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"FORTUNE &amp;#8212; Dear Annie: I am a team leader at a company that has started encouraging everyone at my level to mentor at least one or two people below us. The point is to identify those with the potential to move up and guide them toward getting the right skills and experience. We can choose our own mentees, rather than having them assigned to us, but we do have to report periodically on how it\u2019s going. In fact, \u201Ctalent development\u201D is now a big chunk of what determines our bonuses.\nAll well and good, but I\u2019m so busy already that I really worry about whether I have the time to do this on top of everything else. It might help if there were some specific benchmarks for what mentors are supposed to do, exactly, but that\u2019s being left up to us, too. Can I be any good at this in, say, 30 minutes a week? Do you or your readers have any suggestions for me? \u2014 Overbooked\nDear O.: Your employer\u2019s mentoring push sounds unusually vague, but maybe that\u2019s a good thing. After all, if there are no benchmarks, you can\u2019t be accused of not sticking to them. On the other hand, the lack of specific expectations may be adding to your anxiety about whether you have time for this &amp;#8212; which, by the way, is far from unusual. Notes Beth N. Carvin, whose human resources consulting firm Nobscot designs formal mentoring programs for big companies, \u201CIt\u2019s very common for people\u2019s first reaction to be \u2018I don\u2019t have the time\u2019 when they\u2019re asked to be mentors.\u201D\nMORE:\u00A0Red state, blue state: Where Detroit can (and can&amp;#8217;t) sell cars\nAnd no wonder. Bill Rosenthal, CEO of communications coaching company Communispond, says that the most effective mentors do all or most of the things on this checklist:\n\nKeep mentees current on what\u2019s happening in the company and in its competitive environment;\nParticipate in mentees\u2019 performance reviews \u201Cor at least provide input\u201D;\nShowcase the mentee\u2019s accomplishments to higher-ups;\nHelp promising mentees consider \u201Call the available development opportunities in the company, like job rotation, work on cross-functional teams, stretch assignments, and so on\u201D;\nArrange for help to plug any skills gaps, including training from in-house or outside sources; and\nStep in to mediate when there\u2019s a problem &amp;#8212; \u201Cwhen, for example, there\u2019s a conflict when a fast-tracked mentee is reporting to an executive who\u2019d prefer a more experienced person in the job.\u201D\n\nIt\u2019s a lot to take on, but according to Rosenthal, much of it can be done in \u201Csmall bits of time\u201D that fit in around your current schedule. \u201CYou can be highly successful at this by having frequent and focused meetings, or even phone calls\u201D with your mentee, he says. It takes practice, but the experience may make you a better all-around team leader. \u201CMentoring or coaching people is really just a more concentrated form of what good managers do anyway.\u201D\nSomething else that might make the task seem less daunting is that \u201Cfor a mentoring relationship to work, it has to be reciprocal,\u201D Rosenthal observes. The person you\u2019re mentoring has to do at least half the work\u201D of nurturing his or her own career.\nMoreover, Nobscot&amp;#8217;s\u00A0Carvin says that, in interviews with mentors at her client companies, many initially reluctant mentors express surprise at how much they end up getting from the deal. \u201CWorking with a mentee lets you see business issues through a different lens,\u201D Carvin says. \u201CIf you\u2019re mentoring someone in a different part of the company, it gives you another pair of eyes there, which can give you information that helps you succeed at your own job. A mentee\u2019s point of view can sometimes help you understand your own team\u2019s concerns, too.\u201D\nMORE:\u00A0Go ahead, bash your boss on Facebook\nAnother thought, particularly relevant since you\u2019re allowed to choose your own mentees: Carvin\u2019s firm two years ago launched a Mentor of the Year contest, wherein the nominees are selected by their proteges. The 2012 winner, Samantha Stovall, is a program manager in United Technologies\u2019 \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tUTX\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t aerospace systems division. Stovall says she learns as much from her mentees as they learn from her, but \u201Cthe chemistry has to be right. It just isn\u2019t there in all mentorships. If it doesn\u2019t click, find someone it does click with.\u201D\nGood luck!\nTalkback: If you\u2019re a mentor, what do you get out of the experience? How much time do you find it takes? Leave a comment below."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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