Why Mentoring Matters in Professional Service Firms?

Why Mentoring Matters in a Hypercompetitive World.
By: DeLong, Thomas J., Gabarro, John J., Lees, Robert J.,
Harvard Business Review,
Jan 2008, Vol. 86, Issue 1

Today's professional service firms (PSFs) are so busy making money that they've lost the art of making talent

our research reveals that 67% to 85% of all the professionals in PSFs have an extreme need to achieve.

The truth is that in today's PSFs, with their limited resources, associates can no longer just expect to be assigned a mentor; they also have to learn how to attract one.


One particularly interesting approach developed at McKinsey & Company is to encourage associates to "build [their] own McKinsey." members of the firm are counseled to seek out the subordinates, peers, and partners toward whom they naturally gravitate because of mutual chemistry, interests, and goals.

A wise leader told the group that only by supporting one another could they be competitive (in the market place). He created team metrics that encouraged them to work together not against one another.


More than any other type of organization, PSFs live and die by their intellectual capital. If you fail to nurture this talent, you will lose the heart and soul of your firm, as well as the very people you recruited to give you an edge in a hypercompetitive world.