Leadership Mentoring: Developing People and High Performance

This essay delves into the concept of leadership mentoring, emphasizing its crucial role in employee development and organizational success. It begins by highlighting the significance of job satisfaction and leadership skills in fostering employee commitment. The essay explores various leadership theories, including the Great Man theory, Trait theory, and Contingency theory, to illustrate how mentoring can enhance leadership qualities. It also examines the mentor-protégé relationship, discussing its potential benefits and drawbacks, such as the impact of rapport and differing learning curves. Furthermore, the essay provides real-world examples of successful mentoring relationships, such as those of Steve Jobs and Condoleezza Rice, to illustrate the lasting impact of mentorship. The conclusion underscores the importance of leadership mentoring in the fast-paced corporate environment, acknowledging its challenges while emphasizing its overall positive influence on employee growth and organizational performance. The essay highlights the role of mentors in nurturing leadership qualities in employees and shaping future leaders, making it a vital aspect of modern corporate culture. The essay is a comprehensive exploration of leadership mentoring, offering valuable insights into its principles, practices, and impact on individuals and organizations.

Developing People and High
Performance Organizations
Student Name

Leadership Mentoring
Leadership Mentoring
For any employee working in an organization, it is vital to achieve job satisfaction in order to
remain committed to his task. One of the ways to achieve this is by enhancing an employee’s
knowledge base and making him eligible to lead in his organization. Leadership mentoring
enables an individual to achieve greater heights in his career by motivating him to utilize his
talents to the fullest and imbibe a sense of leadership responsibilities in due course of time. It
involves the process of training, guidance, and providing opportunities to an employee in
order to develop leadership qualities within himself and making him more involved in the
organization.
Leadership mentoring is a continuous process, which takes place within an organization
while it seeks to hone its employee’s skills and grow with time (Michael, 2008). According to
the Great Man theory proposed by Thomas Carlyle, leaders are born, not made (Changing
Works, 2012-16). When an employee receives field training or job orientation training, it is a
definite and time bound process after which he is expected to have the ability to carry out his
job activities without any issues. Mentoring a potential leader of the future starts after these
initial days, when they are given small, incremental tasks outside of their comfort areas in
order to test their abilities. In order for the mentoring program to be relevant, it is important
for the employee to have the abilities to lead in his organization. Many different situations
arise out of daily activities in an organization. These situations are the best practice ground
for any employee to learn and improve his skills as a leader, troubleshooter or a mediator.
While these experiences do help in the development of leadership skills, an employee needs a
more coherent approach in order to develop skills that can help him become a future leader.
In order to achieve this, he should seek a mentor who can guide him and help him realize his
goal. While a mentor can be anyone from his peers to his seniors, ideally a person has gained
experience is the best bet. It is also crucial for the mentor to have a like-minded protégé, in
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order to have a fruitful relationship. This relation can help work them in tandem with each
other as well as provide opportunities for the mentee as well as the mentor to learn.
The Trait theory of leadership states that leaders inhibit certain qualities in them, which make
them excel in leadership (Judge, Bono, Ilies, & Gerhardt, 2002). Employees with these
qualities or traits benefit from their mentors and are likely to succeed. These traits that the
employee needs to have are he should cooperative nature, ability to take decisions, ability to
influence, self-confidence, goal oriented, responsible (Leadership-Central, 2010-2016).
Employees also need to have skills and expertise in their scope of operations in order to be
able to lead their organization. This theory is similar to the Great Man theory, the difference
being that it is more detailed and specific in requirements of traits that a person should have.
However, the theory can be irrelevant in some cases. When it is required by the theory to
have inner traits like leadership personalities or self-confidence, these traits are developed
over time and depend on the surrounding environment of an employee. Thus, it is not
necessary for an employee to have the traits initially, and a mentor plays an important role in
achieving the traits that make a true leader of an employee. Another principal that is followed
is the Contingency Theory of leadership. The contingency theory takes into account the fact
that different situations require leaders to respond differently. For example, renowned
entrepreneur and innovator Elon Musk is known to be aggressive in achieving his goals and
vision for future technologies. The relentless pursuit of next generation of travel has seen the
company adopt a trial and error method of innovation. In case of the model S sedan, Musk
himself admitted that the falcon wing technology was far ahead of its time and proved too
costly to develop (Siler, 2016). While these kind of innovative leaders do well in his sector,
the same leaders may not succeed in other sectors which are less fast paced, like the medical
sector, or governmental departments, which require patience and co-operation. The
contingency theory also require a leader to lead in situations where he feels he would be
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followed, and respond according to the situation. Mentoring an employee enables him to take
the right course of action whenever required. However, it can also have its drawbacks. When
the rapport between a mentor and his protégé is good and well supported, the training
program or learning curve for the employee is also constructive (Reddy, 2016). When this is
not the case, it puts the mentee in a detrimental position. If the mentor himself has friction
with his mentee, it can actually hinder his growth, and make him less confident about his job.
For an employee to gain knowledge and insight from his mentor, it is crucial that he is not
hesitant to ask questions or pose silly doubts in front of him. If this founding principal is
compromised and there is mistrust and hostility between the two, the mentoring program
loses its cause. Another concern that can arise in the mentorship program is the difference in
learning curve of the protégé and the expectations of a mentor can pose problems for both of
them. A mentor who is experienced and knows the complexities of his organization can also
expect his mentee to catch up quickly in order to show himself as an able trainer and find
pride in his organization. These expectations cause stress among employees as they face
constant pressure to perform and if their learning curve is not as steep as their mentor’s, they
feel doubtful about their abilities and lose self-confidence.
One of the prominent innovators of the technology industry, Steve Jobs, had relied on Robert
Friedland during the early days of his career to develop his leadership abilities (Bergelson,
2015). At that time he was able to come out of his shy image and take decisive actions, which
went on to make him a great leader and innovator. Steve was able to inspire others through
his charisma and personality, which made his teamwork towards his vision of a great product.
This resulted in the iconic products Apple is known for. Jobs also had Robert Noyce as his
mentor when he was in his early twenties. Robert Noyce was the co-inventor of the microchip
and helped gain a perspective of the technology to Jobs. He also gained design principles and
ethics from his spiritual guru who was a Zen master named Kobun Chino Otagowa. Otagowa
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inspired Jobs to embrace minimalism and develop simple and neat designs, which would
appeal to all. This design philosophy became the hallmarks of Apple products later on
(Johnson, Li, Phan, & Singer, 2012). Jobs later became the inspiration for leaders such as
Larry Page and Mark Zuckerberg, who regard him as their mentor. Another standing example
of leadership mentoring is Condoleezza Rice, who was inspired by her mentor, Josef Korbel,
to leave the field of music and arts and became the secretary of state. Korbel imbibe the
notion of projecting America as a beacon of hope and freedom, and Rice firmly believed that
she would work towards this goal in her capacity as the secretary in the Bush administration
(Rice, 2007).
Thus, Leadership mentoring is a process by choice, where one person can have more than one
mentor in his lifetime. A mentor’s relation with his mentee may not remain the same
throughout his life (Bergelson, 2015). However, leaders who gain from their mentor should
acknowledge their contribution in their life and follow the principal of passing on. Steve Jobs
passed on the perspective and skills he gained from the likes of Robert Noyce and Robert
Friedland by mentoring leaders such as Larry page and Mark Zuckerberg, both of whom have
successfully carried the baton of innovation and technology (Bergelson, 2015). Leadership
should be a natural instinct in an employee in order to become a successful leader. If he has
the ability to lead his department or organization, he needs to a mentor to develop his skills
and become a future leader. Mentoring an employee is a vital aspect in the fast-paced
corporate culture. However, it is also the responsibility of the mentor to play his part
carefully as the career of his employee is affected by his course of action. Thus, leadership
mentoring may have its own shortcomings, nevertheless the benefits are outweigh those
concerns and if the mentoring program is well planned and taken carefully, it enriches an
employee’s knowledge base as well as helps him in the growth of his career.
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REFERENCES
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protege-the-4-mentors-that-inspired-steve-jobs/
Changing Works. (2012-16). Great Man Theory. Retrieved october 5, 2017, from
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http://changingminds.org/disciplines/leadership/theories/great_man_theory.htm
Frank, T. (2015, March). 10 WAYS TO BE A BETTER MENTOR,FROM THOSE WHO’VE
DONE IT. Retrieved from DruckerInstitue.com:
http://www.druckerinstitute.com/monday/mentoring/#toc
Johnson, K., Li, Y., Phan, H., & Singer, J. (2012). The Innovative Success that is Apple, Inc.
The Innovative Success that is Apple, Inc., 2-5.
Judge, T. A., Bono, J. E., Ilies, R., & Gerhardt, M. W. (2002). Personality and Leadership: A
Qualitative and Quantitative Review. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87(4), 767.
Leadership-Central. (2010-2016). Trait Theory. Retrieved october 5, 2017, from Leadership-
Central.com: http://www.leadership-central.com/trait-theory.html
Michael, A. (2008, August). Mentoring And Coaching. Retrieved from cimaglobal.com:
http://www.cimaglobal.com/Documents/ImportedDocuments/cid_tg_mentoring_coac
hing_Aug08.pdf.pdf
Reddy, C. (2016). Mentoring at work. Retrieved from Wisestep:
https://content.wisestep.com/mentoring-work-importance-benefits-pros-cons/
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Rice, C. (2007). Remarks of United States Secretary of State. Berkeley Journal of
International Law, 64-65.
Siler, S. (2016, June 2). Musk Attributes Falcon Wing Door Debacle to “Hubris,” Says
Software Will Fix It. Car And Driver, p. 1.
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