Another mentor says they haven't connected with many baby boomers where there is a lot of trust.

 

Then the mentees have their own concerns.  One 'mentor' took his position as a mentor for only three weeks and then dropped the 'mentee' because he could use the fact he'd helped someone on a job description.

 

Formal and informal mentoring programs where older employees help younger ones navigate work and life issues have quadrupled in the last 15 years, but because they aren't working like they used to, the boomers are having trouble passing the baton.

 

All of this is complicated by the usual generational misunderstandings and a slow economy says Jeffrey Zaslow from the Wall Street Journal.  Many executives are forced to put their own job ahead of helping someone else with theirs.    Because of this, most formal corporate mentoring programs end up being disolved.

 

Forever youthful, at least in their own minds, boomers may indeed be struggling to shift from protege' to mentor.  Many argue that being a mentor is risky in today's staggering economy. 

 

Positive mentoring experiences increase productivity, employee retention and job satisfaction but mentoring is faultering.  A recent Army study found that most junior officers say they have no mentors, suggesting that many boomers serving as senior officers don't see mentoring as a responsibility. 

 

Bad matching and weak follow-up according to Menttium Corp, a Minneapolis firm that helps companies design mentoring solutions report the roadblocks are formidable.  Boomers, busy with children, aging parents, even grandkids, say they don't have time for mentoring.

 

Boomers succeeded with the help of mentors from the World War II Generation but lack of trust from Gen X know only this youth culture and have trouble trusting their elders.  Perhaps those who had parents who abandoned marriages and the kids, deceived by politial and corporate scandals and ignored by self-involved boomers make this lack of trust strongly entrenched.

 

Many dot-com companys that were unsuccessful is said to be the result of Xers with creative ideas with no mentoring from experienced businesspeople.

 

Mentoring is a time-honored concept.  Those of us who've been mentored should mentor others.  Otherwise we've short-circuited the progress and the future.

 

Some keys to better mentoring relationships for:

 

MENTORS

 

Be curious about proteges'; listen more than talk.

 

Expect nothing in return beyond maximizing yourself and watching proteges' grow and develop.  Feel good that a part of you is reproduced through your Mentee.

 

Don't resent the ambitious;  yes, one day that person may replace you.  But won't it be fun to see the values and ideas you have generated bring forth good fruit in the next generation.

 

MENTEE'S (Mentee's turn into Proteges' after the mentoring process is over)

 

Temper your cynicism, Don't be so cynical and untrusting.  Do give your mentor a chance to help.

 

Avoid mentors who seek the limelight - those who remind everyone it was because of them that You have made your great strides; those who want to build "fan clubs" or add to their bank of IOU's.