The Leader as Mentor

Abstract

Executive Summary The evolution and mechanics of mentoring are examined as a prelude to arguing that mentoring is a natural component of effective leadership. Pro-social behavioral roots for mentoring are discussed and informal and formal mentoring programs are compared. The goals, merits, and problems with mentoring are explored. Employee opinions about mentoring are reported as uniformly positive and newly gathered opinions from mentoring students and hospitality industry managers are discussed. Conclusions include that mentoring is a natural part of the leadership dynamic and that mentoring of any kind is beneficial to employees. Suggestions are made as to how to improve the mentoring talents of leaders.

Leadership and mentorship: service leaders as mentors of the followers

“…Serving as a mentor for young professionals is a natural component of effective leadership [7,8]. As asserted by Russell and Nelson, 'true leaders seize the opportunity to develop other people' [8, p. 41].…”

“…To illustrate, in a longitudinal study assessing mentors and mentees' outcomes of a formal mentoring program, mentors' professional support predicted heightened emotional well-being and commitment to the organization of mentees [18]. Informal mentoring brings even more satisfying outcomes to mentees' career development and psychosocial adjustment, which may possibly be due to a closer relationship and mutual identification with the relationship [19] or altruistic nature of informal mentoring [7]. With the help of mentors, the mentees would grow faster than their peers.…”

“…The responsibility of being a good role model also stimulates mentors to adjust and improve themselves [8]. The interaction between mentor and mentee makes the beneficial outcomes of mentoring experience powerful and enduring [7].…”

“…She identified the seven 'deadly sins of mentorship' in a mentoring program, which include ignorance of improving mentoring skills, over reliance on preaching, acquiescence on mentees' problem avoidance, over concentration on disclosing one's own anecdotes, generalizing the issue in teaching mentees, and lack of consensus in objectives and ground rules. Even the closeness of a mentor-mentee relationship itself implies potential risks, such as making the relationship more personal and less professional [7]. These 'deadly sins' might not solely be attributed to mentors' problems.…”

Developing tomorrow's talent: the case of an undergraduate mentoring programme

“…The team decided to target senior hospitality and tourism professionals in line with the arguments from the literature that it is senior managers who often have the "most to give" and benefit from mentoring (Allen, 2003;Clutterbuck, 2004;Gibson et al, 2000). Each potential participant was asked to send a personal profile of their career to date, to participate in a mentor briefing session and attend a matching event.…”