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Those of us who have spent much of our working lives in business stand at the crossroads of a unique opportunity. With the economic tailspin receiving constant media coverage, we understand the enormity of not only hanging on to the economic life raft, but also propelling our organizations into the future by mentoring organization leaders.

You may notice several businesses within your community that never seem to have recruiting or retention problems. These businesses have been around for generations and are an integral part of the community. The businesses come in all sizes and serve multifarious markets. If you take the time to study these businesses in detail, you will find one common theme among them: each business has a mentor who is the centrifuge of the operation.

Mentors are found at all levels of a successful business operation. They can be CEOs, department heads, human resource specialists, or hourly team members. The mentors come from varied career paths and certainly disparate demographic backgrounds. Each mentor has one focus in common, and that is to help others within the organization achieve success.

Mentors teach employees and associates basic occupational skills, while delving outside of work parameters to provide guidance, advice, and encouragement on a number of life issues. They create a learning environment by instilling a common work ethic and open lines of communication. They celebrate the individual achievements of those whom they lead. In essence, mentors shine the spotlight for others to find their respective paths.

By creating and sustaining mentors within your business operation, you will develop effective supervisors, better managers, and future organization leaders. Mentoring ensures a team member carousel where nobody wants to get off the ride. Loyal team members reduce the turnover rate, which is an unheralded costly item on the income statement. Higher productivity leads to lower labor costs. The financial benefits of a mentoring program are worth the initial costs.

The assiduous development of a mentoring program within your organization is a simple process when following the following five steps, each presented in an abridged version.

Step One

Seek out those in your business who have the potential to become mentors. These gems love to share their expertise and life experience with other people. They compassionately transfer the joy of becoming involved in a mentoring program.

Step Two

Define success. Mentors teach

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