If you're unfamiliar with the concepts of flywheels, all you need to do is find anyone with the word "product" in their job title and just ask them about it. 6 hours and 145 slides of random .gifs later, you'll be an expert. To save you some time, think of a flywheel as a tool to help generate greater outcomes by investing small amounts of your energy in areas that will build and leverage momentum to impact your team.
When it comes to development, few investments have greater returns than investing in mentoring.
In the simplest version of a mentoring relationship, mentoring connects the expertise of someone who has been there and has the experience to share with the mindset of a curious learner. In these relationships, everyone is keenly aware of the benefits of the mentee's access to the mentor's expertise, knowledge, and perspectives.
What can often be missed, though, is the benefit the relationship brings to the mentor. With the right mindset and prompts, the impact that a mentee can have on a mentor by sharing new perspectives, expertise, and collaboration is equally impactful. For teams that are able to do this well, the momentum connection and results of great mentorship continue far longer than the last formal mentoring session.
Mentoring and structured mentoring programs have seen a huge resurgence in the last few years, and with good reason. If you're looking to dip your toe into mentoring for one person or the whole team, there are some great options out there to get you started:
- 📚 Free Resources: Check out some of the great free resources that are out there for how to become a mentor and introduce it to your team. Whether it is using Duke Graduate School’s mentoring resources or digging into what the National Mentoring Resource Center has to offer, there are a lot of great tools out there to get you started.
- 🧑‍🔬 Find with an Expert: If you're looking to learn from someone outside your team, take a look at resources like MentorCruise.com. For just a few hundred dollars, you can connect with an expert in just about any field for a mentoring relationship or just a simple deliverable feedback review.
- 🛠️ Build Your Own: Building your own internal mentoring program can seem intimidating, but for teams that are serious about maximizing the benefits of mentoring, there isn’t a better solution. By designing your own approach, you're able to directly connect the mentoring back to the values, culture, and outcomes you need to drive as a team.
No matter how large or small your team is, mentoring can be a great injection of expertise and perspective when you need it most.
Are you interested in helping get mentoring started for your team? If so, we can help you build a custom mentoring program with training and resources that drive and strengthen your culture.
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