How Does Collabry Mentor Highly Experienced Team Members?

Often, when one envisions the mentor-mentee relationship, we picture a novice in a field being guided, supported, and encouraged by a seasoned veteran. And yet, because each of our consultants already possesses a deep well of knowledge and experience, that image doesn’t quite fit how mentoring works at Collabry. Nevertheless, we greatly value the goals of mentorship, as they align with our core values of being good to one another and helping each other lead fulfilling lives.

Recently, we’ve come up with ways to further enhance our approach to mentoring, and we have asked project manager Jeanne Bratlien to head up this initiative. With more than 20 years of experience as a collaborative leader in financial services, Jeanne loves bringing engineering, finance, and marketing teams together to have “the right conversations” to build product roadmaps, project plans, and successful business cases. Her passion for cultivating networks and fostering a strong sense of community positions her as an ideal choice to spearhead our new mentoring initiatives.

Jeanne describes three different parts of the program, which she developed:

Mentor/Mentee Onboarding

All consultants at Collabry work off-site; therefore, it can take some time for new consultants to get up to speed on our platforms, such as time-tracking software, internal communications tools, and other ways we get our work done. Collabry-savvy consultants can also help empower newcomers to embrace Collabry’s overarching mission.

Peer-to-Peer Mentoring

Jeanne is also spearheading a pilot program that will link two consultants at comparable stages in their careers into a mutually beneficial mentoring relationship. With the same level of expertise but completely different experiences, each peer can use their knowledge, insights, guidance, and support to overcome situational challenges either may face.

Circle Mentoring

When collaborating with a team as geographically dispersed as we are at Collabry, those breakthrough solutions that can come through spontaneous conversations can be harder to come by. “It can be easy to just sit and stew about a problem instead of reaching out,” says Jeanne. With circle mentoring, Collabry hopes to demarcate a time and a place to hold important conversations that allow peers to talk through issues and share advice, experiences, and knowledge in an open, collaborative way on a regular basis. While this approach is also non-hierarchical, a facilitator will be present to ensure everyone has the opportunity to listen, share, teach, and learn.

Through these three modes of mentoring, Collabry will continue its mission to help each team member overcome challenges, achieve their professional goals and do the best work possible for our clients.