William C. Tauber has
something in common
with 16th century Spanish explorer Juan Ponce
de Leon: Both have searched
for the fountain of youth.
Ponce de Leon, according to
legend, came to America
searching for the revitalizing
waters of an actual fountain.
Tauber is in pursuit of a different type of fountain, one that
draws on the energy of young
businesspeople.
The founder and CEO of
Progressive Lighting & Energy
Solutions Inc., which posted
2007 revenue of $12 million,
has made it a point to build his
business around young
employees. Tauber believes
that a young work force is an
aggressive, enthusiastic work
force with vision, provided
that you train them in the
ways of your company.
Smart Business spoke with
Tauber about how to build
your own fountain of youth to
grow your business.
Q. What are the keys to
developing a successful
mentoring program?
You have to be committed to
it. It’s not just an idea where
someone just says, ‘I’m going
to be a mentor.’ Whether you
make it an informal practice
or a formal program, you have
to be committed to it. While I
make it a committed program,
I do it in kind of an informal
manner. I’ve broken it out into
five categories.
One of them is what I call
delivered learning. It’s actually
what I try to do to promote
intentional learning, which is
really a method I use for
coaching, instruction, advising.
I actually talk to the people,
and I try to create a learning
lesson forum because every
project we get into is really
meant to be a learning
process.
The second part is failure
and success. One of the things
I learned a long time ago is
that the learning process
comes with failure. You don’t
learn anything by doing it right
the first time.
If you did it right the first
time, you got lucky. I really put
a lot of my teaching in storytelling. I show them where I
did it wrong in the past.
The third part is I try
to make it personal. I try
to show them that they
can adapt this learning
on their own. Mentors
who talk about themselves and their experiences really establish a
rapport with their
employees.
My fourth point is
development over time.
It’s a maturation
process. When mentoring works, it’s really tapping into a continuous
learning cycle. It’s not an
event; it’s a cycle or a
stream of different
events. Once your people understand their
place, they can use the same
stories to bring up the next
person in line.
My last point is that mentoring is really a joint venture.
It’s really sharing in responsibilities. I learn, as well, so
they share their stories back
with me.
