Case
Mentoring
Mentoring @PwC
Mentoring is much more than sharing experiences. Beyond empowerment, there is the relationship.
Coaching and Mentoring: Friends or Rivals?
In 2015, we started this partnership, in a program for capacity building of coaching competencies, with the partners. As a result of that moment, a set of reflections and reformulations concerning the coaching application in the organization emerged, which lasted until 2017.
A matter of concept
Taking into account that it was expected there would be a differentiated follow-up, with room for counseling and guidance, the logic of coaching was dropped in order to adopt the concept of mentoring , associated with the development of people, in their personal and professional dimensions.
From this conceptual frameing, in 2018, we moved into action. The initial idea was to train about 40 senior managersand managers. From that request to the end, we went together far beyond capacity building. The Mentoring@PwC Project focused on a comprehensive intervention that included mentors and mentees, processes and communication.
In mentoring, as in this partnership, "we grow most when we grow together"!
Prepare mentors for the relationship and for the process.
The mentors were the big target of this project, with different working moments, which included the alignment of expectations, training, discussion sessions on the processes inherent to the Program, and monitoring, over time, by means of supervision groups.
It's good, but it is not enough!
Over the years, we have observed and intervened in different mentoring programs that fell short of expectations due to "small details" that turned out to be "big details".
In this case, it was different. PwC had clear ideas, aligned purposes and trusted our experience! Together, we defined the assumptions, the Program processes, the communication strategy, and we added to the equation the "final customer": the mentees.
We held clarification sessions, so that all the stakeholders "spoke the same language" regarding mentoring, namely why and what for does mentoring exist at PwC, what they could expect from this approach, what their role as mentees is, and what is the role of the mentor.
Looking for a mentor for a serious relationship.
The matching process is one of the most critical and most relevant processes for the success of such a Program. In this case, we suggested that the mentees themselves would choose their mentor and... they said YES!
"In 2018/19, PwC launched a pilot mentoring program for the firm's senior management. Created on a voluntary basis, the process began the previous year by asking the target audience who they would like to have as a mentor from within the management team.
In the scenario of the program's main goals, we intend, on the one hand, to reinforce the support given to seniors in a phase of their careers when they start to acquire team management responsibilities and to foresee (or not) an evolution to a manager level and, on the other hand, to strengthen our managers' skills in what feedback, active listening and knowledge of the company are concerned.
To help us with the implementation, we counted on the tireless support of Way Beyond, who collaborated with us in the design of the program, preparation of the support material, training and follow-up of our mentors, guided by João Sevilhano and Sónia Morgado.
For those who do not know him, João Sevilhano is, without a doubt, a reference, for his ability to make us reflect and to find the right analogy at the right moment, making a great duo with Sónia, responsible for the organization and systematization of the project.
At this point we are still measuring the impacts - as the pilot has not yet ended - however, we know informally that bonds have been created between mentors and mentees, which meet the values we believe in at PwC.
All is left is for us to thank Way Beyond for their support along the way."
- Catarina João Morgado, Head of PwC's Academy in Portugal and Angola
The story continues...
In this partnership, we have given and we have received the space and the time to think, to experiment and to improve together. From a mentoring capacity building project we have evolved into an integrated project, thanks to the openness and involvement of all stakeholders.
We left the scene, but the story continues!