Monday, May 17, 2010

At the Moment: Mentorship Programs: Part I

I work with talented people at OptumHealth, a UnitedHealth Group company. Three people, in particular – Chengny Thao (who is leaving us, boo!), Cara Troye (my former boss), and Wendy Mateega (who sat directly across from me in our cubefarm) – inspired this topic (brief Part I) about mentorship programs. Each has influenced my experience in seeking and establishing a mentor as well as wanting to share the wealth with others. Chengny is the one who suggested I obtain a mentor. Cara was my boss who interviewed prospective mentors and made the first contact with my mentor. And Wendy has talked about establishing a formal mentorship program within her department at OptumHealth with the hopes of extending it throughout all of OptumHealth and eventually the other UnitedHealth Group businesses. (Okay, I may have thrown in that last bit about going UHG-wide, so I may have unofficially expanded the scope of Wendy’s plan. One may already exist but I have yet to hear about it.)

Anyhow, Part I of this blog post subject is me actually asking you to share your thoughts and experiences on mentoring/ship programs. As I recently expanded my role at work to include the management of a small team, I now find myself accountable for more than just me. It is in my interest to help develop these team members and when I think back to what has been successful for me at work, my relationship with my mentor and those relationships which were derived from my primary mentor relationship have been invaluable. In fact, I even proposed establishing a membership program (perhaps very informally at first) with my interim boss and she has asked me to present best practices and benefits at her next management meeting. I am not sure how a bunch of IT managers and analysts will respond to a mentorship program but it is a start. So, I ask for your input, articles, links, etc. to share with us. It would be greatly appreciated.

Best,
Hadley

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