This toolkit has been developed to provide support to individuals participating in a mentoring program for the first time. It explains the mentoring process, respective roles of the mentor and mentee and provides guidance regarding the foundation, development and conclusion of the mentoring relationship.
What is mentoring?
Mentoring is a process for personal and professional development in which a more experienced individual (a mentor) and a learner (mentee) share experiences, knowledge, skills, perspectives and values.
The goal of mentoring is unique to each mentoring relationship however in general, the mentee should benefit from the enhanced skills and knowledge of the mentor, and develop clear goals for their professional development.
The mentor also benefits from the fresh perspectives of the mentee and being able to share expertise and continuously reassess how to improve and build upon their skills and knowledge. [1]
Why mentor?
A successful mentoring program benefits everyone involved, the mentor, mentee and the organisations to which they belong. Where mentoring programs exist between separate organisations, a mutually beneficial ongoing partnership can result.
Reasons for mentoring can include induction, career development, succession planning, staff retention, professional development, change management, and leadership development.
Benefits to mentors include:
Satisfaction in contributing to the development of skills and knowledge in another
Enhanced leadership skills
Opportunity to develop communication and interpersonal skills
Improved understanding and fresh perspective on issues within the organisation or industry
Building on professional development network
Opportunity to reflect on own practices
Cement role as subject matter experts and leaders.
Benefits to mentees include:
Opportunity to develop new skills and expertise
Enhanced confidence in dealing with challenges and issues
Gaining a different (at times more senior) perspective on organisational issues
Access to independent and objective perspectives
Enhanced networking opportunities
Help to set goals and work towards them
Potential for increased visibility within own organisation
Support during times of change and transition. [2]
Successful mentoring
To be successful the mentoring relationship must be based on mutual respect and trust and a both parties must be enthusiastic and willing to commit time and effort into the process. The success of the mentoring relationship will depend on:
Setting clear mutual goals upfront
Formulating an action list to achieve agreed goals
Managing time well, including daily meetings to track progress against goals
Commitment from both the mentor and mentee to the experience
Good communication that includes open and honest feedback
Modelling professional values and ethical standards.
Role of the mentor
The mentor’s role is to facilitate a positive learning experience that supports the individual personal and professional goals of the mentee. This is achieved through:
Listening and responding to the needs of the mentee
Negotiating appropriate boundaries of the mentoring relationship
Helping the mentee to set challenging but achievable personal and professional goals
Openly sharing experience and expertise
Creating a safe environment where mentees feel comfortable discussing issues openly
Challenging current perspectives
Enabling mentees to gain confidence to manage problems and make effective decisions independently. [3]
In a mentoring relationship, the mentor must adopt different roles as the need arises. [4] Specific experience required by the mentor will change depending on the individual needs of the mentee and purpose of the mentoring program, however all mentors should have the ability and willingness to:
Openly share experience and learning
Listen with empathy
Act as a sounding board for ideas
Help find solutions
Provide emotional support
Give and receive honest and constructive feedback
Invest time into the relationship
Keep the mentee on track to achieving goals.
A mentor should avoid:
Talking too much – listening is the key
Giving advice without first encouraging the mentee to come up with solutions themselves
Being too busy to give the appropriate time and attention to the mentoring relationship
Being judgemental and critical of the mentee in order to highlight their own competency.
Role of the mentee
The mentee’s role will vary depending on the context and purpose of the mentoring program but can include:
Taking responsibility for defining and achieving the goals they hope to achieve from the relationship
Respecting the boundaries of the mentoring relationship
Openly sharing experience and expertise
Listening and being open to new perspectives
Developing the ability to create their own solutions
Proactively manage the scheduling of the mentoring meetings
Giving and receiving honest and constructive feedback
Investing time into the relationship
Sharing new ideas.
The mentee should avoid:
Becoming reliant on the mentor to solve problems
Being negative about the mentoring opportunity
Playing it safe and not taking risks when appropriate
Blindly accepting the mentor’s suggestions without putting forward their own ideas
Being defensive and closed to constructive criticism.
Cross culture mentoring
Mentoring across cultural differences can have hidden challenges and mentors need to realise that when you are mentoring someone of a different Race, Ethnicity or Gender that you need to take account of that difference. Dr Helen Turnbull suggests three tips for successful cross cultural mentoring:
Have an open discussion about cultural differences as part of the mentoring process.
Be willing to learn about the mentee’s world and really hear their perspective
Understand the culturally different values that the mentee brings to the table. [5]
Suggested approach to mentoring
A successful mentoring relationship is built on trust and a respect. It is therefore important to ensure the mentoring program is structured to facilitate the development of this important relationship.
Planning
Before the first meeting both the mentor and mentee should think about what they believe they can bring to the mentoring relationship and what understanding and experience they would like to gain from it. Both mentor and mentee should make an effort to find out more about their mentoring partner’s current role and experience and come up with some questions to prompt discussion at the first scheduled meeting.
The initial meeting
The initial meeting should be used most importantly to develop the mentoring relationship. It should be a time for the mentor and mentee to find out more about each other’s current role, experience and hopes for the mentoring process. Key decisions to be discussed and documented at this meeting include:
Personal and professional goals for the mentoring relationship
Actions needed to achieve goals
Timeframe of the relationship
The frequency, duration and location of future mentoring sessions and activities.
Available at the end of this document are tools to use at the initial meeting to help define goals and document actions needed to achieve goals. (Tool 1: Needs Analysis, Tool 2: Goal definition; Tool 3: Action plan).
Subsequent meetings
At the beginning of each subsequent meeting, the mentee should reflect on progress made since the previous meeting and document progress using Tool 4: Record of mentoring session (template available at the end of this document). During the meetings the mentor and mentee should discuss progress made since the previous meeting, together with any issues experienced and possible solutions. At the end of the meeting both parties should discuss and record any learnings resulting from the meeting, and document activities to be completed before the next meeting. Finally the time and place of the next meeting should be agreed on.
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Final meeting
The final meeting is about discussing the outcomes of the formal mentoring program including individual and professional achievements and learnings. It should be a time to reflect on the initial goals set at the beginning of the relationship and document and celebrate progress made against these goals. It is also a good time to discuss what’s next for the mentee and how they will continue their personal and professional development.
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Mentoring program evaluation
The mentoring program should be evaluated informally throughout the process. This can be through informal daily catch ups and by checking progress against your action charts to see how goals are being met. At the end of the formal mentoring relationship it is important to discuss the success of the program against the goals set at the start. There is a formal evaluation form provided at the end of this document (Tool 5: Mentoring evaluation form). The evaluation process will highlight opportunities for further learning and can feed into an action plan for ongoing partnerships.
Additional resources
National Mentoring Partnership
The Mentoring Center
National Mentoring Center
http://www.nwrel.org/mentoring/
LGPro Mentoring Program
http://www.lgpromentoring.com.au/
Human Factor Assessments
http://humanfactorassessments.blogspot.com
Betty Neal Crutcher: “Cross-Cultural Mentoring: An Examination of the Perspectives of Mentors.”
Mentoring guidelines
http://www.uq.edu.au
The Mentor Leadership & Resource Network
http://www.mentors.net/
The NEA Foundation for the Improvement of Education
http://www.nfie.org/publications/mentoring.htm
Creative Mentoring
http://www.creativementoring.org/
Center for Coaching and Mentoring
Mentors Peer Resources
http://www.mentors.ca/learnmentor.html
Tool 1: Initial mentoring meeting – needs analysis
Use this tool as a guide to developing goals for the mentoring relationship. You should discuss your background, current roles, interests, concerns and what you both hope to gain out of the mentoring relationship.
Date: / /
1) Needs: What do you most want to achieve from the mentoring process?
2) Interests: What are your main interests and skills?
3) Issues: What issues do you currently experience in your work at present?
4) Expectations: What do you expect from this mentoring process?
Tool 2: Initial mentoring meeting – goal definition
From your Needs Analysis discussion, define your goals for the Work Placement / Mentoring process. There is space here for up to five goals (you can have less). In defining your goals, be specific and realistic about what is achievable in time you have together.
Date: / /
Goal 1
Goal 2
Goal 3
Goal 4
Goal 5
Tool 3: Initial mentoring meeting – action plan for achieving goals
Make an action plan to help achieve each of your goals.
Date: / /
Goal 1:
Action
Who
Date/ Time scheduled
Goal 2:
Action
Who
Date/ Time scheduled
Goal 3:
Action
Who
Date/ Time scheduled
Goal 4:
Action
Who
Date/ Time scheduled
Goal 5:
Action
Who
Date/ Time scheduled
Tool 4: Record of mentoring session
Date: / /
1) Progress against goals:
2) Issues identified:
Issues identified
Possible solution
3) Learnings from this meeting
3) Actions scheduled for completion before next meeting
Action
Who
Date/ Time scheduled
Agreed next meeting time: / /
Tool 5: Mentoring evaluation form
Program evaluation
1) What goals did you and your mentee set for the mentoring process?
2) Did you achieve these goals? If not, was there a reason for this?
3) Did any new goals result from the mentoring program? If yes, provide detail.
4) Do you believe a mutually beneficial partnership opportunity exists between your RTO and the Fellow’s RTO. If yes, what support will you need to progress the opportunity. If no, explain the issues you believe are preventing the opportunity.
Tool 6: Ongoing partnership ideas
A key component of the ALA is to develop sustainable relationships between providers. There is space here to write down some potential partnership ideas and the action/s or external support required to develop the opportunity.
Partnership idea 1:
Action
Who
Date/ Time scheduled
Partnership idea 2:
Action
Who
Date/ Time scheduled
Partnership idea 3:
Action
Who
Date/ Time scheduled
Partnership idea 4:
Action
Who
Date/ Time scheduled
Notes
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