Why do mentors in some programs seem incapable of providing effective mentoring?
Many mentors do not provide the quality of relationship or guidance we might wish to see provided. When that happens, we do not see evidence of the improved protégé performance that we want. In a small fraction of mentoring cases, that individual should probably not have been selected as a mentor. Program leaders often must work to improve mentoring, but they sometimes get the cause of the problem and the problem itself mixed up. In other words, you must be sure to get the “cart and the horse” in the right order so you are focused on something that will improve mentoring practices. • The “horse” that must come FIRST is an effective mentoring program. • Once the program is functioning as it should, THEN it’s time to start looking for the “cart” of effective mentoring practice to come along. The success of mentoring is placed squarely at the “feet” of the mentoring programs in which the mentors work. Being an employee and being excellent on the job does not sufficiently prepare one to be
