Mentoring and Coaching case study

Transcription

1 Mentoring and Coaching case study The use of mentoring and coaching is one of the most effective means to develop the performance of people at their job, be they graduates or even the CEO. In many cases it is also a quick, simple and low cost way to deliver this for both individuals and groups. In many cases the initiation and delivery of mentoring or coaching for individuals can take a matter of weeks and for groups in as short a time as 3 months. Mentoring and Coaching can be delivered both from inside and outside the organisation depending on the objectives. Mentoring and coaching can be either an important component of a wider talent and leadership initiative or a stand alone initiative to improve the performance of key groups or individuals. The ideas here are based on the successful implementation of mentoring programmes in organisations such as Goldman Sachs, UBS, HSBC, CHEP, Arts Council, Cabinet Office, Law firms and others and the use of those as examples of best practice at International Mentoring Conferences. So what s the difference between coaching and mentoring? The simplest way to think of the difference is to view coaching as the short tem development of skills for a specific operational purpose, often done within the structure of the team and management line. Mentoring normally is outside that structure and mainly revolves around the development of long term development of skills, knowledge and behaviour to deal improve general performance and help move through transitions. Transitions are the points in our lives when we move from one stage or environment to another, eg a promotion, or where we need support to understand complex events. The provision of external mentoring and coaching, ie that provided by and external expert, is often restricted to senior management as the cost of such high level support by experienced mentors is high. However it can be set up at very short notice if required. Internal mentoring is one of the best ways to develop the performance of a group of key people using internal resources at minimal costs.

2 In any event if mentoring and coaching are implemented there must be : 1. A clear and specific business objective to the activity. 2. A clearly defined group or set of individuals that requires mentoring or coaching as part of their development support 3. A group of individuals willing and able to act as mentors or coaches who, with the right training, will be effective. 4. With mentoring the time and resources to effectively match mentors with mentees, train them to world class levels and then support them through the relationships. Most mentoring programme failures occur due to one of the above not being delivered. Mentoring often takes place at lower levels in organisations, eg between graduates and first line managers but it can deliver even more value if initiated top down first, eg from senior management down, as in the case of UBS. Here the potential value of the performance improvement for the organisation through each meeting was much greater than via lower level mentoring. The UBS mentoring programmes therefore form a good example of how to maximise the value of mentoring at minimum cost. The mentoring initiative in UBS started in 2002 and my role was to lead the implementation to ensure rapid, effective and world class quality of delivery based on my previous experience. Mentoring was initiated at UBS to - Consolidate the leadership group after a period of major change Drive forward the new business alignment strategy by improving business performance through cross-business / cross-cultural communications and teamwork. Enable the UBS Vision and Values to live across the business by creating a common culture. Helps create One Firm for clients - with one leadership group. Improve individual performance of both mentee and mentor Provide on-going career development and increase retention of talented leaders. Enhance talent mobility across the globe and between business divisions Provide an example of leadership and commitment to development from senior management to the organisation Support other development initiatives by continuing development via the mentoring using needs identified elsewhere

3 Thus in the case of UBS there were a significant number of business drivers to initiate a programme at senior level. However to gain buy in for mentoring at the most senior level that the benefits had to be clear to justify the time take out by top management to be trained and to deliver mentoring. Thus the implementation principles were critical : Low bureaucracy in delivery Who would mentor : Initially all of the Group Executive Board (GEB - 12 people), including the CEO would mentor the Group Managing Board (GMB - 60 people key business unit heads) The Group Managing Board would then in turn mentor Key Position Holders ( KPH - about 180 people) As required the programme would then extend to other key groups Matching : based on 1. Same geographic location in region 2. Mentor and mentee from different business group 3. Personal needs where possible Training : Maximum training time 3 hours All mentors must be trained 1:1 if required All mentees if possible Full very simple and practical support materials provided Local support via HR if required. The details above seriously understate the complexity of matching over 200 people across the globe to ensure that the matches are across business areas and geographically located to enable meetings to occur. The distribution of different business division personnel was not geographically even with, for example, Wealth Management having a higher concentration in Switzerland where there was the lowest concentration of Investment Bank, in London this was reversed, as it was in the USA with a concentration of Global Asset Management in Chicago with no other business division locally. In addition most mentoring programmes the experience differential between mentor and mentee is the equivalent of 2 rank levels. In the UBS programme it was going to be one rank level, so it would potentially be much more of a peer to peer discussion in certain partnerships than would normally occur. So at all times mentors and mentees we treated as equals and where possible trained or communicated with together.

4 All the matches were agreed with the CEO and Business division CEOs to ensure that there was also the potential for the relationships not only to develop performance but also to create opportunity for either better working between the businesses or for the initiation of new business activity. The roll out plan gives a useful indication of the process and timings for such a programme : June 2002 : 54 top level relationships initiated (GEB to GMB) this then allowed the system and training to be tested. Briefings held for mentors/ mentees 1:1 Briefings held for senior mentors where required The content of the mentor and mentee training had been kept the same so that the GMB group could be mentored by the GEB and then subsequently mentor the KPH group as planned but only have to go through one training event. Where possible mentors and mentees were trained together in their partnerships. Further it was always intended once the programme had been running for a while to encourage those mentors, and some mentees, confident with their skills to transfer them into coaching skills for their team. This would further increase the return on investment in the programme. June 2003 : GMB and KPH partnerships initiated August 2003 : GMB KPH training completed for all 180 involved. Sept 2003 : All programmes ; First programme newsletter issued to exchange views, ideas and benefits December 2003 : First review of progress GMB to KPH via feedback survey : 168 out of 180 partnerships met more than once, most 2-3 times. Over 50% of mentees have identified benefits from first meetings, an exceptionally good response against normal benchmarks Mentor feedback is very positive and shows increasing desire from mentors to get the most out of programme. Examples of benefits in many areas Topics discussed : operational issues, work / life balance, career development opportunities, personal leadership development Other mentoring programmes initiated as a result cascade effect of main programme, eg Womens Business Network

5 Feb 2004 : Completion of UBS Mentoring Guidelines (HR Support guide) designed to enable HR community to implement good quality mentoring programmes at all levels and cascade mentoring through organisation. Was a response to requests from many mentors and mentees to set up similar activity in their business areas. June 2004 : GEB GMB Full review and rematching- changes agreed to focus on key newly appointed GMB members reducing number of mentees for GEB by about half. It was initially planned that all members of the GMB would be mentored to send a clear signal about the commitment of the CEO and GEB. However with changes to the GMB it became clear that the GEB were not able to mentor up to 5 mentees each so this was reduced to 2 or 3 newly appointed GMB members. This enabled the focus to be delivered where maximum benefit would accrue. Further by now UBS had identified those with high potential in a range of rank bands and new development programme for those had been initiated, the Accelerated Leadership Experience. There were 150 leaders a year who would go through this programme and each of them would need a mentor for a period of a year after the programme. The obvious choice for the mentors were some of the Key Position Holders who had spent the last year being mentored by the GMB. We carefully selected those members of the KPH group who were identified as good potential mentors and the trained them. This was relatively simple as the content of the mentor and mentee training had been kept the same so that the GMB group could be mentored by the GEB and mentor the KPH but only have to do one training event. Nov 2004 : First UBS Accelerated Leadership Experience programme (HiPo) ALE mentoring starts after programme for one year Cross business group mentoring Main objective support for individual development plan implementation in conjunction with line manager By Jan 2005 those on the GMB KPH programme had been working together for a year and it had been planned to swap mentors at this time to reinvigorate the learning. Mentees were encouraged to keep up contacts with their old mentor but new mentors were likely to be appointed. Prior to doing this a full review of the programme occurred :

6 Feedback showed : 96% of mentees wanted another mentor going forward 86 % satisfied with current mentor Specific benefits identified : Cross business group activity or moves Work life issues Operational issues Personal issues Career development Networking However after the review the level of learning was still high so it was decided to let the relationships run for a further year. July 2005 GEB GMB review due to changes in the structure of the GEB required further review of matches with GMB. This is an example of the frequent fine tuning required as changes occur in the organisation on a regular basis. November 2005 ALE (High Potential) programme had been running for a year so a full mentee feedback survey was conducted. Key points: 94% of mentees very satisfied with their mentors. 83% of mentees had identified specific personal or business benefits March 2006 the planned rematch and relaunch of GMB KT programme was initiated due to multiple changes in location and roles of mentors and mentees and that the relationships had run a 2 year course. Key points in the relaunch were : Integrating mentoring with overall development agenda so that for example key business issues were specific discussions partnerships were asked to have. There was a focus on maximising benefit further by focus on those in new Key Positions, by using volunteer mentors to take on multiple mentees and by masterclass training for both experienced mentors and mentees. The programme over the initial 2 years produced evidence business benefit in terms of the delivery of the programme objectives and specific benefits identified by both mentors and mentees that improved their performance, initiated new business or solved oganisational problems. Further it dramatically opened up the culture across the organisation to encourage development as a part of regular business activity.

7 All of this was achieved through a relatively low level of resource allocation through careful planning and running training of the highest quality for mentors and mentees together with frequent follow up and support. Key points from Mentoring case study These are the key points that came from the UBS programmes and other mentoring programmes. Those thinking of launching mentoring should consider these. 1. The running of the programme - best practice versus business reality go for the latter, you can achieve best practice later. 2. Volunteers mentors or not? Can you balance the political value of all senior managers being mentors against the risk of poor mentoring? 3. Importance of training both mentors and mentees must be trained but in a simple and practical way don t overload with theory. 4. First meetings vital set a deadline or run first meetings in training if possible. 5. Managing expectations mentoring wont solve all the problems. 6. Importance of keeping up profile of programme its slowly slips down the priority list and meetings become less frequent. 7. Cultural diversity and differences make sure you factor these in 8. Once the programme is running encourage mentors to use their skills they have developed with their teams as a coach. 9. Keeping in touch knowing what s going on is vital every time you see a mentor or mentee ask them how its going. 10. Need for senior sponsorship this really helps in getting the ball rolling especially if they are a mentor as well. 11. Need for credible project manager the project manager needs to be credible to the mentors or thy will not take them seriously and the programme will fail. 12. Use your flagship programmes to build enthusiasm and interest in extending mentoring and coaching elsewhere

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