Breaking Bias: Enhancing Mentor-Mentee Relationships

Table of Contents

1. Overview

2. What Is Mentoring? How Does It Help Break Bias?

3. Seven Ways Mentoring Improves Workplace Diversity

4. Types of Mentoring for Supporting Organizations’ DEI Initiatives 

5. Step-by-Step Process to Creating a Mentorship Program that Breaks Barriers

6. 6 Elements to Make Mentoring Sessions Engaging

7. Leveraging the Concept of Bridge Mentoring for Combating Bias

8. Tips and Suggestions for Mentors to Make the Experience Engaging and Inclusive

9. Final Thoughts

10. Related Resource - Mentoring Mid-Evaluation Format 

Overview

A mentoring program is essential for the development of young professionals. The evidence is clear: 98% of Fortune 500 companies now offer mentoring programs to their employees, which states the importance of these programs for professional development.

Traditionally seen as a way to promote employee skill development and knowledge transfer, mentoring programs can create a more inclusive workplace by connecting underrepresented employees with senior leaders. Mentoring has been proven to be a particularly effective way of harnessing the organizational community to tackle bias in the workplace.

However, most mentoring programs fizzle out after a few months of commencing. Here, the underlying issue is less about teaching people how to mentor but rather about effectively engaging mentors and mentees and cultivating a relationship of trust between them.

The toolkit is designed to help employers navigate the nuances of building an effective mentorship program that will support employee development, foster inclusivity, and facilitate positive organizational perceptions.

What is Mentoring? How Does It Help Break the Bias?

Mentoring expands the scope for career progression, networking, and learning. In addition, workplace mentoring encourages conversations and relationships that can break down barriers and overcome stigmas or prejudices. Mentoring is also a key component for creating inclusive workplaces where every employee, regardless of their background, feels empowered to do their best work and to be the most authentic version of themselves.

Therefore, mentorship programs aim far beyond professional development. They can promote and advocate for inclusion (virtually and in person), leading to a more inclusive workplace and a culture of belongingness.

Seven Ways Mentoring Improves Workplace Diversity

• Sustains and Reinforces DEI Initiatives

While most organizations have diversity initiatives introduced and implemented at the workplace, they find it hard to accrue its benefits. Combining a mentoring program with your existing Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) initiatives gives employees the structure and support they need to execute them.

Diversity-focused mentoring programs can be administered through sponsorship, reverse mentoring, or employee resource groups (ERGs).

• Improves Employee Retention

There is hardly any doubt that the battle for talent has become intense over the years. Currently, firms are experiencing challenges in ensuring the existence of a healthy working population. This is especially so for firms that have low levels of diversity. Where employees are not diverse, and an environment of inclusion has not been created, such employees are often made to feel that they have to work harder than their fellow man to be heard and be considered for promotion, and this is instead a recipe for dissatisfaction and feelings of separateness.

Establishing a mentoring program that brings together individuals from different backgrounds, cultures, or ethnicities can empower diverse employees, give them a platform to voice their opinions, and foster a strong company culture.

• Brings More Equity to Leadership Teams

Since the advent of diversity and inclusion initiatives, there has been a push to increase the number of women and minority groups in leadership positions. However, organizations have not been able to do enough to develop and promote these employees.

A mentoring program can significantly increase minority representation in leadership positions more than other corporate tactics.

• Elevated Diverse Perspectives

While reverse mentoring is commonly seen as a way to help senior leaders navigate the tech revolution, it's also an effective way to combat age bias.

Reverse mentoring flips the traditional mentoring model upside down. A senior leader is paired with a junior employee, who then shares their perspective on working in the organization from their unique standpoint. This mentoring bridges the generation gap with openly shared ideas directly impacting the organization.

• Mitigates Affinity Bias and Imposter Syndrome

Structured mentorship programs effectively address affinity bias in the workplace, where employees who most closely reflect the background of senior management are given preferential treatment (often unconsciously). They're a way of ensuring underrepresented groups, including women, people of color, and LGBTQ+ individuals, have access to developmental opportunities.

Mentoring provides a support system for discussing and tackling issues that prevent an inclusive workplace, whether team feelings of tokenism or the lack of smooth transitions post-maternity period.

• Build a Diverse Talent Pipeline Through Mentorship

Mentoring programs offer career opportunities to underrepresented groups and help create a workforce that reflects the diversity of a global society. These initiatives fulfill a moral responsibility and provide strategic benefits to organizations by fostering creativity, better decision-making skills, and overall productivity.

This approach entails not having a single lens that centers on factors such as race and gender but rather concerns numerous aspects that range from education to economic status and culture.

• Establishes Measured Accountability

It's important to establish a measure of accountability when looking to mitigate bias and foster inclusion and engagement in the workplace. As organizations work to address gender bias, mentoring serves as a strategic tool to demonstrate measurement and progress in these areas.

Concrete evidence of improvement illustrates an organization's commitment to its diverse workforce, the business as a whole, and a more inclusive future.

Types of Mentoring for Supporting Organizations’ DEI Initiatives

Diversity and inclusion pose significant challenges in today's workplace. Too often, and for various reasons, workplace diversity programs shrivel up. However, the good news is that mentoring programs can significantly contribute to making diversity a reality.

Three broad areas of mentoring that can be used as part of an organization's DEI initiatives are:

1. Peer mentors are often seen as the best approach for new hires. A peer mentor introduces a mentee to the organization's culture and shows them the ropes.

2. Career mentors: As a career mentor, one acts as both a coach and an internal advocate, developing employee career paths and ladders.

3. Life mentor: A life mentor helps individuals integrate professional development with their more extensive life journey.

Note that these three types of mentoring are not mutually exclusive, and the same mentor can play the role of all three. While new employees are best served by a mentor within the organization, executives, and CEOs may benefit from an outside voice—either an employee facing similar challenges in another organization or an executive coach.

Step-by-Step Process to Creating a Mentorship Program that Breaks Barriers

There are many different ways to structure a mentoring program to promote inclusion in the workplace, but here's a six-step approach to get you started:

• Recruit relevant mentors

Create a talent pool of qualified mentors. This should include both diverse and majority leaders in your organization.

Recruiting mentors is one of the first steps in setting up an effective mentoring program. A well-managed effort will ensure that your program identifies, attracts, and selects people in your community who are best suited for a mentoring program. Below are some qualities or details to look for in potential mentors:

• Employment history

• Soft skills such as adaptability, time management, and problem-solving

• Communication skills

• Empathy

• Knowledge

• Attitude

• Willingness to teach and learn

• Life experience

• Experience working with a variety of people

• Age/maturity

• Educational background

• Openness to diversity

  Life ambitions

• Survey mentees on their preferences

Ask mentees what kind of mentor they are looking for, their career goals, and what type of support they seek.

The best way to design an effective mentoring program is to use online surveys to survey your mentors and mentees. Mentors can tell you what resources they might need to improve their role as business advisors, and mentees' preferences can indicate what they want from a mentoring program. Remember that each participant may have different needs and goals, so it is important to allow for flexibility.

To collect mentor and mentee profile/matching data, a questionnaire can be sent to prospective mentors and mentees, or an application form can be circulated via mentoring software.

• Pair mentors and mentees 

The mentor-mentee pairing process is the trickiest part of the program. Put a process in place to ensure the pairings best suit each employee’s skills and experience. Let a team of coordinators assess and align both mentor and mentee surveys to best match them based on their needs. For mentees, take a dual approach by having them surveyed and interviewed to help find their best match.

Technology can further streamline the mentor-mentee matching process. Advanced algorithms and mentor-matching software allow for more sophisticated pairings. These go beyond essential criteria to consider detailed compatibility issues such as work styles, personality traits, and specific learning goals.

Mentor-Mentee Matching Best Practices

• Look for developmental goals. They are a fundamental aspect of matching profiles. They offer insight into what mentees hope to achieve through the program and guide mentors in providing tailored support and guidance.

• Specific subject interests play a key role in matching participants with compatible mentors who have expertise in those relevant areas. This facilitates meaningful discussion and knowledge transfer.

• Location is another important factor, especially in programs (and workplaces) where face-to-face meetings are encouraged to ensure convenient access for both parties.

• Provide training and resources to help your participants initiate and facilitate their mentoring relationships. This will lead to more effective relationships in the long run.

In some cases, mentoring matches may not work out. Whether this is due to a clash of schedules, disengagement, or confusion, the key is to act quickly and have a protocol in place. Supporting both parties and offering a new pairing swiftly is important, as is getting feedback to ensure everyone's learning from the experience.

• Provide session agendas to initiate and guide conversations 

So, your participants are enrolled, trained, and matched. Now, the real work begins. Left to themselves, many mentorships will flourish, but some may not. Why so? Because mentoring is not usually part of the daily routine. Without direction and a plan, the mentoring relationship is at risk of losing focus and momentum.

Mentorship is a useful tool that can help mentors gain practical experience; however, to help these programs succeed, certain levels of structure and direction should be provided throughout the process. A best practice in successful mentoring programs is to lay down goals and action plans for the program. Another tip is to provide timely and relevant 'help resources' (topical content, mentoring best practices, etc.) throughout the mentoring relationship. Bite-size content delivered at key points is ideal.

• Collect feedback and measure outcomes

Even after all the preparation has been done, you cannot leave mentors and mentees to fend for themselves. Without guidance and support, participants can easily become disengaged. Therefore, it is important to keep in touch with them and monitor their progress regularly. You can set up checkpoints or milestones to report on mentor and mentee progress and ask for additional help if needed.

The first step in setting up a mentoring program is to define its objectives. Once it is up and running, it is time to evaluate its impact on the organization. The metrics you collect and analyze will depend on the goals you initially set. It is also important to gather feedback from all stakeholders on an ongoing basis. Surveys are great for such purposes—for asking people about their experiences.

See. Mentoring Mid-Evaluation Format 

• Culminate the program

When mentees are ready to say goodbye to their mentor, it can be an emotional experience for them. It should also be a structured experience because it's another time to help collect data on the program’s success.

Make sure that a completion plan is easily accessible and readily obtainable by both the mentor and the mentee. Mentors and mentees can do it in pairs or individually. The only thing that must be considered is that it should be uniform across various program types.

Your closure plan may include open-ended questions, such as:

• How do you feel about the duration of the mentoring program?

• Were the planned objectives met?

• What worked well? What didn't?

• What next?

This should be done, if possible, as a routine, as it will provide you with regular qualitative data about various aspects of the program.

7 Elements to Make Mentoring Sessions Engaging

Here are some components that should be included in a structured agenda to ensure each meeting is effective and employees navigate a fair career path and pursue equal opportunities. In fact, given the pivotal role mentors play in employees’ work lives, organizational leaders have a tremendous opportunity to be intentional in their DEI initiatives. Let’s see how.

1. Mentorship program icebreakers: Most mentoring sessions are weeks apart, so it’s a good idea to dedicate the first few minutes of each meeting to breaking the ice a bit. Small talk helps lighten the mood and generate more impactful conversation.

Some of the questions that may help break the ice are:

• Why are you interested in this mentoring project?

• What do you wish to achieve from this program?

• What motivates you to be successful?

• What is one of your favorite books? 

• If you weren't working here, what would be your job?

  2. Check-ins of previous goals and milestones: The mentor and the mentee should take some time to review the goals set at their last meeting and discuss what has been achieved and what hasn't.

  3. New goals and objectives: Set goals for each upcoming meeting. Outline clear, actionable steps.

 4. Skill building or knowledge sharing: Set aside some time for the mentor to share knowledge or skills relevant to the mentee's goals. This could be anything from technical to softer skills such as leadership or communication.

 5. Feedback loop: Constructive feedback ensures continuous improvement. Both parties should be comfortable sharing and receiving feedback.

 6. Wrap-up and next steps: Summarize the meeting's discussions. Discuss the date for the next meeting and reiterate action items for both parties.

 7. Different versions of the agenda: Certain parts of a meeting agenda may be more meaningful to certain individuals, not to everybody else. These should suit different parties, types of mentoring relationships, and formats.

Leveraging the Concept of Bridge Mentoring for Combating Biases

Most people choose same-sex mentors. This inequality can be addressed if more companies prioritize 'bridge'mentoring'—mentoring that deliberately brings together different people to help level the playing field and create more equal opportunities. So, how does it work?

Bridge mentoring programs address cultural differences in the corporate environment by bridging the knowledge gap between socially marginalized communities and the majority group (typically middle- or upper-class white people).

Like most mentoring schemes, bridge mentoring has a set of guidelines, including a commitment to confidentiality and a non-judgmental attitude on the part of both the mentee and the mentor. This is meant to create a supportive and safe environment that encourages trust and open discussion.

Unlike most mentorships, bridge mentors typically receive cultural competency training to give them the tools they need to navigate cultural differences, understand some of the common challenges mentees face, and identify biases.

Mentor and mentee meetings are held on a regular basis to create a two-way partnership in which the mentor gains a deeper understanding of the mentee's unique experiences, perspectives, and cultural background. When combined with training, this process fosters empathy and cross-cultural communication.

Tips and Suggestions for Mentors to Make the Experience Engaging and Inclusive

• Tell a career story or share examples of personal ups and downs.

• Assist in the development of a personalized training plan for the mentee.

• Extend help for the mentee to obtain specific training relevant to the goals set.

• Find ways to allow the mentee to take on a different role for a short period to gauge interest and build a new skill set.

• Discuss a book or article related to leadership or professional/technical work.

• Help the mentee draft short- and long-term career development goals.

• Get the mentee involved with partner organizations and stakeholders. Introduce the mentee to someone in the same industry doing similar work.

• Listen. There is no greater honor than to be listened to. By listening, the mentor can learn much about the mentee’s barriers, perceptions, and needs.

• Help the mentee understand office politics, if any, and how to navigate it.

• Attend a meeting or event together.

Final Thoughts

Mentoring isn't just a strategic complement to diversity initiatives; it's a way of making any company’s vision of a diverse workplace a reality. It helps overcome bias and equips underrepresented employees with the skills and support they need to progress.

When companies integrate mentorship into their diversity strategies, they see real results. The outcome is more diverse leadership, better employee engagement, and a culture that values different perspectives. In short, mentoring isn't just a nice thing to have; it speaks to the notion of true diversity and inclusion, which is a business necessity. Diverse and integrated workforce recruitment is on the priority list of most CEOs; however, only a few of them have a concrete plan. A diversity-focused mentoring program paves the way for strengthening diversity initiatives in any organization.