The document discusses effective mentoring programs in federal agencies. It finds that successful programs have committed mentors and protégés, support from upper and middle management, clearly defined roles and responsibilities, trained mentors, established goals for skills development and career growth, and are well-advertised and fully funded programs that foster a strong culture of mentoring across the organization. The document is based on surveys of mentoring programs across multiple federal agencies.

1. Successful Mentoring
in Your Agency
John Sporing
Excellence in Government Fellow
Federal Mentoring Roundtable
March 18, 2009

2. Enhance Federal employees’ ability to
maximize their potential through mentoring
programs, in order to obtain greater career
fulfillment while better serving the
American people.

3. Good vs bad

Effective vs ineffective

High impact vs low

Positive impact vs negative


4. Quantitative & qualitative survey


5. Most questions called for numeric ratings.

 Question 5: Did Upper-level management support your
mentoring program?
▪ Strong Positive Impact,
▪ Some Positive Impact,
▪ No Impact,
▪ Some Negative Impact,
▪ Strong Negative Impact,
▪ Don’t Know (Unknown) Impact

6. Several questions called for narrative

responses.
 Question 4: What characteristics would you look for
in a Mentor? Why?

7. Quantitative & qualitative survey

Discovery, analysis, and prioritization

Planting the seed


8. Veteran’s Administration,
1%
OMB, 1%
Labor, 1% EOTP, 5%
Transportation, 1%
EPA, 5%
Justice, 1%
HHS, 22%
Energy, 1%
State, 2%
Homeland Security, 3%
Agriculture, 4%
Treasury, 6%
Defense, 19%
Interior, 8%
Commerce, 11%
Education, 10%

9. Committed Mentors

Committed Protégés

Supported by Upper and Middle

Management

10. Quality time


11. “I think there is a strong commitment to
promote an effective mentoring program. It
is having mixed results because of other
commitments which can interfere with
attendance at meetings.”

12. Quality time

Clearly defined and communicated

responsibilities

13. “Setting up mentoring programs is
generally encouraged but there seems
to be poor communication about the
roles and responsibilities of mentors
and protégés.”

14. Quality time

Clearly defined and communicated

responsibilities
Trained volunteers


15. “…need to train mentors
regarding coaching skills. I wish I'd
selected someone who was very
communicative and a good coach.”

16. Establish goals


17. “I think it is particularly important to
gauge the success of a mentor-
protégé relationship both during and
after its duration.”

18. Establish goals

Develop skills that reach beyond current

position

19. “I was just out of college and a senior engineer
would have lunch with me every afternoon. Each
day would be a new
lesson, engineering, cars, machining, welding, ele
ctronics, social skills... It was the most informative
year of my life.”

20. Establish goals

Develop skills that reach beyond current

position
Encouraged to return as mentors


21. “People who have had positive formal or
informal experiences with a mentor tend
to be good mentors themselves.”

22. Program well-advertised


23. “…it is very important to market
and publicize [the mentoring] program.”

24. Program well-advertised

Fosters development


25. “…managers are beginning to see
the benefits of mentoring and its
impact to knowledge transfer and
retention of employees.
Thus a mentoring culture
is evolving here.”

26. Program well-advertised

Fosters development

Fully-funded

 Financial investment
 Time investment

27. “Employees must feel that this program is
supported by management. This includes
additional funding, training, and shadowing
or rotational assignments. It must be
celebrated in order to incorporate it into the
culture of the organization.”

28. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

Immigration, Customs and Enforcement

Council for Excellence in Government

Survey respondents

Federal Mentoring Roundtable


29.  Strong mentoring culture
 Committed mentors
 Committed protégés
 Organizational support
▪ Middle-management is key
 Everyone can make a difference

30. “Mentoring should not simply be a part of a formal
development program but should be that part of an
organization's culture that establishes an expectation that
everyone has an obligation to reach back and assist.”

31. For additional information or a copy of the full
report, contact :
FederalMentoring@gmail.com
 Marietta Allen (DOI)  John Poisal (HHS)
 Leah Dela Cruz (DOD)  Jose Quiroz (DHS)
 John Fox (EOTP)  John Sporing (DOC)
 Jan Matuszko (EPA)  Deborah Swift (DOD)