Feature Article - August 2009
Michael Vick Paid His Debt and Gets a “Do-Over” in the NFL:
Maybe this time Mentoring will do what Coaching Could Not
by Tom Davidson
Disgraced NFL Quarterback Michael Vick got out of prison in May, was released by the Atlanta Falcons in June, got his NFL suspension lifted in July, and signed with the Philadelphia Eagles in August. The sordid details of his crimes and lies need not be detailed here, but after what must have been the slowest 23 months of his life (in Leavenworth), Vick is getting an epic second chance -- at lightning speed. The question now is, “Can he turn his life around and earn this triple reversal of fortune?”
If his past successes on the field were a byproduct of good coaching, his future achievements in life will be the consequence of something different -- mentoring. Thanks to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, Vick is fortunate to have Tony Dungy as his formal mentor. Coach Dungy is one of the most successful, ethical, and respected leaders of our time, sports or otherwise. But what will mentoring do that coaching could not, and how does this apply to the everyday leader?
Where “Mentoring” Comes In
In the workplace, we have five major options to affect performance: (1) rewards and recognition, (2) performance management, (3) training, (4) coaching, and (5) mentoring. Most of us are familiar with the first four, but the last is an old concept in a new package. Even before it became a formal technique, mentoring has always been a part of developing talent in organizations.
In its most rudimentary form, older workers showed younger employees “the ropes.” More formally stated, mentoring is a relationship that imparts wisdom from experienced individuals to less experienced ones, so that the protégé’s success is accelerated by not having to learn every lesson on their own. If we are lucky, we have good mentors who impart productive wisdom, accelerating positive success through healthy life lessons. If not, we may have poor role models and the worst kind of mentors, exactly what happened to Vick.
A Growing Art and Science
But Vick isn’t the only one benefitting from mentoring these days. Fortune 100 organizations have formalized the process to stem the “brain drain” of retiring Baby Boomers and get newly acquired talent on board as fast as possible. In addition, the latest generation of employees, Generation Y, is looking for mentors to fill the role of their “helicopter parents” who have been championing them (a little too much) from cradle to college.
Organizations that can leverage mentoring (and even use “reverse mentoring,” especially where younger employees are more experienced with technology) are likely to attract and retain the best talent and improve their bottom lines. But like the other forms of performance improvement methods, there are key principles to learn how to do it well. For example, slamming in a formal program and assigning mentors to protégés is a recipe for disaster. Structured but less formal programs work much better, especially where mentors have formal training and protégés have more choices.
As a leader, you are probably already mentoring several people in an informal way, even though you have received no formal training on how to do it. Choose your mentee carefully, test the relationship before finalizing it, invest in learning your role, and don’t spread yourself too thin with multiple mentees. If you can’t hire Tony Dungy to mentor your people and the job falls to you, then you should read The Elements of Mentoring by W. Brad Johnson and Charles R. Ridley. It’s the essential primer on the subject, and it’s your job.
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