Key pointsLook to your left, look to your right. Your next mentor might be next to you!
Lateral mentoring comes naturally to us and arises organically.
You are probably engaged in lateral mentoring and don’t even know it!
When you think of mentoring, what do you envision?
Most people think of mentoring as a hierarchical arrangement: Find someone one or two levels higher than you to help guide you up the work ladder. Many have also heard of peer mentoring, an intentional one-on-one mentoring of employees (or often students) at the same level. There is a different type of mentoring, often overlooked, that is equally powerful: lateral mentoring.
This form of mentorship is generally not intentional. It isn’t collaborating, deliberately working with someone to create or produce something. It isn’t a pairing of individuals. It is, instead, organic. You are likely doing it and don’t even know it. It is a form of mentorship we can engage in our whole lives, inside and outside of the work environment, and it often leads to high-impact outcomes.
Physicians engage in lateral mentoring all the time: A curbside consult, formal consult, and grand rounds often lead to lateral mentorship. How often have you stopped someone at work to ask for advice? In hospitals, physicians do this all the time. They just call it a consult.
We usually do not feel comfortable sharing our vulnerabilities with a boss or a hierarchical mentor, which makes sense because we want our standard-bearers and those opening doors to feel confident in our abilities. Trust is why a lateral mentor is so important. We need someone who isn’t our boss to whom we can say, “Hey can you give me some help with this problem?” “Can you give me some advice?”
The issue here is that we seldom acknowledge the support and guidance we receive from friends and coworkers. It just seems natural, so we don’t even realize we are engaged in lateral mentoring. We only engage when it is critical or we feel we really must ask for help. The interaction doesn’t go as far as it possibly could.
Lateral mentoring is an organic form of mentorship that allows the mentor and mentee to engage in a meaningful relationship that doesn’t have expectations attached. It is not a tit-for-tat relationship but rather a generative relationship with both parties hoping to help the other without expectation of anything in return.
Take a look to your left. Now, look right. You are likely looking at a lateral mentor!
To learn more about Lateral Mentoring, check out The Mentorship Edge, with real life examples from individuals in Innovation, tech, entrepreneurship, and founders.
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Originally Published on https://deborahheiserphd.substack.com/
