Navigating the politics, unspoken rules, and challenges of the workplace is tough. So instead of going it alone, many turn to mentors for guidance. Mentors can be friends, relatives, co-workers, teachers, or anyone else whom you trust and admire. Lois Zachary, author of "The Mentor's Guide" defines mentoring as "a reciprocal learning relationship between two (or more) individuals who work collaboratively toward a mutually defined goal of developing the mentee's skills, abilities, knowledge and/or thinking."

Most often, a mentor is a more experienced or older person who acts as an advisor, role model, coach, supporter, challenger, and guide. For example, a young scientist may turn to a long-time veteran to help her explore different career paths or to teach her how to manage a difficult project. Sometimes, a mentor and mentee might just meet informally for lunch and discuss personal issues such as how to deal with long hours and a demanding home life.

It's up to the two participants to set the boundaries and rules for the relationship, as well as the time commitment involved. And even though whom you choose to be your mentor depends on your unique needs and goals, the guidelines for a rewarding relationship remain the same. The two key concepts of mentoring, says Zachary, are learning and relationship. "Learning is really the purpose, the process and the product of a mentoring relationship. In order for the relationship to be a true partnership the relationship must continuously be nurtured; otherwise, the learning process is undermined."

Mentoring is a two-way street, and the benefits for both the mentor and mentee can be plentiful. For the mentee, it can stimulate more informed action, result in more job satisfaction, and carry over into personal and professional relationships, explains Zachary. "Mentoring can help an individual manage responsibilities more effectively, feel more connected to the organization, become more knowledgeable about the organization. It also provides welcome supports to meet challenges growth and development."

In order to get the mentoring relationship off on the right foot, Zachary suggests some preparation for the mentee. That person should:

· Reflect on your purpose.
· Be clear about your own goals and objectives.
· Consider what it is you are willing to contribute to the relationship.
· Be willing to candidly share your needs, expectations and limits.
· Identify the characteristics you are looking for in a mentor or protégé.
· Gauge interest and compatibility.
· Continuously work at establishing, building and maintaining a relationship.

"When self-preparation is ignored, more often than not, the results are dissatisfaction with the outcome or derailment of the relationship," warns Zachary.

A successful mentoring relationship takes work, patience, and open communication. Both parties need to define goals and expectations early on and continually track progress to make sure that those goals are being met. When seeking a mentor, it's important to look for someone with similar values, experience, and the willingness to devote time to the relationship. Once those criteria are met, a mutually beneficial relationship can take root.

The Many Faces of Mentoring
Valerie Kuck has been a member of the tech staff at Bell Labs in Murray Hills, NJ, "forever." Not only is she extremely involved in mentoring, but last year, she won the ACS Award for Encouraging Women into Careers in the Chemical Sciences. Kuck was fortunate enough to have several male mentors during her career whose efforts encouraged her to keep going in her endeavors, gave honest advice, and pointed out research areas that she should pursue. "They were individuals who were sincerely interested in my welfare and were very frank with me," she says.

Now, when Kuck meets young people-especially women who are struggling to balance work and family - she "feels compelled" to help them. Last year, a young woman stopped by Kuck's office seeking advice about what direction to go in her career. Kuck was appalled to find out that this woman had never even thought about going to graduate school and no one had bothered suggesting it to her. Soon after, Kuck investigated some of the schools that would be a good fit for this mentee, based on her skills, aspirations, and career path. And as it turns out, that young woman ended up going to graduate school in a field that she found challenging: biological applications of polymer materials.

Over the years, Kuck has helped hundreds of students and new employees by answering their career questions and listening to their concerns. She says that when you are looking for a mentor, you should seek someone out who gives you honest advice and someone that you can strike up a relationship with. Kuck also recommends having several mentors to meet different needs. "I don't think you should just have one mentor; you may need different people for different things and the demands on people these days are so high that few can afford to be someone's fulltime mentor," she says.

Mentoring and Managing

As a senior chemist and then Laboratory Manager for the Baytown Plastics Laboratory of

Bayer Corporation in Baytown Texas, Amber Hinkle started mentoring informally, not as a part of any company program. Now she mentors four of her employees and views this as an important part of her job. "Helping employees to find the best in themselves and giving them opportunities to develop makes them more productive and also more likely to be a long term employee," she says.

Like Kuck, Hinkle also had "excellent mentors" along the way and says that this is her way of paying them back. "My mentees have been very happy with our mentoring relationship and trust me enough to discuss issues that do not directly pertain to this job, i.e. when they are looking at jobs outside of the company as well. This give and take has proven very beneficial to myself and to them. In fact, I attribute at least some of their continued success and promotions to the mentoring that I have been able to provide."

Kuck emphasizes that the key to a successful mentoring relationship is the ability to be a good listener. "You just need to really just listen and figure out what the other person's value system is. Then you can help by showing them that there might be a conflict between what their value system is and what they really want. They may disagree with you initially, but all of a sudden, it might become apparent to them. You have to really listen to what their personal motivators are."

A True Mentoring Success Story
Victor Vandell, a staff scientist at Delaware-based Hercules, is something of a mentoring poster-child. His first experience with mentoring was during his undergraduate years at Chicago State University. Although he started off doing well in school, he soon began finding it difficult balancing extracurricular activities and academics. Observing that Vandell was struggling, one of his chemistry professors, Dr. Joseph Young, approached him and asked if he wanted guidance. Young and another professor, Dr. Susan Ford gave Vandell a much needed reality check, he says. "If it wasn't for them I may have just barely gotten out of there with a Bachelors, he says. "They took me under their wings, kept me in line, and didn't sugar coat things." Young and Ford gave Vandell the opportunity to work in their labs and suggested that he join the chemistry club. "[Young] realized my potential but somewhere along the line saw that I had lost focus," explains Vandell. "He worked with me and helped turn that light back on."

After that experience, Vandell saw the incredible value of mentoring and began actively seeking out mentors when he went to graduate school at Louisiana State University. One professor, Dr. Willie May, told Vandell about the American Chemical Society and encouraged him to join the Minority Affairs Committee and the Younger Chemists Committee. "Dr. May instructed me in a lot of the political aspects of being a chemist-about being involved with committed and organizations. He opened my eyes to that realm of the career path."

Vandell points out that for the mentor/mentee relationship to succeed, It's important to choose a mentor that you identify with. "Just because someone volunteers to be a mentor, doesn't mean that they will be able to assist you. It's important to find someone that you share values with and can relate to, he says.

When Vandell graduated with a Ph.D in chemistry from Louisiana State, he went to work for Hercules as a staff scientist. There, he met Dr. Charles Potter, a senior chemist and one of Vandell's mentors. As a long-time Hercules employee, Potter "had an inside line on what is going on with the company past and present," says Vandell. They meet for about an hour every couple of weeks and Potter gives Vandell an excellent perspective on the executive-level decision making that's going on in the company that might affect him.

Not only is Vandell a long-time mentee, he has also been a mentor since he started graduate school." I go out of my way to identify undergraduates that need a little guidance. I use my own personal experience to help them. I use my past to show them how I struggled in the beginning and how far it's help me get."

No matter what side of the mentoring relationship one is on, one thing is certain: Mentors and mentees alike have found that being a part of this symbiotic relationship is invaluable, not just in the workplace, but in life.