Tammy Erickson Associates Building Intelligent Organizations

Q&A: Mentoring Someone Whose Role Is Not Stimulating

Tammy,

I have been a mentor to a new employee from a different department for several months. We have been discussing job performance, his role at work, how to deal with the changing climate here due to the business conditions that have changed his role from an analyst to more of a day to day paper pusher, and how to deal with it. I am looking for new ideas/ subects to discuss with him. Any suggestions as to keeping our mentoring relationship meaningful and interesting?

Thanks,

Ed

Hi Ed,

One possibility, depending on his interests and yours, would be to evolve into even more of a teaching role—about the business broadly, as opposed to the specifics of his current responsibilities. For example, you might have some sessions on how your company makes money—how the business model works—including reviewing the Annual Report and other financial documents, explaining relevant terms, and thinking together about how the department your mentee works in affects the firm’s performance. Perhaps you can invite him to spend some time with you in your department, learning more about the work there. You might bring in articles written about your company, industry or issues that impact your business for discussion—or maybe an article from a management journal or book. A number of business books today include discussion guides, (including Plugged In, the book I wrote for Gen Y’s—you can download it from this site.)

I hope that helps. He’s lucky to have you!

Best,

Tammy

Filed under: Generation Y | Published: 05/11/09

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