WHY MENTORSHIP SCHEMES MUST LOOK FOR PERSPECTIVE- TAKING ABILITY
GROWING INTERNAL TALENT COUNTRY: South Africa SCHOOL: Rhodes Business School
A total of 27 people have graduated from two new programmes at Rhodes Business School, Rhodes University, that are specifically designed for staff members who want to prepare for supervisor and management roles. Launched last year, the two programmes – the Supervisors’ Development Programme (SDP) and Managers’ Development Programme (MDP) – have been heralded as a ‘win-win’ for the School and staff. Participating staff members were picked in collaboration with the School’s HR, and those selected were provided with a structured development path with a focus on practical implementation within the workplace. At the end of the course, participants gained an accredited certificate qualification, aimed at South Africa’s National Qualification Framework (NQF) level six. ‘Each programme has four distinct modules which cover a range of topics, ranging from understanding one’s personal context in higher education, understanding teams, effective communication, how to develop others in your teams, team development and relationships, managing teams, team effectiveness, and decision-making and operations,’ said Rhodes Business School Senior Lecturer, Leticia Greyling. Sibusiso Ngxingxo, Principal Technical Officer for the Pharmacy Faculty, was a participant and defined his programme experience as life changing: ‘The programme itself challenged me to be a better man, not only at work, but I took valuable lessons and skills that have helped even in my personal journey,’ he said. ‘It has improved my communication skills; the way I look and deal with conflicts has completely changed. I learned that a good team leader must develop emotional intelligence as one needs to be able to relate to the different personalities.’ / TBD
COUNTRY: UK SCHOOL: Durham University Business School
A mentoring relationship’s success hinges on the mentee’s ability to understand the perspective of others, according to research co-authored by Janey Zheng, Assistant Professor of Leadership at Durham University Business School. ‘Career mentoring is not only beneficial to protégés but to mentors and their organisations too. It can help boost protégés’ pay, promotions and career development, but can also be used as a vital tool by organisations for employee retention, greater team performance and transformational leadership. Therefore, it makes sense for both organisations and employees to invest time in it. However, a lack of perspective taking by protégés risks jeopardising all these benefits, therefore it’s key that organisations greater manage this mentoring relationship and ensure that the right employees are chosen and developed through mentoring,’ explained Zheng. The research centred on high performers, who are often an attractive choice among mentors looking for a protégé to bestow their advice on. Yet, across two studies the research found that if high performers are low in perspective-taking, they are less likely to receive the benefits of mentoring. In addition, low perspective-taking by high performers was found to reduce supervisors’ expected benefits from mentoring, which in turn reduces supervisors’ willingness to mentor. To ensure mentoring schemes are beneficial to both individuals and organisations, Zheng – together with her co-authors at Tongji University, Nanjing University and the Chinese University of Hong Kong – recommend performing cost-benefit analyses on all prospective protégés and their characteristics. They also suggest that organisations look at ways in which they can help employees and their supervisors develop their perspective-taking ability and better understand each other’s work roles, perspectives and values through informal social events or formal training. / EB
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