5 Ways to Improve Team Performance Through Mentoring

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Workplace mentoring is the process by which the company provides mentors to staff members to enhance team productivity. Mentors are role models and supporters whom the team members can look up to in times of trouble or doubt. These mentors advise, guide, and inspire the team to achieve more by working smart.

Eliminating Bias

The initial phase toward changing biased behaviour is to become aware of our thoughts and beliefs. Mentors must be role models and engage in a healthy mode of conduct. Mature practices that overcome implicit prejudices are contagious but must originate from mentors. Any evaluations of the mentees must be fair and accurate.

If the mentors are unaware of their biased treatment, the management must intervene to remedy it. Recognising self-biases will enable the mentors to change their treatment of the mentees for the better. The mentee should also recognise that sometimes changing the biased behaviour of their co-workers or mentors can take time.

The entire company must work together to deal with biased behaviour. An awareness campaign as an attempt to tackle the issues can be a good start. It can involve the whole company and can be part of the company culture. The leaders can take on the mantle and be the initial batch of mentors so others can emulate them.

Technical Support

Onboarding is the most crucial time when the members need mentoring so they can capitalise on the network of the mentor to familiarise themselves with the culture of the company. This will also provide them with useful tips on how to increase their team performance. A mentor can help in fixing some minor issues related to hardware or software, OS updates, or any other tech issue that may pop up while working on your laptop or PC. Small things, like when your macOS update is stuck, can easily turn into frustration and may hamper productivity. Help from mentors is important so that you can handle problems quickly.

Team members usually encounter hardware problems when they join the company due to the unfamiliar way of doing things. Software usage problems are also bound to occur. Therefore, employees need mentors at employment sites as an integral part of the onboarding process.

Providing technical infrastructure support for the efficient use of computers is an onboarding process, especially for new hires who work offsite. Providing short instructions and guidebooks can prove to be helpful too. The focus must be on tackling the most common computer usage problems and how to solve them.

Overcoming Obstacles

A good mentorship program can fundamentally change the culture of the company for the better and enhance the team member’s performance.

• Minor changes: Start with minor changes if there are resistances from some factions within. Small modifications can eventually be turned into profound changes. Taking baby steps toward progress is key here.

• Lack of support: Another obstacle you may have to overcome as a mentor is the lack of support from the management of the company. If this is the problem, then try to understand the origin or the reasons for the lack of support. Show them how the lack of support is hurting the team’s productivity.

• Financial costs: In some cases, the financial costs can be a hurdle to cross. Be open to changing the ways of conducting the mentorship program to reduce costs. You can even reach out to other like-minded companies to launch a joint mentorship program. This way, you can share the costs and even get mentors from different companies.

Relationship Building

Team members must be able to have an open conversation about their goals and challenges with their mentors with the aim of setting achievable goals. Mentors must provide focused advice and approach the relationship respectfully. This can motivate the mentees and will help build a robust and healthy mentor-mentee relationship.

Some mentees and fresh hires may hesitate to talk openly to mentors. Although this is understandable, it is not a compatible ground to build a good relationship. When this happens, the mentor must take the initiative to talk to the mentees. Otherwise, the relationship will deteriorate to the point of no return.

A proactive and honest approach to the relationship is the most fertile ground for the success of a mentorship program. The supportiveness of the mentors plays a role in not only building relationships with the mentees but also improving their performance and preventing burnout in its early stages. That is why relationship-building is key.

Safety Concern

Make it known to the mentees that the mentorship program is a safe place to be where the mentor-mentee relationship is protected under the mandate. This can make the mentees open to discussing challenges and issues they encounter. Ultimately, the goal must be to improve the team member’s productivity.

If the mentees feel uncomfortable sharing their concerns or negative situations, try changing the mentor. If that does not work, give them the option of sharing their concerns anonymously via some digital tools. This way, you can get to hear their anxieties and come up with ways to address them.

Digital tools such as survey monkey and Google forms are ideal for maintaining anonymity. People feel very comfortable using them to voice their opinions. Another way is to choose a person as a point of contact who can listen to concerns. That person can then communicate these unpleasant situations without revealing the source.

Conclusion

The mentor-mentee relationship is a very rewarding and gratifying experience that can contribute to the performance enhancement of the team if handled correctly. The good news is that it is a grassroots approach that does not involve many resources. At the most you need is the time that you need to spend together. But that is a good investment. It has brought on significant benefits to the company.

Author Bio

Anna Lysiuk is an Outreach specialist at MacPaw. She is passionate about marketing, business management and tech world innovations.