Mentoring programs need “not too much, not too little,” but just the right amount of both structure and monitoring to produce optimal results. When we break the code on just the right amount of this secret sauce (forgive me for another food reference), mentoring can be one of the most effective low cost / high impact development solutions I know - perfect for the volatile economic conditions that still plague most of our businesses.

Sadly, in my experience, many organizations have been disappointed at their inability to point to as large a return on their mentoring investments as they had expected. Often this results from a combination of unrealistic expectations along with a failure to provide sufficient structure and monitoring for the process.

Here are some best practices to guide your efforts:

• Have a clearly defined purpose(s) for mentoring in your organization. Be clear on whether you’re trying to enhance the mentees’ development, work performance, career progression, or assimilation to a new role. Maybe you’re afraid of people bolting once the job market loosens up and are looking to mentoring merely as a retention strategy. Good reasons all, but it’s hard to know how successful your program is unless there is alignment around the purpose. You might even consider separate mentoring initiatives for different purposes across the organization.

• The word “mentoring” means different things to different people. It’s no different than if I say the word “breakfast” and I’m thinking dry cereal and you’re picturing Eggs Benedict (I guess I’m hungry today...). The best way to ensure alignment of expectations is to invest in an orientation / training session for all new pairs. That way everyone will leave with the same mental picture of “mentoring.” It is also a good time to allow people to brush up their “power mentoring skills,” such as giving and receiving feedback effectively, listening, and questioning. Finally, where possible, a great way to get the program off to a solid start is to give the pairs the “gift” of some alone time to get to know each other better and schedule their mentoring sessions so that they leave ready to hit the ground running.

• Consider assigning someone to “shepherd” each pair and monitor their progress. The monitoring is exclusively about process, not content. A simple phone call to each party every few weeks can ensure that the pairs are meeting and staying on track. Nothing worse than finding out after the fact that something came up and the pairs stopped meeting. Better to know that real time, so that appropriate adjustments can be made.

• Finally, be sure that you take the time to answer some core questions before you officially launch your mentoring program. In addition to defining the business purpose for the program, consider things like how long the program will last, how people will be nominated and matched with a partner, and your stance on confidentiality between the pairs. Often a key question relative to confidentiality is what happens if the mentee tells the mentor s/he is considering leaving the company? What about a “no-fault divorce” clause? I have seen different companies answer those questions differently, but the point is they should be debated and resolved up front so that everyone knows the rules of the road going in.