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Establishing a Mentoring Program

Thursday, February 11th, 2010

Establishing a Mentoring Program

What is Mentoring?  Mentoring is defined as dealing with individuals in terms of their total personality in order to advise, counsel, and/or guide them with regard to problems that may be resolved by legal, scientific, clinical, spiritual, and/or other professional principles.  In short, mentoring is essentially formal or informal educational and professional developmental support provided by experienced colleagues.

Some larger corporations have peer mentoring or traditional mentoring programs in place.  Other companies have  mentor programs for a limited time to newly hired employees.  There are also many smaller companies who informally mentor and may not even refer to those activities as such. 

Establishing a formal mentoring program can be quite an extensive process—it all depends on how structured you want your mentoring program.  If your company doesn’t have a process in place, or it is very loose and would like to formalize it further, you must first develop the scope and parameters around the program and also identify how the program will be managed.  From there, you will need to establish the mentoring program operation and components for success.  Some examples of those activities might include:

-      Recruiting mentors and mentees

-      Screening potential program participants

-      Orientation and training of both mentors and mentees

-      Matching of mentors to mentees

-      Providing ongoing support to participants

-      Recognition of  the contribution of all mentor program participants

-      Helping mentors and mentees reach closure

-      Providing a method by which to evaluate the program and do so regularly

As you scan the list above, you will realize that each of these high-level activities requires many more subtasks.  For example, regarding orientation and training, resources must be identified to develop the training materials and deliver it.  This may be a third party, someone in your HR department working with you, or someone hired specifically for this purpose.  Again, the process can get as formal and structured as you need.  The most important thing to remember is that it must meet the program objectives that you have identified for your business.

The Value of Mentoring

Mentee’s can benefit from a mentoring program in many ways including:

-      Focusing on their career path and setting goals

-      Accelerating  the learning process

-      Establishing new relationships with management and expanding their network

-      Gaining access to new areas of the business and special projects

-      Opening doors to new job opportunities within other areas of the company

-      Gaining a better understanding of the culture of the company and industry

-      Learning of new ideas and facts to better understand people

-      Preparation for the mentee to become a mentor in the future

 Mentor’s can also benefit from mentoring, such as:

 -      Making a favorable impression within their company

-      Learning new ideas and facts to better understand and manage people similar to the Mentee that may report to the Mentor

-      Using the Mentee as a conduit to other people and increasing the reach of their network

-      Seeing the results of Mentor/Mentee collaboration is often a way to modify future decisions

For most leaders, mentoring should actually be second nature. If we truly love our associates as I try to encourage, then mentoring is really just part of the job of being a leader who is committed to the principles found in my book, Lead with Love.

Every time we have an interaction with an associate, we should be personally and professionally committed to provide not just feedback on performance, but candid and “loving” support for their development. Mentoring obviously can, and often is done, by other than bosses. The best mentor I ever had was also my boss. He cared for me and nurtured me every step of the way.

I was so comfortable with him as my boss, that I would go to him for advice openly and without fear that it would be “held against me” or viewed as weakness. He was always available to give me support and guidance. This level of trust and comfort in the integrity of our relationship was essential to my successful development. Every leader must understand that he/she is the single most influential person in the life of a subordinate. The “power” we have is obvious, but the ability to influence the development and success of our associates goes well beyond just “functional power,” it is the ultimate power to facilitate learning and development, and to encourage and reinforce success.

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Travel Tips from a Road Warrior Executive

Thursday, February 4th, 2010

This month, we are restarting our monthly Newsletter that was once called the Czar Report. The Newsletter is being completely revamped, enhanced and reformatted. It will be called Insights, and I hope that you will come to find it even more valuable and worthy of your time to read.

In the first edition, I formed my thinking around the Academy Award nominee film, Up in The Air. This week, I thought I would break the pattern and offer some advice from one “Road Warrior” to you as you travel. When you spend as much time on airplanes as I have, you begin to develop behaviors that work, and you make them routine. When I am on a trip, I am a total creature of habit. Without that as part of your pattern, you will make far too many mistakes, and those mistakes almost always become a financial cost, or worse, a trip where you lose control. So, first and foremost, if you are going to travel with any frequency, develop a routine and stick to it.

Travel Tips from a Road Warrior Executive

Pointers on Reward Points

If you are beginning to travel frequently for business, take advantage of the multitude of rewards programs available. You’ll be certain to find one to suit your goals or lifestyle. There are rewards programs for hotels, airlines, auto rental companies, phone companies, credit card companies, dining establishments, and many others.

However, it is also important to be aware of the various partnerships within rewards programs. You can make the most out of your rewards points if they are earned within the same “network” of rewards programs. For example, American Airlines partners with Hilton Hotels and those programs allow you to convert earned rewards points from one to the other as needed.

FrequentFlier.com provides summaries of the largest frequent flyer programs, including contact information and lists of participating mileage and award partners.

But the real reason to have frequently flyer status, meaning lots of flights on the same airline, is because of the privileges you get when flying such as : Preference lines on check in, boarding early (even first), preference seating and upgrades. In my view, the points you gain to buy tickets may be a nice bonus, but the real benefit is all that things that makes flying less hassled.

Seasoned business travelers try to avoid checking their luggage whenever possible. My rule, unless I am on a five plus day trip, I will find a way to carry on. Packing carefully, and using hotel laundries, etc., all make that possible. One of the most important reasons you do not want to checks bags…You want to have everything with you when a flight is delayed. You can only have the flexibility to change planes, if you have the bags with you. Carry on!!!

That said, there will be times where you will be stuck with checking. In those cases when carry-on is not an option, the following tips will make checking your bag much easier:

- Take batteries out of any item you do not want to go off (such as an alarm clock)–it may cause an embarrassing situation.
- Don’t stack piles of books or documents on top of each other; spread them out within your baggage.
- Don’t forget to place identification tags with your name, address and phone number on all of your baggage, including your laptop computer. It is a good idea to place an identification tag inside your baggage as well.
- Consider putting personal belongings in clear plastic bags to reduce the chance that airport security personnel/screener will have to handle them. (Now recommended by TSA)
- Consider getting luggage locks from one of two companies, Travel Sentry or Safe Skies. Airport security screeners have tools for opening and re-locking baggage with either of these companies’ logos, thus avoiding damage to the lock or bag if a physical inspection is required.
- Never pack and check anything valuable, fragile, or perishable into your baggage.

The Carry-on Survival Kit

In addition to that novel, or business book, you’ve been meaning to read and your laptop, the following is a list of necessities to include in your carry-on:

- Jump drive or memory stick with all travel expenses, project/client documents, and important emails (information you would need if your laptop crashed)
- Destination contact information, travel itinerary, directions, corporate travel phone number
- Photocopies of all travel documentation (identification documentation)
- Have your passport if traveling overseas…Check for this three times, and then guard it with your life. You do not want to be in a country without your passport
- Noise-canceling headphones for the plane
- Earplugs and a sleeping mask; yes , if you are traveling a long distance, or on a red eye, you need to sleep, and you need it quiet and dark to do that
- Pain reliever
- Guide for the city you’re visiting (such as Zagat’s)
- Extra batteries and/or charger for your laptop, PDA, and cell phone
- Protect your laptop, you must be able to have the access to a computer, be careful
- Have a capability to get to the internet through a mobile phone data service. Those hotels charge far too much for internet access
- Save up magazines so you can use the time to read things that at home you simply do not have the time to get to.
- Make certain that you have the charger for all your electronic/Bluetooth devices
- Take your vitamins and any medicine you need – assuming you take them, this needs to be part of your routine
- A very small camera – you never know when you will need to record an event or a facility
- Plenty of business cards
- Make certain you have the contact information not just for the current airline, but also for the others. You never know when you may need to talk to them
- Make certain you are a member of at least one airline club. These are an oasis in the chaos of an airport.

Best Advice: Be Flexible

After police thwarted a terrorist plan to fly from London to the United States with homemade explosives, there is yet another dimension to airport security. We all know that there was travel before and after September 11th. (Remember when you could send your party off at the gate?) Travelers must be flexible at all times. This may involve extremely lengthy waits and security checks. This may include being grounded or being forced to discard packed items, repack, or check everything. As terrorists get more sophisticated, our security measures will do the same. We must adapt our travel patterns accordingly. This week it’s a liquid, next week it could be powder.

Back to the carry on: you need to learn how to make a decision when you change flights. Weather in your area is not what mostly matters. Where you are going; or where the equipment is coming from is what really matters. Equipment problems, “maintenance has the aircraft” is a serious warning sign. Worse still is the saying, “We will have an update in 45 minutes.” What they are saying is, we are not quite certain what is wrong nor do we really know how long it will take to fix it.

The minute you see weather or equipment delays, it could be time to consider a flight change. I do not change flights often but I do when I conclude that the equipment on my current flight is in serious trouble. The airlines have very few “free aircraft, hence if yours is in trouble, then it might be time to see if they have another flight going your way. That said, unless you are in a small airport, flying from a major hub is not a probably not a great place to change airlines. The only time I do that is when I have status with that airline and if it is in the same general concourse area. You will waste more time getting to the flight than you may have available. In short, stay alert to changing facts.

Finally, consider checking with TSA (online) or your air carrier prior to arriving at the airport for any recent changes in security policy and procedure, so that you’re prepared when you arrive.

One final comment: The true warrior knows that allowing delays and flight cancellations to get your emotions boiling, gets you nowhere. Cool it, do NOT DRINK, and just accept the fact that there are going to be times that you are going to have your trip messed up. When that happens, you will almost always have more time to burn that you had planned…so, one last piece of advice, make certain you have more work to do on the trip than you know you will have time available. You may be a movie lover, but candidly, if you settle back, and relax, the airline clubs and the seat in an airplane will be some of the best quiet time – (or as my wife refers to it “white space”) you will ever have. Take advantage of it.

Got any other great ideas…Please share them with me and I’ll pass them on.
Info@gerryczarnecki.com

HAPPY FLYING!

My Quote of the Week

Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Morale and Making it Work for You: Case Study

Monday, January 25th, 2010

A study by researcher Sirota Survey Intelligence has found that firms with strong employee morale outperform similar companies with medium to low morale on the stock market.

In a special report, Business Week Online featured an article entitled, The Art Of Motivation: What you can learn from a company that treats workers like owners. Inside the surprising performance culture of steelmaker Nucor. The feature story described the high level of commitment exhibited by the steelmakers’ workers to get a troubled plant up and running. An excerpt reads:

No supervisor had asked them to make the trip, and no one had to. They went on their own. Camping out in the electrical substation with the Hickman staff, the team worked 20-hour shifts to get the plant up and running again in three days instead of the anticipated full week. There wasn’t any direct financial incentive for them to blow their weekends, no extra money in their next paycheck, but for the company their contribution was huge. Hickman went on to post a first-quarter record for tons of steel shipped.

The article goes on to say that Nucor has nurtured one of the most dynamic and engaged workforces around. Perhaps most compelling is “Nucor’s 387% return to shareholders over the past five years handily beats almost all other companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index, including New Economy icons Amazon.com, Starbucks, and eBay. And the company has become more profitable as it has grown: Margins, which were 7% in 2000, reached 10% last year.”

At Nucor, the core of motivation is about a steadfast focus on its people. That has boded well in the form of a loyal and productive workforce and increasing profitability. At times, “workers and managers exhibit a level of passion for the company that can border on the bizarre.”

One of the main motivators for Nucor’s employees is a bonus that is tied to the production of defect-free steel. While an experienced steelworker at another company can easily earn $16 to $21 an hour, a Nucor steelworker gets a guarantee of closer to $10. However, with the bonus structure that Nucor has put into place, by producing defect-free steel, an employee’s entire shift can triple the average steelworker’s take-home pay. Nucor gave out more than $220 million in profit sharing and bonuses and their steelworkers had a record salary that year. These two processes institute both a pride in workmanship and pride in ownership of the company.

More and more companies are following suit. Large supply chain and warehouse operations are now offering bonus for speed and seeing a record increase in productivity. Other industries offer rewards for zero-downtime and zero-defects. It all boils down to allowing the employee to share in the company’s success and showing how each individual contributes to the overall health and success of the organization.

On balance, the key is getting your associates to buy in to the fact that the company exists only because they are there producing quality products and services. Small business is not a Nucor with the kinds of revenue they have, but small business can create a culture of engagement and “ownership” also by just engaging their associates in the process. At O2 Media, where I am the President & CEO, every time we have a strategic shift, we have used the brainstorming session process to get our key associates engaged in our thought processes. It is amazing how many great ideas we get, but more importantly, our associates then “own the changes.” It takes time, but it is an investment that pays phenomenal dividends.

Read more about our case study and the Art of Motivation:
http://businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_18/b3982075.htm

My Quote of the Week-
Pity the leader caught between unloving critics and uncritical lovers. – John Garnder

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The Elusive Balancing Act: Work Life/ Personal Life

Monday, January 11th, 2010

It’s the topic that seems to defeat all working spouses and parents.  It’s the topic that has been the subject of monthly feature articles in various magazines for more than 30 years.  It’s elusive, and regardless how sophisticated our business models become there is one challenge that plagues those of us in the workforce.  It is simple at its core and yet complicated to manage.  It is unparalleled in its scope and it is quite simply this, “how do I find a balance between my work-life and my personal / family life?” 

This is not another article of tips on how to manage your time better or juggle schedules.  As a CEO and an author on leadership, my perspective is quite different.  I don’t think the issue is time or finding enough of it.  I think the problem is you not knowing when you’ve actually found that balance.  You cannot determine whether or not you are being successful unless you establish success criteria

First, there must be some metrics around this “balance”.  How will you determine success?  Is it a pure measure of time spent in each area?  Or is it a quality versus quantity issue?  Ah-ha, now we are stepping into the grayer area.  In order to determine whether or not you have completed a project successfully, it usually must be completed on time and within budget.  Pretty straightforward, right?  That time and budget are set up at the beginning of the project and then managed to completion.  So, how will you know that you’ve struck that magical balance in your entire professional life, unless you set goals or success criteria in the beginning? That means, you must decide what success is defined to be for you, in each aspect of your life. You must decide what professional success is, and that is not very easy. You must actually also decide what you are willing to pay in the way of “sacrifice” or “tradeoff” in the rest of your life-work balance. Career success, does not come without a price. It takes substantial time, energy and emotional commitment to become a winner in your professional life. Are you willing to pay that price? If not, then you need to be prepared to accept a level of achievement that is short of “stardom.”

Now, don’t think I’m over-simplifying this.  There is another component that really makes balancing work and home life challenging.  Again, if I use my project example, usually management or your customer defines the success criteria.  As a project manager, your responsibility is delivering that project within the criteria set by your customer.  But in the case of your work-home life balance dilemma, who determines the metrics for success?  Well, because it’s usually not you yourself, that’s where the difficulty lies.

If you have a work-life, you probably have a manager or supervisor and likely may also have a customer.  If you have a home life, you likely have a spouse or significant other, children, siblings, roommates, or even pets.  Each of these parties demands your time (quantity) and your attention (quality).  Each party must be satisfied in order for you to be successful, and the two are in direct competition with each other for both your time and attention.  They are defining your success criteria for you.  That’s where the “balance” comes in.  That’s why that balance is so elusive.  Each of the two entities has vastly different success criteria.  In order to for you to be “successful” at home, you must sacrifice either quality or quantity in the workplace—and vice versa.  Because you are loyal to each, chances are that if one “succeeds” the other will suffer.  Therefore, it will be nearly impossible for you, as an individual, to be truly satisfied or feel successful.  Does that mean that a balance doesn’t exist?  I am not saying it doesn’t exist.  I am saying it entirely depends upon the demands of your work-life and your personal life. 

In short, the work-life balance is decided by evaluating the tradeoffs in your life and work. During my life, I have been blessed with a life partner, a loving wife, who helped me balance my commitment to her and our family, while allowing me to focus on my work passions. We have been a team, and the tradeoffs that I made, were ones she bought into. Hence, conflict between work and life never really existed, because my work and life were intertwined and my wife bought into what I was doing at work and became a part of the decision process. Candidly, if you are all blessed with this type of relationship, balancing your work-life balance will be a “piece of cake.”

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