亲爱的安妮：过去两年半我一直很幸运。因为我从大学毕业后获得的第一份工作就让我在公司里遇到了一位出色的导师。她比我高好几个级别，我们每个月至少见两次面，一起共进午餐、喝杯咖啡，有时候只是简单的聊聊天。这些会面令人愉快，她的建议和真知灼见也帮我获得了一些不错的任务分配（以及一次升职）。

    如今，随着公司开始进入中国，她将被派往中国，经营新的业务，为期一年。这项工作将非常具有挑战性，而且她的工作地点和我将有12个小时的时差，她会非常忙碌。我希望能继续获得她的指导，但我不知道是否可行？——挥手作别

    亲爱的“挥手作别”：如果一言以蔽之，我可以用IBM驻俄勒冈州比佛顿云计算高管尼基•瑞奇的话来回答你：“如果你们双方都希望维系联系，没有理由办不到。”自从十四年前瑞奇进入IBM以来，她已经辅导了约25位后辈。2008年，瑞奇被派驻亚洲八周。期间，她开始辅导雅加达一位资历尚浅的同事，两人此后一直保持紧密的联系。

    倒不是说时差绝无障碍。“印尼比这里早9个小时，因此，对她来说最佳的谈话时间或许是我坐下来和家人吃饭的时间。不然，她就得在凌晨3点给我发短信，”瑞奇说。“但这些都不是问题。我们都希望保持联系，因此我们双方都做了调整。”

    IBM在2012年最受赞赏公司榜单上排名第五。IBM打造了一种知识分享的公司文化，包括对企业导师制的强调，非常有用。蓝色巨人分布在全球各地的42.6万名员工中有约40%或者是在路上工作，或者是在遥远的只有1、2个人的办事处工作，他们很少与老板或者同事见面，因此这家公司有着丰富的远程协作经验。

    “如果双方都做出承诺，有明确的预期，距离远近真的无关紧要，”IBM驻北卡罗来纳州罗利的导师制全球主管希拉•福迪称、“除了公司的正式计划，我们也鼓励员工们在全球各地任何角落寻找导师和门徒。”她也是《巧妙的导师制：IBM通过人、知识和关系创造价值的秘密》（Intelligent Mentoring: How IBM Creates Value through People, Knowledge, and Relationships）一书的合著者。

    如何建立有效的企业远程导师机制？下面四个步骤是福迪和瑞奇给出的建议：

    1. 预先商定碰头的频率及联络的渠道。“由你俩决定是否需要正式的会谈，是每个月一次，还是每个季度一次？”福迪说。“一旦商定，应该由接受指导的人提前定好会谈的日期。如果你们打算每个季度谈一次，就要提前一整年确定远程会谈的时间。”她补充说，不排除有时突然需要联络导师，但提前时间约定时间也是“合理利用导师时间”的应有之义。

    与此同时，福迪建议：“商定你们采用什么样的通讯方式——电子邮件、即时通讯软件、网络视频，还是兼而有之？这个问题听起来很基础，但身处不同的时区互相联络时，这一点特别重要。”

    Dear Annie: For the past two and a half years, since I graduated from college and got my first real job, I've been lucky to have a terrific mentor, a couple of levels above me in the company. We get together for lunch, coffee, or just a quick chat at least twice a month, sometimes more. Not only do I really enjoy these sessions, but her advice and insights have helped me get some great assignments (and a promotion).

    Now, she's been chosen to spend a year running a new operation we are starting up in China. It will be very demanding and, on top of the 12-hour time difference between here and there, she is going to be extremely busy. I'd like to continue our relationship, but I'm wondering, how realistic is it to expect that? — Waving Good-Bye

    Dear Waving: The short answer, from Nicki Rich: "If you both want it to work, there's no reason why it can't." Rich, a cloud computing executive at IBM (IBM) in Beaverton, Ore., has worked with about 25 mentees since she started at the company 14 years ago. While on an eight-week assignment in Asia in 2008, Rich began mentoring a junior colleague in Jakarta, and the two have stayed in close touch ever since.

    That's not to say the time difference presents no challenges. "It's nine hours later here than in Indonesia, so the best time for her to talk might be when I'm sitting down to dinner with my family -- or she'll send me a text at 3 a.m.," Rich says. "But it's not a problem. We both want to maintain the relationship, so we make adjustments."

    It helps that IBM, No. 5 on this year's list of the Most Admired Companies, has built a culture of knowledge sharing, including a strong emphasis on mentoring. Since about 40% of Big Blue's 426,000 employees worldwide are virtual or mobile -- meaning they work from the road, or from one-or-two-person outposts where they rarely meet bosses or colleagues in person -- the company has a wealth of experience with long-distance collaboration.

    "If there's a commitment from both parties, and a clear set of expectations, distance really becomes immaterial," says Sheila Forte, IBM's global chief of mentoring, based in Raleigh, N.C. and co-author of a book called Intelligent Mentoring: How IBM Creates Value through People, Knowledge, and Relationships. "In addition to our formal program, we encourage employees to seek out mentors and mentees anywhere in the world."

    Forte and Rich suggest four steps toward effective virtual mentoring:

    1. Agree upfront on how often you'll meet, and via what medium. "Decide between you whether you'll have a formal session, say, monthly or quarterly," says Forte. "Once that's been agreed on, it's up to the mentee to schedule those dates ahead of time. If you're going to speak quarterly, set up those virtual meetings for the whole year ahead." Not that you won't sometimes reach out on the spur of the moment, she adds, but making appointments well in advance is "part of using your mentor's time wisely."

    At the same time, Forte advises, "Agree on what form of communication you both want to use -- email, IM, web cam, a combination? It sounds basic, but it's especially important when you're connecting across time zones."