Infographic “How To” Post 2: Mentoring

This is part 2 of a 10 part “how to” series covering the points in the infographic below.

“Employees stay when they are mentored, huh?  Well I don’t know what that is, how to do it, or how to find time to do it even if I knew what it was!”

Whew.  Okay.  Let’s take this one step at a time.

First of all, you may already be doing a form of informal mentoring with your employees, although some will say the TRUE mentoring relationship is outside of the boundaries of a leader/employee relationship. Either way, the concepts of mentoring are pretty straightforward, and when applied, can be great tools to help employees learn more about themselves and to grow professionally.

Here is the definition of a mentor: to advise or train someone, especially a younger colleague.

Like I said, you are probably doing that already in some form or fashion. How a traditional mentor/mentee relationship differs from that of a leader/employee is that often the mentor is not the employee’s direct supervisor.  They are more of an adviser who helps the mentee/employee develop skills, attitudes and relationships in the workplace.

Again, unlike a leader, a mentor is not supposed to tell an employee (their mentee) what to do. A leader may assign a task or give direction, and the employee is expected to carry out that task.  However when a mentor meets with a mentee, it’s more about discussing situations, the mentor listening for developmental clues, then offering advice based on experience.  It’s up to the mentee to choose the most appropriate course of action.

A big part of the mentoring relationship is giving the mentee a sounding board, a confidant, a more experienced staff member who can guide them through the employee experience.  Many companies have assigned new leaders a mentor to help them develop the necessary leadership skills.  Some companies mentor everyone… you have to decide what’s right for you.

Setting up a mentoring program doesn’t have to be as daunting as it sounds.  An important first step would be finding out if you have good mentors in your organization.  Even a small company has managers for different areas that can serve as mentors for other areas. The question is, are those people equipped to listen, to guide, and to develop the people they are mentoring?  Here is an article about 11 Must Have Qualities for a Mentor.

Even with those qualities, it’s a good idea to specifically outline what a mentor/mentee meeting might look like, what should be covered, and what sort of outcomes you should expect. Ensure that your chosen mentors are on board with your plan, otherwise your results will be disappointing.

Once you have your mentors, it’s time to pair them with a mentee.  Not everyone gels, so you really have to take both of their personalities into account.  It’s probably good to set the expectation that if either the mentor or mentee don’t think the relationship is working out, they can ask to be re-paired at any time.

And of course, you have to set aside a time to meet.  You don’t want to overburden the mentor, but you also don’t want the mentee to think they were forgotten.  Depending on the relationship and desired outcome, a 30-60 minute meeting every other week or so is usually a good start.

Before you do ANY of this, though, you’ll really want to think about whether a mentoring program is right for you and who should participate.  Maybe you start off small to get your feet wet and see how it goes.  Better to start small and build than to bite off more than you can chew and choke.

In essence, a mentoring program can help mentees (employees) develop needed skills while also providing them a way to discuss issues and get valuable feedback.  To learn more about some of the other things to consider when setting up a mentoring program, click here.

Next up: Challenged

Thanks for reading!

About the author – After 20+ years in hospitality leadership and human resources, Matt  Heller founded Performance Optimist Consulting in 2011 with one simple goal: Help Leaders Lead. Matt now works with attractions large and small and leaders at all levels to help them improve leadership competencies, customer service, employee motivation and teamwork. His book, “The Myth of Employee Burnout” was released in 2013 has become a go-to resource among industry leaders.

Infographic “How To” Post 1: Paid Well

This is part 1 of a 10 part “how to” series covering the points in the infographic below.

As I said in my post introducing this series, this infogrpahic probably brings up as many questions as it does answers, and this first one is a doozy.

What if I can’t pay my employees very well?

Well, it’s the first one on the list so if you can’t do that one, I guess you’re sunk.

Not so fast.  Notice that there are 10 things on this infographic, and pay is just one of them.  Also, there is no assumed weighting to the various topics… if you take this at face value, pay is of the same importance as being involved, just like being trusted is on par with being appreciated.  Looking at it that way, pay is one equal part of a 10-piece pie.

However, pay is often one of the ONLY things we consider when someone quits or under performs. If we can’t pay more, we think we can’t compete for top talent or motivate our employees.  But what we are also not taking into consideration the other 9/10ths of the pie.  Pay is easy to quantify because it’s a number and we all get it.

Pay, on it’s own, is also an easy scapegoat for assigning value… namely our value to the organization.  When that number on my check at the end of the week is my ONLY measure of how valuable I am to the organization, it’s unfortunately easy to say it’s not enough. But then again it’s only 1/10th of the pie… how could it be enough?

If you are paying a wage that is fair to you, your employees, and makes sense in your local marketplace, then good for you.  If you can afford to up the ante and pay a little more than your competitors to get people into the fold, even better.

But, putting all of your employee retention eggs in the “they want more money basket” is not only frustrating, it’s short-sighted.

Let’s go back to the pie analogy. Currently, I would imagine, that most of us only see 1/10th of that pie as required compensation of the services our employees provide to us.  In other words, the only thing we HAVE to do, by law, is give them money in exchange for them showing up to work.  So the law dictates it, so it will be done.

But what if…. and go with me on this one… WHAT IF you saw the entire PIE as the compensation package for your team? What if you were AS COMMITTED to providing the other 9/10ths of the pie on a regular and ongoing basis?  WHAT IF there was as much energy and effort dedicated to those other pieces as there are to getting your employees paid?  Now, the overall compensation package – or “what they get for working here” – is much more robust, and pay may not rise to the top of discussions as quickly as the only reason someone would leave or stay.

As an employee, wouldn’t it be better to have all 10 pieces of the pie, rather than one little sliver?

So here’s the “how to” on the pay issue.

• Start with this: are you paying a fair wage? If so, stop worrying about how to pay more.  If it’s all you can afford, it’s all you can afford.  Money is not always the answer.
• With a fair wage in place, concentrate on the other pieces of the pie (which will be covered in subsequent posts).  Provide an employee experience that goes beyond the paycheck, and serves their needs as much as they are serving the needs of your guests.  Since your current employees are some of your best recruiters, if you are treating them well and are showing them genuine care and concern, that word will spread.  Top talent will be drawn to you not because of the wage, but because there is a compelling reason to work for you.
• Remember your own motivations… it’s no secret that many of us who have made a career in the attractions industry have done so because we love what we do, not because we are going to get rich and retire early.  Some of your employees might just feel the same way, but you will never know it if you ONLY think that money is the ultimate motivator.

The bottom line is: pay is important.  No doubt about it.  However if that is your ONLY bargaining chip when it comes to keeping your best players, you will soon find yourself with an empty dugout.

Next up: Mentoring

Thanks for reading!

About the author – After 20+ years in hospitality leadership and human resources, Matt  Heller founded Performance Optimist Consulting in 2011 with one simple goal: Help Leaders Lead. Matt now works with attractions large and small and leaders at all levels to help them improve leadership competencies, customer service, employee motivation and teamwork. His book, “The Myth of Employee Burnout” was released in 2013 has become a go-to resource among industry leaders.

Okay, but HOW do you do all that?

If you are like me, you’ve seen this infographic making it’s way around social media:

But it wasn’t until it was shared again recently that I had a thought.  While I think it’s true, employees DO stay when these things happen, what I also find is that this information also leads to other thoughts and questions, such as:

• What if I can’t pay them very well?
• How do you mentor an employee?
• What do I do to challenge my employees?
• What if I have no open positions to promote them to?
• How do I involve them?
• They’re paid, isn’t that appreciation enough?
• I value them when they show up!
• On a mission to do what?
• I’ve told them they are empowered 100 times.
• What if I don’t trust them?

Because this infographic is long on, “yeah, that’s right” type of share-ability and short on HOW to do any of these things, I thought I would address them.  Starting with the “Paid Well” conundrum, I will do a series of posts providing insights and techniques for each of these areas.  If you have suggestions that you think other leaders would benefit from, feel free to email them to me or put it in a comment below.

Thanks for reading and I look forward to hearing your suggestions!

About the author – After 20+ years in hospitality leadership and human resources, Matt  Heller founded Performance Optimist Consulting in 2011 with one simple goal: Help Leaders Lead. Matt now works with attractions large and small and leaders at all levels to help them improve leadership competencies, customer service, employee motivation and teamwork. His book, “The Myth of Employee Burnout” was released in 2013 has become a go-to resource among industry leaders.