Respect for all talent
- Empowerment for young mentors
- Appreciation for experience
- Encouragement for employees to keep current with “best industry practices”
- Production fueled by historical and innovative practices
- Building leaders in the business
Turnkey mentoring is a win/win for the employees and the employer. The goodwill it promotes and the respect for each other it demands is an unbeatable combination. Employees are forced to look at each other as colleagues with a contribution to the business instead of adversaries. Everyone has value and by employing the turnkey mentoring strategy employees are valued on a regular basis for their expertise. When times get difficult, as they are today, a collaborative workforce can come up with ingenious solutions to ride out the crises.
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