Mentoring - issues worth thinking about
by Andrew Gibbons
Reproduced by permission from www.learningbuzz.com, copyright Andrew Gibbons
- Mentoring is much more than coaching, and can throw up complex and unanticipated issues.
- An effective mentoring relationship can, and often does, last many years beyond an initial purpose.
- How many people can you effectively mentor at one time? If pushed I would say one can be enough.
- There are pros and cons of the line manager being a person's mentor, but far more cons than pros.
- The selection of mentors/mentees is a big issue...is it best to follow the strawberry principle...PYO?
- To be effective, a mentor must have, and retain a genuine interest in those s/he is helping.
- Mentors do not inappropriately 'over help'...the best encourage mentees to find their own solutions.
- There is a structure to mentoring, and as the relationship develops, so formality tends to lessen.
- Mentors that are most effective tend to have an intuitive understanding of learning issues.
- What is the best label for mentees...protégés...learners? Do we need one at all?
- Excellent mentors make it clear the learning and development is mutual and are credible role models.
- The best mentors take the rejection of their ideas, advice or suggestions well...many find this hard.
- If for whatever reason a mentoring relationship is not working well either party must be able to say so.
- Confidentiality is a major mentoring issue - what if anything can be divulged to what third parties?
- Mentors need continuous contact and support to share learning and to develop competence.
- A code of conduct for mentoring, clarifying roles, boundaries and expectations has value.
- Mentoring can seem a bit elitist, and the process needs to be managed delicately.
- There may be gender issues to consider...are all men comfortable with a female mentor for instance?
- Mentoring is essentially an interpersonal process...big ears, small mouth...and lots of other skills.
- A lot of us have one or more significant figures that have had a major influence on our development.
- The various Mentor Awards can be both a reward, and a benchmark for competence development.
- Very competent mentors take real pleasure in others' success...even when this surpasses their own!
- More can be learned from the uncomfortable process of reviewing failure than a success fixation.
- Mentoring will only work well within supportive, rewarding organisations.
- Sometimes the 'wrong' sort of people want to become mentors...it is in essence a giving process.
- How can mentoring be evaluated in terms of what happens differently and better as a result?
Any views - and any more?
Andrew is a management and development consultant with a particular interest in real learning within individuals, teams and organisations.
Since February 1987 he has kept a learning log, and this now has 1076 entries totally 620,000 words - not bad for a 19 scoring Activist on Honey and Mumford Learning Styles terms.
A Fellow of the IPD, and member of the upgrade panel, he helps this, and many other professional bodies with their continuous development efforts. He spends a lot of time designing and leading management development events with a learning focus - even when working on NVQ programmes!
