Mentoring in 3 tools as promoted by IOSH

Mentoring is easier said than done. We will want to help others however, you cannot just meet up with others and teach mentees how to be better. You must remain impartial and cannot manage that person or formally train them

Being a mentor is very rewarding but you must look to structure the support to gain the most value and understand the boundaries of your support.

To help you on the way, here are 3 core tools you must look to utilise to support your next mentee as best you can. If you would like more information on how to support the IOSH mentoring network, you can register here.

Tool no1 - G-STAR

Used by several sectors for mentoring, this acronym is a goal orientated tool to challenge a mentee to assess what they want to achieve and how they are doing to go about it. A summary is below:

Goals - What do you want to achieve?

Situation - Where are you at for the moment?

Thinking - What do you need to do?

Action - What tasks do you need to plan and complete?

Results - What will success look like?

So this approach can be used to structure your initial conversations to understand the rationale behind the goals, the aspirations that they wish to achieve and the steps required to achieve this.??

Notice above that the examples look to explore answers with open questions. Remember to never push answers onto mentees, they need to figure it out for themselves in order to grow.

And remember there are additional tools out there you may have a preference to use. For example, when I’m supporting the situation part of this tool, using the IOSH BluePrint tool allows your mentee to self assess where they feel they are at and where they need to go.

Tool no 2 - SWOT

SWOT analysis has already been in circulation and talked about alot within our safety industry. It is of particular interest when we complete ISO certifications for example. The tool is versatile in that you can use this analysis on both businesses and individuals. So here are the 4 quadrants to consider:

Strengths - What are you already good at? What is your specialism within safety?

Weaknesses - What do you need to focus on? What do you trip yourself up on?

Opportunities - How can you plug gaps identified? What options do you have?

Treats - What’s holding you back from progress? What barriers do you need to tackle?

In order for the tool to work, it must be completed in an honest manner. During mentoring sessions it is not one sided either; both mentors and mentees should look to routinely complete this tool on themselves to create the habit of continual improvement and honest personal reflection. People often forget that this tool is a great format to use within company personal development plans (PDP) / appraisals.?

Tool no 3 - SMART

SMART goals have also been talked about for a long time within strategy and management learnings. Used as a structure to set goals that can be achieved pragmatically, this is an excellent conversation builder to those goals your mentee has set out within the Action part of G-STAR. As a recap, these are the points to follow:

Specific - How precise is this goal? Do I need to clarify further

Measureable - How will I know what success looks like? What do I need to compare?

Attainable - How can I gain this goal practically? Is it out of reach?

Realistic - What value does this goal add? Will it offer me the extra value I’m looking for?

Timely - What is a suitable time frame to complete this?

The SMART goal is effective as it covers familiar ground. We all understand key performance indicators (KPI) within our work and this helps us refine our actions into full quantifiable results.?

Because your rationale for the goal has been explained, your mentee gains confidence that this is the right goal which they can set out to reasonably obtain whilst giving personal responsibility and accountability to that person.?

Mentoring is a journey not a destination

3 tools is a good start but it’s not the complete toolkit to your mentoring toolbelt. Mentoring should be seen as a lifelong goal to enrich yourself as well as the mentee further.?

There are other skills that you need to master and these don’t come overnight. Key buzzwords I can think of right include active listening, constructive feedback and questioning skills but there are more skills to utilise and develop.

So start your journey to becoming a better mentor. What one tool are you going to focus on to support that new mentee??

And remember to go into mentoring for the right reasons. You will only experience a shallow win if you are doing it for purposes outside of personal development and giving back to your community.