■■ Peer Coaching: LTs volunteer a pressing
business issue and are coached by their
peers through a problem-solving process
using insightful questions, active listening
and powerful suggestions. The output is
a rich list of ideas and suggestions to put
into action.
A trusted and capable MLF leader, typ-ically
at the director level, facilitates these
sessions. This role is critical to the peer men-toring
process, and the facilitators are selected
carefully. Note that the emphasis is on facil-itation;
these leaders are not at the table as
experts, but to guide the group through the
learning process.
THE MOST CRUCIAL INGREDIENT
Many factors come together to create a great
peer mentoring experience – the most crucial
of these is trust. People need this to feel safe
to share, without judgment. The entire expe-rience
quickly deteriorates if they do not feel
comfortable contributing.
Building and sustaining trust is highly de-pendent
on three group behaviours. These
are referred to as the “Three Cs”:
■■ Candor: Respectfully share experiences,
thoughts and opinions and be receptive
to these from others.
■■ Commitment: Attend every scheduled
session and complete follow-up.
■■ Confidentiality: Maintain conversations
and comments inside the immediate
group.
These behaviours are considered so im-portant
to the quality of the sessions that the
group commits to them in writing and par-ticipants
may be removed from the group if
they break them. Many LTs indicated that
this going-in commitment accelerated their
trust with the group.
Trust is monitored during each session for
each group; most groups require three to four
sessions to establish healthy trust levels.
THE WINS
In the first year since its launch, peer mentor-ing
is exceeding expectations.
Feedback is extremely positive. The col-laborative
peer-to-peer approach to learning
is providing relevant, just-in-time support
that is individualized, meaningful and engag-ing.
A stronger community is being nurtured.
Workplace issues are being resolved.
Over and above these results, additional
wins have been realized:
LTs are building coaching proficiency be-fore
they manage a team. At MLF, this core
skill is required of all people managers to
build a high-performance organization.
Senior leaders facilitating these sessions
are also honing their coaching skills. They
find their role to be engaging and rewarding;
it is considered a great return on the personal
time investment.
The collaborative format yields more cre-ative
solutions to workplace challenges. And
given that the LTs quickly discover their chal-lenges
are very similar despite very different
roles, these wins are replicated across the
group.
The cross-functional groups introduce LTs
to other parts of the business through those
who live it every day.
Strong cross-functional relationships are
being built that will continue beyond the
program.
Most important, the LTs love this format.
They feel empowered to drive their own de-velopment
and are excited to support that of
their peers.
MAKING US STRONGER
We are now in the process of explor-ing
opportunities to expand the peer
mentoring approach to other groups across
the organization.
For a relatively light investment in time,
and virtually no cost to the business, these
groups are achieving exactly what the orga-nization
was looking for: strong, supportive
bonds with peers across the company which
in turn strengthen personal leadership skills
and provide timely support where they need
it most.
This will have tremendous payoff for both
the individual and for MLF, in the form of
greater engagement, stronger performance
and continued career growth.
Together, we are growing and getting
stronger, person by person, and connection
by connection. n
Carmen Klein is director of leadership &
learning at MLF, with responsibility for the or-ganization’s
leadership programs and talent
processes.
Glain Roberts-McCabe is the founder and
president of The Executive Roundtable and is
passionate about the art of leadership and sup-porting
ambitious mid-career leaders.
feature
MANY FACTORS COME TOGETHER TO CREATE
A GREAT PEER MENTORING EXPERIENCE –
THE MOST CRUCIAL OF THESE IS TRUST.
32 ❚ MAY/JUNE 2014 ❚ HR PROFESSIONAL