And why do mentors take it upon themselves to cram mentee meetings into their packed appointment calendars? What piece of advice did Oliver Jost want to give to mentee Britta Grundke? It wasn’t primarily about the transfer of knowledge, according to the bank manager, who as Head of Group Compliance at Commerzbank is responsible for the prevention of money laundering and of terrorism financing, combating corruption, and compliance with the requirements of the German Securities Trading Act. He wanted to support the process of bringing more women into management positions, but he also hoped to get something out of it for himself. “This isn’t a one-way street, but rather an interaction in which I could question my own management behavior.” He rethought communication with employees, for example. “The form, the tone... Regardless of how long you are a manager, you can always pick up some meaningful suggestions for yourself.” He considers mentoring to be more “a type of sparring” than a teacher-student relationship.

“Mr. Jost was certainly capable of addressing things very directly,” recalls Grundke. Jost felt that the tandem needs to be able to handle such discussions. After all, the point is not be a mutual admiration society. Regardless of what her mentor said to her, she was free to accept or reject the criticism, which Grundke considers to be an advantage of the mentoring program. She was always able to ask, “Can this suggestion be applied to the Merck culture?” When communicating with the mentor, who, after all, doesn’t work at Merck, “I could listen to every word, then reflect over it as I went through my work routine and consider whether to apply it or not. The decision was left up to me.”

Grundke and Jost met once in each of their offices for the tandem meetings in order to get to know each other’s work environment, and then later for dinner. According to Grundke, a restaurant with its distance from day-to-day work is “the appropriate setting” for the casual dialogue. Other models are certainly plausible, as Claudia Herrlich points out. “Another tandem always went rollerblading together.”

Interested women can apply at Merck for the mentee program. “Our mentees have included women with children and women working part time,” says Herrlich. According to Grundke, they never talked about to how best reconcile the demands of a family and a career, however. The solutions here are individual and very personal.

Grundke was promoted to head a department shortly after her mentee year ended. There are 54 employees in her department, 52 of whom are men. Grundke is not through with the cross-company mentoring program just yet, however. She is taking part again in the current round, but this time as a mentor.