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Mentoring · 04

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People & Organization Leadership Mentoring

An experienced second pair of eyes on people and organization decisions.

Duration
6 months12 sessions of 90 minutes
Format
One-to-onealso as a first-100-days or peer-circle format
Agenda
The mentee brings itthe real work, that week’s issue
Mentor

A one-to-one programme in which human resources and organization leaders discuss their own real agenda regularly, for six months, with a mentor who has sat in this chair. The mentee brings the agenda: an organizational change, a pay-rise decision, a successor for a key role, a difficult meeting with the union, a disagreement with the general manager. The mentor shares experience and views openly and leaves the decision to the mentee.

How the six months unfold

  1. 45 minIntroduction
  2. Month 1Start: agreement and opening three-way meeting
  3. Months 2–5Deepening: two sessions a month, mid-point review
  4. Month 6Close and closing three-way meeting
  5. +3 monthsFollow-up session

Topics most often brought to the table

  • Partnership with the general manager and the top team
  • Organization structure and role design
  • Key roles, talent and succession
  • Performance and goal setting
  • Pay, benefits and allocating a limited budget
  • Growing management capacity
  • Employee relations, unions and difficult periods
  • HR's place in culture and change
  • People data and indicators
  • The HR leader's own position and team

After six months, the executive

  1. 01

    Takes people and organization matters to the general manager and top team in the language of business results, cost and risk; is involved in decisions from the start.

  2. 02

    Builds an organizational change around roles and decision flow, not people; plans the transition and the order of announcements.

  3. 03

    Draws up a realistic picture of key roles and their successors; knows which roles would stop the business if left empty, and acts on it.

  4. 04

    Differentiates a limited budget in pay and performance decisions with clear reasons, and gives managers defensible language.

  5. 05

    Runs the process fairly, quickly and on record in difficult periods such as downsizing, union negotiations or ethics complaints.

  6. 06

    Takes the first steps to turn their own team from a transaction-processing unit into one that supports managers.