“With the right mentoring at the top, everyone stands to gain.” HBR April 2015
Harvard Business Review investigates the emerging trend of CEOs accessing seasoned counsel by engaging the services of experienced leaders from outside their company.
The result: “we are convinced that more CEOs should connect with mentors rather than assume that theirs is a burden to be shouldered alone.”
CEOs are routinely making decisions concerning matters they’ve never before tackled. They are tested by decisions and management situations that they haven’t encountered.
“In such high-stakes situations, CEOs need wise mentoring.”
“Mentors … are role models who have ‘been there and done that.’ They can offer timely, context-specific counsel drawn from experience; wisdom; and networks that are highly relevant to the problems to be solved.”
Interviewing a new CEO of a giant insurance company, they found he was certain he could benefit from the perspective of someone who had been down similar roads before. He believes the mentoring has made a very real difference to his performance – and his companies.
Of the CEOs with formal mentoring arrangements surveyed:
- 71% were certain company performance had improved as a result
- 69% were making better decisions
- 76% were more capably fulfilling shareholder expectations
- 84% said mentors had helped them avoid costly mistakes and become proficient in their roles faster.
Read more about McCarthy Mentoring’s Executive Mentoring Program and mentor network.
Read full article CEOs Need Mentors Too by Suzanne de Janasz and Maury Peiperl, Harvard Business Review, April 2015
