Dr. Rick Franza, Dean of the Hull College of Business, discusses a different, timely business topic each Monday in this column. This week, he talks about the benefits of mentors. The interview has been edited for clarity and impact.
ABD: In some of our past conversations, you’ve mentioned the idea of mentoring. How do you define that?
Rick: Someone who mentors provides advice to navigate careers, to not make the same mistakes, to provide some to the experiences they’ve had. It’s kind of an advisory role. People try to make a distinction between mentoring and coaching, but there’s a lot of overlap.
ABD: Should a mentor and mentee work together?
Rick: I’ve had mentors in the same workspace and mentors who are not. Observation is not necessary but it can be helpful. Sometimes, though, mentoring can take place from afar. For the most part, it should be a male with a male and a female with a female. It can get sticky the other way around because issues could occur. But I have known many successful mentorships that were male to female in the business world, where it was a male-dominated workspace.
ABD: Who should have a mentor?
Rick: I think everyone should have mentors. They’re people you respect. I’ve rarely had a formal mentor but I’ve always had a series of people I’ve considered mentors, people I could go to for advice who I knew would be straight shooters with me.
Something that is catching on is peer mentoring – people in similar jobs, facing the same issues. Some call it commiseration, but it’s more than that. Sometimes it’s helpful if they’re in your industry or your company because they understand the nuances, but it doesn’t have to be. There are lots of different people you can seek out to have that relationship with.
ABD: So is mentorship just about learning how to avoid mistakes?
Rick: Isn’t that enough? Experience is a great teacher. But it’s not just mistake avoidance. It can be proactive, it can be very positive. This is why I think mentorship works best outside the workspace because they’ll be asking for situational advice, help with making decisions, and thoughts about career changes. It’s not a panacea for all potential failures, but it allows for warnings and people learning from your experiences. I find that mentoring is as much about life as about a career. It’s the whole work-life balance idea – they leak into one another.
ABD: How can a mentorship relationship be set up?
Rick: You can seek out someone to mentor you. For the most part, people are complemented by being asked to be a mentor. You can also make yourself available to be a mentor. In most cases, the reason people are mentors is to give back. They’ve had experiences they want to share – although, as a mentor, be judicious in how you dole out your advice. The hidden thing is that you get a lot out of it as a mentor. You’re learning a lot because it’s forcing you to be more introspective. And if you spend more time around younger people, it helps you feel younger and gives you a new perspective.
There are some good mentorship programs in the area. We have one at AU for women where ADP assigns female managers from the Augusta office to young women students. We’re setting one up in Rotary. And some of the chambers of commerce have mentorship programs.
Mentorship is beneficial in so many ways, to all the parties involved. Even for introverts. We’re all benefitted from relationships.
