I saw a link that caught my eye, “Mentoring Is No Longer The Company’s Responsibility,” by Maynard Webb, who I recall as a C-level executive at eBay. The meat of his observation is this:

The way mentoring is approached inside companies is somewhat misguided. Mentoring takes place too infrequently, only once or twice a year, and at specified times, such as during performance reviews. Most people don’t feel receptive and open at a time when their basic economic needs are at stake. It’s best to discuss development and future goals in a different zone, when people are thinking about the future as opposed to being judged for the past.

Everywhere I go, every company and group where I speak, I ask how many people have had significant coaching. Most hands go up. Then I ask if they think that corporate America does mentoring well. You know how many hands generally go up? Zero.

I can’t fault companies for doing a bad job of this. With reduced employee tenure and company longevity, there’s no longer an opportunity to receive years of coaching from one boss. Now, a shift away from internal coaching is happening, exacerbated by the fact that location matters less and less as more people work remotely. More workers are turning to entrepreneurship (either starting their own companies or becoming freelancers). Also, mentoring seldom exists at under-resourced, fast-paced startups.

We must acknowledge that in the age of entrepreneurship, the onus of personal and professional development is on the individual, not on the company.

There is a kind of Tom Friedman “accept the new world order, or die” tone to this, one that accedes to the managerial slippage in U.S. (or perhaps Western) corporations, which are abrogating their responsibilities and breaking the social contract, once again.

However, I think Webb’s comments are pragmatic, and I also believe that the average worker bees are trying to loosen the management connection at their workplace just as fast as the corporation is balking from its historical obligation to grow its employees. There is a real conflict in being mentored by the person who is responsible for your annual review and compensation. It’s too incestuous to be a good context for deep mentoring.

Thankfully, in the cooperative-style work in the emergent business, the strong tie between individuals and their managers might transition into a handful weaker connections: someone to help you grow your technical skills, another person to help you navigate the opportunities within the company, someone who leads trusted colleagues on various projects to give direct feedback on work results, someone to champion you and get you a raise in-house, and yet another someone to mentor you, and maybe open doors elsewhere. Note that this last role doesn’t have to be filled by someone within the company, as is implied by Webb’s argument. Since the company is standing down from its traditional role in guiding and growing the individual, we have to find our own mentors.

Webb has founded a new company, Everwise, to help fill that need. The premise is to create a mentoring “placeform” (marketplace + platform = placeform) to connect “professionals with the people and insights that can help them succeed at every stage of their career.” Everwise pairs up mentors — “experienced operating executives” — and protégés using who-knows-what kind of data analysis, plus a team of “expert relationship managers” who help in the matchmaking. Companies — like Paypal and Insight — have signed up with Everwise, and support the placeform.

My use of scare quotes is not intended to be ironic, or to cast doubts: I am just indicating that at this point I don’t really understand how they do what they do. That doesn’t mean I don’t think it can be done. I do. I think I need to see the “delightful software”  that mediates in the mentorship. More to follow.