Following are some key considerations for new programs. Let’s assume you’ve concluded that formalized mentoring makes sense for your organization. For example,

• you have support from top officials and the target audience; you and your task force have time and resources to spend;
  
  
• the organizational climate is healthy (business is good, you’re hiring or at least not laying off, and people have expressed interest in developing and learning);
  
  
• some informal mentoring is already happening, and people speak well of it;
  
  
• you have some specific goals in mind for the mentoring effort;
  
  
• mentors and mentees have time to meet and work on development activities together (even if most of their exchanges will be by telephone).

As you plan a new initiative, here are some musts:

• Plan ahead. Take several months to plan your initiative and get “buy in.” Validation the goals of the initiative with senior stakeholders.
  
  
• Link goals to the mission and values of your organization. As organizational and mentoring expert Dr. Kathy Kram has emphasized, mentoring efforts that aren’t linked to the goals of the organization will not be taken seriously and will fail.
  
  
• Don’t do everything yourself. Create a dynamic task force that’s excited about mentoring. Be sure everyone has a key role and set of tasks.
  
  
• Don’t re-invent the wheel. Good materials for designing programs and for training mentors and mentees exist. Check out listings on the Web. Consider bringing in one or more consultants to help you think through your strategy, train everyone, and evaluate the impact of the mentoring effort.
  
  
• Provide structure. If you opt for a program with mentor-mentee pairs (or mentoring circles), plan a great deal of structure. Have a formal application process, clear roles for participants, competencies on which mentees will focus, forms to turn in, formalized training, materials, scheduled ongoing activities, etc. You can always loosen up, but it’s harder to tighten up if a formal program begins with a too-casual approach.
  
  
• Start small. You want to be successful in all respects, so focus a pilot effort on a group (and part of the organization) that is likely to do well. Two good targets are new hires and budding leaders.
  
  
• Evaluate everything you do. Don’t wait until the year is over and try to pull together some results to decide if you’ll do it again. Go beyond “feel good” data that say the training was enjoyable. Try to get some baseline data before you begin on mentees’ competencies, knowledge, attendance, satisfaction with the organization, etc. Then measure changes.

Mentoring initiatives (and formal programs) take time and serious effort. Mentoring isn’t rocket science, and yet it’s far more than common sense. It’s better not to start a formal mentoring initiative unless you have the support to do it right.