Mentoring and More Leading to Success!
Colin Thompson
Managing Partner Cavendish/Author/International Speaker/Mentor/Partner
I share with you my understanding of Mentoring that leads to success and used by me for over 40 years successfully.
Mentoring is a relationship between two people with the goal of professional and personal development. The "mentor" is usually an experienced individual who `shares` knowledge, experience, and advice with a less experienced person, or "mentee."
Mentors become trusted advisers and role models – people who have "been there" and "done that." They support and encourage their mentees by offering suggestions and knowledge, both general and specific. The goal is help mentees improve their skills and, hopefully, advance their careers.
A mentoring partnership may be between two people within the same company, same industry, or same networking organisation. However the partners come together, the relationship should be based on mutual trust and respect, and it typically offers personal and professional advantages for both parties.
Benefits to the Mentor as I see it
Becoming a mentor can enrich your life on a personal and professional level by helping you do the following:
ü Build your leadership skills – It helps you develop your ability to motivate and encourage others. This can help you become a better manager, employee, and team member.
ü Improve your communication skills – Because your mentee may come from a different background or environment, the two of you may not "speak the same language." This may force you to find a way to communicate more effectively as you navigate your way through the mentoring relationship.
ü Learn new perspectives – By working with someone less experienced and from a different background, you can gain a fresh perspective on things and learn a new way of thinking – which can help in your work life as well as your personal life.
ü Advance your career – Refining your leadership skills can strengthen your on-the-job performance, perhaps helping you get that promotion to higher management – or into management in the first place. Showing that you've helped others learn and grow is becoming more and more essential to advancement in today's business world.
ü Gain personal satisfaction – It can be very personally fulfilling to know that you've directly contributed to someone's growth and development. Seeing your mentee succeed as result of your input is a reward in itself.
Benefits to the Mentee as I see it
A trusted mentor can help you do the following:
ü Gain valuable advice – Mentors can offer valuable insight into what it takes to get ahead. They can be your guide and "sounding board" for ideas, helping you decide on the best course of action in difficult situations. You may learn shortcuts that help you work more effectively and avoid "reinventing the wheel."
ü Develop your knowledge and skills – They can help you identify the skills and expertise you need to succeed. They may teach you what you need to know, or advise you on where to go for the information you need.
ü Improve your communication skills – Just like your mentor, you may also learn to communicate more effectively, which can further help you at work.
ü Learn new perspectives – Again, you can learn new ways of thinking from your mentor, just as your mentor can learn from you.
ü Build your network – Your mentor can offer an opportunity to expand your existing network of personal and professional contacts.
ü Advance your career – A mentor helps you stay focused and on track in your career through advice, skills development, networking, and so on.
ü A Mentor makes observations - and shares possible solutions `you` may wish to use.
Mutual Mentoring
It's often the case that, within an organisation or a network, there are more people looking for a mentor than there are those offering to be one. A practical solution to this is "mutual mentoring".
Although it is probably useful to have a mentor who has "been there, and done that", you might have to wait a long time for such a person to come along. Instead, why not try working with a less-experienced but willing person, who will still be able to encourage you to think about what you want from your career, challenge you to commit to goals, and help you to review your progress towards them?
If you do the same for them, you have the basis for a strong and mutually-beneficial relationship. Sharing is the key.
Key Points
Mentoring partnerships can be mutually beneficial and rewarding – on both professional and personal levels. Mentors can develop leadership skills and gain a personal sense of satisfaction from knowing that they've helped someone.
Mentees can expand their knowledge and skills, gain valuable advice from a more experienced and skilled person, and build their professional networks. Plus, both partners can improve their communication skills, learn new ways of thinking, and, ultimately, advance their careers.
Mentoring relationships can be mutual, or two-way, with each person being both the mentor of and mentee of the other person. Alternatively, they can be one way only, although an individual may have his or her own mentor while also acting as mentor for others at the same time.
Coaching and mentoring – the difference
Coaching and Mentoring use the same skills and approach although coaching is generally short term task based and mentoring is a longer term relationship.
My differentiates between coaching, mentoring and counselling - It is helpful to understand these differences as, although many of the processes are similar, they are generally delivered by individuals with different qualifications/skills and different relationships with their client.
The difference can be summarised as follows:
"A coach has some great questions for your answers; a mentor has some great answers for your questions."
Coaching vs. Mentoring
Mentoring
Coaching
Ongoing relationship that can last for a long period of time
Relationship generally has a set duration
Can be more informal and meetings can take place as and when the mentee needs some advice, guidance or support
Generally more structured in nature and meetings are scheduled on a regular basis
More long-term and takes a broader view of the person
Short-term (sometimes time-bounded) and focused on specific development areas/issues
Mentor is usually more experienced and qualified than the ‘mentee’. Often a senior person in the organisation who can pass on knowledge, experience and open doors to otherwise out-of-reach opportunities
Coaching is generally not performed on the basis that the coach needs to have direct experience of their client’s formal occupational role, unless the coaching is specific and skills-focused
Focus is on career and personal development
Focus is generally on development/issues at work
Agenda is set by the mentee, with the mentor providing support and guidance to prepare them for future roles
The agenda is focused on achieving specific, immediate goals
Mentoring revolves more around developing the mentee professional's career
Coaching revolves more around specific development areas/issues
Coaching and mentoring processes
Individual and management development can take place in many forms, some delivered by managers and some by internal or external coaches, or mentors. I share with you my experience of - `define the different activities as follows`: -
Guiding: the process of directing an individual or a group along the path leading from present state to a desired state
Coaching: helping another person to improve awareness, to set and achieve goals in order to improve a particular behavioural performance
Teaching: helping an individual or group develop cognitive skills and capabilities
Mentoring: helping to shape an individual’s beliefs and values in a positive way; often a longer term career relationship from someone who has ‘done it before’
Counselling: helping an individual to improve performance by resolving situations from the past.
Differences between counselling and coaching
Counselling, is a highly skilled intervention focused on helping individuals address underlying psychological issues/problems.
Coaching vs. Counselling
Counselling
Coaching
Broader focus and greater depth
Narrower focus
Goal is to help people understand the root causes of long-standing performance problems/issues at work
The goal is to improve an individual’s performance at work
A short-term intervention, but can last for longer time periods due to the breadth of issues to be addressed
Tends for be a short-term intervention
Counselling can be used to address psycho-social as well as performance issues
Coaching does not seek to resolve any underlying psychological problems. It assumes a person does not require a psycho-social intervention
The agenda is generally agreed by the individuals and the counsellor
The agenda is typically set by the individual, but in agreement/ consultation with the organisation
Other stakeholders are rarely involved
So what is Mentoring?
Mentoring tends to focus on the future, and broader skills for personal or career development, whereas a coaching relationship tends to focus on here-and-now issues/ problems.
Key Aspects of Mentoring
Unlike a management relationship, mentoring relationships tend to be voluntary on both sides, although it is considered possible for a line manager to also be a mentor to the people that they manage. Unlike a coaching relationship, mentoring relationships are more usually unpaid.
The idea behind mentoring relationships is a semi-charitable one: that the more successful, senior partner, the mentor, wishes to pass on some of what they’ve learned to someone else who will benefit from their experience. Sharing is by observations made by the Mentor and passes these on to the Mentee if they so wish.
Some organisations run formal mentoring programmes that match mentors with learners. However, less formal mentoring relationships can also work well.
British mentoring programmes tend to have four key elements: improving performance, career development, counselling and sharing knowledge. In other countries, especially the US, there is also an element of the mentor acting as a sponsor for the learner, but this is not usually seen in the UK.
Mentoring relationships, especially formal ones organised through a mentoring programme, are often entered into with a defined time limit, or a defined goal. Having such a framework in place can be easier for both parties to agree than an open-ended commitment.
For example, a learner may agree to work with a mentor for a year, or until they achieve a particular desired promotion. After they have reached the time limit or achieved the goal, terms can be renegotiated. The mentor and learner may decide to continue to work together, especially if the relationship has been productive and helpful to both.
The Role of a Mentor
- Manage the relationship
- Encourage
- Nurture
- Teach
- Offer mutual respect
- Respond to the learner's needs
At first, the mentor is likely to take responsibility for developing the relationship, building rapport and ensuring that the climate of meetings is conducive to learning for the person being mentored (the mentee). These arrangements are for the Mentor and Mentee to agree.
The mentor also needs to take responsibility for the process of meetings and the relationship more generally, for example making sure that a learning contract has been agreed, however informal, and that periodic reviews are held - to make sure that it is still working for both parties.
As time passes and the relationship develops, the mentee is likely to take on more responsibility, especially for what is discussed.
A mentor can take on several different roles in the course of a mentoring relationship, depending on the requirements of the learner.
These include:
Learning Consultant
There are two parts of this: supporting the mentoring process and the content of learning. This role includes helping the learner to clarify their goals, or their learning style.
The mentor may also help the learner to reflect on their experience and draw out learning. They may also be able to provide the learner with theoretical models to support their learning, such as Myers-Briggs Type Indicators and the Ladder of Inference.
Coach
Anyone can adopt a coaching approach, and a mentor is no exception.
Coaching requires a belief that the learner holds the key to their own issues/problems, and a willingness to help them explore the issue including supporting thinking and experimenting with new ways of working.
Counsellor
The mentor may use counselling skills such as active listening, reflecting and clarifying to help the learner to gain insight into their own processes. The mentor may also take on a counsellor role if it becomes clear that the learner is struggling with an internal block to their thinking.
However, there are limits to how far this role should be taken.
Adviser or Information Resource
This is a role that is often used when someone is new to an organisation, during an induction period for example. The mentor helps the learner to develop their understanding quickly, or to support their ongoing career development.
In this case, the mentor becomes a valuable source of information, and not just a sounding board. The mentor may also share his or her experience to help the learner to understand a particular work situation.
Role Model
This role, interestingly, is the one that requires least effort from the mentor, because it is usually about how they behave naturally.
The learner may have been attracted to them as a mentor because of the way that they handle certain situations. The learner will therefore learn from watching how the mentor behaves, both in the mentoring relationship and beyond.
Critical Friend
The role of critical friend is one of the most important, though most difficult, mentoring roles to successfully undertake.
It requires the mentor to listen, encourage, draw out, reflect back and challenge assumptions, and, if necessary, provide critical feedback on ideas or plans under discussion.
The role requires giving constructive feedback, and strong emotional intelligence and awareness of feelings.
"Mentoring is to support and encourage people to manage their own learning in order that they may maximise their potential, develop their skills, improve their performance and become the person they want to be."
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`Accelerate with Impact` - ISBN: 978-1-84549-289-2
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About the Author Colin Thompson
Colin is a former successful Managing Director of Transactional/Document Manufacturing Plants, Document Management/Workflow Solutions companies and other organisations, former Group Chairman of the Academy for Chief Executives, Non-Executive Director, Mentor - RFU Leadership Academy, Mentor - Coventry University, Mentor - The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, Business Advisor NHS Deanery, author/writer Business Advice Section for IPEX, Graphic Display World, News USA, Graphic Start, plus many others globally, helping companies raise their `bottom-line` and `increase cash flow`. Plus, helping individuals to be successful in business and life in general. Author of several publications, research reports, guides, presentations, business and educational models on CD-ROM/Software/PDF and over 4000 articles/reports and 35 books published on business and educational subjects worldwide. Plus, International Speaker/Visiting University Professor.
Strategist | Mentor | Speaker | Author
DDL: + 44 (0) 121 247 4589
Skype:colin.thompson384
ETHOS
INTEGRITY is non-negotiable
EXCEED expectations
CHALLENGE conventional wisdom
RESPECT for all