One of the problems many leaders face is being able to let go of responsibility. There is often a mindset that if they don’t do something themselves that it won’t get done properly, or that it’s too time consuming to show someone else how to do it.
Rory Vaden, motivational speaker, has looked at how we choose to spend our time and found that while we think it’s logical, it’s actually quite emotional.
Our feelings of guilt, anxiety, fear, worry and frustration often dictate how we spend our time. And while we focus on things like prioritising, this doesn’t create time for us.
Looking at the urgency of a task tells us how soon it matters, and looking at the importance of a task tells us how much it matters. But if we add in a layer to look at the significance of a task, we can see how long it matters.
Instead of looking at everything we need to do with a mindset of “what can I do today,” we should instead look at it through the lens of “what can I do today that will make tomorrow better?”
This is where mentoring and buddying come in. If we focus on creating the mechanisms and support for these relationships, we are in turn creating conditions where talent and learning can flourish.
These important relationships can be incredibly valuable, and although it may take more time to empower your people in the immediate tense, in the long term you will be creating a better future for your people.
A buddying and mentoring program allows you to delegate and trust important work to your team and sets up a structure that promotes early engagement for new inductees.
Setting up structures that allow mentoring and buddying also increase the flow of communication across the organisation, and brings more focus to what’s needed in engaging new-starters during their induction.
In the Integrated Approach, following the ‘Leading Through Change’ sessions, when prompted to think of a behavioural step that would role model a focus on wellness and embed a wellness mindset, one HR Business partner suggested:
“Embedding the culture strategy and a mindset of wellness for new starters at induction so they understand the nature of the site they are walking on to. In addition, asking wellness behaviours questions at exit interviews will give us an indication of where we may not be getting it right. ”
Not only will peer learning through buddies and mentors free up time for leaders, it will also help to address wellness through positive effects on the work-related factors.
This is particularly evident when we look at promotion and relationships. One of the things that we know is that this is a big issue in the industry. Consider:
Promotion will be significantly improved through the development and encouragement of your buddies and mentors as you place trust in them by delegating responsibility around important wellness conversations.
Relationships will be more positive and you have the chance to build foundational rapport levels in your new-starters by providing them someone to connect in with, in turn building company loyalty and job satisfaction.
Call To Action
Mentoring is considered as the best way to get people to learn from the best, and buddying is a great way to create positive experiences for your people from day one.
It’s important that you consider the structures you have set up around both of these important relationships, and how your leaders can support both through coaching.
There are three main steps to focus on for setting up these important structures:
Reviewing how you induct new employees to build in buddy-relationships, making sure they have someone they can turn to for support and growth
Looking at how you can build mentoring into your wellness strategy, ideally through dedicated resources such as wellness champions, ensuring you have mentors set up for these resources and a process in place for them to mentor others
Reiterating how leaders can support the buddies and mentors through coaching conversations.