Unless you’re the most junior person in your work environment, everyone should mentor their less-experienced team members.  Helping them learn should be as natural an effort as holding the door for those entering a room behind you.  These efforts will create experienced individuals with broad-based perspectives on how to approach their responsibilities within the secured lending industry.  Leaders within SFNet member organizations generally agree there is a lack of “bench strength” in the secured lending industry.  Greater preponderance of mentoring would tie junior people more to their organizations and to the industry as a whole.

Here are some thoughts as to why broader mentoring is not happening and how organizational leaders can help make it happen:

It’s Not My Job/That Person Doesn’t Report To Me/I Don’t Have Time

Think of six people you learned from over your career, and ask yourself if you reported to all of them.  I venture to guess probably not; someone went out of their way to teach and develop you.  And yes, your time is limited, but if you taught that junior person how to perform a task, could they assume responsibility for it in the near future and take it off your plate? 

Managers should teach by example by spending time with junior people explaining the secured lending business and why their organization operates as it does.  Senior management can also foster a teaching environment by (a) creating periodic lunch-and-learns for the less-experienced team members; (b) sending the less-experienced team members to webinars and seminars, such as those given by SFNet; (c) assigning each new employee a mentor within the company whom they will meet with regularly and (d) foster a mentoring environment by assessing how much each experienced team member contributes by mentoring others in their annual performance review.

This Generation Doesn’t Want to Learn

Not everyone accepts coaching and feedback well.  You can’t mentor everyone; you have to seek out the few who will harness it and use it to better themselves. 

If a junior team member doesn’t want to learn or take advice from senior team members, they probably don’t belong in a role that calls for advancement.  They probably don’t belong at your company either for that matter.  Management should coach them into a role that fits them appropriately, wherever that may be.

Imposter Syndrome

Simply put, this person doesn’t feel that they have enough experience or attributes to offer a junior employee.  This person’s lack of confidence invariably leads also to subpar communication with internal and external customers. 

Their manager should address it by providing constructive feedback about the person’s strengths and the confidence the management team has in them.  The person should be coached to develop their confidence and impart their abilities to others on the team.

Ideas on what to Impart

Almost anyone can impart how to perform a particular task, but what junior people really need help with are the “soft skills,” like dealing with difficult clients and dealings with other team members.  I took the liberty of asking a couple of mentees of mine about soft skill mentoring I had given them, and here’s what they said:

From Ryan Power, Vice President, White Oak Commercial Finance, LLC:

• Mignon also took the time to provide guidance on soft skills on how best to handle delivering bad news to a client/prospect during a negotiation. There was one time when, during an underwriting, Mignon and I received news back from an appraiser on a Friday afternoon regarding the anticipated value of collateral that we both knew would be well below what the prospect/client was hoping for. At this point, in order to take time to think of the best way to communicate this news to the prospect, Mignon told me that she does not advise delivering bad news late on a Friday! Better to wait until Monday morning after you have thought about how to approach it. This type of advice has helped me in several ways. First, that when delivering bad news, it is always important to take the point of view of the party the news is being delivered to (especially if it is a client/prospect). Giving bad news at the end of the day on a Friday vs. Monday morning does not often affect the process and would only cause the other party stress over the weekend. Secondly, when first learning of bad news that you need to communicate to another party, it is important to take extra time and think about how best to deliver that news. Just because you learn of something, does not mean it needs to be communicated immediately (depending on the situation). Sometimes, it is better to take the time to think of the best way to deliver it. These lessons Mignon provided applied not only to that specific scenario but also to my career and life.

From Karen Marino, Senior Vice President, White Oak Commercial Finance, LLC

• Dealing with different personalities and communicating through the challenges. Mignon helped me to sit back and think about the important part of the message instead of reacting to the way things were presented. This allowed me to be more of a critical thinker and less of an impulse speaker. It also allowed me to listen more which allowed me to be a more compassionate team member
• Tips for negotiating with a client. Mignon taught me to take charge of a negotiation by trying to understand the customer’s needs and creatively reconcile that to the organization’s policies. She stressed the importance of understanding the organization’s thresholds in different scenarios and adapt to them.
• Networking and maintaining relationships through the busy times. This is not as easy as it sounds for a young professional juggling a growing career and personal life. Mignon showed me that you can stay in touch with people through the small gestures. Sending an email with a friendly message, sharing an article that the person can relate to, or meeting someone for a cup of coffee. As simple as these things may seem now, they were not naturally ingrained in me but have helped me keep some wonderful relationships through the years.

Not an onerous amount of effort on my part, but long-standing results.  I challenge you to go forth and mentor/hold the door for those behind you!

Editor’s Note: SFNet’s Mentoring Program application deadline is Thursday, July 14. For more information click here.