Magazine Articles

Mentoring

Mentoring is defined as a relationship between a senior employee and a protégé (a less-experienced employee). The senior employee is a mentor, a person who sponsors and supports the protégé by coaching, counseling and sponsorship – in other words mentors develop the protégés’ skills, boost their self-confidence and lobby them in the work environment. (Langton;Robbins;& Judge, 2011, s. 283)

In the article Insider Training (Pecknold, 2012), Judy Brooks tells her story in the working life, and how she has reached the position she is in today with the help of mentors. She believes that mentor-protégé relationship has to be a friendship as well because the two persons have to trust each other to make the most of their work together. Today she is herself mentoring less-experienced employees and making new friends at the same time. (Pecknold, 2012)

Judy Brooks’s mentoring style is a mixture of her mentors’ styles. Her three mentors were all different with first being highly inspirational woman who was a professional in her field, second being a very transactional leader and task-oriented in his mentoring and the third being an open person, very into deep discussions and sharing thoughts. Brooks thinks that nowadays not only a great education is enough when you want to become a professional in your work. This trend of mentoring is changing the workplace today because people start to recognize the power of experience, networks and “silent knowledge”. The question is not about did one study in a top university, it is about who is one’s mentor.

Even though mentoring has existed for a very long time already, it has not necessarily been a trend as such. Back in the day, long before advanced technology, emails and cell phones, mentors and protégés had conversations, learned from each other and built relationships. In today’s business world the fashion is to “productize” old concepts and that is one of the reasons for the recent hype around mentoring also today. There is one key difference when compared to the mentoring before – purpose of it. Nowadays people are mentored to be the Good People, the characters and personalities that every employer would want to hire, whereas before the focus was on the loyalty towards a company. In other words, before recent years mentoring has meant more or less introduction to a company’s way of working, whereas today individual development is the emphasis.

Animal Magnetism

This article showcases how bosses can earn the respect of there employees. John Linehan, CEO of Zoo New England is interviewed to gain insight on how this can be achieved. John makes a very persuasive argument that the best way to earn the respect of employees is to do the work that they have done, are doing, or will be doing in the future. Before John was CEO he had worked 3 decades with Zoo New England that gave him the opportunity to complete tasks his current employees do on a regular basis. John has completed most of the jobs that his current 180 employees do on a regular basis. This allows him to easily earn the respect of these employees because they can relate to their boss. He also makes a great point when he states that in order to gain the respect of employees, you must always remember to treat them with respect. This is a great point because once you have lost the respect of your employees you will find it extremely difficulty to gain the respect back. Another reason this is a great point is because it is very hard to gain respect of those that you do not respect. John treats his employees with respect by providing them with honesty and providing feedback. He claims it a good to be “up front” with your employees when you have an issue. This article would be recommended to a person in a leadership position. Overall this article would be a recommended for those that are in a leadership position or aspire to do so as it will help them grow as a leader and enable them to be followed with respect. (Hann, 2012)
 

Twinkies maker Hostess is going out of business, putting almost 18,500 out of work

This article is all about the business hostess, the maker of Twinkies and other pastries that are preserved in plastic is going to go out of business. This is a giant change in the workplace for the employees to the CEO of the company.

All people that are involved in the process and the company need to be educated on changes. That is the real key behind change in a company. It is communication and educating the employees of the company so nothing gets miss leaded and everyone is truthful. This is the job of the managers in the company and the leaders within the business. This was handled very well within the hostess company because they explained what was happening while it happened.

They made sure that everyone was aware of the changes and what needed to be done. That is another important way to implement change in a company, make sure there is instructions as to what needs to be done. This helps people to better understand what is going on and what needs to be done. Employees do not know what is expected of them as employees because they are not apart of the process in change but they are to accept it.

That is another thing that is important when implementing change is keeping the employees as involved in the process as possible. They need to be involved and have everything to do with the changes.