The recession caused almost every company in America to downsize, right-size, furlough, reduce benefits, cut expenses to the bone and basically, white knuckle it until things got better. Although the recession seems to be lifting, managers are still afraid to loosen their grip, and rightly so.

The experience was traumatic for everyone. Between the survivor’s guilt and being asked to do more with much less to keep the business afloat, the best and the brightest are re-evaluating their options. At the beginning of the year, the Department of Labor noticed a new trend. More people were quitting their jobs than were being laid off.

A recent report published by Watson Wyatt Worldwide affirms that top performers are increasingly dissatisfied with their jobs. They are choosing to leave for better working conditions, opportunities and resources.  To keep the best and brightest stars of your organization, you are going to need to create a new value proposition for them. As the economy improves, employees will need to see that their future with your company will improve as well.

One effective strategy is a comprehensive professional mentoring program that will help them through the transition; concretely demonstrate your commitment to their professional growth, ensure a lower turnover rate and greater job satisfaction. To be successful the program should be structured, begin with training that prepares both mentoring partners to make the most of the relationship and consistent support from senior management.

Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal (http://tinyurl.com/34eh2pn) reported that since February, more employees voluntarily quit their jobs than were laid off. This is the first time this has happened since the recession began, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics which previously recorded more layoffs than resignations for 15 straight months.

Prior to that, the average number of people voluntarily leaving their jobs per month had been about 2.7 million. In October 2008, the average number dropped to 1.72 million. This March, it bumped up to 1.87 million.

If this is the start of a new trend, and the number of employees quitting continues to grow, what could it mean for businesses across the nation? Could a solid mentoring program help to stem the tide and help the talent within step up to fill the void? We believe the answer is YES!

Recruiters and human-resource experts interviewed by the WSJ say the increase in employees giving notice is being caused by two things. First, the natural turnover of employees leaving to advance their careers didn’t occur during the recession because jobs were so scarce. Workers were waiting for the job market to improve before making a move to better jobs.

The second thing that may be making it harder for companies to retain employees is the effect of the heavy cost-cutting and downsizing on workers’ morale that occurred over the past two years. WSJ reported the results of a survey conducted by the Conference Board, a management research organization. A drop in job fulfillment was found to be the result of workers being less satisfied with wages and less interested in work. In 2009, 34.6% of workers were satisfied with their wages, down more than seven percentage points from 1987. About 51% in 2009 said they were interested in work, down 19 percentage points from 1987.

We believe that when people see a path to the future that benefits them, their careers and their families, they will take action to move toward that future. A strong mentoring program shows employees that the company is as interested in their future as they are. It provides a support structure, the opportunity to try new things, learn new things and broaden the employee’s network within the organization.

Disillusioned workers may not embrace the idea of participating in a mentoring program until they begin to see the results and a sustained commitment from management. Buy-in from upper management, training to provide a solid foundation for mentors and mentees to get off on the right foot, and support and coaching for the duration of the program will increase success.

Whenever I make a presentation, someone in the audience asks if there is a difference between mentoring, coaching, and counseling. Though the skills used for each are similar – asking reflective questions, active listening, summarizing, observing patterns, challenging assumptions, and providing support – they are fundamentally very different.

Here are some distinctions we use:

Mentoring– a developmental relationship between a more experienced “mentor” and a less experienced partner that typically involves the sharing of advice, resources and support for reaching specific goals. The mentor is experienced in a particular domain and shares that experience while bringing the protégé up the ranks.  It is a partnership between the two. Ideally, the protégé leads the relationship by asking for guidance and support. The relationship can occur in a formalized program or between two people who agree between them to work together for a period of time. In our work, the mentors and protégés work for the same company or belong to the same professional organization.

Coaching – a method of professional development that can be provided by a supervisor or a paid professional to attain a certain work behavior that will improve leadership, accountability, teamwork, sales, communication, goal setting, strategic planning and more. It can be provided in a number of ways, including one-on-one, group sessions and large scale organizational work. Business coaches often specialize in a specific practice area such as executive coaching, corporate coaching, small business and leadership coaching. A good business coach does not need to have specific business expertise and experience in the same field as the person being coached.

Counseling – counselors are professionals who are trained to diagnose and help a client with emotional problems, resolving issues from the past or a dysfunction. From time to time, a mentor or coach may find it useful to recommend counseling to a client or protégé.

The United States Senate recently passed a resolution designating January 2010 as National Mentoring Month (http://www.nationalmentoringmonth.org/news_events/pressreleases/senateresolution2010/). It was intended to cast a spotlight on the need for youth mentors throughout the United States. Though Odyssey Mentoring is dedicated to professional mentoring, our roots are in youth mentoring.

Throughout the 1990’s I was a founder, volunteer and later executive director for the New Mexico Youth at Risk Foundation. My passion was bringing quality mentoring programs to at-risk middle school students.  Our programs allowed hundreds of young people to transform their lives with the guidance and commitment of amazing adults who volunteered their time. My job included enrolling the adults, youth and other volunteers, providing the mentor training for the adults and leading the weekly workshops for them. I also served as a mentor in several of our programs.  These programs were my training ground.

The most important thing I learned about mentoring is that it is not a “monkey see, monkey do” process. It is a powerful relationship between two people who are both committed to the mentee’s goals for his or her life. The best mentors learn how to ask questions that make their protege think about what they are doing or facing in new ways that support positive choices and creative problem-solving.

One of my mentee’s, Claudia, was an 7th grader with failing grades. She was bright, energetic and from a family that was in shambles. Her parents fought with each other constantly and she fought bitterly with her older sister just as frequently. They lived in a Habitat for Humanity house, but didn’t have the resources to maintain it. The middle school she attended was a recruiting ground for the local gangs. And Claudia was a chatterbox who could not sit still or be quiet in class. Her sister had been in our program the previous year.

After I made my presentation to 300 students, 25 applied for our mentoring program, Claudia included. She was one of the most courageous young people I have ever met. She was willing to work on her problems with the course leader, in front of everyone. Her sister was volunteering that day and when the seriousness of their sibling rivalry came to light, he brought them both to the front of the room. They literally transformed before our eyes. Later, after their mother’s suicide attempt, they were able to rely on each other and survive the trauma together.

But her grades continued to flounder. One day we were working on what goals she could have for the rest of the program and she said she wanted to make B’s instead of D’s and F’s. When I asked her what she thought it would take, she offered that perhaps her teachers might allow her to make up all of the failing work since the beginning of the year. It was December. When I asked her what would have to happen for her teachers to allow that, she asked if I would meet with them. For a moment I thought about doing that and then a light went off and I said, “What do you think would happen if you asked them?”

It was quite a conversation. She was unsure and afraid. Ultimately she agreed to meet with her teachers by herself, apologize for her behavior in class and for not completing her assignments. Her teachers were amazing. They agreed, but only if she would sign a contract that said this was her last chance. If she did not complete the work, she could never again expect her teachers to make an allowance or accommodation for her. She signed it. Then I took on a project to raise the most money I had ever raised for the foundation and we supported each other.

Claudia completed every assignment, the do-overs and her current work on time and on her own. She never had another behavioral referral. She raised her GPA to a 3.2. She went out for the basketball team and performed in the school talent show. And I met my fund-raising target. We  stretched each other, we laughed a lot and cried some. There were days when neither one of us knew what our next step should be. We struggled, we made mistakes, and we succeeded. It was worth every minute of it.

In a professional setting, the issues that a mentee/protege address may be very different than those of an at-risk youth. But the principles are the same and the transformation is the same. The only difference is the starting point.

Mentoring is an interactive, dynamic and empowering relationship. Even when a mentor is highly skilled with years of experience, it doesn’t mean they know how to teach another to think the way experience taught them. Yet, the ability to do just that is what makes mentoring so powerful.

When I was in my early thirties, I had an opportunity to change careers. I made the move from public information officer of a chamber of commerce to marketing professional services for architects and engineers. The basic skills were the same: ability to network productively, write persuasively, and research opportunities.

The dilemma: I did not know anything about the built environment and how firms marketed. I had never seen a written proposal for any kind of engineering, I had no idea what kind of work the different disciplines performed, and I didn’t know how architects, engineers and their clients thought about their work, their business and the future.

One of my committee chairs, an architect named Robert Turner, believed I could make the switch and succeed. He offered to be my mentor. To prepare for the job interview, he allowed me to spend hours going through his firm’s marketing files and learning what comprised a successful proposal, seeing what good marketing materials for the built environment looked like and the kinds of messages that communicated. He talked with me about local market conditions and the roles of the different players in our market. His generous mentoring allowed me to create new ways of viewing the world, the industry and in many ways, the new me. I learned to think strategically about business development and marketing.

I got the job and went on to become a very successful business development director for three engineering firms working in a continuous joint venture during the economic downturn of the eighties. None of the principles of these three firms had any experience marketing their services. Until the economic downturn, waiting for the phone to ring had been sufficient. In less than three years, I helped them bring in more than fifty million dollars in construction projects. More than 130 employees kept their jobs and saw their careers grow.

Turner remained a mentor, friend, client and resource over the following decade. He continuously shared his network with me, introducing me to people and organizations that could help me. He was a natural mentor.

We have been out of touch for a number of years, but the difference his mentoring made in my career will never be forgotten. Teaching others to give the gift he gave to me is the best way I know to honor my mentor and friend.