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Mentoring can benefit anyone at any stage of their career. From senior employees to new hires, workplace mentoring programs are ideal tools for training and development. Business strategies that focus on talent development should always have a mentoring component.
One type of mentoring that has been gaining popularity, particularly among younger generations, is flash mentoring. It is a style of mentoring that can suit any workplace environment and improve employee engagement and skills.
How does flash mentoring work?
Flash mentoring gets its name from the speed at which it is done. With this mentoring style, employees are given an opportunity for short sessions where they can learn new things or get some valuable information. Flash mentoring focuses more on short-term meetings to gather important information or learn a skill. While the mentorship is not as long as a formal one, it can be just as valuable. It can even be used alongside more traditional workplace mentoring programs.
Benefits of flash mentoring
There are a number of advantages to flash mentorships, including:
Speed
Finding the information or answers that you need quickly is one of the top reasons that flash mentoring has become popular. The ability to get expert advice or develop a skill that you can put into practice right away is invaluable.
Time constraint
We live in a busy world, and many people don’t want to be burdened with the long-time commitment that comes with traditional mentoring. With flash mentoring, mentors can connect with mentees in a more relaxed fashion without demanding too much of their time.
Impact
The structure of flash mentoring allows your experienced mentors to interact with more mentees over time.
Mentoring supplement -flash mentoring compliments other workplace mentoring programs. They can be used together to cultivate a workplace culture that values employee development and engagement.
How leaders can use flash mentoring
Organizations that already have a workplace mentoring program can easily add a flash mentoring component. Here are some different ways you can make flash mentoring work for your company:
Career advancement
Flash mentoring allows employees to customize their career development. By connecting with experts from different backgrounds and with differing skillsets, people can learn what they feel is right for their career path.
Enhance understanding
Connect mentees with mentors from various departments to help build a more comprehensive understanding. It may also expose employees to different career options available at your organization.
Networking
Helping employees build up their network is another way that flash mentoring can be used. Allowing people to cultivate connections is great for employee engagement and loyalty.
Leadership development
With the variety of skills needed in leadership roles, using flash mentoring to gain these skills is an ideal fit. Book sessions with different leadership experts to enhance your skills in communication, coaching, and more.
Onboarding
Starting a new job can be stressful, but using flash mentoring during the onboarding process can improve the likelihood your new hire will stay with the company for the long term.
Mentor testing
Flash mentoring can also be used to test mentor-mentee pairs for long-term success. Those duos who do well together could then be connected for an ongoing workplace mentorship.
Flash mentoring event
Consider hosting a flash mentoring event where mentees can gain access and knowledge to a variety of mentors. To make it successful, ask mentees to come prepared with their goals. It is also helpful to use mentoring software to build profiles of the mentors available and allow mentees to pick who they want to connect with.
Tips for mentoring success
Whether you are hosting a large flash mentoring event or connecting mentors and mentees separately, there are some things you can do to help improve the success of everyone involved, such as:
Be respectful - ensure that both the mentor and the mentee are respectful of each other’s time. Ask them to be on time, be prepared and be flexible.
Have patience - mentors will need to be patient with mentees as they may not be experienced with interviews or flash mentor-style meetings.
Bring curiosity - mentoring presents a learning opportunity for both the mentee and the mentor. Bringing questions, an open mind, and a curious nature will help make the meeting go smoothly.
The flexibility of flash mentoring means that more mentors and mentees can cultivate the benefits of mentorship in less time. Moreover, your organization will also benefit by creating an atmosphere of mentorship and enhancing the skill set of your employees.
Mentoring software such as Together offers you the ability to customize and control your mentoring program. From registration to pairing to reporting, mentoring software streamlines the managing of your workplace mentoring program.
