Information in this entry is taken from my experience since 2001
managing Sun’s SEED Engineering-wide
world-wide mentoring program, and also from Sun’s Mentoring@Sun general mentoring
program managed by
Helen Gracon. This is part of a continuing series on mentoring programs,
answering some of the questions I am most frequently asked. Other entries
in this series:

• 
  Internal or External Mentoring Program? (30 June 2009)
• 
  Formal vs. Informal Mentoring (12 February 2009)

Mentor Selection Systems

I have seen four kinds of formal mentor selection systems:

1. Mentee evaluates potential mentors’ Demonstrated Accomplishments, experience, personality, capabilities, and skills, then creates a prioritized list of preferred
   mentors (SEED calls this a “Mentor Wish List”). Mentoring program staff approaches
   mentors on behalf of mentees.
2. Mentor and mentee each use Self-identified Competency lists to indicate strengths
   and weaknesses. Mentoring program matches based on list compatibility.
   Mentees are given two mentors to contact. Mentoring@Sun uses this system.
3. A combination of the two options above.
4. Assignment of mentors by management.

This entry will discuss formal systems using Self-identified Competency vesus
those using Demonstrated Accomplishment for mentor selection.

Cognitive Bias

I am going to take a small detour to introduce the concept of

cognitive bias, specifically the
Dunning-Kruger effect
humorously described by Justin Kruger and David Dunning, (then both of Cornell
University) in their much-cited and entertaining paper

“Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One’s Own.
Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments.”
(Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1999, Vol. 77, No.6.
1121-1134). Two findings from that paper which are pertinent to mentor
selection are:

• “the incompetent will tend to grossly overestimate their skills and abilities”
• “participants in the top quartile tended to underestimate their ability
  and test performance relative to their peers”

That is, people are often bad at knowing what they are good at.

Self-identified Competency Systems

Cognitive bias is
important because most mentor selection systems rely on Self-identified
Competency lists. In a Self-identified Competency System, mentors and mentees
are presented with lists of competencies. Each picks competencies that they think
they have. The system then proposes mentor-mentee pairings based on comparing
list selections. Competency lists vary widely depending on the context and
goals of the mentoring program but examples include:

• Negotiation
• Customer Focus
• Building Trust
• Listening Effectively
• Strategic Decision Making
• Selling the Vision
• Building Successful and Effective Dispersed Teams
• Technology Impact Assessment
• Working Across Cultures
• Network Design and Architecture

Those using a Self-identified Competency Selection System should be aware of
cognitive bias as it may get in the way of finding a good match. That is, both
the mentee and potential mentor will probably not be objective in assessing
strengths and weaknesses (competencies), so the match may be based on a
false compatibility evaluation. However, the seemingly-objective way in which
the match was made (how can you go wrong picking from a list?) may mask selection
errors until they are demonstrated in experience, frustrating both mentor and mentee.

An inappropriate mentor selection system may mask errors.

Competency lists can be used to control the scope of learning in a mentoring program.
So, if a Vice President wants to direct her organization to learn more about
working with virtual or dispersed teams, she could pick a list of
competencies which had to do with that skill area, thus encouraging mentor
and mentee to discuss the desired topic. This may limit the scope of discussions
(which can be good or bad, depending on what the program sponsor and participants
are looking for). Controlling competency scope will also limit which mentors
are considered (or available). Some mentees and mentors will find the
preferred discussion topic too simplistic and may either break off their relationship
or ignore the sponsor-preferred topic limitations.

When the competencies are specific to a particular job or profession,
a Self-identified Competency Selection system works best when the mentor
and mentee share a professional context and interpret the competency lists
similarly. For example, if both mentor and mentee are in Information
Technology Operations, they will understand the competency “Identity Services”
to mean “experience with the design and implementation of a multi-level identity/authorization strategy” but someone in Marketing Communications
would probably interpret “Identity Services” very differently. The professional
context may also be one of seniority. If the mentor and mentee are both
Vice Presidents, they are likely to share an interpretation at a higher
organizational level, which is less likely if the mentor is a Vice President
and the mentee is a junior Engineer. Shared context is less important when
the competencies are soft skills, such as negotiating, public speaking,
conflict management, etc.

Demonstrated Accomplishments and SEED

SEED is one example of a mentoring system which relies on Demonstrated
Accomplishments for mentor selection. About 70% of SEED mentors are executives.
Sun’s executive mentoring program
(run by Helen Gracon out of Sun Learning Services) also uses Demonstrated
Accomplishments for mentor selection. Both programs are regularly given
90% or higher satisfaction ratings by participants.

The SEED program maintains a list of Potential SEED Mentors (over 450 now). The list
includes the name, job title, division, and city/state/country of each potential
mentor, plus links to biographical information such as SEED mentoring history
and evaluation, personal web pages, blogs, executive profiles, LinkedIn
profiles, resumes, etc.

The SEED program has an open list of potential mentors: any senior Sun Engineer
or executive is eligible. SEED participants are not limited to the choices on
the Potential SEED Mentors list. About a third of the mentors in most terms are new
to SEED and were not originally on the Potential SEED Mentors list. The SEED program
welcomes Mentors from both the business and technical tracks: Distinguished Engineers,
Principal Engineers, Sun Fellows, Senior Staff Engineers, Directors and Vice
Presidents of Engineering, and other senior engineers and executives from any area of
Sun are all welcome as Mentors. Potential mentors must be at least principal level;
the great majority are at executive level (Director or Vice President or equivalent).
SEED Mentors have served from all areas of Engineering worldwide, plus Operations,
Sales, Service, Legal, Information Technology, Finance, Human Resources, and Marketing.
In creating their Mentor Wish List, each SEED participant needs to make two hard decisions:

1. What they want to learn
2. Who has already accomplished the kind of things they want to do
   
   (that is, who is already down the path that they see themselves walking)

The SEED Engineering mentoring program takes a long-term view and does not have a preference for one kind of learning over another. That is, the mentoring partnership learning does not have to have anything to do with the participant’s current job. Some people want to learn to be better technical managers, others want to know how to get their ideas to customers faster. Many want to improve their soft skills: public presentation or speaking, negotiating, conflict management, and coaching. Still others want to improve their work and family balance and still have a great career. It takes time and mature consideration to work through all of this. Creating the Mentor Wish List is probably the hardest part of the SEED program.

Selecting a mentor based on their Demonstrated Accomplishments is more
obviously subjective and time consuming than selection based on Self-identified
Competencies. However, in my experience with SEED, there are fewer mis-matches
and greater diversity in matched pairs using Demonstrated Accomplishments.
Diversity in SEED terms includes demographic, geographic, professional variety.
That is, if the mentee feels free to discuss a very broad range of topics,
and has an open list of mentors from which to select, communication is encouraged
across organizational, professional, geographic, and demographic silos.

Mentoring can effectively create bridges between professional silos.

Demonstrated Accomplishment vs. Self-identified Competency Selection Systems

Given the disadvantages of a Self-identified Competency Selection System, why would
a mentoring program use this option? In short, such a system is relatively easy
to automate so it is faster and can support a much larger participant group. That
is, it scales: the start-up time is shorter and the administrative overhead is
less. There will be more mis-matches but that risk is acceptable in some mentoring
programs. For example, if the program is being offered to
a large group of junior staff whose potential mentors are just one or two seniority
levels above them, the consequences of a mis-match are relatively low.

On the other hand, if the mentees are drawn from a smaller group of high potential,
highly promotable, high value staff who will mostly be matched with executive
mentors (as is the case with SEED), or are solely from the executive ranks
(as is the case in Sun’s executive mentoring program),
the consequences from a mis-match are much greater. When the great majority of
the mentors are executives, mis-matches are too expensive in terms of wasted time
and potential damage to staff and program reputation. A Demonstrated Accomplishment
system requires a “high touch” approach consistent with the best way
to work with most executives whose time is both limited and valuable.
Some program aspects can be automated (such as mentee and mentor application, and
match tracking) but the development of each mentee’s potential mentor list is research-intensive and most communications are personal.

A Demonstrated Accomplishment system also needs the mentoring program staff
to act as a broker or matchmaker. The broker needs to be both very senior
and a good communicator to help make a great match. It helps if the broker is
well known and has a good reputation so that potential mentors will respond
promptly and provide an opportunity for the broker to tell them about
the mentee who has requested them. Getting an executive to respond to the first
email or pick up the phone can sometimes be the greatest challenge in making a match.

Images Copyright 2009 Katy Dickinson

Source/Kaynak : http://blogs.sun.com/katysblog/entry/how_to_pick_a_mentor