CHAPTER 6: DEVELOPING RELATIONSHIPS
6.3 Developing and maintaining mentoring relationships
6.3.2 Developing new mentoring relationships
The new role opened possibilities for developing new mentoring relationships, which
adjustment and careers. These relationships were formed a) with the supervisor, b)
with other senior colleagues or c) with personal acquaintances.
a) Supervisor: Ten participants were developing new mentoring relationships with
their bosses and many of them were very enthusiastic about them. Participants
perceived their supervisors to take the role of mentors when they provided career
enhancing and psychosocial support, and had similar ways of thinking. For
example, Participant 2 was developing a mentoring relationship with his boss, who
the organisation had assigned as his ‘coach’, meaning a more ‘operational mentor’.
In spite of the formal label, he was performing all the mentoring functions:
“Again, I am pleased to have a coach in the company. He helps me by
introducing me to people, he is a source of consultation and in turn, I
am a contributor to his work.” (Participant 2, Diary)
“We really have mutual esteem for each other. At work, sometimes you
get along and sometimes not that much. Luckily, in my case I get along
with him; he gives me advice both professionally and personally...
Although not getting into too personal, but into personal related to
professional. For example, talking about the issue of moving to Brazil,
he tells me: ‘Look, Brazil is part of the region, it is not that far away...
if you have to take a plane, it is three hours...’ He also tells me: ‘If you
are interested in Brazil, maybe you can look at it like living a new
experience, learning another language, getting to know the Brazilian
idiosyncrasy...’ It is not the type of advice of ‘Yes, go because you will
make this much more money’. I mean the advice is quite complete...
both as a coach and as a mentor. Like a Godfather.” (Participant 2,
Follow-up interview)
“We made a good combination, I mean, it is like we both understand
each other. Maybe if I were different… I don’t know, we wouldn’t
have got along this way, both in an intellectual level (he knows a lot)
and in an interpersonal level… the relationship is very good.”
(Participant 2, Follow-up interview)
b) Other senior colleagues: The new role provided participants with opportunities for
developing mentoring relationships with other senior colleagues. These
relationships could be based on participants’ proactivity to develop the
relationship, on the natural formation of a new relationship with old contacts, or
formally assignment. How they were created affected the way in which they
developed and the challenges and benefits of the relationship.
Seven participants were proactive in developing mentoring relationships with
senior colleagues. These endeavours could be aimed at being assigned a formal
mentor or at developing informal mentoring relationships. Participant 5 is an
example of the first one. He asked to have a mentor because he thought the
learning would be beneficial. He was strategic in whom he chose his mentor to be:
someone who had an excellent relationship with his boss and who was in a
strategic position in the company. However, by the time of the second interview,
the relationship was not much developed.
“I have been able to get assigned as a mentor the Director for Regional
Sales Operations. This person (and role) is key to how the company is
chemistry with my boss, so I hope she can be a good avenue for my
development.” (Participant 5, Diary)
Participant 13 is an example of trying to develop an informal mentoring
relationship. As he did not find in his boss a good mentoring candidate because he
was not confident he could trust him nor that they had similar ways of thinking, he
considered the CEO as a potential mentor. However, he had to be cautious since
his boss could feel negatively about it, and so he was going slowly with the
development of the relationship:
“He is a natural leader, he is a leader, a manager, a CEO, who knows
how to look into all issues, with no depth in any, but he knows about all
issues […] I let the relationship flow, it is not that I am trying to…
because I don’t know, my boss could get upset if he sees me trying
more.” (Participant 13, Follow-up interview)
During the transition, some old contacts might have been taking a supportive role
towards the participants. This was the case for two participants. For example,
Participant 14 who had worked at the current firm when he started his career ten
years ago, had met a senior colleague there while working on a project. When he
was looking for this transition, he approached this person and he helped him to get
his current role. Now that they work in the same company again, this senior
colleague has turned into a mentor and the relationship gets stronger as the
participant shows his new mentor that he was right to help him, as he is achieving
excellent results in his role.
“With him, we developed the opportunity for me to be where I am now
saw that possibility, and today the results are on the table. So the
connection gets stronger, right? The level of trust grows every time
more." (Participant 14, First interview)
Finally, one participant was assigned a senior colleague as formal mentor when he
entered the new role. Having the mentor a very high profile implied that he may
have been too busy, with little time for the mentee, but the participant thought it
was interesting anyway.
“He is saturated with work, so it is complicated for him maybe.”
(Participant 2, Follow-up interview)
“I have his advice very present... I mean, obviously if he is showing a
door in which there is work, it is a good possibility. This does not mean
that then I will choose that one… But, well, at least just having the
chance of seating with him, to talk and have this space for interaction,
even if it is a meal…” (Participant 2, Follow-up interview)
c) Personal acquaintances: As individuals start going through a transition, they may
start discussing their new role with individuals belonging to their personal spheres.
Although these individuals may have always been close, the mentoring role is
new. This was the case for two participants who became entrepreneurs and found
in family members the psychosocial and coaching support they needed. For
example Participant 16 affirms his wife is his mentor and his most important
work-relationship.
“I respect a lot her opinion. I think it is… I already know how her
replies are, so I already know how to take them, and the truth is that she
entrepreneur bug as I do, if not she would already be an accomplished
business woman. She has very good insights, she perceives situations
right away. She ‘gets’ people in a moment, she doesn’t even need to
meet them, it is amazing. Really, I don’t understand it, with only
reading an email, she gives me a radiography of the person! And the
truth is that I trust blindly in what she says.” (Participant 16, First
interview)
“The truth is that the only important role is my wife. It is the only one
that I say ‘this is the one that matters’. I respect and I know her
opinions very well, so I understand it very well when she wants to tell
me something, right?” (Participant 16, Follow-up interview)
Participant 22 provides another example since, with the transition, his mother in
law has transformed into a mentor through career enhancing functions.
“She is my mother in law, and she is the one through whom I tried
many contacts related to opportunities in public, private and corporate
sectors in the north of the country. And well, from there, various
possibilities emerged. […] At the beginning I had not recognised her as
a mentor and she is now the one having a stronger role as such. She is
the one who gets closer to my idea of professional development, which
changed maybe from the one I had at the beginning.” (Participant 22,
Follow-up interview)