An Eight-Step Guide to Creating and Sustaining a Mentoring Program

ABSTRACT

Mentoring is an extremely valuable activity for both individuals and organizations. Mentoring within organizations can develop and integrate employees into their corporate culture. Mentoring outside the mentees’ work groups or through professional development organizations can give broader perspective and support, especially in times of transition. But mentoring programs require tremendous effort to start, organize, and maintain. Few last more than two years. This article provides a structured approach to starting and sustaining a successful program. The steps include understanding an organization’s particular needs, learning from small pilot programs, following up with mentoring pairs during a committed formal mentoring period, and evaluating results from each program’s cycle to learn and grow the program. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.

KEYWORDS:

• Communication
• Goals
• Leadership
• Problem solving
• Professional development
• Trust

Supplementary Material

• DIY Mentoring Flyer: A handout placed in the meeting bags of the 2015 CSP, JSM, and FDA-Industry Workshop about mentoring and starting a mentoring relationship. (PDF)

• Mentoring in a Box: Tools for Developing a Mentorship Program for Applied Statisticians created by the Committee on Applied Statisticians (CAS). July 29, 2015 (PDF)

• Example Mentoring Program Application Form: A simple form to apply for a mentoring program. Questions identify the person and information used to match them with a mentor or mentee. (Google Form Link)

• WSSMentorMentee.xlsx spreadsheet used for matching mentors and mentees and creating an email merge to communicate the pairings. (Excel spreadsheet)

• Example Evaluation Survey Form: A simple form from the WSS mentoring program used to assess the effectiveness of the program at the end of the formal mentoring period. (PDF of a Google Form)

Acknowledgments

The authors thank both Nicole Lazar, editor and reviewer, for her helpful suggestions on restructuring the article, Michelle L. Baker for her insightful editing, and all the members of the ASA Committee on Applied Statisticians between 2013 and 2016 for their hard work and dedication to the mentoring initiative. This includes Jennifer Gauvin, Marlene Egger, Chuck Kincaid, Keith Schleicher, John Lin, Emily OMalley Olsen, and Shari Messinger Cayetano who contributed substantially. Mentoring requires two persons, but creating a mentoring initiative requires quite a few more. The findings and conclusions in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.