Mentor programs have become increasingly common across industries and in many organizations of various sizes. The benefit of pairing experienced employees with newcomers to help them learn their way around company policies, protocols and practices is truly a win for all involved.

It helps decrease the learning curve for new employees, while increasing efficiency and productivity for the company. It also helps keep employees who have been around a while engaged, while acknowledging them as important contributors.

But something these programs often miss is arguably one of the most important parts of having a mentor.

Culture

Culture is the residue of the collective actions of employees within an organization. While companies may try to codify it in mission and vision statements, they are usually irrelevant and often disconnected from the true pulse of the organization.

The culture is really the feel of the relationships among the employees, as well as the style with which each employee approaches his/her work. When the majority have styles that mesh, the resulting synchronicity propels the company forward.

Having a mentor that not only helps with the practical side of work but also serves as a role model for the style with which an employee approaches work can take the relationship to a deeper level. This ultimately serves the professional development of both employees and leaves the company with employees who have an increased loyalty to both other employees and the organization that brought them together.

A common enemy

It is often easy to see this is bad organizations. A senior person who has figured out how to work within the horrible system and not lose his mind may have junior employees gravitating toward him to learn how to do it. While this does help the organization by keeping employees it may not deserve to have, it is not the optimal situation.

Conversely, highly functioning organizations have figured out how to understand and support — or at least not get in the way of — the positive influencers within their organization. They often start assessments to help them understand what motivates their best and brightest employees, both positively and negatively.

When done right, it is a thorough process that evolves over years and often becomes like a valuable addition to an already functioning mentor program. But how many of us actually work for highly functioning organizations?

Step one

The good news is that it is possible for an individual employee to establish her own mentor program like this. When I set out to start my own business, I found a several local business people who had done the same, but in different industries.

I had three major worries at the time: How would I do this and not let it consume me? How much should I charge? And how do I protect myself from liabilities? In other words, I was looking for someone who had successfully started a secure, successful business. But I started from the negative and ended up finding a number of positive influences that helped me navigate those unknown territories.

So start figuring out what worries you. What could be better? What do you wish you had more control over? Answer those questions and begin looking for people who seem to have overcome those hurdles and find out how they did it. No need to find it all in one person or all at once. Just start chipping away at it.

This is the first step in building your own successful mentor program.