Can mentorship programs develop leadership skills?

Mentorship programs are immensely popular in organizational and business settings. Statistics show that approximately 70 percent of Fortune 500 companies are reported to have some type of formal mentorship program. While some of these organizations use leadership for succession planning or employee engagement, many others use mentoring as a tool to develop leaders in their organizations. Meta-analyses show that mentorship programs are beneficial to develop mentees’ careers, improve the psychological well-being of both mentors and mentees and cultivate positive attitudes towards the organization. However, the research is limited when it comes to the leadership development outcomes of mentoring and mentorship programs.

To understand whether mentoring could be an effective tool for leadership development, Haskayne researchers Alyssa Grocutt, Julie Weatherhead, Duygu Gulseren, and Nick Turner conducted an in-depth review of the literature on mentoring, leadership development and the studies on the intersection of the two. The report suggests that mentoring could be an efficient and effective method to develop leaders.

Based on the available evidence on mentoring and leadership development, Grocutt and colleagues make recommendations for organizations on how to integrate leadership development goals with mentorship. Some of the recommendations are as follows:

• Ensure that mentors and mentees are committed to the program. Setting clearly defined leadership goals can be helpful for program commitment.
• Leadership can be best developed through instruction, demonstration and practice. Mentees should have opportunities to gain new knowledge from their mentors, observe them and practice leadership under their guidance.
• Self-reflection and feedback are critical components of leadership development. The structure of the mentorship program should facilitate self-reflection and mentors should give constructive feedback on mentees’ leadership development.

References

Allen, T. D., Eby, L. T., Poteet, M. L., Lentz, E., & Lima, L. (2004). Career benefits associated   with mentoring for protégés: A meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 89(1),        127-136.

Eby, L. T. D. T., Allen, T. D., Hoffman, B. J., Baranik, L. E., Sauer, J. B., Baldwin, S.,     Morrison, M. A., Kinkade, K. M., Maher, C. P., Curtis, S., & Evans, S. C. (2013). An            interdisciplinary meta-analysis of the potential antecedents, correlates, and consequences of protégé perceptions of mentoring. Psychological Bulletin, 139(2), 441-476.

Grocutt, A., Weatherhead, J., Gulseren, D., & Turner, N. (2020). Can mentoring programs develop leadership? [White paper]. Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary.

Jones, M. (2017, June 2). Why can't companies get mentorship programs right? The Atlantic Monthly. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/06/corporate-mentorship-programs/528927/