The value of task-based mentors
Collaborative learning has been shown to be one of the most effective types of learning. We call it “task-based mentoring” though you may call it “flash mentoring”, “peer coaching”, or “modern apprenticeship”. Unlike traditional mentors, a task-based mentor has a start and end date.
And mentoring does not have to be in-person to be effective – make use of virtual meetings to expand the scope of internal networks!
Why should your organization embrace short-term mentoring relationships? Read on to find out!
The value to mentees
The value of a mentoring relationship to mentees may seem somewhat obvious.
Mentees get just-in-time, personalized learning on the topic where they need support.
Plus, mentees get an opportunity to develop internal networks with individuals who might be in a different department, region or business unit. This then helps cross-functional collaboration in the future.
Even when paired with someone in the same work team, the opportunity to learn from someone else deepens the relationship and respect for one another.
Because the relationship is short-term, task-based mentoring creates many opportunities to be paired with different individuals across the organization.
These short-term relationships add up. They create a connection with the organization making it hard for someone to leave. In other words… they drive retention.
The value to mentors
In order to reach higher levels of proficiency and demonstrate that they are ready for senior level or management positions, people need to have the opportunity to practice coaching or mentoring others on specific tasks. Being a task-based mentor provides them with these opportunities.
A task-based mentor is a short-term commitment, enabling those who can mentor to find more opportunities to leverage.
Task-based mentors “get” as well as “give”. Research shows that the act of teaching someone something solidifies and increases your own skill level. They may need to create tools, templates, and instructions, structure that others can use, bringing them to even higher levels of proficiency. So, mentors learn from task-based mentoring too.
Through the act of teaching someone to do something specific, where you want the mentee to actually apply the learning, it’s almost like getting an intern for some project or real work that needs to get done. To the mentor, rather than creating more work, teaching someone to do something you had to do anyway helps both of you. Then you provide oversight and feedback on the completed work. (See example below)
Those with only a few advanced or expert skills, (who would not normally be tapped for a traditional mentoring program), have the opportunity to experience the impact of mentoring others. They leverage their strengths. And this may increase their drive for higher levels of proficiency in other areas.
Helping others is personally satisfying and drives satisfaction and retention.
The value to the organization
As each person gets tapped for the skills they are really good at, they become increasingly engaged as they see their value and purpose grow within the organization. In fact, being assigned as a task-based mentor becomes both recognition and a reward.
While task-based mentoring doesn’t replace traditional mentoring, unlike the traditional variety, it requires almost no training or administration.
Having task-based mentors expands your mentoring pool, since nearly everyone has expertise in at least one task or skill.
While everyone knows the importance of building networks, few have time to prioritize those efforts. Task-based mentoring streamlines this process, connecting each person to many others.
These short-term engagements break down silos between departments, improving cross-functional and overall collaboration skills, and ultimately improving organizational efficiency.
Consider that if I’m the mentee working on a task or project with the mentor in their area, I’m seeing how things work and their challenges. That will make me more empathetic if I’m upstream or downstream from them.
When I have a problem and I’ve either been the mentee to or mentored several people in other departments, I’m more likely to be able to locate and bring the right people together quickly for a solution.
Task-based mentoring serves as a development vehicle when:
No formal learning exists or is not available in a timely manner
The skill can’t be well learned through formal learning
There is little defined formal or informal learning
The entire organization builds its bench strength as a team, working together to pull each other up with little to no cost. All the while, the process is creating stronger internal personal connections within and across departments and regions.
Successfully implementing task-based mentoring
So, assuming you buy into the value of this technique, how do you implement it?
You must have a role-based competency model.
Each person must self-assess against it with a competency assessment system. This creates the data that identifies who needs a mentor and who could be a mentor. Remember that an individual can act as both a mentor or mentee, as they may be proficient in skills that allow them to teach others and yet have other skills for which they can learn from someone else.
The competency assessment tool should make it easy for managers to identify their team members’ individual skill gaps and locate potential task-based mentors across the organization so they can be temporarily paired.
Both the mentor and the mentee should understand the scope of the relationship – to help increase one particular task or skill.
Time should be set aside for the two to work together on shadowing and practicing the specific behaviors that demonstrate the required proficiency for that skill, which comes directly from the role’s competency model. Get real work accomplished together!
The mentee should reassess on that skill following the opportunity to practice, in order to demonstrate a change in skill… which becomes a positive reflection on both the mentor and mentee.
The mentee’s manager should reassess them, to confirm the target proficiency was indeed achieved.
Summary
If you want to leverage the expertise you know exists within your organization…
If you’re looking for a way to be a strength-based organization…
If you want to increase employee engagement, satisfaction and retention…
If you want to drive cross-functional collaboration and organizational efficiency, …
Take a look at implementing task-based mentoring. This feature is embedded right into the workflow of our Self-Directed Learning Engine™.
Skill: Data Analysis
Example
The mentor needs to crunch some data for a project and identify trends and draw conclusions. The mentee has not done this work before in their present job. The mentor teaches the mentee how to create a pivot table and pivot charts and examine the data in different ways. The mentor shows a sample of a trend they spot from their initial look. The mentee continues to analyze the data using the new tools with oversight by the mentor. The mentee identifies what they believe are trends and why, and the mentor guides them as to the validity of their findings. Together they write up a summary of their analysis. The mentor completed their analysis and the mentee knows how to use data analysis tools, spot trends and write conclusions.