Mentoring...

men•tor (noun), a wise and trusted guide and advisor

men•tor•ing (verb), a tool to nurture and grow people

We recently read that:

• 75% of executives point to mentoring as playing a key role in their careers.
• Productivity increased by 88% when mentoring was involved, versus only a 24% increase with training alone.
• 71% of Fortune 500 companies use mentoring to ensure learning occurs in their organizations.

Well, we are not a Fortune 500 company, but we can attest to the power of mentoring and several of us a Force 5 mentor and share outside the office as well as internally.

Here’s some examples of recent sharing:

Saint Mary's College

Over the course of a semester, we spend 20+ hours with a senior Marketing class from Saint Mary’s College listening to their questions, issues and providing real-world advice as related to their course work with several local not-for-profits. Asking key questions to get their marketing concepts and theory lessons translated to the real-world is so rewarding for us. This is the third year we have volunteered with Saint Mary's. And, this mentoring includes evenings of beer and snacks – and somehow we got the bill! It is still true, college students are perpetually broke.

University of Notre Dame

For two years running, we have answered the call from the University of Notre Dame Career Center to share our thoughts on how the students can approach possible careers in marketing and marketing communications when they have majored in English or other associated fields.

Here’s what some attendees at last month's Career evening had to say:

Dear Force 5:

“English Career Night was a great success! Thank you very much for participating in the event. Everyone we have spoken with since that evening found your presentation on marketing communications to be informative and inspiring. We really appreciate your time and effort and hope you had a pleasant experience!”

Thanks again – [signed by two Notre Dame students]

Minority and Small Business Development Council

When the Council asked for help, we were there sharing our good and bad decisions as related to moving from that perceived cushy job in corporate America and heading off on our own... the landmines, pitfalls and realistic expectations they must consider.

Force 5

Our mentoring is not just external...we create an environment where our employees are exposed to and learn from the each others expertise and skills. Brent Decker our Multimedia Developer has a tremendous technical background and shares his knowledge easily with all of us -- most of which we do not understand. At a recent weekly staff meeting Brent shared, "the environment here is so conducive to me learning from the expertise of others --- it allows me to marry my technical know-how with the strategic communications process all the way through helping with the assessment of our client's ad campaigns."

If you would like to speak with us about our possible involvement in mentoring at your institution, please outline your needs to: mentoring@force5media.com