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Don’t just teach aspiring leaders, pave the way for them.
If you still think of mentoring as educating bright young workers in the ways of credit unions, you may have missed the boat, suggests Kathleen M. O’Connor, associate professor of management and organizations at the S. C. Johnson Graduate School of Management, Cornell University, a visiting faculty member at the London Business School and a lead faculty member for CUES’ CEO Institute II: Organizational Effectiveness.
“Women today are overmentored but undersponsored,” she says. “What they really need is more senior leaders advocating for their promotion.”
Becoming informed is no longer much of a challenge, she argues. “Employees on their own can access all the knowledge they’ll need in the form of TedTalks, podcasts, blogs and so forth,” she explains. “Results today come from programs that let people put insights and learning into practice.”
Don’t think of young people as potential talent, O’Connor continues. “They are immediate talent for CUs that take a portfolio approach to leadership and emphasize collaboration among people with a variety of skills and insights to keep the organization agile. Young people can be high-performing members of such teams.”
Richard H. Gamble is a freelance writer based in Colorado.
