From the Ask Tom mailbag:

Question:
What are your thoughts regarding the advantages and disadvantages of both mentoring and supervision? I believe that it’s best to have mentoring from someone outside their organization. Do you agree?

Response:
Bringing in someone from outside the organization, a consultant, should only be used as a last resort, and only when there is no one inside the organization to play that mentoring role. Elliott Jaques, Requisite Organization, was very specific about these two roles, mentoring and supervision. They are separate and distinct.

Elliott was one of the few, who recognized, and distinguished the role of supervisor from manager. The role gets confusing because we have all kinds of words, supervisor, coordinator, director, first line manager. If you have people engaged in production, the role of the supervisor is to make sure production gets done, using schedules, checklists and meetings. If your production role is measured (Time Span) at Stratum I, then the role of the Supervisor is clearly Stratum II. This relationship between the Stratum II Supervisor and Stratum I Production is based on accountability. Their conversations are coaching conversations. The purpose, is to make sure production gets done.

So, who is this mentor? What is this purpose? And why should it be an inside role, not a consultant role? If Stratum I attends to Production, and Stratum II makes sure production gets done, Elliott described Stratum III as a true managerial role, whose focus is in creating the systems in which production is done. It is the role of Stratum III to determine the best sequence of process, to design the order, set the standards. The most critical element in any business system is the people system. What do we have people doing? What skills are necessary? What capability is required? AND who do we select into those roles?

As time goes by, the Stratum III manager constantly evaluates the effectiveness of the Stratum II supervisor. We don’t have to ask the manager to do this, it is a sub-conscious evaluation that occurs every single day. At some point, the Supervisor role will turn over. The person will be promoted, transferred or will move to Montana to go fly fishing. And the Stratum III manager will now be required to fill the role. And this is where mentoring comes in. The first place the Stratum III Manager goes is to the Stratum I Production team. Is there someone on that team ready to move up to Stratum II responsibility? The only way the SIII Manager knows this, is through mentoring conversations, about career development.

Mentoring conversations have a very distinct purpose and are required as the organization goes forward. Mentoring conversations help the Stratum III Manager make decisions about who? Who has the capability, who has the necessary skills, who has the interest to move into this Stratum II role?

An outside consultant may be close enough to assist in this process, but has no stake in the game. It is the distinct role of the Stratum III Manager to engage in mentoring conversations with Stratum I. This is the role of the Manager-Once-Removed (MOR). These same mentoring conversations should occur between the Stratum IV Vice-President and the Stratum II Supervisor. These same mentoring conversations should occur between the Stratum V Business Unit President and their Stratum III Managers. Succession happens all over the organization. This mentoring relationship from the MOR is the necessary piece to make sure we make the best decision.