Impactful and inspiring: the strength of cross company-mentoring

Trust, honesty and fresh thinking are hallmarks of the Moving Ahead mentoring programme – which is why those mentoring between different companies and sectors works so well. Kate Rimmington reports on its transformative power.

The best mentoring relationships are based on trust and honesty, bringing out fresh ideas and the best in your people. This can happen by accident – but often not. That’s why Moving Ahead puts so much thought into the programmes it runs – such as Mission Gender Equity and Mission Include – and why cross-company mentoring is a key ingredient.

“The biggest benefit of the Moving Ahead mentoring programmes is simply the ability to get perspective from outside of our bubble.”

That’s the view of Kirk Vallis, innovation and creativity expert at Google, and Moving Ahead’s Diversity Ambassador. And it benefits everyone involved – the mentors and mentees, and their organisations.

Echo Chamber Exit

It’s a chance to get out of the “echo chamber,” as Vallis explains, “when all we do is get the perspectives of those that sit next to us or do a similar job or look at the world and our roles in the same way.

“The ability to get out of that echo chamber and to get a perspective from somebody who's faced similar challenges, but in a totally different context… that, for me, is the provocation and stimulus that really gets us thinking differently, to have new ideas.”

Cross-company mentoring also removes a potential problem that interferes with internal mentoring schemes: office politics. Mentors and mentees can be more honest if they aren’t worrying about their own company’s dynamics.

“Without all the company politics, and without knowledge of the mentee in the work environment, it allows the mentee to be a lot more open about challenges, which helps the relationship with the mentor grow. That honesty is crucial.” So says Environment Agency project team manager Karen Rosser, who enjoyed her time as a Moving Ahead mentee so much she’s now a programme partner, representing her organisation.

“The cross-company mentoring is brilliant because it enables the mentor to help the mentee focus on their goals,” she adds.

“And the companies benefit because our mentees are getting honest feedback and honest advice to really help them grow… so they're being challenged.

“In the Environment Agency, people seem to stay forever, so it's really refreshing for them to get a new perspective and understand how different it is in different companies. There's good and bad… and it also makes them value what they've already got.”

Sparking ideas                  

Mentee Pushpita Mukherjee, Manager of Business Analysis at NHS Professionals, said she also felt able to be honest and “not be defined by where I was standing [but work towards] where I wanted to be”.

She also wanted “to be paired with somebody who was not from my background from a different industry, so that I knew that where I want to be I could get the lens of somebody who didn't have my journey”.

To the surprise of some participants, this lack of sector or company knowledge can be the precise reason the mentoring is successful. In this situation, mentors cannot solve specific problems. Instead, they help the mentee to make the most of their own talent so they can tackle those challenges.

Mentor Ben Reeve, a partner at Oliver Wyman management consultancy, was concerned he’d have little to contribute to help a mentee in a different sector – before realising this was a “feature, not a bug” of the scheme.

“The fact that they're working in completely different industries means that we really have to focus on them and their ideas. I think it's about really trying to help spark the best ideas they have… just pouring a little bit of ignition fluid on some ideas that they would really like to take forward and helping them to really focus on those and to execute them.

“I think when you're working in the same industry in the same company as somebody, it's very tempting and natural to focus on the substance of their problem rather than on them, and how they're relating to the problem.

“Whereas, when you take that commonality out of the equation, the focus has to be on the individual and their own challenges and what they need to find within themselves to succeed.”

The scheme has also helped him focus on his own professional interactions.

Once mentors and mentees are thinking differently about themselves and their work, what next? Mamtha Ethiraj, a mentee from global investment management firm T. Rowe Price, says she opened up to her mentor and talked about her plans for career progression. She’s since applied for and won a promotion.

Retaining talent 

It’s a common story, says Yvonne Rowland, who project-manages the 30% Club mentoring programme for Moving Ahead.

“The impact of the cross-company programmes is really powerful,” she says. “We've seen that mentees are promoted into new roles in their organisation – on average, within three years of completing the programme.”

And at a time when so many organisations are engaged in a tussle for talent - people are reevaluating their lives and careers, partly as a consequence of the pandemic, in the so-called ‘Great Reshuffle’ - the programme can be a key tool in retaining your brightest and best.

“The elevation that you will see in people within your company who join the programme will amaze you,” adds Kevin Lennon, a mentor and Managing Director at Alcentra. “And it won't just be the mentor and mentee that benefit. it will rub off on others around them. It's something I've seen in my own company.”

Benefits beyond

Trying to replace talent is a costly, disruptive, and time-consuming business. Mentoring provides a secure base, to create your roadmap amidst uncertain structures and environments.

The benefits of maximising the potential of that talent, ripple out beyond the mentoring partnerships.

“They also introduce new initiatives that help their regions, their functions, as well as the diversity, inclusion and equity initiatives [at] their organisations,” explains Yvonne.

“The cross-company programmes are so special because they're cross-sector, cross-industry and cross-geographies… Currently, we have representation from over four continents, and they really help our mentees and mentors gain a diverse commercial perspective, introducing new ideas that they can bring back to their organisation.”

Structured success

From the outside, it may appear as if there is an element of ‘let’s see what happens’ to the programme. Moving Ahead, however, works very hard to train and develop both the mentor and mentee.

“This isn’t just 'coffee cup' mentoring and having a bit of a chat,” explains founder Liz Dimmock. “This is about matching someone who you wouldn’t normally meet, let alone learn from – and how you walk in each other’s shoes. We believe in structure: the structured match, training and measurement. We create a structure that nurtures learning from each other’s differences. None of what we do happens by accident.”

For more information on our cross company mentoring click here or contact Maria.May@moving-ahead.org