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Shadow Board

Love the idea of a shadow board. I have been part of a two way mentoring arrangement where an experienced new hire is paired with a junior employee - typically two years out of college having started as an intern and now an associate. The benefits to both sides is quite amazing. In my case my mentor (who is also my mentee) is a young lady whose super-power is her ability to network and make great connections across the organization. 

B is like-able, dependable and always eager to help. Not surprising she is the fountain of information about the inner workings of the organization and has an amazing Rolodex - two things any new hire in the company benefits from tremendously. And because she is so well-liked, a warm introduction from her goes a long way. It is a virtuous circle - the person she introduces me is happy to hear that they are a role model to this really nice young person, they are happy to help me out because she sent me their way. This creates an incentive for new hires to share what they know from their prior experiences and replenish the pool of shared resources from which they are drawing.

B gets to observe how someone who has been around for a while deals with real life situations that she has not been exposed to so far. She shadows me and observes how I work in teams, with customers, vendors and partners. Once a week we debrief about what we both learned. I think my young friend will get further much faster than someone who does not have the benefit of such cross-mentoring - she has a few people like me that she works with. Someone like B would be great fit for a shadow board - she could bring generational insights and her perspectives based what she learns from all of us.

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