Have you mentored - or thought about mentoring - a colleague? You'll find that mentoring is different from managing. Think of managing as providing direction to accomplish the goals of your department, while mentoring helps less savvy employees gain insights, style, and awareness primarily in the areas of personal skills, organizational dynamics, and career strategy.

The foundation to successful mentoring is a partnership between a willing mentor and protégé. Mentors provide others with guidance and direction that their managers may not have the time or inclination to provide. There is a lot of satisfaction in being a mentor, especially when you can see the fruits of your counsel.

You can be extremely effective in helping someone less savvy navigate organizational and interpersonal concerns. You don't need to have an official mentoring program in place within your organization in order to become a mentor. It's best, however, to mentor those who are not your direct reports - or their direct reports - so that the formality of potentially sticky reporting issues doesn't get in the way of the informality of the mentoring dynamic.

You can stretch your protégé's thinking, challenge assumptions, and even facilitate change where appropriate. Starting today, you can provide wisdom to someone who you feel has potential, and this person will benefit greatly from your direction.

Success Factors

First and most important, you need to want to mentor others. It takes time, patience, and a genuine interest in helping others. If you aren't passionate about this and willing to make a commitment - especially given our time-compressed workdays - then mentoring isn't for you.

In my June column, I discussed how to be a good protégé. Here are the same best practices, from the perspective of a mentor:

• Be a good navigator. Help your protégé clarify and articulate the goals that s/he wants to accomplish. Often, the first issue that arises isn't the most important or compelling one to focus on, so be prepared to dig a little deeper.
• Honor your commitment. Keep your appointments with your protégé as you would any other important appointment during your week. 
• Be a great listener. One of the missing pieces in today's workplace is listening. Learn how to listen proactively - and to "listen between the lines." ‰
• Ask great questions. A great mentor asks the compelling questions that allow your protégé to think about things from a different perspective, and can lead to those very rewarding "aha" moments.
• Set boundaries. Make sure that your mentoring relationship doesn't become one of co-dependency. The idea is to provide your protégé with the opportunity to become self-empowered, not dependent on you. 
•  Maintain accountability. Lack of accountability is rampant in the workplace. Hold your protégé accountable to complete what s/he has committed to. This doesn't mean that you need to be rigid; rather, it's about teaching the importance of responsibility by example.
• Celebrate the accomplishments. Too often we complete massive quantities of work without stopping to appreciate what we've achieved. Make sure you stop and acknowledge the milestones that your protégé has reached.

One of the "dirty little secrets" about mentoring is that by becoming good mentors, we become better managers. We develop into better listeners, with greater empathy and awareness of what people need in order to achieve their next level of success.

Lisa Aldisert is a New York City-based management consultant and professional speaker specializing in strategic business growth and leadership development. Her latest book is Valuing People: How Human Capital Can Be Your Strongest Asset. You can e-mail her at lisa@businessgrowth.com or visit her Web site at www.businessgrowthcenter.com.