Ann Otero | Intel | New Mexico | Lory Lanese

“This is definitely not a special program for special people,” says Lory Lanese, Intel’s mentor champion in New Mexico. Nor is the company’s mentoring-with-a-difference approach all about face time and one-on-one counseling. Instead, Intel’s program uses an intranet and e-mail to perform the matchmaking, creating relationships that stretch across state lines and national boundaries. That enables Intel to spread best practices quickly throughout the far-flung organization. Finally, Intel uses written contracts and tight deadlines to make sure that its mentoring program gets results — fast.

The New Mexico team didn’t want mentoring to be about pushing a few people up the corporate ladder. Instead, the program’s success would hinge on how well knowledge was passed along to a new generation. That meant rethinking how mentors and “partners,” or those looking to be mentored, were paired up, and then outlining in detail what they should do once they were in a mentoring relationship.

Go back to Ann Otero, for example. Most companies wouldn’t con-sider her as a mentor. But when she needed help with leadership and time management, she signed up for a mentor who could teach her new skills. She was teamed up with a senior manager. After working with her mentor, Otero says that she now has enough leadership know-how to feel comfortable speaking up in the high-level meetings that she sits in on.