What is Mentoring?
Mentoring is a relationship between the mentor and the mentee (the person being mentored). The purpose of a mentoring relationship is to assist the mentee to develop their career, using a wide range of methods over a specified term. The role of a mentor is to facilitate the professional growth
3 comments
Penny McLeod
Mentoring is the sharing of knowledge or expertise in order to nuture the skills and professional growth of the mentee (person being mentored).
Mentoring also assists the mentor develop and maintain leadership skills and opportunity to work in more senior roles.
Ideally to get the most out of a mentoring agreement it is important to understand the expectations of each other. In a formal situation creating a mentoring agreement can be particularly useful.
To achieve the most out of this arrangement mentorship meetings should be planned and structured assiting the mentee to create a plan to map the proposed goals and objectives and establish tools and resources to encourage the development of capasity in the mentee.
A good mentoring relationship is one that
* fosters a learning environment
* Monitors progress made
*Provides guidence and support with change.
*Promotes reflection and insight into previous experiences.
* Facilitation of greater self awareness and independence.
Thy Monzo
I once had a mentor who supported in my role as a new yoga teacher. She gave me great guidance and support to assist me in finding my own voice and becoming the teacher I wanted to be.
I think to be an effective mentor, you have to be a good listener, patient and supportive. It is especially useful if the mentor has had some years of experience in their area of expertise in order to share examples of real-life scenarios to guide their mentee.
Tam Marney
When I was working in the childcare industry I was part of a group of managers from different childcare centres. The group was established to assist centre managers to develop skills and knowledge to help them run high qualify centres. There was a more experienced worker in the group who acted as mentor to everyone.
The skills the mentor needs to have is knowledge of the industry and understanding of the mentee skills and goals.