Devoted to Managers and those that seek to improve their management skills

While we have talked at managersrealm before about searching out mentors to help to fill in things that we lack in our manager or leadership development, there's another side of mentoring that can be just as beneficial to the workplace.

What I'm talking about is making your employees mentors. Think of it for a moment...once an employee understands the particular job they're in and the overall way the company expects them to perform and act on the job, they are the perfect one to teach someone new starting at the company.

There are several things that this does for each of the employees. For the employee doing the mentoring, it gives them a much bigger buy-in to the company and what it stands for. After all: they are now a representative of that company.

Next, it helps train them for something more in the future. Knowing that they will be observed and counted on in the situation, they will give themselves wholeheartedly to their task, knowing that it could open doors for the future in the company.

I've seen this done over and over again with the employee having a huge change in motivation and attitude as they are entrusted with this responsibility. It's a win/win for everybody.

On the part of the employee being mentored, they will usually open up much more with a fellow employee than they will with management at first. A number of companies have also found that when employee mentors are used, it helps to reduce turnover in the company.

One key thing in all of this is to make sure that the employee mentor is positive about the company and has been asked to do it; not ordered to. Volunteer mentoring reveals something of the quality of the individual doing it and can give more confidence that it will be done with the right attitude.

Employee mentoring makes great sense in all ways. Have you seen this have great impact upon the workplace?