Naval District Washington completed its third mentor-protege yearlong partnership as part of the Facilitated Mentoring Strategy (FMS) program, May 23.

The program came to fruition as a result of a survey conducted by Commander, Navy Installations Command (CNIC) Fleet and Family Readiness (FFR) leadership to assess any skill gaps between FFR leadership and employees. The survey suggested the importance of mentoring front-line employees to lessen the gap that might be contributing to a lack of qualified FFR-focused managers to compete for FFR leadership positions.

FMS is a yearlong course intended to develop leaders at every level of the organization. The facilitated strategy provides a structure and series of processes designed to create effective mentoring relationships, guide the desired behavior change of those involved, and evaluate the results for proteges, mentors, and the organization.

"We were honored to have Adm. Yancy Lindsey present certificates to the proteges and mentors with senior leadership and protege supervisors looking on," said Joanne Mackinnon, NDW FFR training performance and improvement.

The graduating class had 17 mentor-protege pairs, and for the 2016 strategy FFR will have 29.

"As workforce development is vital to the success of every organization, we find that mentoring plays a vital role," said Mackinnon. "The Navy demonstrates investment in their staff through NDW's Mentoring Strategy -- which assists in increasing workforce skills and morale, narrowing the knowledge-skill gap, attracting and retaining the best and brightest talent in an extremely competitive marketplace, reducing turnover and developing future FFR leaders at every level."

The mentors and proteges and mentors drew a yearlong mentoring action plan, including short and long term goals and the steps the protege will take to achieve those goals.

"Participating on this program opened up a line of communication at the operation level from the regional standpoint," said Shyla Barnes, Navy Gateway Inn and Suites regional operations manager. "My protege is a maintenance supervisor at Navy Gateway Inn and Suites (NGIS) Bethesda so it got me back into the [on-field] operations side of things."

"I was able to relate with my protege; since I have the operational experience, I had the opportunity to help him get more experience and knowledge on how file reports -- relating on policy and instruction to giving him an overview on how we do things and why we do things at NGIS," added Mackinnon.

The yearlong program begins and ends each March, and is intended for employees working under the scope of FFR.

NDW began piloting the Mentoring Strategy for Commander, Navy Installations Command in 2013. After the pilot's success, the command is heading into its fourth iteration and the Mentoring Strategy is being promoted enterprise-wide.

For more information employees can visit the FFR Facilitated Mentoring Strategy Website at http://g2.cnic.navy.mil/TSCNRNDW/N9/N94/N947/Mentor/.

For more information, visit http://www.navy.mil/, http://www.facebook.com/usnavy/, or http://www.twitter.com/usnavy/.

For more news from Naval District Washington, visit http://www.navy.mil/.