Book Pick of the Week: High Impact Mentoring

When setting up a mentoring program within your organization, some prospective mentees are obvious choices. But high performers and superstars are not the only people in your company directory who have the potential to achieve great things. That’s why former Waffle House President and COO Bert Thornton urges mentors to look beyond the “obvious choices” and develop hidden gems, too.

“Just as ships don’t ‘drift’ into port, employees won’t ‘drift’ into greatness,” says Thornton, coauthor along with Dr. Sherry Hartnett of the new book High-Impact Mentoring: A Practical Guide to Creating Value in Other People’s Lives (BookLogix, 2021, ISBN: 978-1-6653-0344-6, $19.95, https://highimpactmentoringbook.com/). “Mentoring is often the key to unlocking the potential in overlooked, seemingly average employees.”

So who, exactly, are these “non-obvious choices”? You probably have someone on your payroll who lacks experience on paper, but whose leadership skills and ability to drive change could make a tremendous impact. Perhaps there’s an employee whose talents might be a better fit for a different role. Maybe a new supervisor is technically proficient, but their communication skills and demeanor could use some polish. Almost certainly, you have middle-of-the-pack employees who could quickly advance if given personalized training and advice.  

“When you invest mentoring resources into non-obvious candidates, you pack your bench with engaged, loyal employees who are operating at the top of their game,” says Dr. Hartnett, who is the founding director of the University of West Florida’s Executive Mentor Program. “You also broaden your talent pipeline and streamline the advancement process. That’s an ROI leaders can’t afford to ignore right now.”

Here, Thornton and Dr. Hartnett share nine powerful benefits you may receive when you build a mentoring program that develops a wide range of employees (not just the superstars.)