DO WE PAY ENOUGH ATTENTION TO THE IMPORTANCE OF HAVING A MENTOR?

Serendipitously, in my recent conversations with friends, family members, former colleagues and people at church, the importance of having a mentor – at different points in one’s working career – has been front and centre.

This led me to reflect: are we in fact missing out on one of the most potent ways of improving the quality of leadership in our institutions and schools by not paying enough attention to the potential of mentoring? For a beginning teacher, for instance, with the bare minimum of classroom experience that today’s teacher training courses include, has to learn the craft of teaching from someone.

Shortly after I completed my teacher training, Macquarie University School of Education introduced the concept of a Master Teacher – an experienced member of staff who accepted a student teacher from that university and was paid to teach the neophyte the craft of teaching through regular classroom observation; through recommending reading around quality teaching; and through the student teacher observing their Master Teacher in action.

Like other professions, ours demands both academic training in the art and science of teaching, but it also demands a period of apprenticeship, where beginning teachers are taught what quality teaching looks like in practice: through learning classroom management skills; learning lesson planning; learning questioning skills; learning ICT skills; learning marking and assessment skills, like how to set effective assignments and tests; learning how to develop marking schemata and assessment rubrics, and the like.

In sum, learning the craft of teaching demands a mentor – an experienced colleague who serves asa critical friend, working alongside the beginning teacher to support and encourage them, and to help them hone their classroom teaching skills.

For staff members who are emerging leaders too – especially the earnest, hard-working mid-level leaders with aspirations of further developing their careers in education – having a mentor is essential to their liberating their full potential.

For providing a mentor for your emerging leaders in your school makes them even better leaders, as Forbes contributor Ron Carucci explains, (in Why Leaders Who Are Mentored Outperform Those Who Aren’t, in Forbes, 7 June 2024). Carucci says he covers the messiest challenges executives face in leading organisations, and works especially with CEOs and executives who are pursuing transformation.

Mentoring matters, Carucci declares, conceding that while this may not seem particularly groundbreaking in and of itself, it is still a factor that is all too commonly overlooked by entrepreneurs and other business leaders, particularly those in senior positions.

In support of his contention, he cites Ruth Gotian and Andy Lopata, authors of Mentoring: A Complete Guide to Effective Mentoring, ?who argue that just because you have reached a senior level, it doesn’t mean that you have all of the answers. You should certainly be able to handle challenges better than somebody who doesn’t have your experience but you can still benefit from different perspectives and insights.

Carucci acknowledges that becoming a senior leader – indeed, becoming a leader at any level - can be isolating because it changes the relationship you have with your peers and colleagues, especially in an organisation like a school. None of your fellow teachers necessarily understands, nor cares about, the pressures you are facing.

And that is where a mentor is critical, Carucci attests, adding that mentoring isn’t something that is just nice to have. For Carucci, mentoring should be viewed as essential by all leaders, in large part because mentoring enables them to outperform their peers who don’t take advantage of mentor relationships. ?After all, as he points out, even the world’s leading athletes – the top performers in their fields - have coaches to fine-tune their approach and to help them achieve even better results.

The Numbers Behind The ‘Why’ Of Mentorship

If you’re sceptical of how mentorship could help the leaders in your teams – and even you yourself as a senior leader - a simple look at the numbers could change your mind, Carucci suggests.

A survey by the American Society for Training and Development found that 75% of executives?considered mentoring to have played a critical role in their career development, Carucci shares, noting that other research indicates that US businesses that receive mentorship assistance are able to increase their annual revenue by 83%, compared to just 16% for non-mentored businesses.

While this sort of commercial bottom line is not relevant in a school setting, Carucci offers other research that consistently highlighted that regardless of their level in an organisation, people with mentors typically report higher job satisfaction and even improvements to their quality of life. This sort of observation is critical in the context of our schools at present, where so many of our leaders seem to be struggling, not least, our mid-level teacher/leaders.

As Shaffy Yaqubi, Head Clinical Skills trainer at the London Centre for Medical Sciences and Research, explained to Carucci during a recent conversation, most of us understand that working with a quality mentor can be a major boon during the early stages of our careers. But the benefits of mentorship don’t disappear as we advance to become leaders ourselves. The most successful leaders in any industry are never stagnant. They want to put in the work to continue improving, and mentors are one of the best resources for achieving those desired results.

Despite the clearly defined benefits of using a mentor, many leaders feel reluctant to ask for help, Carucci admits ruefully. This can stem from a variety of places, he continues. A senior leader could easily become too arrogant to admit they need any assistance. Conversely, they might feel ashamed or embarrassed at the idea of asking for help, thinking it will reflect poorly on their achievements.

But as Andy Lopata notes, Carucci reports, When you look at the data, it makes perfect sense. Nobody has all of the answers and the value of having someone sit by your side to help you navigate key challenges is enormous. Sometimes the difference comes from the mentor offering insights based on their experience or expertise, giving you ideas or information that you didn’t have access to. At other times, it’s simply the benefit of a different perspective, uncovering your blind spots and helping you approach the challenge from a different direction.

So,

How Leaders Can Use Mentors

For many leaders, one of the greatest challenges of mentorship is finding someone who can serve as a mentor, Carucci allows. Individuals in the early stages of their career can often count on their employer matching them with a more experienced employee who can fulfill that mentor role, and experience suggests this works particularly well in schools, and many schools offer their less-experienced staff the opportunity to work with a mentor as they work through the challenges of their first couple of years in teaching.

More senior leaders might argue that typically, they don’t have these types of relationships with anyone within their school. This doesn’t mean mentoring experiences are unavailable, however.

Carucci cites medical leader Yaqubi once more, who explains, Quite often, some of the best mentoring occurs with our peers — those who are at similar stages of their careers as us. This applies equally to education as it does to professional medicine. Yaqubi reminds you that these peers are going through many of the same experiences as you, and quite often, this gives them valuable insights and perspectives that can help you navigate your own challenges. Their outsider perspective – or a colleague’s perspective - can be an incredible tool for helping you reset your thinking and improve your skills.

Such mentorships – mentorships between peers - don’t necessarily have to be formalised, Carucci affirms. They could occur in simple ways, such as hosting regular get-togethers with other entrepreneurs or other leaders within your own company to discuss your problems and brainstorm possible solutions. Proactive outreach such as this, and a desire to also share your own insights can turn such relationships into lasting win-wins, Carucci encourages.

And it does not stop there. Being a mentor to a colleague can improve your own leadership skills, Carucci avers: it’s also worth noting that leaders who serve as mentors themselves can further boost their own performance. By mentoring their own team members, leaders can dramatically improve the productivity, engagement and personal satisfaction of their team members. This enables their team members to achieve far more than they otherwise would, while also strengthening their sense of engagement and their commitment to their department or their school’s longer term goals.

Maximise Your Potential As A Leader

For leaders who want to truly maximise their potential, few things can prove more critical along the path to success than finding the right mentors, Carucci concludes. Leaders may not always have more senior mentors to rely on, but they can benefit from mentoring relationships with peers and even their more junior staff members who may nonetheless have innovative ideas and insights of their own.

As Gotian and Lopata write, It is very hard to achieve your full potential on your own. You don’t know what you don’t know and can’t see beyond the horizon. Knowing the key players, opportunities and landmines to avoid is pivotal to your career success. A mentor can help open those doors you never knew existed, protect you from the politics that plague every organisation and cheer you on when things did not go as planned. In short, if you let them, other people can be key contributors to your own personal success, through sharing their expertise, experience and ideas, or by simply encouraging you to take the next step forward.

By making use and taking advantage of mentors in your career — and by serving as a mentor yourself — you will ultimately be able to develop in areas where you need to, to amplify your strengths, and to become far more engaged and productive within your school or organisation, thereby having a greater impact on its work than you can on your own.

**This is the first of three articles reflecting on mentoring. Watch out for one on the role of a School Principal as a mentor; and the last one offering those being mentored some tips to take greatest advantage of their mentoring.

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