Mentoring

A process where one person helps another to make significant transitions in knowledge, work or thinking.

Mentoring is a process where one person, the mentor, helps another person, the mentee, in a variety of ways, such as:

• providing a role model for the mentee
• clarifying the mentee’s career aspirations or career paths
• being a shoulder to cry on and a confidant
• widening the mentee’s understanding of the ‘culture’ of the organisation (ie ‘the way things are done around here’)
• encouraging and motivating the mentee when the going gets tough
• helping the mentee learn from experience by, for example, playing devil’s advocate, being a sounding-board or reviewing current problems
• providing practical help over and above being a sounding-board, eg making introductions and opening doors
• offering wise counsel and advising how best to proceed or resolve problems
• observing the mentee in action in order to pinpoint strengths and weaknesses, and providing feedback
• encouraging the mentee to do things in new and different ways to experiment and to learn from so doing.

Mentors are usually more experienced than and senior to their mentees, with no direct accountability for the mentee’s performance. This makes it easier for the mentee to act as an uninvolved third party.

The skills required of an effective mentor are similar to those needed by a coach or counsellor (see Coaching and Counselling). In essence, effective mentors draw on the following six key behaviours:

Asking open questions
‘What happened?’
Why was that?’
Who was there?’
‘What went well, not so well?’
‘What are your conclusions?’
‘How will you do better in future?’
‘How will that affect.?’

Active listening
‘I’m listening’ noises or signals.
No interruptions.
Paraphrasing (‘So what you’re saying.’, ‘As I understand it.’).

Asking for ideas/suggestions
‘What are your ideas?’
‘How will you do that?’

Building on/supporting ideas
‘To add to that.’
‘Developing that.’
‘I agree with that because.’

Offering suggestions/advice
‘How about trying.?’
‘Why not do so and so?’

Agreeing actions
‘Let’s summarise actions.’
‘So what you are going to do is.’