Mentoring THE BOSS

How do you mentor someone in a higher position? The most common answer you will hear to that question is, “Very carefully!”

As we have explored throughout this book, risk taking is tantamount to growth, and mixing learning and power produces a concoction that is typically risk-averse. This mixture is particularly powerful when mentoring a person in a higher position. Yet more and more organizations are, for example, asking younger employees who hold lower positions in the organization but possess key skills to be mentors to leaders in higher positions who need those skills. Consider, for example, the computer-illiterate CEO who asks the whiz-bang computer nerd in the bowels of the IT department, “Come up to mahogany row and teach me how to use this thing!”

Mentoring the boss can carry another unfortunate by-product. The protégé can quickly bear the brunt of resentment if seen as the “teacher’s pet.” Perceived favoritism can play havoc with an employee’s position in an important peer group.

The general manager of a major New York hotel came from a section of that city not famous for interpersonal diplomacy. Wanting to soften her rather clipped, abrupt style, she sought the assistance of a charming front-desk supervisor. “The supervisor was thrilled I asked for her assistance,” reported the GM. “But I could immediately sense some hesitation. After a bit of probing, I realized she was worried about being seen as someone trying to curry the favor of the boss. When I had asked her! So, at the next staff meeting I quelled her anxiety by announcing that I had insisted she be my mentor. ‘And,’ I told the staff, ‘after trying to turn me down, she relented and agreed to help me out.’ By adding a humorous touch to the announcement, I allayed any perception others might have that she might have been ‘brownnosing the boss.’”