How to Start a Mentoring Culture

What is a Mentoring Culture? A mentoring culture is one that encourages and embraces learning and development. ‘Mentoring brings us together – across generation, class, and often race – in a manner that forces us to acknowledge our interdependence, to appreciate, in Martin Luther King Jr.’s words, that ‘we are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied to a single garment of destiny.’ In this way, mentoring enables us to participate in the essential but unfinished drama of reinventing community, while reaffirming that there is an important role for each of us in it’. Source: Marc Freedman

MentorCity™ creates innovative mentoring programs for businesses, universities/colleges, and not-for-profits/associations; however the mentoring program alone without a mentoring culture may reduce the long term impact and sustainability of the program. Here are some tips for creating a mentoring culture:

• Ensure that your mentoring program aligns well with your organization’s values, mission, and goals.
• Organizational leadership must support your mentoring program.
• Appreciate the importance of your mentoring program and allocate the funds and time required to support it.
• Ensure that your mentoring program is highly visible in your organization. Talk about mentoring regularly and its benefits to the participants.
• Create value for your mentoring program. Encourage employees to participate in your mentoring program and as a result they will become champions of the program.
• Support the confidentiality of the mentor/mentee relationship.

Contact MentorCity™ today for more information on how our private label mentor programs can benefit your company. We can create a mentor program that aligns with your organization’s values, mission and goals and advise on how to create a mentoring culture to support the program.