Ch. 10 Summary: Know who knows: your network is your mentor.


The best kept secret in business is that everyone believes in a network, but very, very few have them. Yet, capable, smart thinking mentors are a necessity for competency and expertise. Mentor-protégé relationships are difficult to build and maintain, and they demand considerable investment and risk for both partners. Thoughtful protégés understand and appreciate the cost of transferring knowledge from one person to another, and know how to ease that transfer so that the mentor will not fear being taken advantage of. Mentors, however, can also provide protection by acting as a buffer, or exposure by creating opportunities for visibility, and even stretch assignments. This chapter explores the creation and role of a mentoring network in the development of an employee’s intelligence.

 

I have found that the starting place for building a mentor network is by assessing and dispelling one’s own notions about asking for help. The belief that if you seek advice, you will be seen as incompetent, dependent and inferior is deeply ingrained in the American psyche. And so I will present the benefits of seeking help and emphasize that a mentoring network is an absolute necessity. A network can provide the intelligence necessary for complex and creative problem solving. Furthermore, I will also show how to circumvent one’s own personal resistance. Because a number of my clients have admitted that what holds them back is “pure fear,” I’ve chosen to insert one extended narrative that showcases the emotional resistance of a technology director, Glen Hybol. Forced, by his VP to ask for help from a knowledgeable expert at another firm, the story reveals the fears, ineptitude, concerns about reputation, and ignorance that initially resulted in career plateauing. More than a year later he was able to successfully initiate his network. Because this client took several months to act on the expectations, and because he had a great deal of self-awareness, he revealed many intimate details about the process that I believe is typical for others. What’s unique about him is that over the years he has become a “genius” at the process—willing and able, as he says, to help others go through their “s_ _ t” and build a mentoring network.

 

Glen’s growth is supported by a number of enlightening brain studies. Having had the privilege of coaching him ten years ago and interacting with him recently, the energy, insight, even wisdom is highly reflective of scientific findings. Marian Diamond of UC Berkeley, has shown in study after study that enrichment results in increased circuit connectivity, responsiveness and learning efficiency. Enrichment, again, is measurable contrast with previous experiences. Diamond’s studies show that enrichment maximizes the individual’s potential. Glen‘s experience reflects that enrichment with opportunity after opportunity, and promotion after promotion.

 

Because mentor relationships are really two-sided, I stress the process of becoming a perfect protégé. Mentoring relationships, like other work relationships, are essentially reciprocal. The “banking” metaphor—withdrawing and depositing—provides a very useful way of understand these relationships. Since “payback” is inevitable, I propose a number of ways to enhance a mentor’s own objectives. Surprisingly, one of the most helpful contributions mentees can make is to provide that mentor with insight into what helps and what doesn’t in the coaching relationship. Many leaders today are concerned about their coaching skills, and a protégé can be helpful at that point. Indeed, some organizations factor the coaching ability of their leaders into performance measures.

 

Strategic objectives define network needs. However, as employees develop their skills, change jobs, or gain promotions, the mentor portfolio will require readjustment and more diversity. Knowledge bases differ from mentor to mentor, and on occasion, a mentor’s usefulness may be outgrown. Furthermore, as one’s knowledge of an organization increases, different mentoring needs surface. Workers may find that they need a broad span of intelligence: functional expertise, job market insight, political wisdom, and creative intelligence. The potential for external networks cannot be ignored, especially when firms lack specialties that a worker will require for her future.

 

How mentors can provide work protection is brought home by the experience of an ex-marine, Rock Havland, a manager in supply chain technology at a Northeastern grocery products company. With market share lost to competitors, and a new boss, Rock’s name was on a cut list given to the VP. The VP nixed the cut because he admired Rock’s expertise, but he also knew that Rock had the most extensive network in the company. The network offered not only an in-depth knowledge base, but it provided a secondary means for the executives to escalate issues and decisions throughout the company.

 

Synthesizing the inevitable differences of opinion and insight offered by mentors can pose difficulty for employees. How, for example do you relate to a mentor when you’ve chosen to ignore his recommendation? Or, what do you do when you find that the mentor’s recommendation was fallacious—it just didn’t work. More painfully, what do you do when you find that your mentor wants a relationship that you see as unhealthy? With numerous true-to-life episodes, I will show not only how to validate opinions, but also how to deal with differences and manage the inevitable relationship issues that surface between mentor and protégé.

 

In today’s flatter organizations, productivity, efficiency and personal growth demand effective collaboration. When traditional career ladders and mature, well-rounded mentors have gone the way of the dinosaur—exactly what’s happened in the global economy—a unique portfolio of mentors is an absolute necessity for survival and success.

 

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