Developing talent
Mentoring your top performers will help your company grow.
By Fred Koury
January 2007
CEOs often say that finding good people is their greatest challenge to growth.
Good people are hard to find, but maybe you should start looking for your next
leader within your own organization.
Mentoring is a great way to groom someone for more responsibility and develop his
or her hidden talents, all while filling a need at your growing company.
The first objection to this will be, “I’m too busy.” All CEOs are busy, but when it
comes to developing talent, you need to make time to mentor someone. Otherwise,
that promising young leader might take his or her talents to the competition.
Who you choose to mentor is the next challenge. There may be several candidates
worth the investment of your time, but there are four key questions you should consider when choosing.
- Do they have potential? These people are probably the easiest to identify. These
are your go-to people when things get rough. They always find a way to get things
done.
- Do they have the interest? Are they interested in being mentored? You can’t teach
someone who doesn’t care, and the whole exercise will be futile. Ask about their
interest in being mentored, and gauge the reaction.
- Do they command the respect of others? Do others within your organization look
to them as a leader? Do others come to them and ask questions?
- Do you trust them? A large part of mentoring is developing trust between yourself
and the people you are helping. If you don’t trust them, how are you going to share
your secrets of success with them? Trust is key.
Mentoring takes place within a structured relationship. You should have a set
amount of time on your schedule to spend with this person, and you may want to use
an agenda for each meeting to keep it focused on a particular topic.
A successful mentoring relationship can develop a leader to whom you can hand off
key responsibilities, allowing you to focus on big-picture leadership issues as you continue to grow. Investing the time and effort into people also helps keep them with the
company, because the best people in business are those who always want to learn
more.
Helping someone be successful and learn new skills will benefit your business, but you
may also find that you get personal satisfaction out of seeing someone under your tutelage succeed.
FRED KOURY is president and CEO of Smart Business Network Inc. Reach him with your comments at fkoury@sbnonline.com
or (800) 988-4726.
