Mentoring

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What is it?

Mentoring--from the Greek word meaning enduring--is defined as a sustained relationship between one individual and another. Through continued involvement, the mentor offers support, guidance, and assistance as the mentee goes through a difficult period, faces new challenges, or works to correct earlier problems.

Key Skills for Mentors

• Establishing rapport and trust.
• Listening.
• Ability to question and probe appropriately.
• Being open about ones self.
• Ability to challenge mentees as appropriate.
• Knowing Where the boundaries are.
• Ability to summarise frequency.
• Acting in a way which is consistent with your values.

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Practicalities of Mentoring Sessions.

In each session, you need to establish a framework. This is a useful guide:

At the beginning:

• How long have we got today?
• What rules do we agree about confidentiality?

For the substance of the session:

• Content: What specific aspects are we going to work on?
• What would you like to have achieved by the end of the session?
• How would you like to work on that?
• What's happened since the last time we met?

At the end:

• The relationship: How is is it going between us? - What am I doing that's helpful?
• What could I do differently that might help more?
• How useful has this been today?

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Giving Feedback.

• Put the emphasis on the positive.
• Own your own opinion. - say "I think"; don't take refuge in 'people think'.
• Focus on specifics, not vague generalisations.
• Don't compare with others.
• Describe the impact of behaviour and don't be afraid to talk about the impcat of the mentee's behaviour on you:

If there are problems, suggest what you would specifically prefer to see and offer useful suggestions for preventing similar things happening in future.

"I don't feel that first sentence in your report works because there was far too much information in it for people to take in. Why don't you re-do it with half the content so that people can absorb the main points first?"

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Advice on finding a suitable Mentor

These are some questions you might like to consider when looking for a mentor:

• What support / help might I get from a mentor which is different to what I get from my line manager and colleagues?
• What previous experiences have I had of being mentored or anything similar which will give me some pointers to what I might be looking for in a mentor?
• What kinds of experience and skills am I looking for in a mentor?
• Do I want someone working in the same field as me or would it be useful to have someone from a different field who might bring a new perspective?
• How important is it that my mentor is more experienced than me?
• Do I want someone who is skilled at questioning / challenging me?
• Do they need to live/work close to me or am I prepared to travel?
• What kind of issues might I want to bring to a mentoring session?
• How often would I want to meet up?

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How can this website help?

This site contains search facilities to help you find a suitable Mentor or someone who is available for short shadowing sessions based on your own individual learning needs. This facility is only open to registered members, but all visitors may find the discussion forums to be a valuable and interesting source of information based on other users experiences.