Mentoring Develops Skills for New Leaders

Mentoring Develops Skills for New Leaders

By Rita S. Boags
Summer 1997 "Mentoring Connections"

INDEX:

Background for a Pilot Mentor Program to Target the "Glass Ceiling"
How the Pilot Program Was Organized to Grow Leaders
Five Examples of Program Participants:
Special Programs: Are They Necessary, and Do They Work?

Background for a Pilot Mentor Program to Target the "Glass Ceiling"
In the wake of the Glass Ceiling Commission Report (1994), many companies, government agencies and professional organizations have taken on a primary mission concerning the advancement and retention of high-level minority employees within their industries.

One pilot program developed for minority professionals in the mortgage finance industry was designed to counteract one of the biggest barriers created by the Glass Ceiling - the lack of an adequate pipeline of qualified candidates. The pilot program, entitled "Growth Opportunities Leadership Skills" (GOALS) was launched by the Fannie Mae Foundation.

How the Pilot Program Was Organized to Grow Leaders

The Goals Pilot program provided 16 participants with opportunities for professional development, industry-relevant education and greater visibility and support within their home organizations. Program participants were nominated by lending institutions representing a broad range of mortgage lenders, from small community banks to Fortune 500 corporations and included representatives from all across the United States and Puerto Rico.

Participants received four weeks of classroom training which included career planning and management, leadership development, and mortgage banking courses. To create an ongoing developmental process, the participants completed a Comprehensive Development Plan, and through mentors provided by their home organization, received the ongoing support and guidance which is so critical to implementing such a long-term plan.

Two years after they embarked on this career-changing program, five of the participants comment on their yearlong mentoring experiences. These mentor/protégé pairs represent a variety of pairing possibilities, and each has its particular and unique merits.

Louis: A Long-Term Relationship Changed

Louis Prezeau, a senior teller at City National Bank in New Jersey, had a mentor right under his nose and didn't know it - a family friend, Eugene Giscombe, who is a member of the bank's Board of Directors. Louis said, ìFormalizing the relationship with Gene has opened my eyes to the wealth of information available to me.î

Gene and Louis meet once a month for their mentoring meeting according to the suggested guidelines of the program. They review the progress on the Developmental Plan and talk about issues of current importance. Louis commented on his newly found insight, ìI never realized the value of learning from those with firsthand experience. Sometimes the best resources are so close, you may overlook them."

Nettie: When a Boss Becomes Your Mentor

Nettie Buckner reports to Beverly Hightower at Family Savings Bank in Los Angeles. They have been developing their mentoring relationship for over a year now, but for six years prior to starting the pilot program they related to each other in a boss-subordinate relationship.

Beverly provides us with an excellent insight into the growth that results for the mentor in a mentoring relationship. She says, ìWearing the mentor hat has changed the way I view certain things. What I have learned from this process is that mentoring is not about solving
other people's problems. Every time my protégé talks to me is not an invitation to solve her problem. She needs to share and discuss, and I need to just listen. She will solve it herself, sometimes with my input, and sometimes not. This has been a major eye-opener for me.î

Alvina: A Different Spin

Alvina Williams is a senior trainer in the national operations department of GMAC Mortgage Corporation, located in Horsham, PA. Her mentor is one that she chose for herself, a senior female in the organization. Alvina says of her experiences, ìHaving the opportunity to discuss issues with people like Maureen Shaughnessy on a regular basis and being around the people who facilitated the GOALS program has made me feel that wanting more is not only possible, but that I should not be ashamed of it.î

Alvina claims that working with a role model has helped her to see how life as a manager might be and how she could eventually handle the role. Alvina said, ìI now see myself as a true professional on a definite career path. Before I was just a ëworker beeí and never looked beyond where I was into something else.î She was recently promoted to Assistant Manager of the National Operations Training Department.

Virginia: Was She Going to Make It Anyway?

Virginia Martinez is a vice president at North American Mortgage Company in the Southern California region. She is the only Latina of this rank in the region. Her mentor, Robert Galleghar, is a senior executive with the company, one of the nation's leading independent mortgage lenders. Their relationship is particularly challenging because of the distance between them. Robert is located in Northern California, which puts them more than 400 miles apart.

Robert commented on the challenges faced by the long-distance relationship. ìVirginia and I were really strangers before the mentoring program started. We were formally paired together before we knew each other.î The pair does a lot of mentoring work on the phone. While this was not an ideal arrangement, Robert says that he can see changes in the tone and direction of their conversations. ìVirginia seems to be much more focused on making a success of who she is. Pursuing these immediate goals will definitely give her the advantage in moving
upward.î

Virginia claims that her interactions with Robert have given her a whole new perspective on the executive side of the company, as he shares ëthe big pictureí with her. ìHe tells me about all of the struggle that goes into making decisions that affect employees,î Virginia said. ìThings are really thought through very thoroughly, and they really do worry about the human side of their decisions. Having this input allows me to interpret events differently for my own staff. It makes a big difference when you can see the process that people go through to come to
decisions. I can now see the human side that I didn't see before.î

Many regarding Virginia's sparkling career rise and equally promising future would have assumed that she would not need the leadership program or the experience of mentoring. Virginia claims that sharing in another person's view, and learning to see the world in their eyes has added many more levels and dimensions to her understanding of the inner workings of the organization. This understanding and her linkage with Robert are critical if she is going to continue to succeed.

Varnessa: Highlighting & Growing the ìInvisibleî Talent Pool

Varnessa Aaron is the epitome of the target group for which the GOALS program was designed. Varnessa has 15 years in the banking industry, has a solid work history, and the right educational credentials - she was not in the kind of position that would allow her to make the impact she wanted.

For Varnessa, being paired with a senior female executive who is also an African American was a stroke of good fortune. Susan Howard works in the functional area of the Bank of America in which Varnessa wanted to move. While they are also 400 miles apart from each other, they both travel frequently enough to have face to face meetings. Unlike Virginia and Robert, they knew each other before they were assigned as a mentor-protégé pair, but their dialogues were stiff and guarded before their attendance together at the program's mentoring workshop.

Varnessa comments on her mentoring relationship, ìMentoring allows you to exchange information in a very confidential manner. I'm not afraid to expose myself in this relationship.î Varnessa is grateful to her mentor for adding a sense of stability and continuity to her growth as she has recently taken on a job with greater responsibility with a new manager. ìI think what I've gotten most from Susan is a feeling of self-assurance and confidence in my decision making,î Varnessa added.

Special Programs: Are They Necessary, and Do They Work?

The sponsorship of leadership programs which are comprehensive in nature demonstrates the value of ensuring that career-building connections through mentoring are formed. Programs like GOALS provide an excellent example for the rest of the corporate community and public sector of how a well-constructed process, designed for long-term development, can directly benefit the professional lives of today's employees, and how they can become tomorrow's corporate leaders.

Dr. Rita S. Boags is editor of the Mentoring Information Network and Exchange Newsletter (MINE) and principal consultant of Leadership Technologies.

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