Five Myths of Internal vs External Mentoring
Ceresa has invested years of research to design a professional development platform that delivers deeply transformative learning journeys at a fraction of the budget of other solutions.
A core focus of Ceresa is to enable greater access to highly effective mentoring. That is for 3 reasons:
There is abundant evidence that mentoring can transform career success (e.g., SunMicrosystems/Gartner study showing a 5X increase in promotions and pay raises for those that are mentored).
Mentoring is highly inequitable in both access and quality. Women and BIPOC populations receive less mentoring. Their mentors are less senior. And the content they receive is more heavily weighted toward communications instead of actionable, business-oriented feedback.
It can not be rocket science to make mentoring work well for everyone! If technology can lead to higher rates of successful marriage through dating websites, it can work for mentoring too.
A big decision for Ceresa was to enable access to mentors from OUTSIDE your existing organization. We have seen incredible success with this approach (which also blends coaching, self-reflection, expert training, and peer learning into our unique learning journeys).
Ceresa has grown a global community of over 500 mentors – with diverse representation and very senior, experienced leaders.
This choice to use external mentors has raised a lot of questions. So let’s address the five most common myths about external mentors (when compared with internal).
MYTH #1: The external mentor won’t be as committed to the person’s success.
Ceresa mentors work on a volunteer basis – committed to supporting the next generation of diverse talent, and driven to improve their own coaching skills. Despite (actually due to) this, they enter into an explicit agreement to show up for their mentee as agreed…even discussing a written mentorship charter. Ceresa has created a very explicit structure, cadence and length of the relationship – making it easier for both sides to commit and follow through.
Furthermore, Ceresa members see the deep impact after their very first mentoring session – and prepare agendas for every session – ensuring the time continues to be focused and impact-oriented.
It doesn’t hurt that Ceresa’s support team ensures everyone keeps up with their commitments.
As a result, Ceresa sees completion rates of 6 mentoring sessions over 85%. How does that compare with your internal mentoring programs?
MYTH #2: The external mentor will not know the person as deeply, so not be able to help them as well.
Within company mentoring programs, we often see people without an existing relationship being paired together – and hesitancy to be truly open and vulnerable, given the lack of confidentiality and potential evaluative use.
At Ceresa, before the mentee even meets their mentor, they have gone through intensive self-reflection, received a full 360 feedback report, written and life vision statement, and set clear goals…. And the mentor gets to read all of this before the first session.
This enables the very first session to go deep quickly, as they are already at a point of honesty and vulnerability that is almost impossible for internal mentoring relationships.
MYTH #3: The external mentor will not understand the nuances of the person’s job or goals.
Ceresa collects over 70 data points on the individual mentee – across their own life assessment, goals, vision and detailed 360 feedback. All of this, along with executive coach input, helps select a mentor that has precisely relevant experience to share with the mentee.
While the mentor is not inside the same company, they are typically from the same industry and function, and in addition have addressed the very same challenges, run after the same goals, and faced similar personal challenges as their mentee. Even the personality dynamics are incorporated into the match.
The objectivity of an external mentor can also help provide a mirror, a chance to step back and make progress that can be tough with someone mired within the politics and organizational dynamics internally.
MYTH #4: The external mentor’s experience and leadership style will not match my company.
Many leaders have told Ceresa their concern about this…. And when we get down into the details of the curriculum and Ceresa’s focus, there has rarely remained any concern or true difference. Where there are substantial differences, it is likely that you already recruit for those specific types of leadership… and that will come out in the assessment phase for the mentee – ensuring the mentor is well suited to them.
Mentoring is not going to address how to use internal operating systems or processes.. of course.
Yet the human aspects of work and leadership and rarely different from company to company. There is far more difference between individuals. Therefore, finding a mentor that is the perfect fit for the individual is the most important thing. That includes industry, function, company dynamics – but also personality, specific work challenges, future-looking goals, aspects of personal identity, and personal challenges – and that whole package is what makes the biggest difference. What is the chance of your leadership team having the perfect match for each individual at your company?
MYTH #5: The external mentor will not be able to help navigate or sponsor the person internally.
Ah ok – we cede this one. An external mentor can not serve as a sponsor internally.
Sponsoring is advocating on behalf of the person – often speaking about the person, not to the person – to help create opportunities for advancement. That sponsor must have not only access and power inside your organization, but also see the person’s performance and believes in their future potential.
Too often we see internal sponsors allocated and confused with mentors. Mentors can help without seeing the performance, and certainly without being willing to “go to bat” for the individual in question. But sponsors must credibly do both.
So while we recognize the huge importance and value-add of sponsors, we strongly encourage you to ensure you are not mixing up sponsoring and mentoring internally! Formal sponsoring programs with an allocated sponsor, are hard to make successful, given the very nature and intent of sponsorship.
There are of course benefits of finding strong supporters and advocates internally at your organization, and part of what Ceresa members work on is how to build those internal networks of peers, mentors, coaches and sponsors – and understand the difference.