20 August 2020 - The Rewards of Mentorship

Within the Salesforce London Admins Community Group we have organised a Mentorship program for the past 2 years. This past year we had over 40 Mentees paired up with Mentors with a view to personal development progress. 

So, what's it like being a participant and what do you get from such a program? Well, I decided to find out and asked the Mentees and Mentors to complete a questionnaire for their feedback. 

Let's start with the admin side of a pairing. It's the responsibility of the Mentor and Mentee to work together and define the following items when they are first matched:

• The goal of the pairing
• The topic areas to focus on
• The frequency of contact
• The method(s) of communication and meeting
• The responsibility of each person on completion of tasks

The goal could be connected to wider topic areas that the Mentee was looking for help with. The topic areas were the prime matching criteria with their Mentor. For example, help with moving their Org into Lightning Experience or developing Project Management skills. It was up to the Mentee to define what help they needed from within the main subject area. A focus point for them to actively improve on. 

The frequency of contact and methods all depended on the pairing and their time management skills (or lack of) and how organised they were. Most pairings opted for frequent contact, every week or so, while a few maintained less frequent quarterly check-ins. Methods of contact often started as face to face but as lives were impacted by Covid then meetings became virtual with video calls playing the most popular method of conversation, using email and What'sApp to support meeting times.

It was often the case that a Mentor suggested some 'homework' for the Mentee to complete and it was the responsibility of the Mentee to act on that task so there was a conversation point at the next meeting. 

Admin aside, I asked what the main topics of discussion were between the Mentee and Mentor and the hot areas were General Advice and Career Advice before going into more specific areas of Admin Advice,  Certification Preparation and CV Review. It showed that these one on one sessions allowed Mentees to freely ask questions that they may not feel able to, towards their Manager, or someone else within their organisation. 

Half the Mentees could recognise that they had progressed by having a Mentor. They had built up a relationship with them to ask those awkward questions and the Mentor was happy to share their experience and the mistakes they had made in the past and what best practice should be.

Asking Mentees if they would join the program again and 75% said they would. Mentees found this a great learning experience, with help in their day job and for their personal development. Some pairings also become friends and learnt from each other.

Asking Mentors for their feedback and over 66% found the engagement positive, while the remainder cited negative reasons such as minimal or no contact with their Mentee or feeling they were unable to help in a particular matter. You can't win them all. 

Positive experiences included how rewarding it was the ability to share knowledge or feel useful to a third party. Others learnt from the pairing and felt that on the spur of the moment advice helped to keep minds agile.

80% of Mentors said they would sign up again as they recognised that it was a great opportunity to develop a skillset that might not be available via normal work channels and could be one of the simplest ways of giving back to the Salesforce Community.

As the organiser of the Mentorship program I've learnt that the initial pairing of Mentees to their Mentors may need a bit more work with more criteria in play. This may mean that less pairings are matched for the coming year but hopefully they will be more valuable and rewarding for each participant. As the pairings are formalised it will be the responsibility of the participants to define and agree their admin and be honest with each other on their level of commitment. 

Being a Mentor myself I have found the experience very rewarding. I have witnessed people grow and develop in their roles and realise their potential. If a little gem of advice from me can help someone face a fear, make a decision, or take their next big step then its well worth the personal investment and time.