Question
Who Is the LMN Program For?
answer
ACHE created the Leadership Mentoring Network to expand opportunities for the learning and development of professionally experienced ACHE members. The Leadership Mentoring Network operates as a result of the service of dedicated volunteers. In light of our limited number of volunteers, we are only able to accept mentee requests from professionals who are currently in healthcare management positions. This service is available to ACHE Members only and is not designed for students or Student Members, nor is its intent to find employment for mentees; rather it is designed for employed healthcare professionals seeking growth as leaders.
ACHE Members who are job searching or enrolled in full-time education or training programs are recommended to take advantage of the benefits of ACHE's Career Advising Network. This network consists of a different pool of volunteers who have agreed to be resources for individuals exploring career directions or making transitions between healthcare sectors or locations.
Question
What Is Mentoring?
answer
Mentoring is a process that usually involves a more experienced individual, the mentor, providing guidance to a less experienced professional, the mentee. A mentoring partnership involves developing trust, investing resources (e.g. time and energy), and sometimes taking risks by challenging a partner. If a mentor feels valued only for the connections they possesses or the doors they can open a meaningful relationship probably will never develop. ACHE offers a number of tools and resources, such as CareerEDGE, to support mentors and mentees in tracking and achieving goals.
Question
Why Consider Becoming a Mentor?
answer
A few of many reasons for becoming a mentor include learning about yourself, benefiting from the exposure to a fresh perspective and deriving satisfaction for furthering another's career development. The return on mentoring efforts may also include growing an organization's management talent and fine-tuning your leadership skills in a one-on-one situation.
Question
Why Consider Becoming a Mentee?
answer
The guidance a mentee receives may take many forms. For example, a mentee may want to work on building self-confidence, developing professional and winning behaviors or sharpening critical thinking skills and knowledge. People can become mentees at any stage of their career. A young manager can receive valuable guidance from experienced mid-career executives, while the mid-careerist may benefit from a mentor who is at the C-suite level. Senior executives ready to move up from a small or mid-size organization may benefit from the counsel of a CEO or COO whose career already includes leading larger, more complex firms.
Question
What Should Participants Expect?
answer
The Leadership Mentoring Network maintains the classic one-to-one mentoring experience, while primarily meeting virtually (via phone, video chat, email, etc.) to accommodate the demanding schedule of a healthcare executive. While face-to-face meetings are acceptable, they are not the expectation. Using this approach, mentoring partnerships are made possible for individuals separated between great distances. Mentoring partnerships are expected to be established with a specific purpose or goal in mind. Though some partnerships last longer, the average connection lasts one year or less.
Question
How Can You Get Started?
answer
Prospective mentors and mentees must file a personal profile with ACHE's Career Resource Center so that the CRC may identify appropriate matches.
If you wish to become a mentor, please fill out the mentor profile form.
If you wish to become a mentee, please fill out the mentee profile form.
Question
Is it too soon or too late for me to seek a mentor?
answer
The best judge of whether the time is right for you to locate and work with a mentor is you. However, you should be careful to avoid buying into the silver bullet image of mentoring as the cure for everything. Mentoring doesn't produce results magically; it takes hard work and commitment. Although mentoring is not a solution for every challenge, it can have value at every career stage and you can have many mentors over the course of your career, benefiting from someone who has been there, done that, and made the mistakes one should not repeat.
Question
What kind of challenges should I work on with a mentor?
answer
Individuals always encounter new and unfamiliar challenges that others have mastered. The type of discussions that occur with a trusted mentor may be an ideal way to work through the not-so-obvious complications in your particular situation and arrive at a thoughtful, tailored solution. A representative professional challenge facing younger, less experienced managers is learning to delegate to subordinates. Likewise, a more senior executive may profit from a mentor’s insight on how to deal with conflict among competitive members of the medical staff.
Question
Do I have the “right stuff” to be a good mentee?
answer
Odds are good you will be able to succeed in working with a mentor if:
- You can tell the mentor what you hope to achieve.
- You can tell the mentor things about yourself that might make it challenging to make the most of the mentoring opportunity.
- You are prepared to follow up on suggestions in a manner that demonstrates your initiative, self-reliance and the value you place on the mentor’s investment in you.
- You can listen.