What is Mentoring?

Mentoring is an increasingly popular concept that is used in a wide range of setting such as:

• Business - to support human resource strategies, personal development and in support of self-employment and business development;
• in schools and other eduactional establishments - to raise achievement, self-confidence, personal and social skills;
• Support for young people who are more at risk of disaffection or exclusion from society.

There are many definitions of mentoring, they include:

• "support, assistance, advocacy or guidance given by one person to another in order to achieve an objective or several objectives over a period of time" (SOVA);
• "the support of one individual by another within a personal relationship developed through regular contact over a period of time" (Pan London Standard);
• "a process by which an older and more experienced person takes a younger person under his/her wing, freely offering advice, support and encouragement. The older person (the mentor) becomes among other things, a role model who inspires the younger person (the mentee)" (North London College).
• "a one-to-one, non-judgemental relationship in which an individual voluntarily gives time to support and encourage another. This is typically developed at a time of transition in the mentee's life, and lasts for a significant and sustained period of time." (Active Community Unit, Home Office);

What benefits are there in Mentoring?

For businesses , mentoring can provide a good opportunity for staff to develop a range of skills. Organisations and their employees can forge stronger links with the wider community.

For the mentee, mentoring can improve self-confidence and self esteem, increase motivation, broaden horizons and experience and raise achievements and aspirations.

For mentors, there is the opportunity to develop skills and understanding as part of their personal development, to feel valued and to put something back into the community.

Is Mentoring the same as Coaching?

Mentoring and coaching are processes that enable both individual and clients to achieve their full potential. They:

• Actively untaps potential.
• Fine tunes and develops skills.
• Development activities are designed to suit client's personal needs and learning styles.
• Eliminates specific performance problems.
• Can focus on interpersonal skills, which cannot be readily or effectively transferred in a traditional training environment.
• Provides mentees with contacts and networks to assist with furthering their career or life aspirations.
• Performed in the 'live' environment
• Highly effective when used as a means of supporting training initiatives to ensure that key skills are transferred to the 'live' environment.
• Coaches and mentors transfer the skills to the mentee rather than doing the job for them.
   

While there are many similarities between coaching and mentoring, Mentoring, particularly in its traditional sense, enables an individual to follow in the path of an older and wiser colleague who can pass on knowledge, experience and open doors to otherwise out-of-reach opportunities. Coaching on the other hand is not generally performed on the basis that the coach has direct experience of their client's formal occupational role unless the coaching is specific and skills focused.

Who needs mentoring?

Mentoring is increasingly used as a support and development process in the world of business, commerce and industry, as well as in education contexts. Mentees can be just about everyone, care home owners or managers, care staff, administrative support staff etc.

Who can be a mentor?

Some would say that the best mentors are born, not made! There are people who seem to have an innate talent for providing the informal, yet authoritative support that is most useful to less-experienced colleagues. Let's think of the case of Mentor support for new staff in care homes or services. There are several options regarding who should do the mentoring. Each option has its own pros and cons.

Mentors chosen by a proprietor or manager
This may be a common approach in those establishments which already implement mentoring. The advantages include that the mentoring is legitimised and may even be duly rewarded in terms of time allocation. Disadvantages include that inevitably some choices are unsatisfactory - not everyone can be a good mentor. Some staff are just to busy with their own work to devote enough time to mentoring; some are too judgmental and intimidate their mentees; some never manage to achieve the 'trusted' status, or the 'friend' part of 'critical friend'. Another disadvantage is that mentees can feel that their mentor has been imposed upon them, and is therefore part of the system, making it difficult to achieve an open and informal relationship. A further problem is that proprietors or managers may place mentoring duties on staff who are underutilised for one reason or another - not usually a sensible decision. The most effective mentors are often the hardest-pressed, busiest members of the home or service!

Volunteer mentors
This can work well, providing the volunteering is done for the best of motives. Simply wishing to please a manager or home owner (or appease!) is not a good enough motive. That said, it is much better to have willing mentors than pressed ones. It is important that having volunteered, mentors are provided with sufficient insight and training, so that they know what they are taking on, and how to approach fulfilling the mentor role.
Probably the greatest danger with systems that depend on volunteer mentors is that there may be no come-back should situations arise where mentors are not doing a good job. No-one can be blamed very much for something going wrong if they have volunteered to do it in the first place, and they are getting no recompense or reward for doing it anyway!

Mentors chosen by mentees
This can work well. The word quickly gets around regarding who is a good mentor and who is not-so-good. There is also the advantage that when mentees choose their mentors, they are probably more willing to take their advice and guidance seriously. However, there can be problems. Those with the reputation as good mentors become seriously overstretched, with everyone wanting them as their mentors. Also, there can be a tendency, having chosen a mentor, for the mentee to feel that the mentor should be flattered or grateful, and this can lead to the relationship losing the essential characteristic of objectivity.

What training may mentors need?
Mentors are usually busy people. They are often senior people in the organisation or context involved. They are often highly professional people. They may not think they need any training, or they may think they know everything they need to know about being a Mentor just because of who they are, where they are, where they've been, and what they do. Even if they recognise that some Mentor training may help them, they may be too busy to find the time, or they may question who has the gall to think that they can train such accomplished people!
 

Some of the qualities seen as relevant to being a successful and good Mentor are:

• interested in being a Mentor .
• a person with stimulating ideas.
• someone interested in discussing others' ideas.
• someone with skills to exchange.
• supportive of change - personal, institutional, educational.
• able to adapt to change in time to influence and control future developments.
• able and willing to give time to the relationship to allow it to develop.
• ready to share concerns with other Mentors.
• a coach rather than a counsellor.
• open, inspiring trust and confidentiality.
• encouraging, helping mentees to value their own work and development.
• focused in approach, sharing clear aims, goals or objectives.
• able to inspire confidence.
• deserving respect, but not demanding respect.
• able to cut bureaucracy where there are no adverse consequences.
• engendering mutual respect in the mentoring relationship.

. ..but does Mentoring work?

Coaching and mentoring schemes are recognised as a highly effective way to quickly ramp up an employee's performance . The IPD 'Training & Development in Britain 1999' survey of 800 Training Managers suggests that around 87% of businesses in the UK utilise coaching and mentoring.

The character of support schemes will vary widely between organisations but many adhere to the following structures:

• Personal coaching programmes employing external or internal coaches
• Traditional' or peer-to-peer mentoring schemes
• Buddy schemes, a form of two-way peer-to-peer mentoring

A successful model will depend largely on objectives, which may range from the development and fine tuning of specific job-based skills through to a more holistic approach including career planning or work/life balance. The organisation's culture also needs consideration: there is little point in introducing an isolated buddying relationship between two individuals if their working environment does not recognise the value of mutual support.

Whichever approach is adopted, it is essential that an appropriate relationship and working style is established between the coach/mentor and recipient, particularly in internal schemes where the coach, mentor or buddy role is 'secondary' to the employee's primary function. In this scenario, the employee may be unaware of the responsibilities of the role and the skills they need.

To ensure the success of a programme the organisation should take ownership for:

• Developing the culture, processes and procedures to support such programmes
• Redesigning jobs so that the coaching / mentoring function is integrated into the individual's role and awarded sufficient time and priority
• Undertaking skills assessment of their coaches, mentors and buddies and for providing these individuals with appropriate ongoing training and development
• Ensuring that these staff appreciate the responsibility they are assuming for their colleague's professional development, and that they are suited to this role in terms of attitude, emotional maturity and motivation
• Defining the scope of the relationship and where it fits within a broader development programme. This may include defining boundaries, objectives and key performance indicators as well as offering guidelines for how the programme should be delivered.
• Monitoring, measuring and recording effectiveness at both individual relationship and programme-wide levels, through implementing comprehensive feedback and review procedures.

Where can I find out more about Mentoring?

The Coaching and Mentoring Network
http://www.coachingnetwork.org.uk

National Mentoring Network
http://www.nmn.org.uk

Ethnic Minority Network
http://www.btplc.co.uk