Benefits of Having a Mentor
Have you benefited from having an amazing mentor during your career?
If you answered yes, you probably realize that a great mentor can accelerate your professional development and propel you to success. Having someone show you the ropes and provide real-life examples of how they managed challenges common to your position is a huge asset. Unfortunately, the mentoring process and selection of an established mentor may not currently be part of your leadership development program. Some individual leaders who value having a mentor may choose to establish their own relationships. However, The Mentor ProgramSM enables you to establish a process that leverages current industry experience without investing the time and effort to build one from scratch.
After numerous conversations with clients, it quickly became apparent to the Accelerant Solutions team that mentoring was a serious and critical need within the industry. The constant turnover of key training leaders causes stations to accelerate the knowledge and skills of newly selected training leaders, hence the creation of The Mentor ProgramSM. These new leaders may have had a variety of training experiences, but they also have multiple development areas that need to be addressed. For large operating fleets, providing structured mentoring of these individuals can be accomplished with a large pool of available resources. The lack of a formal mentoring process and experienced resources at smaller fleets or single sites, however, poses a new leader development challenge.
To create The Mentor ProgramSM, we first analyzed existing industry processes to gain insights from the most successful structures and attributes. Next, Accelerant Solutions consulted recently retired training experts to craft key areas of development that are critical to prevent major performance issues. Collectively, a structured mentoring guide, using the most successful industry standards and extensive operating experience, was created.
In order to conduct mentoring sessions remotely, our software-based program enables video conferencing between mentor and mentee and tracks all required actions and real-time exchanges. An assessment is completed prior to the mentoring sessions so the program can be customized to the needs of different individuals. This ensures the entire process is scalable and sequenced with achievable work milestones. Personalized meetings are immediately built into the online program for each candidate during a video conference, so agreed-upon mentoring sessions can be developed and scheduled.
The Mentor ProgramSM can be used to accelerate the growth of a leader coming into a new role, to help develop candidates slated for future roles, or to close an existing gap for a candidate needing additional support. Specific sections can be set up for different areas of training, such as Operations, Maintenance, and Technical, etc.
The Mentor ProgramSM:
- Uses experienced, industry experts to guide a structured mentoring process. Design working sessions that are customized to the needs of each mentee. Uses software applications to make the process efficient and easy to track. Enables remote access and interfaces with multiple devices. References current industry information and requirements. Scales to expand, as necessary, during development.
Start developing your future energy leaders today:
Client Testimonial:
“Our alliance recently experienced a change where three of the four training directors are new in-role. They each have unique backgrounds and experiences, so a “cookie cutter” development path was not ideal. I was looking to create a customizable program internally when I discovered what Accelerant Solutions had been developing. Their virtual training and development program is a customized approach delivered via an application that can be used on your phone, tablet, or laptop. It begins with an assessment and interview with each candidate and then moves to the implementation of development modules and mentoring sessions with very reputable mentors who have an industry-current perspective. The program covers topics required to become a highly effective training director by improving knowledge in all aspects of training. I am very excited about this opportunity and have absolute confidence in the results it will bring.”
Paul L. Bury, Training Functional Area Manager for STARS Alliance
