Formal vs informal mentoring

Summary

• Key differences
• Benefits

At the level of international good practice, informal mentoring works best when it is an outcome of formal mentoring. People have a reasonable idea of what is expected of mentor and mentee and are able to avoid major pitfalls, such as dependency or abusive relationships.

Among the benefits of informal relationships is that they tend to have strong rapport and a high level of commitment, because pairs have made the effort to seek out someone that they can see they will have get on with.

However, it can sometimes be challenging to find a mentor. (You have to kiss a lot of frogs before you find a prince!) Informal relationships without the benefit of a formal mentoring substrate are associated with reinforcing barriers against diversity, because people tend to form relationships with people like themselves.

Formal mentoring enables people to access mentoring more broadly and understand how to get the most out of the relationship. It allows an organisation to get closer to the impact mentoring is having and to enable people to have better developmental conversations.

Getting the right balancing between formality and informality is one of the key elements in designing a mentoring scheme.

The key differences can be identified in the following areas:

Relationship length – this is clearly defined in a formal programme with a clear beginning and an end; informal relationships tend to gradually emerge and can last for much longer

Matching – formal programmes offer support around matching and you may have no choice or a selected choice; informal mentoring requires you to find your own mentor and often mentors will choose (adopt) a mentee, who reminds them of themselves 20 years earlier!

Meetings – in formal programmes these take place regularly based on the guidance received in the training; informally these tend to be more as and when

Training – in formal programmes both mentors and mentees are trained for the role; informally this does not happen

Support– in formal mentoring there is a programme manager to provide advice and help relationships, which are struggling. There may also be support for mentors from more experienced mentors, and, in some cases, supervision. Informally the relationship is left to its own devices – if there is a problem, it drifts away

Goals – formal programmes encourage goals to be set by individuals and there may be organisational goals too; informal relationships will tend to have less clearly defined goals. (One of the success factors for mentoring programmes is the sense that the organisation is supportive.)

Contracting – in formal programmes pairs are encouraged to discuss their expectations of each other and how they will work together; expectations are generally less clear within informal relationships

Measurement – formal programmes will build in measurement and evaluation, which is helpful in encouraging participants to review the relationship together; informal relationships will not offer this

Organisational outcomes – within formal programmes that have an established purpose this will ideally have a positive outcome for the organisation; informally outcomes could be positive or negative for the organisation.

Benefits of formal mentoring

Formal mentoring is there to facilitate and reinforce what generally happens within the most effective informal relationships. Creating a formal process allows people to access mentors and mentoring where they previously may have struggled to do so. This is particularly important in the context of diversity.

Specific benefits include:

Ensures challenge – often when mentor and mentee get together informally the tendency is to chose someone who is very similar in values and areas of experience. This can mean that relatively little learning takes place. A formal programme would focus the matching on ensuring that pairs had enough stretch to ensure challenge and high learning potential in the relationship. Diversity in a mentoring relationship stimulates examining issues from different perspectives.

Helps the relationship have clear purpose – many mentoring relationships fail because neither mentor nor mentee are quite sure of why ghey are there, so there is no sense of direction. A formal scheme provides a broader purpose for the organisation, which then helps mentor and mentee establish more specific goals for their own relationship.

Support for mentor and mentee – this could be initial training, some form of continuing review, where mentors can address any further skills needs they identify. Training ensures both parties understand what is expected of them – not least who manages the relationship and what the boundaries are. It is considered good practice to maintain and offer regular support to participants and this has a significant positive impact on outcomes achieved.

Helps identify better mentors – ideally with a formal programme and recruitment process you are establishing an idea of the type of mentor you would like and are therefore bringing appropriate people into the programme rather than those who may have manipulative goals, or who represent values the organisation is trying to move away from. This helps you to avoid having mentors who have issues or behaviours that you would not want your mentees to model.

The benefits of informal mentoring 

A number of studies, mostly in the United States, suggest that people are more satisfied by informal mentoring relationships. The reasons suggested for this are:

Stronger rapport and relationship length – informal relationships can take longer to get off the ground and tend to last longer overall, so there is more opportunity to create strong trust and to achieve medium term goals. Formal relationships are often under considerable time pressure.

Committed Mentors – mentors are less likely to be in the role out of some form of obligation; they are there because they want to be. (However, there is evidence that mentors driven by altruistic motives are less effective than those, who see learning benefits for themselves in the relationship.) Many companies with formal schemes put subtle pressure on managers to become mentors as a way to demonstrate their commitment to people development, so they may lack the same level of genuine commitment.

Skilled Mentors – informal mentors tend to have better communication and coaching skills than formal. Formal schemes, with a need for a pool of mentors will often create a demand that can only be filled by relaxing the skills criteria that you would want for your mentors. In informal mentoring, the people most likely to put themselves forward are those who have confidence in their own competence to perform the role.

Generally this suggests that informal mentors can offer stronger elements of friendship and empathy than formal mentors. Other differences identified relate in the main to the mentor’s greater willingness to act as a sponsor to the mentee. While this is an accepted model in traditional US mentoring, it is generally avoided in Europe and many other countries, where a developmental mentoring model is more commonly used.

Summary

Getting the best from mentoring involves pulling in a mixture of both formal and informal approaches. A formal structure is clearly important as it allows access to mentoring and an initial structure and direction for relationships and it offers support where necessary. However, it is clear that individual relationships work best when they are allowed to operate as informally as possible. A successful formal relationship will very often become a successful informal one.

© David Clutterbuck, 2014

Prof David Clutterbuck
Coaching and Mentoring International Ltd
Woodlands, Tollgate,
Maidenhead,
Berks, UK. SL6 4LJ

www.coachingandmentoringinternational.org
e-mail: info@coachingandmentoringinternational.org
Company registration number : 08158710