Let’s start 2026 off right and share our expertise with those around us within the context of National Mentoring Month.
But – careful! Not all mentoring efforts are created equal. It seems to me that the term ‘mentoring’ gets thrown around a lot, often as a low-cost workplace ‘training’ solution when professional development is not in the budget. If I had a dollar for every time someone in a curriculum development meeting says, “I think we may be able to achieve those training goals cheaper through a mentoring program using volunteers,” I could probably offer program scholarships for 50% of our participants.
At first glance, mentoring seems to offer a significant number of benefits, among them career development, higher engagement, and skill-building for mentees as well as leadership growth for mentors. But when done right, cons such as the additional time burden and possible resulting fatigue, mismatched pairs leading to frustration, confidentiality issues, and the risks of duplicating poor work styles can make mentoring components not just ineffective, but a potential danger that may counteract beneficial learning outcomes. True, effective programs strive to balance these pros and cons to maximize the benefits for all involved. But that balance is not easy to achieve, and it isn’t free.
When NSITE developed the Building Professional Behaviors program, it was clear to us from the start that, given the challenges that achieving lasting behavior changes presents to all of us, mentoring had to be an integral part of the program.
Building Professional Behaviors is a 48-week program that focuses on learning to develop routines, turning those into habits, and finally moving from habits to unconscious behaviors that become second nature in professional settings, ultimately leading to employment success.
In order to achieve successful behavior change, the time commitment required from participants does not exceed 10 minutes per day. However, since building routines that move us in the right direction and forming habits that lead to employment success are difficult to achieve in isolation (especially for participants with little or no work experience in a professional setting), we planned to integrate a mentoring component into the program from the very beginning.
Here’s how we tried to anticipate and mitigate potential pitfalls:
- We found a partner in Envision, one of the nonprofit agencies associated with National Industries for the Blind, that already had a highly successful mentoring program in place for academic programs.
- We established a budget that compensated mentors not only for time spent with mentees, but also for documenting meeting outcomes.
- We developed strict guidance documents and mentor training to delineate very clearly how mentors were – and were not – expected to support their mentees.
- We matched participants to mentors and built in the flexibility to switch partnerships if or when needed.
- To avoid mentors being tempted to provide answers to mentees, we did not give the mentors access to the learning platform. Instead, we encouraged them to ask their mentees to share learning topics and activities during their meetings. The rationale: If the learner can explain what they are working on, the learning has a better chance of sticking.
- We scheduled bi-weekly mentor webinars to discuss the topics covered during those two weeks. then shared Mentor Topic Sheets with desired learning outcomes and key questions to address with their mentees.
- The mentor support schedule is designed to decrease over time – from weekly to bi-weekly and finally to monthly meetings. The idea is to build participant independence as the program progresses and reduce the reliance on external support as the participants build their own power skills and confidence over time.
The result? The extra effort yielded unmitigated success!
- Participants were able to build a professional demeanor in a safe space with their mentors and learned to provide critically important information to obtain the best-fit support without developing long-term dependencies.
- Mentors said they felt challenged but not overwhelmed and indicated that they also learned from their mentees while sharing their own insights with them.
- And the best part? We are now able to recruit new mentors from the first graduating class, providing work experience and employment opportunities to program participants who are blind, low vision, or visually impaired, thereby supporting the next generation of program participants!
The mentoring moral of the story:
Mentoring takes intentionality and care, and it requires an investment of time, expertise, active listening, and – yes – funds to ensure the best outcomes for program participants!
In honor of National Mentoring Month: Here’s to all of you mentors out there – keep up the great work and help us continuously grow the ranks of mentors across all professional development efforts and career fields!