US News: 8 Best Ways to Mentor Someone

Alison Green over at US News writes a fabulous article titled “The 8 Best Ways to Mentor Someone.”  I’ve worked at lots of different companies, and I’ve seen both effective and not-so-effective mentorship programs.  Overall, I’m a big fan of mentorship.  The best ones have an apprentice-like structure, where the new employee shadows an experienced employee throughout the day.  It gives the mentee an opportunity to learn and imitate best practices from a respected individual.  It helps them get up to speed quickly and become effective in their job, which leads to higher job satisfaction.  And of course, when the time comes, they can evolve their approach and put their own individual signature on their work.