Why don't people want to be mentored?!?!

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Permalink Reply by Ben McEwen on April 7, 2009 at 8:39pm

Hi Jen

Hope you are well! An interesting question here, I had one or two thoughts. Firstly perhaps the fact that in order to be legible for mentoring, participants have to align themselves into a group which may have historically caused them problems. It could be argued that these diversity strands have previously acted as barriers for progression for people. I understand the point of the exercise is to help people in these categories but in many cases I think it would take a brave face to actually voluntarily place oneself into a particular pigeon hole which is labeled as a minority or could be seen by others as disadvantaged (though I appreciate you are turning this around to diversity).

The second thought I had was how are you communicating the scheme to these people? The foundation is providing great resources to those future stars who by definition might not ordinarily receive this kind of talent development, so how can we be sure they are hearing about this one? I think the one and all foundation is a brilliant initiative and I was surprised to read about the low uptake from potential mentees. I would suggest a recommendation initiative whereby people who have attended the forums/know about the scheme can actively identify people within the strands of diversity in their businesses and would then be in a position to influence, recommend the scheme and then be instrumental in assisting the person to make the initial contact?

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Permalink Reply by Jose Ruiz on April 14, 2009 at 8:25pm

That is a very interesting point you raised there Ben. Can hardly wait to hear more on this discussion.
Maybe it would be good to have a better understanding about what the foundation's aims are with this initiative because having read what you said, I tend to agree with you.

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Permalink Reply by Jennifer Miller on April 15, 2009 at 12:35pm

Hi Jose and Ben,

Thanks for your thoughts...

It's true that these 'strands' are often seen as barriers, and may in fact create barriers to progression and development - overall, that is what One and All is about - finding out more about these barriers and then trying to remove them!!

Our initial approach for mentees has been through businesses - encouraging people to nominate candidates for mentoring - and it does take time for messages to filter through... I wonder if managers are reluctant to tap an employee on the shoulder and suggest their involvement 'because they are female/black/gay' and so the message never actually gets through?

On your point Jose - The foundation aims to identify barriers to progresion for talented individuals from these 'strands' of diversity - and then act upon this information to help the industry tap into the diverse talent already employed within it... Our current projects include a series of discussion forums, the reverse mentoring programme and some reasearch into the industry demographics and good practice... you can read more at www.oneandall.org.uk

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Permalink Reply by Ben McEwen on April 15, 2009 at 1:06pm

Jen

Interesting you could be on to something with your thoughts about actually filtering the message through. Perhaps one idea would be based around how managers can identify and approach these candidates within their business and alert them to the opportunity?

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