To say I was surprised by the general sentiment in a poll I ran on LinkedIn and Twitter about company-allocated mentors is putting it mildly. Especially given the incredibly positive perspective I get from talking with HR departments, including Learning & Development managers, in companies themselves. A strong reminder to me that different stakeholders can have very different perspectives on the same topic!

​So, given I’ve written about other company initiatives like rotation programmes and career returner programmes before, why not write an article on mentorship programmes too? 

Read more to learn what the poll results were, plus some suggestions on how to enhance company mentorship initiatives, ending with thoughts on other programmes such as those run by non-profit organisations or professional bodies.

This month we’ve been having some fun… 

Longstanding readers may recall our previous Halloween-themed post (way back in 2017!) on slashers, asking: ‘what type of professional slasher are you?’ This year, however, we’ve gone too far – our social media followers on LinkedIn and Twitter will have seen us posting over recent weeks about terrifying creatures known as dementees and tormentors, both horrible in their own right.

You’ve probably come across (or even been!) a dementee at some point over your career so far, and not necessarily during late October. On the positive side, they’re super-eager for career support. But, beware: they indiscriminately reach out far and wide for anyone and everyone who can help them achieve what they want, and can be aggressive in the pursuit of their goals. The relationship is unbalanced though, and woe betide anyone who is unfortunate enough to be cornered by a dementee. We summarise these tricksters with this handy mnemonic: 

• Demanding 
• Entertain-Me Mindset 
• Moaner 
• Expects Freebies 
• Not Prepared 
• Tardy 
• Erratic 
• Entitled 

Instead, to avoid becoming a DEMENTEE in your passionate pursuit of your career goals, we suggest, when interacting with more experienced professionals, looking for guidance, support and career direction from them, aspire to be a PROTEGE: 

• Proactive
• Respectful
• Open to Learn
• Truly Invests in Growth
• Evolves & Develops
• Goal-driven & Committed
• Engaged & Professional

And just before you get the idea that experienced professional mentors escaped the bloodbath this Halloween, please note that we also drew attention to their dark side: tormentors. The ones whose advice is so cutting that it keeps you awake for months, shocking you to your core and perhaps triggering waves of depression. Other characteristics of tormentors listed by followers Greg and David are: talking and instructing without asking nor understanding the protege, or only having time available to meet on Friday 13th… and then rescheduling! It’s very definitely not recommended practice to interact with tormentors.

On a final gloomy note, perhaps JK Rowling was onto something when she invented dementors…
Are these dark, soulless creatures, ‘draining peace, hope and happiness out of the air around them’, born of the worst of dementees and tormentors?! 

Happy Halloween to all our

• followers,
• monthly subscribers,
• proteges and
• mentors! 

At Protagion, we regularly suggest forward-looking self-reflection exercises for our members, especially as they can help us imagine possibilities by shifting our focus from present constraints. One example is our career timecapsule exercise which encourages long-term thinking.

We came across another application of this future-self idea, thanks to Tara Mohr, author of Playing Big*. It's an exercise she herself learnt from the Coaches Training Institute, and involves imagining an older, wiser you, decades into the future. Tara refers to this vision as our “inner mentor” and with her coaching clients has found that once we have a vivid sense of this future version of ourselves, we discover that he/she exists as a voice within us right now.

The visualisation exercise is most useful when we have some life experience, including being more open to listening to our elders – even if it’s an internal rather than external elder we’re tapping into. So, it works better for qualified professionals than scholars or students, for example. We feel your inner mentor is a helpful addition to your Mentorship Board, especially as they will know you best of all your mentors, and are always accessible to you. Our inner mentors function as a source of guidance, a voice we can draw on to develop a vision for our lives and careers, to help us make tough decisions, and to chart our unique paths.

Interestingly, an inner mentor is conceptually aligned with, although opposite to, the ‘advice I’d give my younger self’ style of career guidance experienced mentors share. An example on our website is Tim Rozar’s career advice. In this vein, we can consider an inner mentor as ‘advice I’d ask my older self for’.

Read more to see how to envisage your inner mentor and consult with him/her, compare ‘outer’ and inner mentors, and consider how to grow toward our inner mentors step by step, decision by decision.