Great Tech Begins with Great Talent: Why Mentorship Matters in a Digital Transformation

Any organization facing a digital transformation knows that underneath the innovation, engineering, and technological momentum lies a foundational investment in its talent. Do our people understand and connect with the vision driving the transformation? Do they know how their core skillset and career aspirations serve the business goals? How can we empower our people with the professional network and resources required to develop their career within our organization?

As we continue our journey of digital transformation at NYU Langone Health, our IT leadership understands how important it is to invest in our people in a way that supports their growth along with the institution’s. As such, we have invested in several leadership development initiatives, including an IT Leadership Mentoring program. The mission of this program is focused on fostering connections and personalized support for our employees as they navigate their professional development across our ever-evolving, forward thinking, digital enterprise. As our organization transforms and grows, both in number and geographic footprint, the mentorship program also aims to provide a way to make cross-team connections and strengthen our departmental network.

In Spring of 2020 we initiated our mentorship program, starting with a pilot group of individuals who were simultaneously selected to participate in an organizational leadership development program. We ran the inaugural program for six months and learned a great deal about what elements of the program make for an impactful mentoring experience, both for our mentors and mentees. This month we are preparing to kick off our third cohort with over 30 new mentees. Here are some key elements we have found to be particularly important to the success of the program:

Personalize the matching process.

We believe fruitful mentoring relationships require mentees and mentors to have some common ground to build a foundation from. For this reason, we employ a personalized matching process, in which we seek to understand each mentee’s needs and match them with mentors from our leadership team based on complementary characteristics, strengths, and styles.

We leverage a brief application process to learn about candidates’ career goals and objectives for the mentoring relationship. We also conduct brief interviews with each candidate to further understand their interests and communication styles. Equipped with this information, we consider the different characteristics of each of the members of our leadership team to identify a few potential mentors whose strengths and style complement what the mentee is seeking.

We allow the mentees to confirm the final selection, which we’ve found to be empowering and adds to their engagement in the program. Of the 50 mentees who have completed the program to date, nearly all have been pleased with their match, reporting the ability to make a connection with their mentors and have enriching conversations, even if they had never met prior to the program.

We also found that asking the mentee candidates to think about what they want to focus on with their mentor leads to a more fruitful experience. Those who took the time to articulate what they were looking to achieve in the relationship found that they were able to build momentum in the relationship early on and reported more impactful outcomes from the program.

Provide structure and check in throughout.

Providing structure for our program helps both mentors and mentees who are new to mentoring get the most out of the experience. With a formal orientation, expectations on time commitment, and an official start and end date to the program, people feel a sense of accountability toward making connections and scheduling time together.

We schedule formal checkpoints with mentors and mentees mid-way through the 6-month program to confirm they are engaged and gather feedback about their experience. This allows us to identify any mentor-mentee pairs who may need additional support engaging with the program. We check in again formally at the end of the program to gather additional feedback which we use to inform improvements for future cohorts. Throughout the entire cycle we maintain an “open door” with participants to ensure we’re accessible for any questions or guidance needed on an individual basis.

Support your mentors.

Many of our mentors have shared that they are new to the role and ask for resources that can help them learn tools or frameworks for approaching mentoring relationships. While we believe the beauty of mentorship is that it’s personalized to the individual relationship and the mentee’s development needs, we do share a selection of frameworks with participants to reference as they establish how they want to work together through the program. We also create communication channels for mentors and mentees to share with each other what frameworks, books, and other resources they find valuable.

Leverage “graduates” to serve as the next round of mentors.

As each cohort concludes, we offer “graduating” mentees the opportunity to serve as a mentor in a future round. This helps to build a community and culture of mentorship, as well as a stronger network of growth-oriented professionals across our department. Because everyone seeking a mentor has unique needs and styles, this strategy provides us with a growing pool of leaders to leverage as we identify the best match for each mentee.

Program Feedback and Future Plans

We are pleased with the success and positive feedback from the program to date. Mentees continue to report that they appreciate the level of personal connection which develops over the course of the six-month program, and feel their mentors are truly interested in supporting their development. They valued their time, experience and perspective.

Mentors report that the program is rewarding for them as well. It gives them an opportunity to step out of their day-to-day responsibilities, connect with different individuals in the department, and reflect on their own development journeys as they share insights with others. Perhaps the most meaningful feedback we’ve received are from those who have shared that the program offers a bright spot, and a way to remain connected to our people and culture throughout the challenging times of the COVID-19 pandemic.

With each cohort we launch, we receive greater interest in participation. As we look ahead to future cohorts, we are focused on considerations for scaling our offering without losing the element of personalization that is so important to cultivating meaningful mentoring relationships.

Caitlin Cronk, Director IT Strategy and Planning, NYU Langone Health

Debbie Hernberg, IT Special Projects, NYU Langone Health